What's With The Name?

 So... one of the most common questions we get asked about is the name of the B&B.  Who is it? How did you come up with it? And how do you pronounce "Holle"?  Well, here is the story...

So after we won the house on the auction, Pete started wrapping up everything in Virginia to move to Wisconsin.  I spent my days coming to the house and starting the cleaning process.  It had been closed up for a long time and was pretty bad. So every day I would spend hours cleaning and envisioning what this house could look like.  I would talk to the house and tell it I was going to make it pretty again. 

One day I was on the phone with Pete when I pulled into the driveway. "The house wants to be named 'Katherine'" I told him. When my daughters were little, we named everything. From bikes to cars, stuffed animals to basic objects. Everything had a name. So that day I walked in and said "Good morning, Katherine! We are going to make you beautiful again!"

It became a running joke, on how much fixing up our friend Katherine needed. But it made it feel more real for me, our very own Victorian home.. I was spending the days cleaning it, and the evenings researching Victorian architecture. I wanted to know why it was laid out the way it was, what the purpose of specific areas were, and how we could achieve making it look Victorian, but feel cozy and comfortable.

Anyway.. one bitterly cold day after Pete had moved here. We got to the house to clean and work on it. All of my cleaning products had frozen over. We had exactly one extension cord running up from the basement for any power. No lights, no heat, just one cord. We decided to go to the library and do research on the house instead. So we sat (in the warm library) going through old city directories looking for our address, so we could find out who lived there. Finally, Pete said "Here it is! 119 North Church Street! I found it!" I got all excited and grabbed my pen to take notes.  "John Thauer."  he said, as I quickly wrote it down.  "Oh wow... and his daughter... Katherine."  (Back then, they listed family members in the city directories, as well as occupations. But that's another story)

Needless to say, we were quite shocked.  I now think she had a hand in helping us win this auction.

So we decided it HAD to be Katherine, and we have received gifts and so much support from my mom's side of the family, that we dedicated the family last name of "Holle" to naming the house. Yes, it sounds just like "Holly" but prettier!