To look at Casey and Garret Roberts’ home, you’d think it was part of the coastline. Their Rhode Island house sits so close to the oceanfront that their backyard should be considered the sea. The driveway is “paved” with glistening white clamshells, and their garden has plants designed in the shapes of nautical knots. In […]
Homes
More about Martha’s Vineyard: Martha’s Vineyard, MA: Gardens and Markets Weekend in Martha’s Vineyard Would you believe there are around 750 properties for sale on Martha’s Vineyard this year? Real estate activity is still slow out there. That’s why we called a friend of ours, Jon Hartzband, who specializes in affordable island properties. By “affordable,” […]
Homes
Sudbury, MA: Hager House
We arrived in South Sudbury, Massachusetts, about an hour before our appointment with Bill and Dottie Schirmer, current owners of the Hager House, as it’s known historically, on what was once part of Henry Ford’s huge (2,900 acres at one time) Wayside Inn estate. So, we thought to ourselves, why not have lunch at that […]
In search of affordable oceanfront New England properties, we’ve found eight for $300,000 or less in New England’s most beautiful coastal area. Read more about Maine: Down East Stories Can you imagine a county in New England more than twice the size of Rhode Island–with only two traffic lights? Well, the town of Lubec and […]
Homes
How to Be a Good Showoff
Don DiMugno has a knack for displaying his collections. Friends pay the ultimate compliment when they tell him that “everything looks just as though it belongs.” Here are some of his best tips: Whenever possible, maintain your collections by category or theme. Mixing collections (different periods or subjects) can create a sense of chaos. Keeping […]
When Don DiMugno moved into his house in Kensington, Connecticut, he went straight to work creating space to display his ever-growing collection of memorabilia. Five additions and 41 years later, DiMugno’s collectibles fill his 2,000-square-foot home, a new barn, and the garage–and, as any passerby will notice, spill into his yard and driveway. DiMugno admits […]
Ordinarily when a property comes up for sale, maybe the owners are sad about it, but everyone else simply takes it in stride. Not so when Al and Irene Jenks put out an e-mail saying that they intended to sell their 308-acre property in New Ipswich, New Hampshire (about 25 miles west of Nashua). There […]
A meticulously restored Boston Brownstone provides the perfect setting for holiday family festivities.
It was the summer of 1953. Ernest F. Fetske, a prominent naval architect from New York, and his wife, Bettina, were taking a load of bricks in their boat out to their vacation home on five-acre Brockway Island in Essex, Connecticut. They’d been spending weekends there since purchasing it in the early 1940s. Folks around […]
When the Hallee family moved into their 1950s Cape Cod house in Portland, Maine, the lack of storage space was an issue that needed to be addressed. Ken; his wife, Lisa; and their young daughter, Emma, live in a cozy two-bedroom home where “storage has always been an issue,” Ken says, and no more so […]
When it came to the kitchen counters, Stephen Florimbi opted for thin over thick: “I wanted something that had a classic New England look with a slightly modern touch.” This boatbuilder found his solution in a material he’s more than a little familiar with: copper. He cut out two sheets of the metal (one for […]
Homes
Boatbuilder’s House
For years Stephen Florimbi and his partner, Sarah Price, had a vision of what they wanted in a home: a life tucked away in the woods, isolated, private, off the grid. For Sarah: lavish vegetable gardens. For Stephen, a boatbuilder: a barn for his work. And at the center of the property: a small, energy-producing […]