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Get to Know Your Hosts

Hello, there!

We’re the Evans/Jones family, and we’re the Airbnb hosts of The Nest at Swan Point, a waterfront vacation rental property in Colonial Beach, Virginia.

We’re a family of hard-working DIYers with a penchant for hospitality! Pictured at right, from the top, are Kayla and Elton Evans, Wesley and Michelle Jones, and Cathy and Brent Jones.

Your primary host is Elton — he’s the one you’ll likely be talking with on Airbnb when you book or have questions. On the other side of the country, Michelle manages the website and social media pages for the Nest. Kayla, Wesley, Cathy and Brent assist with much of the upkeep of the property, including home improvements, decor updates and keeping it sparkling-clean!

We hope you’ll read on to learn more about us and how The Nest came to be.

Finding the right house

In 2021, while casually looking at homes for sale, one of our family members tossed out this crazy idea — what if we bought a home and turned it into a vacation rental?

We thought that having another property in Colonial Beach would give our family the needed space when we gathered for the holidays. It would also fulfill a massive dream we’ve always had — to be in the hospitality business!

After a few months of looking for something that would fit our needs and vision, we finally found it! The house, located on a creek near downtown Colonial Beach, served its original owners for more than two decades before they decided to relocate.

We fell in love with the home’s location — the tranquility of being on a quiet creek with plenty of surrounding land. Inside the home, we knew it would need some updating, but we loved the spaciousness of the single-level floor plan as well as the potential to add value to the home. Our family’s offer to buy the home was accepted and we closed on the property in early 2022.

Making it our own

We were handed the keys and then went right to work — literally! There were about 10 different types of flooring through the home, so the first week was spent by removing old flooring and carpet. We eventually got it down to the sub-floor so we could move on to painting. We picked one light gray color, hired a painter, and had the entire house done within a few days.

Next, our family came together for a massive undertaking. We installed new LVT flooring throughout the nearly 3,000 square-foot house in just ONE week. It was truly exhausting work, but it was a massively transformative effort for the house. With the flooring done and freshly painted walls, it was a blank-canvas again, and ready to be furnished! After making our finishing touches we opened The Nest to its first guests in June 2022.

Several additional updates have since been made to modernize the home, including converting the garage into a game room, installing custom cabinetry in the laundry room for our owners supplies, installing a floating platform on our dock for easy water access, and constructing a deck on the back of the home. To keep you updated on everything The Nest at Swan Point offers, we plan to share more on our blog about our home improvement projects — so check back soon!

The joy of hosting

All of the work has been a true labor of love, and it has all been done with our guests’ enjoyment in mind.

While we have enjoyed watching the home transform into what it is today — we must admit — hearing and reading about our guests’ appreciation of the home’s details is what truly makes our efforts worthwhile.

A few reviews…