Riverside House Guest Lodge

Name: Riverside House Guest Lodge
Address: 481 Riverside Road, Sequim, WA, 98382, US
Telephone: +13605820339
Price range: $$$
Rating: 5

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Riverside House Guest Lodge

What is hapening at the Riverside House Guest Lodge. We are located on the Olympic Peninsula. Banana Belt Kelly Gift Shop is part of the Lodge.
(5)

05/17/2023

In case you have never been here...I have a few photos to peak your interest of the gift shop and courtyard fountain! Banana Belt Kelly is a unique lovely shop! You can find “made here” items!

05/17/2023

Hi all! I just want to let you know that the gift shop still remains open! Even though we are not taking overnight lodging guests Banana Belt Kelly Gift Shop is open Wed-Sat 10-3.

Yarnes Farms is the name of our on site fruit and honey sales. We currently are selling Grandpa Todd’s honey from our own hives.
The gardens are looking lovely this year! Stop by! Sit by the fountain and make a wish!

12/09/2020

If you are in the area...drive by in the evening and look at our Christmas lights! Banana Belt Kelly Gift Shop is also highlighting the place for Christmas cheer and good holiday wishes for everyone!

Captain Crystal and her elves did the lighting displays. We were honored to have the City of Sequim Christmas Tree Star on our Gumdrop house porch this year!

Merry Christmas!

11/27/2020

Wishing all of you a wonderful time of year with many things to be thankful for!

07/25/2020

Due to ever changing circumstances we are not taking any new reservations. Our family comes first during these times. We wish everyone well! From our family to yours! ❤️

06/28/2020

A few garden photos today.

06/09/2020

Sequim is very close to us!

05/15/2020

Cleaning out the feeders! Yikes

05/10/2020

Momma deer still has not had her baby. Maybe today! She was getting a drink right off the Gumdrop House patio.

https://video.nest.com/clip/7e588432b6f14f41ad44b031fef39db2.mp4

05/10/2020

Just had a male Western Tanager at the feeder! Happy Mother’s Day!

04/29/2020

These guys are so sweet. Momma deer is ready to have her fawn. Her daughters are still with her. One came up to say hello to me.

04/18/2020

Drained the pond and put in clean water without the blue dye this time.

03/24/2020

Same as everyone...we are closed. Already had a cancellation for the Lavender Festival. We continue to work on making this a top place to stay. We just put brand new bedding on all of the guest room beds. We are scrubbed and ready for the new normal.
Take care everyone! We will be posting more!

03/09/2020

We get lots of wildlife in our yard. Lately we have been visited by a young bobcat. This morning he snuck up on the cat. Interesting video. Enjoy!

https://video.nest.com/clip/f1e8177ca89347d7aca52a19432bff03.mp4?fbclid=IwAR0mxJZSM_3ZapUa48MPgxFDC1mq81XJfhNAJeL3CLMrAc5RiUx8VkulqbE

02/26/2020

Great Blue Heron on our Fountains this morning.

02/18/2020

Our feeders are full of Grosbeaks this morning. Beautiful noisy birds.

02/18/2020

A sign of spring. The Grosbeaks have arrived!

01/04/2020

Reminder! We are taking reservations for 2020! Spots are filling up.

Got this photo of a little Pine Siskin on our porch trying to get warm under the light this morning.

12/26/2019

Trumpeter Swans flying over this morning.

12/26/2019

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

12/15/2019

The picnic area is even a hit with the deer!

12/13/2019

Taking reservations for 2020!

Can you believe it! Already! Good year for a vacation here...In the Pacific Northwest! Time to relax.

Enjoy this photo of the Old Dungeness School House. Took this on a stormy day.

11/30/2019

The courtyard blue water fountain was very icy this morning. Got up to 38 degrees and some melted, but still beautiful!

11/08/2019

This tree out in the back area always puts down a beautiful carpet of color. For a number of years it was the favorite scratching post for a cougar.

11/05/2019

Quite often our guests get to see deer up close. Even from the bathroom window!

10/29/2019

For folks traveling here...weather Advisory

Clallam County Sheriff's Office
59 mins ·
**WEATHER ADVISORY - 10/28/19**
So, it’s not too bad outside this Monday afternoon. The weather people on TV say no real precipitation for an extended period and pretty sunny for awhile. So, no reason to hear from Ron, right? Well, maybe.
The National Weather Service took the time to let us know today, that even though the outlook still seems to be sunny and nice, it will definitely get cool overnight the next few nights. In fact, places in the South Sound like Olympia and Chehalis could see temperatures dump down to the teens.
I don’t think it will get quite that cold, but 25 won’t surprise me in the morning hours, especially Wednesday. And then, there’s the wind. Winds are expected to start in tonight and kick up pretty good along the strait. Frankly, this could be one of those rare instances where our Forks friends can sit back and watch us for a change because their winds are supposed to be pretty mild. But for those of us along the inland coastlines, well it’s garbage can tipping wind at 25 plus miles an hour. That should last into Tuesday evening and then quiet down for Wednesday.
This is not one of those extended cold snaps as far as I know so let’s let this event remind us it’s time to take some winter precautions. Bring in sensitive plants, consider the wrapping of your pipes and covering outside faucets. How about that RV? Does it need some attention? You’ll probably be using that fireplace or wood stove, so does your chimney need a cleaning? Well, you all know what I mean.
Most of all, don’t forget your fur babies and make sure they have food, warmth and water, especially later on when it really gets cold and their outside water bowls don’t get a chance to thaw out.
Finally, this coolness comes with some pretty dry air, but you never know….please watch for ice on the roads. We don’t need to be pulling people out of the ditches if we don’t have to so be careful.
I don’t have much for the end of the week yet….when the crystal ball people share what they think will happen next, I’ll let you know. Until then:
Stay safe,
Undersheriff Ron Cameron

10/28/2019

Photos of Kelly’s greenhouse newly painted interior And a bit of fall in the garden.

