Get Away to Jamieson House for a Purpose
What kind of retreats are available at Jamieson House? Really, it’s up to you to structure the weekend to your liking, but here’s what we’ve had success with:
• Quilting
• Scrapbooking
• Stamping
• Book Clubs
• Gaming
We know that many of you have attended events in retreat centers. These places commonly have unadorned sleeping arrangements, but we offer our luxury bedrooms with their private baths and whirlpools to make your stay that much more rewarding. And at competitive prices, too.
Besides that, we cook the meals. Many of you Quilting Guild leaders and Scrapbooking consultants are used to providing food for your weekends away or having to cater it in. With our packages, you don’t have to do either of those things. Groups typically still bring snacks and desserts, and you’re always welcome to do that, but we love cooking and serving an assortment of satisfying meals during your stay. One recent rep told us we were very creative with our meals, which we took as a great compliment!
SPACE
Jamieson House has a comfortable Victorian atmosphere that makes you feel pampered, but not like you’re in a museum. We invite you to scrap, stamp, quilt, or game in our Sun Room across the back of the house. The tall windows on three sides let in generous amounts of natural light during the day and the overhead lighting will help you work into the night when you want to.If your event is centered more on discussion and small group interaction, as with spiritual retreats, book clubs, or RPGs, our living room can seat a couple dozen people comfortably or five or six who want a more intimate conversation. One group even spent most of a day in one of the guest rooms.
Main floor restrooms are also available right outside of the Sun Room, so you don’t have to go upstairs to the bedrooms, although those are certainly close by when you need a more extended private break.
FOOD AND BEVERAGES
Our basic design offer 5 meals over a two-night stay. The intent is to feed your group breakfast, lunch, and dinner on your main day (usually Saturday), breakfast on your getaway day (usually Sunday) and either lunch that day or dinner the night you arrive. This is always negotiable, especially if you want a longer or shorter stay. You may choose to go out to dinner or order in pizza for one of your meals. We’re flexible. A typical meal might be stuffed shells, an elaborate tossed salad, garlic bread, and drinks.Many folks like to bring their own wine, beer, and soft drinks. This works for us, too, as we have a liquor license. We’re willing to shop ahead for these things, if you’d prefer, and we can provide coolers so you can have drinks near your tables. We can also store extras in our walk-in cooler so you can replenish throughout the weekend. And we’ll have plenty of complimentary coffee, iced tea, and lemonade available throughtout your stay.
NUMBERS
Okay, we admit it. Our bedrooms were set up for romance, but if retreatants are comfortable sharing queen beds, you can bring a larger group. At double occupancy, we can sleep 12. With triple occupancy, we can fit up to 18. In addition, the rooms have private bathrooms. In five of the rooms, the showers are completely separated from the bedrooms, so even if roommates both want to shower, you still have privacy.PLUGS
Yeah, it’s an old house (the main part built in 1878), but it’s been restored in more modern times and there are plenty of electrical outlets around the Sun Room and around the rest of the house. This means you can plug in sewing machines, laptops, printers, extra lamps and that blender you brought for Margaritas.The exact configuration of the room can vary wildly, so if you don’t like the light in a particular corner, we can move things around, or you can add any lamp you bring or ask for one of our table lights. You may want to plug in boom boxes (we’ve got plenty of them) for music.
MASSAGES
Retreats can also be a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of our massage therapist. She can handle quite a number of clients in a row, so we typically set it up to start massages sometime after lunch on Saturday and run up until dinner time. We recommend a whirlpool soak afterward, if you want to make your body really happy.SCHEDULING AND RATES
There are no dates that are really off limits to retreats, although if a weekend already has individual bookings, we’ll steer you toward a different date. Standard check-in time is 6 p.m. Friday, check-out time 1 p.m. Sunday. Longer stays can be negotiated, as can shorter ones that don’t start until Saturday morning.Retreats don’t have to exclusively be weekends, either, although we’ve found that to be most people’s preference. You can reserve your retreat with a modest non-refundable deposit. If your plans end up changing and you have to re-schedule, we can apply that deposit toward a different date. You also don’t need to take the whole house. For example, if four rooms will fit your group, we’ll do four rooms.
We charge $85 per person per night for double-occupancy or $65 per person per night for triple-occupancy. Can you mix and match? Of course. Some rooms can be double, some triple, depending on the size and needs of your group. The balance of the total fee is due at the end of your event. You can collect ahead and pay with one check or credit card or folks can take care of their bills individually.
BOOK CLUBS
We know how it works. You meet monthly in somebody’s house. You all read the same book and discuss it. You take turns hosting and baking. Hopefully the kids stay out of your hair.But what about a different format? Get your club away from your homes and take the pressure off. You can talk for many more hours than you’re used to and you can do it in a comfortable, private environment or while you take a walk through the fall colors or the spring flowers. Innkeeper Kathleen is very well-read and can even provide short stories for you to read while here on retreat, if you like. And as with the other styles of retreat, we’ll feed you generously.
GAMING
We’re talking board games here. And collectible card games and RPGs. Settlers of Catan, Magic the Gathering, White Wolf or D&D. We know that most gaming groups meet at local shops or in people’s homes, but how about if you could spend a whole weekend doing nothing else? Party games like Trivial Pursuit, Balderdash, or ImagineIff can be great when no one has to leave to go home.Or perhaps you’re more traditional: bridge, pinochle, Monopoly, Scrabble. We’ve got shelves full of all of these styles of games or you can bring your own. If you’re talking tournament (Magic, Puerto Rico, Trivial Pursuit), our Sun Room can host several concurrent games. We’re big game players here at Jamieson House and will gladly help you run something or sit in and play alongside you.
And hey – if you’re a gambler, The Bank is a natural spot for card playing. We’ve hosted poker games here and they can go on well into the night with a place to crash just moments away. We won’t be responsible for any of the monetary issues, but we can certainly keep you fed and watered while you engage in one of the great modern pastimes.