About The Potting Shed
Dave and Annamarie (with our two children aged six & nine) came on holiday from the UK to visit an uncle in Cape Town in 2003. Having saved for two
years, we thought it was a once in a life time holiday….Until we stood on a beach and Dave said "What are we doing with our
lives, I'd love to live here and have a guest house!" I said "That's funny I was thinking the same thing the other day!" To cut
a long story short within 9 months we'd sold our house, quit our jobs, - got through immigration "kind of" (but that’s another
story), and invested every penny we had in South Africa, buying a very old rundown guest house in Hermanus. We set to work
immediately, with renovations. Each year we closed for a few weeks, making more improvements.
Neither of us had any experience in running a business or the hospitality industry. Dave was an engineer and I was a Nursery
Nurse.
In 2008 we expanded the business to include sea-facing apartments (3kms from the guest house).
In 2013 we closed the guest house for almost 17 weeks to replace bathrooms, ceilings, and floors. We rewired, and re-plumbed
the entire building. We added flat screen TV's & WI-FI to all rooms, replaced all beds, dining/lounge furniture. Even the
swimming pool got relined, and the paving area re-laid. Basically The Potting Shed was reborn, with a brand new look!
Dave & Annamarie are hands on and available to recommend restaurants, activities and info on the area. We prepare & serve breakfast
ourselves offering home-baked bread, cookies, rusks, and granola. Our homemade pancakes, jam and lemon curd seems to be a hit!
We are very passionate about our business and life style change - never looked back! For sure it's one of the best decisions we
ever made! Each day is another learning curve, and it's great meeting so many wonderful people.
We feel truly blessed to live in such a beautiful place! Hermanus is awesome!!
In August 2014 we had a party to celebrate 10 years of living in South Africa and The Potting Shed Business. This short YouTube
clip was put together by a friend of ours, very last minute (literally the night before the party).
Using video footage and photos from the day we left the UK, this clip shows some of our progress from 2004-2014. Although it's
not professionally done and there a few blips in it, I love it! It's a true reflection of our life here so far, and we’d like to
share it on our website.
Deluxe room
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Standard room
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Pool
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Outside of house
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Dining room
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Lounge/Bar room
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Studio room
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