We had planned a quiet writing retreat, and looking at the website were given the impression that we would be situated on a farm, with a view of the farm. However, upon arrival, we learned that this house is separated from the rest of the farm by a thick row of trees, preventing a view of the actual farm. The house is located on the entrance ramp to a busy expressway, and that is the actual view. Also, there is a noisy natural gas pipeline pumping station directly across the street.

Upon entering the home, we immediately noticed a musty smell and a generally worn appearance. Most of the house, however, is on the upper level, and once you get upstairs, you don't smell mildew. The living room/dining room area is open to the kitchen, and nicely decorated. It feels spacious.

However, the kitchen was very dirty (it seems someone had done a superficial cleaning of the countertops and stovetop, but that's it). The floor was dirty, the exhaust hood over the stove looks as though it has never been cleaned and it doesn't work. There were crumbs in the oven, sawdust on some of the dishes, and grease spattered on the wall near the stove and onto the cooking utensils.

The tub/shower had a lot of mildew in it, and with my allergies, I could barely stand to be there. Bedding, towels, dishes, lamps, etc, seem to have been the owner's castoffs or garage sale finds, which we found offputting rather than charming.

We also did not feel secure as the front and back doors opened easily when locked and one was in terrible disrepair. We also had no phone number to reach Julie, the owner.

We attempted to contact Julie via the VRBO website that evening to ask for her phone number so we could negotiate some cleaning, and she never responded, so we moved out the next day in the afternoon.

Julie contacted us the day after we moved out to see how things were doing and to apologize for being out of town and unavailable, and gave us someone else's phone number. We replied that it was too little too late; we had already moved out and into other accommodations. She was clearly angry, denied that the house was at all dirty, insisted that we never contacted her, and that we had her phone number all along, then said, if we had just waited a few more hours, she would have shown up to check on us.

She eventually refunded only half of the amount we had paid for the week; we wanted to be very clear that this was not a satisfactory house nor a satisfactory solution.