Welcome to Our Home Away From Home
Let me introduce myself. I'm Gary Benge and my wife is Trice. We hail from Yulee, Florida (located right above Jacksonville.) We have 4 children, Susan, Stephen (his wife, April), Matthew and J Walter (JW) and 4 grandchildren. Susan's the mom to Kyle and Kelly and Stephen is the dad to Stephen Jr and Morgan.
We handpicked out our Winterhaven Condo unit. We picked it because it was on the ground floor and an end unit. An end unit is important because only the end units have an extra window at the kitchen sink and the decks are much bigger. It's also the closest unit from the parking lot - this is great when you have 4 grandchildren. Makes carrying things inside so much easier, especially since we get to bypass the stairs. Our Winterhaven Unit, D101, is also located next door to the lodge, deli and game room. Trice and I decided it was just perfect.
Then we decided to give it a make over. We started on the inside. Everything went out the front door and we started from scratch. Furniture, pots and pans, Posturepedic mattresses, silverware, lighting fixtures, shower enclosures,mirrors and trim work. Gone were those baby sized toilets. We replaced and updated the kitchen cabinets, sink, drapes, televisions and an electric fireplace insert to name just a few of the many upgraded improvements. We knew that we were going to spend a lot of family moments in our condo at Winterplace. So we wanted to make sure it was really a place we could sit back, relax and just enjoy ourselves.
Trice and I did so much work replacing the plumbing, electrical, furniture and kitchen. It was a labor of love. Then our sons, Stephen and JW pitched in and helped. We had a local cabinet maker in the Ghent, West Virginia area build some natural hickory cabinets. Stephen and JW went up and removed all of the existing cabinets and counter tops and then installed the new natural hickory ones. Stephen also added some slate tiles on the kitchen back splashes to continue the mountain scheme. He did some additional trim work and made some spring arches over the beds. JW made some custom bathroom vanity mirrors from our shop (bengecustom.com) with the light fixtures mounted on the mirrors and some handmade shower enclosures.
The guests who have stayed at our condo in Winterplace, West Virginia have left us notes in our guest book. Take the time and read them for yourself. They use words like "jealous," "love the cooking utensils," "homey," "feels just like our home," "we will definitely stay here next year," and "we've been here before but yours is the best.