Here we are. A whole new year thrust upon us. And almost as proof of this, there is the subtle change of landscape that I witness every year about this time. Our holiday lights are slowly coming down, and for me, it’s an adjustment. A spot that was once bathed in sparkle, is now just—well, I guess its true self. We are putting the lights away until next year.
PROFESSIONALLY, IT'S BEEN a streaky year for me. Last spring, I hit a point where I was working on 12 bathrooms at one time. This fall, it seems to be all about kitchens. Both rooms are sort of cornerstones of my business in their own way, but the design process for each couldn’t be more …
On September 23, Essex-based Carpenter & MacNeille celebrated its 25th anniversary year at beautiful Appleton Farms in Ipswich, where long-time clients, colleagues, and friends gathered to mark this important milestone for the Essex-based architecture and building firm.
My friend’s son is getting married - and I think it makes everyone in our group feel a little bit older. But it got me to thinking about that first house that we owned, on that dead-end street where we all raised our kids. Our house needed some work, and I was young and absolutely baffled by how to go about hiring someone.
In 1845, Charles H. Sheldon opened Sheldon’s Market; it served customers from the North Shore to New York’s finest hotels. In 1890 Gloucester native, George H. Hobbs, accepted a wagon driver position for Sheldon. George married Nancy F. Baker in 1887 and in 1904 they hired contractor Chester L. Crafts to construct their new home—one that would come to stay in the family for five generations!
Love forms the foundational story of the house at 9 Bennett Street: built in 1729. Love, because it was a wedding gift from the locally prominent Capt. Aaron Bennet to his daughter Mary Bennett and her husband Jonathan Hassam, a young ship’s captain from West Manchester. The senior Bennett lived up Bennett Street surrounded by family, so to keep Mary and Jonathan connected, he built them a beautiful home. The proximity was, assuming for both families, convenient.
When I was still married, my then-husband used to tell me that I was a delicate ecosystem. He had a point. I get migraines if I don’t drink enough water. I need yoga or the outdoors or meditation to ground me.
Wow, what an unexpectedly dreary summer so far. And I have to say, I didn’t see it coming. This was supposed to be our big break from COVID, right? We knew the break might be fleeting, but we had earned the freedoms that this summer was going to bring us and our hopes were high.
As some of you may know, my design mantra is all about putting your “you-ness” into your home. So, it may surprise you that as a designer, my first priority is not your you-ness, but it is that your room be functional.
This house was built for Israel Forster (1779-1863), shoreman, and wife Hannah Lee, in 1804. In the 1600s this lot was part of Standish's Orchard. It passed to the Lee family and in 1802 Jacob Hooper sold the “mowing land” to Israel Forster for $220.
J Barrett & Company is pleased to announce that Vice President and Realtor® Dan Bernal has re-joined the agency in the Cummings Center office.
I always thought gardening was the number one past time in America. A quick Google search disabused me of that fact. Baseball and reading come up Number One, depending on which site you look at. But gardening is still in the top ten. Driving around Cape Ann makes me believe that gardening is the number one past time in our little corner of the world.
Manchester-based interior designer Jennifer Coles has seen it all, and she’s here to answer your home design questions. This week she tackles peel and stick wallpaper, laminate flooring, and big moves on bedroom paints.
In 1837, Jonathan Hassam sold a house lot to mariner Samuel Forster Tappan. Tappan, however, built his late Federal style house earlier on the site in 1836, as documented on a wooden shingle uncovered during a 1987 renovation. The difference in timing of the sale and actual construction was not unusual among friends in those days.
Barrett & Company announced this week that Jennifer Maniaci has joined the agency in the Gloucester office as a sales associate.
With the spirit of universal mothering in mind, I offer you some good old fashioned design advice. (And don’t forget to eat your vegetables.)
BankGloucester this week announced that Amy Mitchell has been promoted to Vice President of Residential Lending.
I was visiting my daughter over the weekend—she’s at college in Providence. Seeing her apartment always reminds me of some of my own when I was her age and renting in Boston. It’s heady stuff – getting those early apartments. Oh, the possibilities, the promise, and the adrenalin surge of undeniable autonomy! But, holy moly, what we put up with.
J Barrett & Company announced this week it has named Felicia Trupiano, a veteran at the agency’s Gloucester office for 10 years, a vice president.
In 1881, Ida Agassiz Higginson bought the “old Forster homestead” and adjacent land to build the colonial-style house that currently stands at 131 Bridge Street, at the edge of what is now Winthrop Field. The house was built for Joseph Clarke, the horticulturist that Mrs. Higginson employed to lay out and manage the extensive gardens on Sunset Hill estate.
What are the bumps that happen with home decorating? Well, the most common is sticker shock as the estimates come in. I do what I can on this front, but the estimates are not under my control and austerity measures must at times be made. As your designer, I could grit my teeth and remain attached to my original idea and think of any other plan as a disappointing compromise. But then I would miss out on some of the interesting challenges that come along with reining your project in.
Isn’t it the time to think of spring cleaning? Here are some ideas for little things that will give life at home a little boost and—let’s face it—a feel good feeling.
What a month March was for me. I lost a week to sickness - not COVID, but a flu. Like I couldn’t lift my head from the pillow and slept 20 hours a day type of flu. But when I finally felt better I seemed to view the world just a little bit differently. What does this have to do with homes, you may be asking? I’m really not sure yet, so you’ll have to just bear with me.
2020 was an unprecedented year for everyone, including the firm of OLSON LEWIS + Architects (OL+). In January of last year, John Harden joined the office as a principal. Setting aside normal expectations, John and OL+ navigated the path through the pandemic resulting in a successful year.
A clay pot is often the solution when we desire a container made of classic material, is durable, reasonably priced, and available in virtually every size and style. Clay pots have been around for a long time, and still serve us well. Some local history may be of interest.
The historic yellow colonial house at 13 School Street was witness to the birth of our nation. When Captain Daniel Leach built his house in 1786, the American Revolutionary War had just ended two years before (January 1784) and the new United States of America was trying to figure out how to govern itself. George Washington was not yet President and the Constitution of the United States had not yet been drafted.
When I was still married, my then-husband used to tell me that I was a delicate ecosystem. He had a point. I get migraines if I don’t drink enough water. I need yoga or the outdoors or meditation to ground me.
Backyarding is the new trend that’s emerged during the pandemic. Our backyards are where we eat, work, play, relax and socialize, and the green spaces around our homes have proven to be vibrant places for connection and vital to maintaining mental health.
Mother's Day is just behind us. And I had a nice little cup of coffee with myself that morning, hours before my quarantined children got up (they are honestly like bats - how will they ever get back on track?) But I was thinking about mothering, and being mothered, and mother figures in my li…
I’ve designed many kitchens - and I always label and identify the junk drawer. It’s usually a pretty big one in a central location. Because our lives are filled with buttons, and pressure gauges, and rubber bands, and sharpie markers, and mystery keys.
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