The Brown House under High Swan, Asheville, NC

15/12/2023

Dear Friends, We have unlisted the Brown House for the time being. Meaning it's not available for booking. The reason? In short, we planned to only let it out for two years and those years are over! At least as far as the "tourist season" is concerned. What's next, then? WE ARE MOVING IN!!! We built a house and have never lived in it yet, and that seems strange to me. But we are finally claiming it as our own. It's possible we will rent out the Lower Level, as it is a separable apartment. It's also possible we will rent out the whole house if and when we travel for an extended period. In the meantime, we are beginning to prepare the RED HOUSE to rent. Stay tuned. -Mick

30/11/2023

As I mentioned, Edie and I are moving into the Brown House officially starting in January. Soon, I'll become inactive here until I have real news to share about what rental options we plan to offer. We've even considered letting people camp at our place, which will be fun. But I have a few loose ends I wish to share, things that interest me. Here's one: I've invited the local chapter of the International Ikebana Society to tour our home and property in March, so naturally I'm trying to spruce up the place. I've developed a bit of a crush on the witch hazels and have planted 18 of them so far. Two of them have not done well-one dead and one not thriving-and they happen to be (have been) in a visible focal point of the property centered in the front of the house. But the other day, getting discounts, using gift cards, and employing my highly honed predatory shopping techniques, I bought replacements. Two gorgeous Jelenas, a type I've wanted for a couple years. Hopefully they will bloom for the tour. Their flowers are coppery red.

30/11/2023

We've been busy, so I've not posted any updates for a while. The reviews as they come in continue to express appreciation of how much nicer our place is than guests ever expected. We have 55 reviews or so. The latest said we weren't just 5/5 in all categories but 10/10. There is a problem for us, however. Compared to other places in our area with similar prices, our place gives guests so much more for their money. We spend an inordinate amount of time on cleaning, for example. Expenses for utilities and property taxes are high. Though last year we were open 10 months, in the 12 months of 2023 it looks like our income will be down by a third. And charging more would have and will only discourage bookings.

Therefore, the decision to take a break from vacation renting and move into the Brown House ourselves was all the easier. Our plan was to rent out the house for one or two years, but we might have gone longer if it was more profitable. It will be two years soon.

We have booking windows available for December and over Christmas, but we’ve closed the house calendar through New Year and indefinitely afterwards. It is possible we may open the house for specific periods in the future while we are gone, but it will have a very different character. Rather than being a new, tidy house furnished and fully equipped for vacation rental, it will have a good amount of our own personal stuff—like Edie’s desk, my mom’s hutch, additional bookshelves, and a rowing machine. If we open up the basement apartment—a possibility—we may be present upstairs at the same time, though of course guests will have access to all the outdoor areas as before.

As we make the move the four miles from where we’ve lived for over 30 years, we are transforming it into a longer term fully furnished rental. The duration we have in mind is one week to three months, so it will be suited for vacationers rather than weekenders, and for travel nurses and other traveling business people. It’s a modest three bedroom, 1.5 bath, two-level ranch on 1/3 acre in a middle class neighborhood. While we have a single-wide next door, we also have an incredible amount of privacy from a combination of fences and plant hedges. The house is on a ridge, so we have views of sunrises and sunsets through the trees. A unique feature of this “modest” home is a 500 square foot deck that is dry underneath. And a three story tree house. If you didn’t know, we raised six children here, two of them born in our bedroom.

03/08/2023

OUR LATEST PUBLIC REVIEW: 'Mick and Edie! We all enjoyed staying in your house tremendously. Due to your creativity, your kindness, your hard work, and your anticipation of people’s needs the place is as close to perfect as humanly possible. The lovely grounds, showing your conviction that the nature doesn’t have to be plundered but should be thoughtfully managed, are another reason for my family’s rating, which is 5 — hands down! On the ride home my son Jan remarked: “This was one of our best vacations ever”. Thank you. Olga and the Kral clan.' -They stayed eight nights.

