River House Inn & Restaurant, North Carolina Mountains Bed and Breakfast

The nightly rates listed - weekdays / weekends & holidays - are for two people and include full breakfast. Add $50 for each extra guest. (After all, the beds are very big!) Pets are welcome if they are clean and quiet and can hold their liquor. There is a pet fee of $25 per visit. Guests are responsible for picking up their “litter.” (Children, on the other hand, must be leashed and muzzled!)

June 1st through October 31st, weekends & holidays require a two-night minimum stay.

Our guest rooms are all in converted farm buildings behind the main house. We’d much prefer to be less literal – to have you open a creaky old door and be surprised to find the king-size bed, the big Jacuzzi, the gas-log fireplace, the art, the books – but since you insist …

The Weigh Station has a queen-size bed. All other rooms have king-size beds. No telephones, no TVs (but if you must watch that game, there is an old set in the library). And we do have broadband wireless access in the library and on the porch.

Room 1: Just down the walk from the main house, had been Dr. Ballou’s office where he saw patients and stored medical supplies in earlier days. Now we “store” books in a cabinet which formerly served as private club/speakeasy liquor lockers. Three misty watercolor nudes gracefully replace anatomy charts.
$150 Sunday-Thursday nights, $175 weekends/holidays

Room 2: Next door to Room 1 behind the stone wall was Doc’s parking space. You may have to duck when you enter the bathroom because we used a great old door that is not standard issue. Anyway, that brings you down to the level of the Lilliputian lavatory in a little antique vanity. Don’t worry, the shower is Brobdingnagian.
$150 Sunday-Thursday nights, $175 weekends/holidays

Across the driveway are Rooms 5, 6, 7, and 8 in what we call The Caretaker’s Cottage. This was the home of Dr. Ballou’s nephew and his family, who cared for the property and for Dr. and Mrs. Ballou who had no children.

Room 5 is in the front of the Caretaker’s Cottage. Originally the living room, dining room and kitchen, it boasts three distinct spaces: living room/library, bedroom and bathroom. (Incidentally, if there are two or three couples, the living room can connect with Room 6 and/or 7.) Outside, the private porch, complete with swing, looks over the New River.
$175 Sunday-Thursday nights, $195 weekends/holidays

Room 6 is at the back of the Caretaker’s Cottage. Quiet, it looks up the hill toward the barns and you can park right next to the entrance.
$150 Sunday-Thursday nights, $175 weekends/holidays

Room 7 is the upstairs of the Caretaker’s Cottage.It has wood-lined walls that reflect the morning sun. Original watercolors, pen and ink drawings, and prints. Downstairs there is a long porch with views of the mountains, the river - and the other buildings.
$150 Sunday-Thursday nights, $175 weekends/holidays

Room 8 is a “suite” on the garden level. Spacious living room with prints of a terrific woodcut in four colors. Additional small private room, nice and dark, with a double bed. Low ceiling. (Those over 6’1” need not apply.)
$175 Sunday-Thursday nights, $195 weekends/holidays

The Carriage House stands alone half-way up the hill. It really did house a black leather carriage for a time, and besides it sounds better than “Garage” which it was. (The colorful old gas pump now sits outside the window of Room 1.) Two steps up from the bedroom/sitting area are two bathrooms. Lots of books plus collections of Gourmet Magazine and Architectural Digest.
$175 Sunday-Thursday nights, $195 weekends/holidays

The Weigh Station is up the hill on the left. In its former incarnation, the whole floor was a scale for weighing cattle as they arrived or exited the farm. Like the Chicken House, it was one layer of boards with cracks you could see through. Private and very cozy - we tell people to unpack their jammies and put the suitcase back in the car – it is the only room with a queen-size bed rather than a king. Behind the headboard is a “crazy” quilt handmade by Gayle’s mom. There is a nifty view of the wooded hillside – beautiful when it snows! (Should you plan to get snowed in, the refrigerator, bar sink and coffee-maker may be handy.)
$125 Sunday-Thursday nights, $150 weekends/holidays

The Chicken House up the hill on the right is a favorite nesting place. It is a long narrow building all by itself, with private deck and views of both the river and the mountains. It really was a chicken house. The mantel over the fireplace is a bank of nests and the coffee table is a chicken coop. With two bathrooms, a small refrigerator, a bar sink and a coffee-maker, it frequently serves as a honeymoon roost. Of course there are eggs in the morning!
$195 Sunday-Thursday nights, $225 weekends/holidays

Thaaat’s all, folks – until we get to work on those barns…
Meanwhile, check out the Cabins.