In just a moment you’ll meet Maris LeBlanc and JR Amantea, the creators of The Little House of Essex — a chic cottage near the Connecticut River in the most quintessential of quintessential New England towns.

Maris has spent her career in real estate — mostly brokering luxury, waterfront homes along the Connecticut Shoreline. When she met her now husband, JR, he was living in New York working in finance, but his real passion lay in curating and managing classic and exotic cars. 

Maris encouraged JR to go all in on his passion and, soon after, he left New York, moved to Essex, Connecticut and started GT Motor Cars — a boutique vintage and exotic car dealership, and collection management company. 

And it was here in Essex where Maris and JR bought a beautiful, oversized  ranch-style home which included a shed-like structure behind it.  And while JR had hoped to transform  this shed-like structure into a bachelor’s pad, Maris had bigger ambitions...tune in to hear the wonderful story behind the building of The Little House of Essex. 

You can book your stay at The Little House of Essex here. 

If you are an Airbnb host or know an Airbnb host,  who’d like to come on the show, send me an email at [email protected] and we’ll chat!  

Behind the Stays is brought to you each week by Sponstayneous —a carefully curated weekly newsletter that brings you the best last-minute deals and upcoming steals on Airbnb.  It’s sort of like Scott’s Cheap Flights, but for Airbnb! You can sign up for free at sponstayneous.com 

Last, but certainly not least...I didn’t believe in Marie Kondo’s whole “spark joy” mantra until I started podcasting...now, my joy is sparked every time I see a new subscriber roll in! 

So please, hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode...and so you add a lil' spark to my joy fire today.