25/07/2023

A new acquisition. This framed, 1991 NC Waterfall stamp and artwork, signed and numbered by the artist. I bought it yesterday at a local Goodwill store for $35 and it replaces the Egyption Goose print on papyrus that had been mounted in this corner. The latter is nice, but I'm always looking for North Carolina art. I will put the goose print downstairs paired with the Egyptian Zodiac on papyrus already there. It's funny how the coloring of the duck stamp art and the goose art is exactly the same.

25/07/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbT2x4gJ7Gs

Sweet corn grown at home is golden. When I'm hungry and working on the property, I will pick an ear and eat it on the spot. We have to protect the crop fro...

21/07/2023

Our garden from the north. Showing are two plantings of the non-GMO variety, Ambrosia, which is white+yellow. The planting on the right is in tassel. We often share from the garden with guests, but sharing sweet corn... I don't know. It is SOOO good. I like to eat it raw in the corn patch. You might have to twist my arm. I don't even give it to friends. What we like to do is invite people to have a meal with us and share the corn that way.

15/07/2023

OUR LATEST REVIEW. Blake wrote: Edie and Mick are hands down the best hosts I’ve ever experienced on Airbnb! Prior to our check-in, Mick and I communicated a great deal to make sure everybody was on the same page. He answered all my questions quickly and very thoroughly. For example, I told him about our sensitivity to strong, synthetic scents. He was happy to provide us with a list of the cleaning products they use (many of them natural) and we were very pleased. I was impressed at his detailed communication and respect for our needs. A true host! As for the house, it is absolutely beautiful. The custom wood work makes you feel very cozy. I especially liked the black walnut backsplash in the kitchen. The property is a paradise, starting with their beautiful veggie garden, which they were happy to share from (best kale I’ve ever tasted!) to the beautiful plant life native to the area. What stood out most is how genuine these folks are about being hospitable hosts. You can tell they enjoy it. Thank you Mick and Edie!

28/06/2023

OUR LATEST REVIEW. Melissa wrote: "Beautiful location and grounds. The house was comfortable, clean, and had everything we needed for our one-week stay. We saw a lot of wildlife on the property including a black bear which was exciting for our family. Close enough to downtown but very peaceful and quiet. We would stay here again!"

13/06/2023

Our latest review: Mary said, "The house had everything we needed with a well-stocked kitchen with top-of-the-line appliances. There were plenty of blankets and clean linens. The other furnishings--bed, chairs, sofa, and patio furniture--were attractive and comfortable. In addition, the hosts thought of everything, with clear information about caring for their place. The views were amazing. We would have been happy to just stay in place and enjoy the peaceful surroundings."

13/06/2023

MAKING SCENTS: THE ART & PASSION OF FRAGRANCE. You can't imagine how fantastic this whole NC Arboretum display is. The photo shows but one feature. They have a couple dozen "scent stations" where you can smell all the different perfume categories, all based on plants and other natural materials. There's a huge collection of perfume containers, some hundreds of years old.

10/06/2023

Guests and potential guests sometimes ask if they will see bears at our place. Yes, no, and it depends.

Today we drove up to our shed to see a black bear digging around in our long term compost pile. But not one bear only: a mama and two tiny cubs! We watched...

03/06/2023

Our latest review. Robin said, "The cabin is absolutely beautiful. Everything is brand new. The grounds are amazing. We wanted an outdoor experience that was close to Asheville and Black Mountain, and that's what we found. We saw many birds, a turkey and rabbits. Book this beautiful cabin; you will have no regrets." In the public response I mentioned other creatures that pass by like deer and black bear, and the resident bird species like bluebirds and hawks. Robin gave us 5 stars on everything. (See the comments section for an explanation of the photograph.)

01/06/2023

What's blooming now: Ensata Iris, or "Japanese Water Iris". Variegated. These are in the little portico garden with a nice water feature. The rain runoff from the roof falls onto the border of quartzite rocks collected from the property.

26/05/2023

Nothing spectacular about this video until you imagine the entire seasonal life-cycle of this spectacular long-distance flyer. Today at the milkw**d garden at the Brown House I was digging up some Asclepia tuberosa (orange-flowered "butterfly w**d") for a relative and spotted this beauty. Our mature blueberry patch is in the background.

Nothing spectacular about this video until you imagine the entire seasonal life-cycle of this spectacular long-distance flyer..

