by Konnie LeMay

Despite having guests all thetime throughout the year,when Christmas comes,Angie and Tim Allen still get excitedto deck their halls and hear what theholiday visitors will say.

They dig out the boxes uponboxes of ornaments – many antiquesor vintage styles – and put up sixtrees, string garlands and fill thetable tops and fireplace mantels withholiday statues, trinkets and books.

“Decorating for Christmas forus was always a big deal,” saysAngie.

Perhaps their added enthusiasmthese years has something to do withthe halls they deck.

The innkeepers of the A.G.Thomson House bed-and-breakfastinn in Duluth love their 101-year-old Dutch Colonial Revival style

house. The couple worked towardthe dream of owning such a houseand such a business when Tim wasan officer in the Air Force and theywould buy houses to fix up and resellas they traveled from base to base.

“Every time the Air Forcemoved us, we would buy a fixer-upper. That didn’t scare us,” Timsays. Tim honed and augmented hishome repair skills, saving money onthe rehabilitations by learning to domost everything himself.

“We just fell in love with oldhouses,” adds Angie.

Contemplating retirement sixyears ago while stationed in

Lake Superior Living

Open HouseInnkeepers Find Success & Happiness in Sharing Their Home

TIM ALLEN

A.G. Thomson House bed-and-breakfast inn is run by Tim and Angie Allen in a Dutch Colonial-style home built in 1909. The outside paint was what Angieconsidered a dreary blue when they bought it. “I knew even before we closed that this was going to be a yellow house,” she says. “It’s happy and relaxing.”

DECEMBER - JANUARY 2011 / Lake Superior Magazine 37

DECEMBER - JANUARY 2011 / Lake Superior Magazine 3938 Lake Superior Magazine / DECEMBER - JANUARY 2011

Nebraska, Tim decided to teachROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) so he could be home morerather than deployed on flightsaround the country. The couplemoved for his ROTC assignment atthe University of MinnesotaDuluth and Angie immediatelybegan looking for a bed-and-breakfast inn to buy.

“We both have always liked tobe home and working on the home,”Angie says. A B&B would give themthe opportunity to do both.

They found the A.G. ThomsonHouse on the market, which it hadbeen for a long time. The price tagwas more than $1 million, and stillthis 9,000-square-foot historic houseset on two acres with a carriage

house would be yet again anotherfixer-upper.

Quickly blending their savings,bank loans and help from generousbackers, the Allens closed on thepurchase before Tim retired in 2007.

Discovering more about thehouse’s history was one of thecharms of owning an older home forTim and Angie (see side story).

The amount of elbow grease itneeds is not as charming, but sincethey both have solid puttering skills,it is not alarming either.

The first thing they did waspaint the exterior a relaxing, invitingyellow. They tackled the landscapingand the front yard that Tim

describes as having “two thistles, nograss.” The electricity was updatedand plumbing renovated.

In the rooms frequented byguests, there was basic maintenance,and updates to several guestbathrooms, with new tiling, sinksand tubs in some. They’ve addedfireplaces in rooms.

The Allens also did a majorremodel that has helped to keeptheir sanity – a refreshed, enlarged kitchen with additionalcounter space and a morefunctional arrangement with newappliances like two ovens, twodishwashers, a preparation sink andan island.

“It used to be everywhere welooked, there would be somethingthat needed to be done,” Tim says.“Now that list is much smaller.”

All the repairs, updating andother fussing needed to be donearound guests. The day that theAllens took over, there were gueststo tend. “We took over seamlessly,”Angie says proudly.

Something else also needed abit of repair. While the businesscontinued under the formerowners, because they had been solong waiting to sell, some thingshad slipped and unflatteringreviews showed up on websites likeTrip Advisor.

Living / Home

TIM ALLEN

It takes a solid week of work to decorate the main house first and second floors for Christmas.This part of their year can also be very busy with guests, say A.G. Thomson House owners Angieand Tim Allen. “The week between Christmas and New Year’s is like summer,” Angie says.

TIM ALLEN

Angie Allen keeps a constant eye out for treasures to deck the halls. The Allens also receive giftsof ornaments. “It’s easy to shop for us,” she jokes. The main floor sitting room and sunroom havethree of the five 10-foot trees on the first floor that they put up each year.

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The Allens discovered that ifthey could prove to Trip Advisorthat the business had new owners byshowing the purchase agreement,then it would expunge old reviewsand let them start fresh.

“So much of it is reputation,”explains Tim.

Today the inn is the top-ratedB&B in Minnesota on Trip Advisor,which also named it in the “Top TenCoziest Places to Stay” in the UnitedStates. This fall, the couple won a master gardener honor and their landscaping has earnedawards from the local garden group.

