I had a class in Anna, Tx about 5 minutes from Van Alstyne and found this listing. It was reasonably priced and after some research the town looked quite charming. I invited my girlfriend to come with me and she accepted.
This is a charming little cottage with an open floor plan. It has a very comfortable bed, living area with futon, dining/kitchen area with an oven/range, microwave, full size refrigerator and even a Keurig with lots of coffee. It has full pots, pans, and dishes. Each area is spacious and we never felt cramped.
The weekend was frigid, 13 degrees in the morning and low to mid 30s during the day. There is an electric heater in the fireplace that was warm and romantic. A central heater for the cottage, and an electric space heater that we could put in the bathroom.
It was very romantic and we had a wonderful time.
Communication with the Host was fairly straight forward via text and email.
Now for the hard parts....
The space heater caused the breaker to blow and we had to find it outside.
The shower only had all hot or all cold water so we were unable to use the shower.
Heavy scale came out of the cold tap on the luxurious tub, it's really nice and romantic, so we had to get cold water from the sink to take a bath.
This is really a lovely place and we truly had a good time beside the setbacks.
If the utilities get straightened out I would come back here in a heartbeat. Val Alstyne is a wonderful setting with lots of romantic adventures.