From across the street, the handsome, red-brick duplex in the historic district made a good impression. The three-bedroom home, built in 1907, looked sturdy enough to withstand most anything Mother Nature could throw her way; certainly more than a home with aluminum siding. The roof was ten years old and the water heater was brand new, but the age of the boiler was unknown at the time. The stone cellar didn’t leak and had never flooded, a huge plus in my mind. I knew all that before my tour of the home because my Uncle Jack, a master carpenter and builder, had schooled me on the important questions to ask before seeing any house, after I gave him my list of naive must-haves, all decorative.
I adored the charming courtyard at the back of the house that sat at the end of a narrow grassy area, and I fell in…
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Eleanor Parker Sapia, AWA 