With about 35 percent of theirbusiness coming in by word ofmouth, the Allens find that most oftheir seven guest rooms or suites –some are in the carriage house – areoccupied all year. They have takentime off here and there by hiringspecialists who temporarily managebed-and-breakfast inns so ownerscan get vacations. And, on rareweekend nights when there isn’t aguest scheduled, they have beenknown to sneak off to someone else’shotel in town for a relaxing evening.

Some aspects of this full-timebusiness have brought memorablesurprises. In a serendipitous fluke thisyear, they found themselves celebratingtheir 25th wedding anniversary at thesame time three couples who hadrooms also celebrated theirs.

“I think one of my biggestsurprises that I enjoy dealing withnow,” says Angie, “is dietaryrestrictions.” She likes the challengeof cooking for guests with specialrequests, like for vegan or gluten-free meals. “Sometimes I’ll have likefive breakfasts going on.”

A business run in your home,with guests constantly, can bestressful on a marriage, of course.“You are together 24 hours a day,”Tim points out. But the Allenslaughingly thank the large house forletting them get “away” time fromeach other. They’ve remainedhappily together since high school.

Enjoying the same things helps,like watching the Packers, workingon house projects … and sprucingup the house for Christmas.

It takes about a solid week toget all of the Christmas decorationsup. They search for “skinny” trees to

put in the hallway, Tim says, toreduce the risk of curbing trafficflow. Surprisingly, with all of thefully decorated trees around, Angiesays so far, “all of the ornamentsthat have gotten broken werebroken by us.”

Angie is not shy about packinga room with decorations andornamentation. She loves leaving“Easter eggs” – delightful seasonalsurprises – for guests to discover inthe sitting room. For example, sheplaces out books about the film “It’s

Tim and Angie Allen (top) have doneseveral remodeling projects in thepast three years on their 100-year-old home. Most of the workenhances guest and public rooms, butthe kitchen was for their own sanity,they say. The outdated kitchen (atright) did not have enough space orthe right mix of appliances for a busyinn. Granite counters, new cabinets,doubled dishwashers and ovens and asmoother work flow make life better.

Living / Home

40 Lake Superior Magazine / DECEMBER - JANUARY 2011

The main-floor sitting room makesfor an inviting, cozy space with afireplace and the “Easter egg”surprises like books of the season.

KONNIE LeMAY / LAKE SUPERIOR MAGAZINE

TIM ALLEN

DON TRUEMAN / PARAMOUNT PIXELS

KONNIE LeMAY / LAKE SUPERIOR MAGAZINE

MARK YOURCALENDARS!

Lake Superior MagazineHoliday Open House and Outlet Store Sale

at 310 E. Superior St. DuluthSaturday, Nov. 27, 2010

9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

HolidayGift GuideHolidayGift Guide

20102010

42 Lake Superior Magazine / DECEMBER - JANUARY 2011

a Wonderful Life,” and versions ofDickens’ “Christmas Carol” and thetraditional poem “’Twas the NightBefore Christmas.” They also haveDVDs of many Christmas classics.

Guests, relatives and friendshave been known to add to theirornament collection.

Preparing this inn reflects theChristmases they’ve always had in their

own homes, Angie says. “We didn’tapproach decorating differently.”

The third floor, their privatesuite, does remain undecoratedthese days. But with so muchChristmas and so many happyguests on the floors below them,they have plenty of reason tocelebrate in unadorned quiet.

KONNIE LeMAY / LAKE SUPERIOR MAGAZINE

There are four guest rooms in main house and a modern suite and two guest rooms in the carriagehouse. What Tim Allen calls one of his crazier ideas was putting in new hickory floors, himself, with justa couple days between guests. “I found this great deal on flooring,” he chuckles, “just three days beforeMemorial Day.” He luckily did not discover any of the “surprises” typical with old-house remodeling.

A.G.ThomsonHouse

Tim and Angie Allen havesome wonderful history abouttheir house on their website.

The Gambrel-roof styleDutch Colonial house cost wasbuilt for $17,000 in 1909 byMinneapolis architect Edwin H.Hewitt for William N. Ryerson,general manager of GreatNorthern Power Company. Acarriage house and otheradditions came later. TheThomson for whom the inn isnamed was Adam G. Thomson,son of Alexander Thomson, oneof the largest grain exporters inthe country. Adam, the secondowner of this house, bought it in1918 and lived in it with his wife,Clara, until 1925. A prominentbusinessman in his own right,Adam was president of theDuluth Board of Trade and of theKelley How Thomson Company,a large hardware wholesaler withclients around the Midwest.

Good to KnowA.G. Thomson House2617 E 3rd StreetDuluth, MN 55812877-807-8077 / 218-724-3464www.thomsonhouse.biz

Weekend room rates fortwo in December range from$189 per night (2 nights required)for the small rooms to $299 anight for the Lake Superior Suite.

The house is on the HolidayTour of seven Duluth inns, 1-5p.m. on December 12. Tickets,available from the inn, are $20 inadvance or $25 at the door.

Living / Home