Our 1st year in The Terrace Guest House
September 24 marks our one year anniversary as the owners of the Terrace Guest House & Respite Inn in historic New Market, MD. By the end of 2019, we will have hosted (49) respite weekends, at our inn alone! We will have hosted (271) moms, dads, and other caregivers from (13) states!!!
A Mother's Rest and our revolutionary model of affordable, frequent, pro-active, national respite opportunities for parents & caregivers is the first of it's kind in the nation. We now have 30+ bed and breakfast inn partners (Porch Partners) in the US (and now Canada too!) serving our guests. We continue to grow that program and invite inns from all states to participate, even if just once a year.
The Terrace Guest House is open year-round, FREE OF CHARGE, to all guests. Please follow our PUBLIC PAGE if you aren't already! We are conveniently located in historic downtown New Market , MD...centrally located to serve guests from the entire Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Mid-West, and Southeast! We are supported by donations from our guests, but primarily dependent on contributions from our online community, our New Market community, churches, civic foundations, local businesses, and other private philanthropists. We still function entirely on a bare-bones volunteer staff. We are doing SO MUCH with SO LITTLE. It's a testament to the commitment of our volunteers and donors to serve as many caregivers as we can.
Owning our own place gives us the ability to say YES! to HUNDREDS of caregivers every year. We have the freedom to host private caregiver group events, mid-week meetings, etc, but also be available in times of crisis to local families. Respite is more than just a "break". A Mother's Rest is about REDEFINING what the rest of the world considers "respite". When you come to the Terrace Guest House, you are coming HOME....home to quiet, a beautifully decorated, warm, convenient, comfortable setting with others who understand your life. You are coming home to safety, a place to truly rest your heart and mind...an environment that gives you strength to say YES, I need this, I want this, I LIKE this and I'm going to come back again...often. That is the mental #victory, one mom/caregiver at a time.
As the Founder, Executive Director, and Innkeeper, I am personally committed to making our Terrace Guest House a one-of-a-kind flagship. I work every week to improve our amenities, restore the house and the property itself, and ensure the full history of that home is known and shared with each of you. The inn is a constant work in progress: from sealing the basement so we could re-create the original tavern, to finishing the attic room, restoring our tavern carriage path, to building out our Carriage House; every bit of that is to improve your experience and offer it to more caregivers weekly.
Since we moved in on Sep 27, 2018, we have:
1) Sealed the basement from flowing water and recreated the tavern (thank you Windsor Restoration!)
2) Created a beautiful writer's cave
3) Replaced the roof
4) Installed a new HVAC system for our upstairs guest rooms (thank you May's Heating and Air and our financial sponsor!)
5) Installed countless new light fixtures and ceiling fans. (thank Joe Muise and Local Electric, LLC!)
6) Done an incredible amount of planting and landscaping (thank you Martin Isles!)
7) Excavated & improved drainage in our original tavern carriage path (still in progress) (thank you Bartz Landscaping!)
8) Installed a gorgeous ADA accessible ground floor bathroom (thank you Colonial Renovations and our financial sponsor!)
9) Begun the process to finish the attic into an innkeeper's quarters (extra guest room) and finished storage space (thank you again to Greg Windsor at Windsor Restoration! We are still in need of a financial sponsor for this space, so please contact me if you're interested).
Beginning in January 2020, we hope to begin the build out of our Carriage House suites, as well as installing the additional two upstairs bathrooms (Maryland Heritage and Beth's Blessing). This will require a CAPITAL SPONSOR or a group of collective sponsors. Before we ever consider purchasing a 2nd property elsewhere, we need to maximize every square inch of space that we have here in Maryland to support the most caregivers we can. Adding the other bathrooms and carriage house rooms will make it possible to host a minimum of three more guests each week, but also COUPLES retreats. The need is so great and so NOW. Our wait lists have 10+ on them every weekend. With these additions complete, we will then be in an appropriate position to rent out the house a few weekends a year for private weddings, family reunions, and other gatherings that will be income-producing. It's really CRITICAL that we move forward with these additions ASAP.
There are many ways you can help us:
1) Share our private FB support group for parents & caregivers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/officialamothersrest
2) Share our website: www.amothersrest.org
3) DONATE once or set up a monthly Paypal subscription! 100% of your donation is tax deductible and goes directly to the basic operating expenses of the inn: utilities, property maintenance, repairs, and improvements. We have no paid staff and no mortgage!
4) Become a LEGACY SPONSOR: your family, business, or group can sponsor a specific room in the inn and have a beautiful sign acknowledging you as the sponsor.
5) Purchase an engraved BRICK or FLAGSTONE! Engravings begin this Fall in our Legacy Circle and Memorial Wall.
THANK YOU to all of our donors, volunteers, vendors, contractors, and GUESTS for making this first year as amazing as it has been!!
