Are you frustrated, frazzled, fatigued and fed up? Maybe you need a rest and a little bit of heaven on earth, which is easy to find if you decide to stay at the new Angel House Inn in Park City.
The restored historic home on Norfolk Avenue has been turned into a stylish Victorian bed and breakfast replete with angel themes and symbols, all courtesy of Jan and Joe Fisher-Rush. They are Laguna Beach transplants who came here seeking a fresh start, a new business and a respite from the endless hassles of Southern California.After many roadblocks and considerable "sweat equity," they've turned the former Sutton Hurley Mansion, built in 1889, from an unattractive red- and yellow-decorated place filled with flocked wallpaper and ugly carpeting into a stylish eight-bedroom inn that reflects its earlier grandeur.
Each guest room or larger bedroom suite is named after an angel, his female counterpart and decorated in colors associated with these particular celestial beings.
Restoring any older home is a challenge, and this couple has run into their share of roadblocks since they bought the building in 1989.
First, a local contractor didn't pay subcontractors, so they put liens on the house to get their wages. The project stopped.
Jan stayed in an apartment in Laguna Beach working as a nurse to pay the bills. Joe, a general contractor in California, moved to Park City about three years ago and got Utah credentials as a contractor so he could do the construction personally. By then, all their
permits had lapsed, so they had to go back to Park City officials and start over.
At one time, Joe was putting in 12- to 18-hour days gutting the house, restoring the interior and putting on an addition.
Jan flew in every other weekend to see her husband and help with the work. She moved here permanently last summer. "Morris Airlines made it possible," she said.
Jan also had been scouring antique stores, flea markets, garage sales and consignment shops for angel furniture, pictures, statues, mugs and anything else connected with angels.
They had decided on the angel theme long ago.
"As a young nurse working at the county hospital, every patient I took care of died," Jan recalls. "I had to get a different perspective about what death was about."
Transferred to the cardiac unit, she began hearing patient after patient recount life-after-death experiences, and each was the same: a bright light, a long tunnel and a figure at the end that the patient might describe as Christ, Buddha or an angel. "I started studying different religious philosophies to see what they said about the spiritual world," Jan said. That sparked a con-tinuing affection for angels.
Since the house is on the National Register of Historic Places, Joe couldn't change the facade or even the color of the exterior paint. Working within those constraints he put up new walls, redid floors, added a bathroom for every bedroom and arranged to get decorative angel tiles for most bathrooms that have designs fired into them so they won't erode.
Utah requires that certain work be done by subcontractors, but other than that, Joe did all the construction. There is one TV in the parlor and a phone is available, but there are none in the rooms.
"I've got every room wired for TV and telephone, but 90 percent of the people who stay here say keep it that way," Joe said.
"It's supposed to be a quiet haven where you can rest and be spoiled," adds Jan.
Although she has no training in the area, Jan did all the decorating and opted for lighter and brighter colors than those favored by Victorians. The upstairs bridal suite, named for Chamael and Amora, which Jan calls "the angels of love," features a view of old town Park City and the mountains, lace curtains and a big canopy bed with a lace-trimmed bedspread and pillowcases.
Other rooms might contain a fireplace, or a chandelier or an antique armoire or a bay window. The bedrooms are virtual show-cases of carefully chosen Victoriana with charming details at every turn, but they don't have the claustrophobic clutter of bric-a-brac usually associated with the Victorian era. "It's sort of a semi-Victorian and European look," Jan said.
The couple also wanted guests to have a chance to regain the art of conversation in a salon-like atmosphere. Guests can have breakfast in their rooms, but most enjoy a communal gourmet breakfast served at a large dining table in the parlor. Free hors d'oeuvres and beverages are served in the afternoon.
Much of the couple's own personalities and romanticism are reflected in the home.
Both Jan and Joe were divorced when they met, and both had sworn never to get involved again. But a mutual friend who's an artist and quite a free spirit coaxed them into a blind date. Jan arrived full of trepidation, convinced that her eccentric friend would line her up with some misfit. Meanwhile, Joe was outside the friend's house, pacing up and down the sidewalk, debating whether to go in or not. Courtesy forced him inside and the two were introduced.
"It was love at first sight," Joe said. "I had never believed in it."
Jan agrees: "I took one look at him and thought, `He's mine.' "
That was in 1984, and they've been together ever since. They got married on the beach in a sunrise ceremony and enjoyed a honeymoon in Tahiti financed with money Jan had won in a raffle.
The serenity of the Tahitian idyll gave them the idea of opening a bed and breakfast, a beautiful place where people could get away from it all and relax in quiet comfort.
They seem to have that now - they live in the Angel House Inn on the top floor.
"You should be able to play and work at the same time," said Jan.