The Smithsonian Retreat is very well accommodated for large families and we found it mostly as described in the VRBO/Home Away advertisement. The following is a room by room assessment designed to provide some feedback to those that wish to stay here. This assessment includes a few "nitpicks", none of which would change our mind to stay here in the future.
Internet service: DO NOT touch the white Google devices throughout the home as these provide the internet service for the home. We did this by mistake and inadvertently wiped out the system by touching the small reset button on the back of the main device located in the kitchen. Frank, the property owner, had to walk me through a rather painful reset process.
Kitchen: The kitchen is very well stocked with plenty of utensils, pots and pans, coffee maker, toaster, etc., but is quite small compared to the rest of the house, allowing only 2 adults inside at a time. There is also no dishwasher, which is inconvenient as you are forced to hand wash everything. The microwave is situated up high, over the bar, which makes it inaccessible for small children unless they crawl up on the counter or on a bar stool from the other side.
Living Room: Very large room with huge sectional sofa, 2 matching recliner chairs and a large TV just as you see in the photos.
Dining Room: Seats 10 very comfortably at the huge table with another small table with stool seating for 4 more.
Front bedroom has a queen bed with an ensuite bathroom and the other bunk room sleeps up to 6.
Mid house bedroom: Bunk room arrangement, sleeps up to 5 with a trundle bed and blow up mattress and an ensuite bathroom. Reasonably sized bedroom for 3 occupants, but can do 5.
Master bedroom: Very large master with a cavernous ensuite bathroom. Has 2 reclining chairs at the foot of the king bed that we used as sleepers and to watch TV.
Game room: Air hockey table was broken and unusable. Darts were fun, but many had broken flights and were unusable. Need extra sand for the shuffleboard table. Retro pinball machine was cool; however, the ball return doesn't work. Some instructions for it would have been extremely helpful.
Grounds: The grounds are very nice with the tennis court/basketball hoops and appear in real life as they do in the photos.
There is no onsite property management so if you have any maintenance issues, you will need to contact the owners, who are very responsive. We would definitely stay here again!