My wife and I stayed here for our 5th anniversary. Instead of staying in the house, we invaded the cottage in the back of the property and claimed it as our own. By the way, make sure you refer to it as a 'cottage' when you show up. I made the mistake of calling it a 'cabin' when we arrived, and the guy who answered the door looked at me like I was an alien.
Without going too much into the history of the place, it was apparently empty for a number of years before the current owners took possession. As a result, water damage is clearly evident in many places still. Don't get me wrong, overall the building is still quite impressive, but some of the floors are severely warped and in a couple places the ceiling is seriously damaged. It's pretty easy to look past it and just soak in the atmosphere, tho.
The cottage was nice. Small jacuzzi tub, comfy bed, decent-sized bathroom. Overall, nothing particularly stood out, but at the same time, there were no obvious warts either.
If my rating was based just upon the atmosphere and class of the house balanced against the several areas needing to be fixed, I probably would have given this place three stars. But the owner, Wendy's, cooking is simply spectacular. She works with foods and spices like other artists might work with paints and clays. The favorite part of every day for me was breakfast. The stuffed french toast with cream cheese & orange marmalade filling was impossibly good. Wendy is also extremely personable, and several mornings we chatted with her as we devoured her latest culinary masterpiece. Her wicked mad cooking chops and easygoing personality easily bump Ryan Mansion up a full star level. I'd even bump it up a star and a half, if that were an option. Eventually the repairs on the building will be complete, at which point this B&B will be a slam dunk 5-star place to stay. read more