Be our guest - Helms turns rental into Ben Hawes retreat
A guest room is great for out-of-town visitors, but a guest house is even better.
Not everyone likes staying with family or friends when visiting them, Vicki Bennett Helms said. "They're more comfortable staying by themselves."
With that concept in mind, Helms recently opened a guest house on her seven acres in Bon Harbor Hills next to Ben Hawes State Park on U.S. 60 West.
Helms has named the three-bedroom 1950's era home The Cottage. "It's actually an unhosted bed-and-breakfast," she said.
The Cottage is next to Helms' home but has privacy. The houses share a driveway, but the guest house sits back from its neighbor and has woods to the side and back.
The Cottage is furnished with family antiques and original oil paintings. The living room with a large stone fireplace, dark red leather sofa and chair is the perfect place for reading on a summer evening or snowy afternoon. The recently refurbished hardwood floors glisten in the natural light from the windows.
A deck, with a faux French sliding glass door, is off the dining room. The woods provide seclusion for eating at the bistro table and chairs on the deck or just enjoying the scenery.
The kitchen has an antique table and chairs. Above the table is a print of the Kentucky lieutenant governor's mansion, signed by Owensboro native and former lieutenant governor Steve Henry and his wife, Heather French Henry. "I went to school with him," Helms said.
Vicki Bennett Helms has turned a rental home on her seven-acre property near Ben Hawes State Park into The Cottage, a 1950s-era three-bedroom home for use as a bed-and-breakfast, minus the host. The property shares a driveway with Helms' home but has lots of privacy. Photo by Gary Emord-Netzley, M-I
The bedrooms are furnished with antiques that she had when growing up. A child's rolltop desk that was her father's sits in the corner of one of the bedrooms.
The master bedroom has a television and high-speed Internet service. The home is equipped for families and businessmen and women. An antique pie safe in the dining area is stocked with games suitable for families.
The Cottage is handicapped-accessible with a side ramp that leads to the deck. The doors to all the rooms in the house have been enlarged to accommodate wheelchairs.
The home is bright and spotless. Everything in the home can be cleaned, Helms said. The only problem she may have when family and friends visit is getting them to go home.
Until recently, the home was a rental. Helms and her late husband, Charles, bought the house 12 years ago from the family who built it about 1956.
Vicki Helms and her late husband, Charles, bought the home 12 years ago and had all the interior and exterior doors made wheelchair-friendly, including an exterior ramp up to the outdoor deck. Photo by Gary Emord-Netzley, M-I
Helms' son, Charley, will be off to college next year, and he'll probably be bringing his buddies home on the weekends. Having a place for his friends was the impetus for Helms' guest house, but when her family is not using it, she said she will rent it to the public for meetings, reunions or getaway weekends.