“Smiley Bush” house now avaliable on Airbnb

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The “Smiley Bush” is a Lubbock landmark that is known and loved by many, and now you can enjoy more than just the outside of the home.

Alison Robinson and her sister bought the iconic house in 2013. For the next 8 years, Alison battled breast cancer and became too weak to care for “Smiley Bush” alone.

Heather Ashburn, Alison’s sister said, “Then we had someone come in and offer to do it and it helped Allison out a lot, and he did a great job.”

In 2021, Alison lost her battle with breast cancer, leaving the future of Smiley Bush uncertain. That is when the Lubbock community noticed that Smiley was missing its happy personality.

“When we weren’t decorating it was when my sister passed away, so we were grieving, there was a lot of stuff going on with her kids and moving stuff around,” said Ashburn.

After the chaos settled, Alison’s family began to receive an outpouring of letters and messages from the community, asking for Smiley Bush to live on.

“Then we decided that we were going to turn it into an Airbnb,” Ashburn said.

Heather and her brother Austin say some of their best memories were made in this home, and now they hope families can enjoy more than just the foliage outside.

“We have a lot of memories at that house, we still celebrate our holidays there, like Christmas and maybe Easter. And we were like, ‘well if we have good memories then maybe other people want to come to make memories here,’ and it is a great house,” said Ashburn.

The family says they are always looking for new ideas on how to decorate Smiley. Those ideas can be sent to the Smiley Bush Instagram page.

To check out the “Smiley Bush” home on Airbnb, click here.

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