House rules
ten rules, and each one says which of two things it is for: the neighbours next door, or the building itself. That distinction is the whole difference between a rule and a scolding.
Why every rule says what it is for
A rule with no reason attached to it reads as a scolding, and a guest who is told "no" with no "because" has no way to tell a real constraint from an arbitrary one. So every rule below carries a label: it exists for the neighbours, because the houses either side are lived in and a brick wall is not a hundred yards of field, or it exists for the building, because something in a house of this age genuinely cannot take what a hotel room can. Nothing here exists because it sounds responsible.
- Quiet from ten at night for the neighbours
- The houses on either side are lived in, and the garden wall is seven feet of brick rather than a hundred yards of field. Music off at ten, indoors and out, on every night of the year including the night of an event.
- No party that was not booked as one for the neighbours
- An apartment let sleeps the people on the booking. A gathering is a different product with a different price and a different clean, and it takes the whole house. This is the rule most often broken and it is the one that ends a stay.
- No smoking anywhere indoors for the building
- Including at a window, including on the top floor, and including anything with a vapour. The garden is where smoking happens, in the far corner, and there is an ashtray there.
- Visitors during the day, not overnight for the building
- Guests may have visitors. An overnight guest who is not on the booking changes the number of people in the building, which changes the linen, the insurance and the fire arrangement. Tell us and pay for the bed instead.
- Children are welcome, with two exceptions for the building
- The mezzanine in the loft is reached by a ladder-stair and is not for a child under eight. The garden wall has a gate to the alley which is bolted, not locked. Both are stated on the apartment pages as well.
- No pets, and one reason for the building
- Two of the three apartments have carpet on the stair and the house is let to people with allergies often enough that a dog in one apartment is a problem in the one below. Assistance dogs are not pets and are welcome; tell us so the right apartment is ready.
- Shoes off on the parlour floor for the building
- The parlour floor is the original 1912 pine and it was refinished once, in 2019. It will not survive being refinished a second time. There are slippers in the hall cupboard.
- The charcoal grill and nothing else for the building
- No fire pit, no propane, no candles left burning in the garden, and nothing on the pergola. The pergola is timber and the wall behind it is a neighbour's.
- The bins go out on the right night for the neighbours
- Collection is twice a week and the schedule is on the inside of the store door. A missed collection sits on the pavement for three days and it is the neighbours who look at it.
- There is no key for the building
- Every door is a keypad and every code is different, and the code stops working at eleven on the morning you leave. Nothing has to be returned and nothing can be lost.
The one that is broken most often
An apartment let sleeps the people on the booking. A gathering is a different product with a different price and a different clean, and it takes the whole house. This is the rule most often broken and it is the one that ends a stay.
If the plan is a gathering rather than a private stay for the number of people on the booking, that is not a rule to work around — it is a different, entirely bookable thing. What the house takes as an event
Check the dates you want
The calendar is live. It shows what is free, it will not sell the same night twice, and it prints the whole total — cleaning fee included — before it asks for a name.