10/27/2019

The Railroad Bridge near us has great views every direction!

10/23/2019

Another great fall day for a lunch picnic with the fish art. We ate there yesterday and had a buck and doe join us!

10/22/2019

Boy is it raining out!

Address

481 Riverside Road
Sequim, WA
98382

Telephone

+13605820339

Website

http://sequimchamber.com/listing/riverside-house/

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Videos

Covered picnic area

Fabulous up close Deer viewing here!

Hello from Winston the weenie dog!

Deer for Christmas breakfast

Shortcuts

Our Story

We are located on the Olympic Peninsula. Banana Belt Kelly Gift Shop is part of the Lodge.

Todd and Laurie Yarnes are your hosts and owners. Todd is retired from the Army and Sheriff’s Department. Laurie is an artist. We bought this property in 1997. It was love at first sight. What a peaceful place. We loved the history of this place.

This was the old farmstead built in 1920. The house we call the Gumdrop House was built as a sled house originally. It was pulled from logging site to logging site. This information was given to us from the Johnson family. It then became a farm as it went through its life here. It is built from hand hewn boards and layers of shiplap. It is one solid well made house. The original clawfoot tub is in the bathroom.

When we bought the place there was a bowl of gumdrops on the kitchen counter. Hence the name. We still have them. The property came with cupboards and buildings full of the previous owners things. The Sorgenfrei family owned it. Mrs. Sorgenfrei was in her 90’s and in a nursing home. Harry Johnson sold it for her through power of Attorney. He owned a place on River Rd. He was family from what we know.

We were told that the future Olympic rower Rantz lived just around the corner on West Silberhorn when he was young. The author of the book, The Boys in the Boat, told us that and he posed for photos with Kelly. Rantz did work for neighbors and most likely here because there were only a few houses here then. We found many old bottles, toy cars, marbles, horse shoes and such burried on the property.

The old cattle shoot and milking stantions finally fell apart a few years ago. The old chicken coop is now the game room with the original beams intact. The woodwork shop Todd does his carving and turning in was our sheep pen for awhile. It has the original beams and roof. The loafing shed is still original but we closed in the west end for a cat shed for our cats.

The shop for Banana Belt Kelly is still the same building. We closed the hayloft all the way across and the original ladder is in the shop. There was a sliding barn door on the east side which is now a window. There was a little canning room on the west side. We saved the door and it is on the A frame yellow potting greenhouse in the garden. Todd took the old hand hewn boards off the outside and planed them. They are now preserved and on the inside walls. Laurie did the stonework on the bottom of the walls.

The yellow potting greenhouse is made from local wood from Yada. The carved fish head on the original wood center beam came from here in Kelly’s shop In the loft. The concrete stepping stones came from here and were original to the property. Handmade. The bricks on the floor came from the old schoolhouse in Port Angeles. The small side windows came from the old house on the corner of Secor and River Rd. The big windows came from the old barn at 1734 Woodcock Rd. The old woodstove was in the Gumdrop house when we bought it.

The Gumdrop House had no insulation and just a propane heater in the wall in the livingroom. The old woodstove was in the first bedroom. We had the house insulated with a PUD program. We also replaced all the old metal windows, updated the electric and plumbing. New carpet revealed different floors beneath. The west half of the livingroom is concrete, then tongue and groove thick boards. One room was plywood. The kitchen floor is hand poured on site. It was done by the owner of Bauer Interiors in Sequim when he was young. Our updates try to be minimal and keep the character of the historic home that it is.

We added the main house in 2001. When we opened the wall in the gumdrop house kitchen to add on we found an old doorway had been walled over at some point. Probably when they added a sliding glass door. So we are using the original old doorway. The exterior window we left open. The outside wall of the house had the dates written in pencil that cows were bred and so on. We sealed that back up in the wall. There was a big apple tree where the Gumdrop dining room is now.

The main house was built by a barn builder. Gary Ristick. It is made very well. It has radiant floor heating upstairs and downstairs. Tubing downstairs we did ourselves with the help of friends. The floors are poured concrete downstairs and warm in the winter. The kitchen counters are poured in place concrete. The fireplace in the kitchen is a Rumford. It really heats well. Around the fireplace is wormwood from a old house in town. The wood doors at the end are from the same old house. Pencil drawings came already on the doors.

The courtyard fountain we made ourselves. The land was all overgrown brush and rocks. We had a bulldozer come in and shape it after we bought it. We planted all the trees to the north and made all the gardens. We brought in gates from different old English Estates from England. Our gardener built the rock walls with rocks from the property. We love rocks! The Dungeness River used to run through here. Our irrigation water comes from the Dungeness River. It is piped right to the property. That is how we keep things alive in the Sequim dry summers. Some of the fruit trees are very old. Especially the big apple tree by the Gumdrop house.

As you can tell, we love this place and its history. There is more to tell and we are making history here all the time. Things are always changing you can count on that. Here change is a good thing. We love the historic ways and add them wherever we can.