26/05/2023

Just planted today! Five "Sweetheart" blueberry plants. We also have about 40 mature blueberry plants on the property, and if you are a guest at the Brown House, and the berries are in season, we might just be persuaded to share. Pick your own, of course.

24/05/2023

The New Plant on the Block!

22/05/2023

I invite guests and inquirers to ask about the Mystery Room on the third floor. Here's the answer:We designed and built the house ourselves (with help) and used trusses for the second story floor and the roof. The main room has a cathedral ceiling but the trusses above the upper bedroom allow for a functional space for a third level. Six foot ceiling. This is accessed by a fold-down ladder in the upper bedroom. The room is finished in a sort of open way. We painted the exposed trusses and also the spray-in foam insulation, the latter with a "fire proof" paint required by code. The stainless steel chimney is exposed, too, to provide heat from the woodstove. We have a nice big carpet up there and the lighting fixtures are the same as the "bulkhead" sconce lights in the downstairs basement, with the wire cage around them. It has a couple windows, one to the outside and the other to the main room. In the interior window we have a fan that can vent the air of the whole house to the outside in a few minutes-provided windows are open. During the height of covid concerns, we always used this after guests checked out. We don't allow guests up here because there's no need, but mainly because the ladder is not really user friendly or safe, not for the general person. We built the room with storage space and grandchildren in mind.

22/05/2023

If you stay at the Brown House, and are interested in hiking, having lived in the area for almost 40 years we know the best places to go. Spectacular views and no crowds.

Yesterday we did a short out-and-back (3 hours, total) to viewpoints on the Mountains to the Sea Trail in western North Carolina near Mt. Mitchell. This pano...

19/05/2023

The other day I discovered the first Monarch Butterfly larvae of the season in our milkw**d garden. These tiny creatures are the first larval instars of five before the transformation into a chrysalis. At the same time I watched the first adult Monarch I've seen so far. (I wrote a pictorial book on the Monarch migration over the Blue Ridge Parkway. There's a sample copy in the Brown House.)

11/05/2023

Crepe Myrtles.

We planted these at the Brown House today: Lagerstroemia indica, "Purple Magic" Crepe Myrtle.

11/05/2023

Bluebirds are raising a family. Our neighborhood is residence for dozens of Carolina Bluebirds, and this time of year you can see some of them busy hunting for insects all day long on our property. I put two nesting boxes out late in last Winter. The other one is occupied by Chickadees.

08/05/2023

Now blooming: Calycanthus 'Aphrodite'. Commonly called Sweet Shrub or Carolina Allspice.The native species is Calycanthus floridus. We have 10 of the Aphrodites at near full size, six of them in a hedge on the east side of the house. Sweet Shrub flowers give off a subtle fruity odor much like the pulp of apples after they've been chopped up for making apple cider. The plants will bloom for months starting now and continuing through summer.

04/05/2023

What you will see in early May when you near the Brown House. Photos courtesy of recently past Guest, Eileen.

04/05/2023

Now blooming. Dutch Irises.

04/05/2023

Forget about visiting the Biltmore House and Gardens. Instead, STAY at the Brown House and Gardens. For the price of admission for four at the Biltmore, you (almost) can sleep, play, and dine at our house for a long weekend. Skip the traffic, the lines, and the crowds and enjoy the restful beauty of nature. Play croquet or sit around the campfire. Just you and occasionally, the gardeners (us). We have everything the BH&G has, but far more modest, of course. You can even enjoy a private, free, guided tour of the house and landscape, upon request.

(Note: I don't really mean to discourage anyone from visiting the BH&G. It's worth seeing. Edie, my fellow host and wife, plays music there in the Spring and at Christmas holidays. We have a nice, framed, vintage postcard print of it in the Master Bedroom.)

03/05/2023

OUR LATEST REVIEW: "Our stay at Meredith's place was absolutely amazing! Close enough to town, but secluded & private, in the beautiful mountains! We loved it so much we invited our local friends over for brunch one day to show off the place! We preferred "staying in" over going downtown! Meredith was extremely kind, responsive, and helpful. I have stayed at many Airbnb's and this one one is right up there at the top of the list of favorites!" -Eileen

Details from the review:
Responsive host
Clear instructions
Easy to find
Easy to get inside
Flexible check-in
Felt right at home
Spotless furniture & linens
Free of clutter
Squeaky-clean bathroom
Pristine kitchen
Looked like the photos
Matched the description
Had listed amenities and services
Always responsive
Proactive
Helpful instructions
Friendly
Peaceful
Beautiful surroundings
Private

5 stars on everything, including Value. And 5 exclamation points.

