My great-grandmother seemed to be called Aunt Lilly by everyone. Growing up, I always heard this room referred to as “Aunt Lilly’s room”. She loved her dogs, and was a talented painter (check back later for a post on her paintings). Here she is on the driveway side steps of Bayfields sometime in the 1960’s.
Aunt Lilly and her beloved dogs.
I always thought Aunt Lilly’s room was the most wonderful room in the entire house. Later, when we moved into the house, we noticed that the only way to get to Aunt Lilly’s room, one must pass through another bedroom. For a while, my daughter and her husband lived in this room and used it as a 2 room suite. One room for the bedroom, and the other as a sitting room with a TV. My sister’s name is Holly, and when our daughter was born on Christmas day, we named her Ivy. My favorite Christmas storybook fairy tale was the story of Holly & Ivy, so I thought to keep with the fairytale-room-naming-theme. I named these rooms “The Holly-n-Ivy”.
My favorite Christmas fairy tale.
After Ivy and her husband moved, I began renting it out as a 2 room suite that sleeps up 4 people. Since those sleeping in the one room must pass through the sitting room to come and go, I thought it was best that it be reserved by families or good friends who know each other well enough to share the space. The sitting room faces the driveway and has a barnyard and dock view. The couch has been replaced with a daybed that can convert into 2 twins or one king bed.
The larger bedroom has a memory foam topped king bed with a slanted ceiling, a wrap-around balcony, with a view of the barnyard, dock, creek, river, beach, and Chesapeake Bay.
There is a king bed in the Holly-n-Ivy
To add comfort for our guests, in these 2 rooms we’ve installed 2 ceiling fans, bedside lamps, 4 new triple pane vinyl windows (that actually open, ha ha), a fresh coat of paint, refinished floors, and a new doorway leading out onto the reinforced balcony.
Bayfields 