New Grady House owners happy with decision
By Christa Desrets
Herald Writer

Photo By Christa Desrets Lucie and Paul Regensdorf stand in the backyard of High Springs' Grady House Bed & Breakfast, which they now own.

HIGH SPRINGS – If fate exists, it could be the driving force that brought the Regensdorfs to High Springs as the new owners of the Grady House Bed & Breakfast.

Paul Regensdorf said that personally, he’s not a believer in fate.

But even so, he seems to enjoy explaining the number of coincidences that led to his and his wife’s recent purchase of the Grady House.

Paul and Lucie Regensdorf decided earlier this year that, after living in Miami Shores for 10 years and practicing law for longer, they would pursue Lucie’s lifelong dream of owning a bed and breakfast.

They decided that they wanted to achieve that goal while still young enough to enjoy it, Lucie said.

They began their search online, looking for inns in New York and the Carolinas.

The first place they grew excited about was in Georgia, Lucie said, but the owners ended up deciding not to sell.

Next, the couple decided to contact an inn broker.

While researching the broker they later decided to hire, Lucie found the broker’s Website.

A picture of an inn on the main page of the site caught Lucie’s eye. She zoomed in on the picture so that she could make out a sign in front of the home.

It was the Grady House.

Paul and Lucie called the broker and discussed what they wanted in a bed and breakfast – a nice yard, comfortable living quarters, about five bedrooms and located in a small town.

The broker said she had the perfect inn -- located in High Springs, just outside of Gainesville. She said it had just gone up for sale.

Remembering the picture she had seen on the broker’s Website, Lucie asked if that was the Grady House.

The broker was surprised. The Grady House had just been announced for sale. She hadn’t even labeled the picture on her Website yet.

But the surprises kept coming.

Paul had an appointment scheduled in Gainesville the very next day.

Although he could only give short notice that he wanted to look at the inn, Paul was able to travel to High Springs the next day and take about 160 pictures in and around the Grady House.

He was the first potential buyer to look at the home.

Lucie knew when she saw the pictures, she said, that she had to see the home in person.

In April, she got that opportunity.

“When I walked in, I just felt that this was the place,” she said of the Grady House.

They wanted to buy the establishment but knew that they would not be able to move in until the end of September.

Not to worry, the previous owners, Tony Boothby and Kirk Eppenstein, said. They offered to run the establishment until the Regensdorfs could move in.

The month-long transition gave Boothby and Eppenstein time to move out and say goodbye to what had been their home for more than eight years.

The Regensdorfs closed on the sale Aug. 31, and Lucie spent her first night at the home on Sept. 29.

The next morning, Eppenstein helped her cook her first breakfast for the guests and made sure everything went smoothly, Lucie said.

“They were phenomenal,” she said of the previous owners. “We enjoy the house that they had taken care of and so painstakingly restored.”

Lucie will be the primary owner of the home and will be the one to run the place. Paul will continue working on a part-time basis out of a Fort Lauderdale law firm.

And although the two are still getting settled in to what is now their new home, Paul said, he already feels a growing attachment to the Grady House.

“This is where I am now,” he said. “This is a cool place and I hope to make it even nicer.”

Lucie said many aspects of the Grady House will remain the same, but she also hopes to incorporate aspects that she and Paul enjoy in inns that they stay at when traveling.

“They (Boothby and Eppenstein) created an atmosphere that they wanted people to feel like they were going to their grandmother’s house,” Lucie said. “What we would like to do is kick grandmother’s house up a bit.”

She plans on adding more amenities that would help attract for visitors during the week, she said, and draw in couples who want a romantic getaway.

From TVs and DVD players discreetly placed in each room and more luxurious sheets and feather beds to an expanded breakfast menu, she said, the Grady House will be getting some upgrades.

“We’d like to make the Grady House more of an attraction,” she said, adding that she wants more people to come to High Springs specifically to stay at the Grady House, as opposed to people who come to the Grady House because they happen to be in High Springs.

Boothby said he is glad that the Regensdorfs were the ones to buy the home.

“That was important to us, that the people who bought it would appreciate the house, and I think they do,” Boothby said. “I’m just really excited to see what they’re going to do. Every owner brings something new.”

Eppenstein said that he already misses the home but is trying to move on. He and Boothby decided to sell, he said, because they were both so involved with the community that finding time for the home had become difficult.

“It was a very interesting way to be able to meet people from all over the world,” Eppenstein said. “It’s a beautiful place with a long history.”

He was the seventh person to live in the home who has served as mayor of the city.

Paul said that one of the reasons the couple was attracted to the Grady House was because they, too, wanted to go to an area where they could get involved with the community.

“The people here are great – very inviting and friendly,” he said. “It’s just not what you see in the life we’ve had for the past 30 to 40 years.”

He enjoys the large backyard, especially, he said.

But there is one aspect of the Grady House that neither Paul nor Lucie has yet experienced.

The legendary Grady House ghost, said to haunt the halls and certain rooms of the home, has not yet made its presence known to the new owners.

While Lucie said she thought she would be frightened to encounter the ghost, she can rest easily because she is settling in to her new home.

“The ghost could be sitting on my chest all night and I wouldn’t know,” she said.

Paul said that, similar to his skepticism of fate, he also doubts the existence of the ghost.

“If you ever hear me talking about the Grady House ghost, it’ll be because I’ve seen it,” he said.