It’s been 90 days since Burton Inn owner Deborah Kohler took over the business and she has not wasted any time fixing up the inn, making rooms available and hosting community events.

In the last few weeks, Kohler has hosted a game night and an open mic night that both filled the inn. On Jan. 21, she’s hosting another game night.

“This building belongs to the community, it’s just my job to take of her,” she said last week. I’m a can-catcher, any cans that have been kicked down the road are my job to fix.”

Included in those “cans” for this building were some plumbing issues that were causing the dining room ceiling to cave, vandalism that needed to be cleaned up from when the inn’s previous tenants left and issues in the kitchen that needed to be addressed so its licensing can be upgraded from a commissary kitchen to a full-time kitchen.

“Now that I’ve got the rooms and common areas functional, I need the kitchen and restaurant operational,” she said last week. “We’re about 75 percent functional in the kitchen.

She plans to open the restaurant eventually by renting it out to an island chef, but hasn’t found the right fit yet.

“I have a lot of people who are interested, but are not in the financial place to take it on yet,” she said. “I’m just kind of waiting. The universe has sent me things I need so far and the right person will come along.”

She also plans to start work on the landscaping in the spring and replant the terraces behind the inn with fruits and vegetables that the restaurant can use.

As of last Wednesday, she said roughly one dozen people had already stayed in the inn and she was expecting more visitors from the EastCoast.

The guestbook on the front desk is already filling up with

sentiments from islanders who have attended her community events and guests from off-island.

Vashon Events’ Pete Welch and Allison Shirk each have entries in the book applauding Kohler for the recent events and the work done thus far. But the work is familiar to Kohler, who is a mortgage banker from California and has years of experience with restoring old properties and turning them into inns or rentals.

She has restored multiple homes in California, including a beach house built in the 1920s that she said was “legally uninhabitable” when she bought it.

“It took me five years,” she said about the project to bring the house back to life.

She was also on the San Clemente Historical Society board in Southern California, as she said she believes it is very important to preserve the character and history of buildings. She’s continued that approach with the inn. Even though the Burton Inn was built in the 1990s, it’s modeled after buildings from the early 20th century. As she worked on the inn, she bought nearly all of the furnishings from islanders seeking to get rid of furniture or housewares on Facebook, Granny’s Attic or Goodwill.

“I know and support history. The first thing I did was buy two history books about Vashon,” she said. “It’s amazing how much of the community has already gone into this place.”

There will be another community game night at the inn from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21. For more information about the inn and room rates, visit theburtoninn.com