30/04/2023

What's new: a picnic table under the deck. (I know. There are TWO tables, but one is for someone else--I'm just storing it here until I can get it painted.) The table is for use when it's raining or hot in the middle of a sunny summer day.

24/04/2023

Our latest review. Here's what we wrote about our guests: Sharon and her fellow travelers were ideal guests. They left the house exceptionally clean and in good order. We felt honored to have our humble place one of their resting stops on their vacation/road trip across and up and down the United States, and coming all the way from London, England. We enjoyed the fun conversation with a member of the party when he came down to meet us as we were working on the property late one afternoon. We’d welcome them back and do recommend them highly to other vacation rental hosts.

24/04/2023

A few feet from the Dwarf Crested Irises is this native azalea. It's actually a cultivar of a native, I believe. We have four of them in bloom now, purchased at Carolina Native Nursery near Burnsville, NC. I bought them for Edie's birthday two years ago. Ones like them grow in our mountains, commonly called Flame Azaleas.

23/04/2023

Dwarf Crested Irises are blooming at the Brown House now. I collected the plants from the forest and planted them next to the little portico on the west side of the house, near the Ensata Irises and Dwarf Rhododendrons. They spread.

14/04/2023

New. An Ironwood tree and Ironw**d perennials. Not related. The tree is otherwise known as Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana). The "w**d" is of the genus Vernonia and the particular species is lettermanni, cultivar, "Iron Butterfly." About 3 feet tall and wide. Purple flowers in the fall. I plan to put a taller species of Vernonia in the back of this bed. Pollinators love this plant. The Brown House features a growing collection of fascinating plants.

02/04/2023

A visual tour of the outside and environ on a late Saturday afternoon in early April. No sounds but that of birds, the wind, and my footsteps.

This is a visual tour of the outside and environs of the Brown House under High Swan, 8 miles from downtown Asheville, North Carolina and 14 miles from Black...

22/03/2023

We bought our property 18 and some years ago. It had previously been used as a horsepasture and had suffered considerable neglect. The wooded parts were infested with several invasive, noxious species of plants including giant multiflora rose and Asian bittersweet. More benign invasives like Alanthus. Then the native, rampant, thick hairy arms of poison ivy looping around the tree trunks. The pasture itself was thick with the toxic, spiny Carolina Horse Nettle. While we have not eliminated any of these pests, we have them suppressed and somewhat controlled, allowing the more delicate, native plants and flowers to gain a foothold. Here, Bloodroot growing along the creek. We also have abundant Trout Lilies, which I will show later.

17/03/2023

We recently added two Birdbird nesting boxes. We have several pairs of Carolina Bluebirds that hang out around the house, always hunting for food. The boxes were made of Eastern Red Cedar by the Amish in Ohio. The Brown House is an excellent location for birding. If you are new to the sport we have bird ID books available and a giant pair of binoculars. It would take me too long now to list all the species of birds we've seen at our place, both resident and migratory. So far, nobody has moved into the boxes. Give them time.

16/03/2023

The Brown House welcomes anyone who will be respectful of our place. Last week we hosted a rock band from Miami who came on a retreat to write and record for an album. They had eight 5-star reviews and said we were the best hosts they've ever had.

16/03/2023

The Brown House is right below in the fog. Sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway are often closed in the Winter, which means they are available for walkers and bicycle riders without all of the traffic. Last Sunday Edie and I parked at the barricade at Ox Creek Gap and walked up through the Tennent Ridge Tunnel. This is the view we saw from the side of High Swan while walking down. When it is clear this time of year, you can see the roof of the Brown House from this location. We have lived in this area for going on 40 years and know all the best places to hike, on and off trail. Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter.

14/03/2023

Forsythia, today in sunset light. I propagated these plants and more from sticks trimmed from my neighbor's yard.