We know that we are just the latest owners of this beautiful property. And we hope to be the last.

We have a passion for this property of a number of reasons:

• Pam began purchasing antiques while still in high school and shows no signs of slowing down. Any business that requires one to haunt antique stores and stop at every yard sale is not a bad thing, in her opinion.
• Tim's background is in construction, starting out as a 12-year-old carpenter's helper in his father's home remodel business. He has been in commercial construction for 25 years. He has also served for over 10 years as the chairman of our hometown planning commission. This committee created the plan that has been adopted by Colorado as its standard for small town development. It includes the preservation of a downtown and requirements for home builder such as inclusion front porches and garages to the back.
• We, along with our business partners, love the flavor of Gunnison and want to preserve that rather low city sky line.
• When we travel, we avoid the "cookie-cutter" places. We chose places with historic significance and that contributes to some fun to our travel experience: the out-of-way 10-table bistro in the Bonaire cottage, the vintage 22-room corner hotel with a balcony that overlooked the small medieval city in the south of France, the stone B&B in Bruges where we slept in the attic gable or the B&B in San Diego with the great rooftop seating. We always chose the downtown cafe.
• We value restoration and have restored other properties: a large barn in Minnesota that is filled with farm antiques and used for barn dances; and a 1920's craftsman home in Colorado that has been furnished with period pieces. We also saved an 8' tall, 22' long 1930 art deco bar from demolition and put it back into use.

We are working hard to restore Island Acres to its 1950's glory. Using a 1954 Ladies Home Journal "Illustrated Guide to Decorating" book, a 1956 Better Homes and Garden gardening manual and materials produced for the 1950's motel owners as our bibles, we are furnishing it with period pieces and designs of that era. Is it challenging to have property that has had its 50th birthday? You bet. We have put over $100,000 worth of improvements into this property and countless hours of hard labor in three years with more to come. We feel that this is money and time well-spent. The former locals who now return in the summer and stay with us for weeks at a time seem to agree.

However, we cannot do it without customer support. The lodging industry tells us that the 80% of the US travelers are looking for the "big-box" chain hotels. Congratulations to you for thinking outside of the box and being one of the top 20%.