Ideas that are important to me- the esthetics of a home, the memories in a home, the people & history of a house. Keeping it alive.
Why do I want to tell this story? I want the reader to get to know this house. See it as it is now, imagine it as it was, watch as it is recreated becoming a new house but looking just like the old one.
We spend our lives in a house. What makes some people choose one style over another? Why do I love old houses more than most new ones? Why are newer houses made with less care than many old ones seemed to be?
An overall pleasing shape is important to start with. Why do some new houses look clunky or too big or boxy?
Little details like the fascia board (where it meets the roof line from the siding) needs to be a certain size, angle, and leaving the right amount of overhang. A house with no overhang looks awkward, like someone didn’t know what they were doing.
But then again, too many details make a house look too busy, too ornate. I like simple, with enough detail to add interest, draw the eye to a certain area on the house. Simple creates a serene place, a place you can relax in.
Light is important and one thing that draws me to this house in Randolph Center is the light. How cool to already know where the afternoon golden light will fall across the floor. To already know the exact spot where you can get views of sunsets and mountains.
Open space vs. cozy space... this is an interesting conundrum to me. I love open, I don’t want to feel squeezed into a room. But I also appreciate cozy…if a room is too open, with ceilings too high, with all whites, that can be an intimidating space. It can feel too modern, industrial, too imposing. I don’t want a house that shows off but a house that reveals itself as you use it, that makes you almost subconsciously sigh and think, “ahhh this is nice.”
The nice thing about modeling a new house after an existing old house is people (at least in rural Vermont) hadn’t even thought of big imposing spaces. They wanted useful spaces. They wanted to see out without letting the cold in. So it’s kind of automatically cozy.
This house was almost lost forever. It could have become an empty lot, it could have become a modern house, maybe a ranch house, maybe it could have been sold to someone from ‘down country’ who would build a huge vacation home there. I feel so privileged that we are the lucky family members who have ended up with this opportunity. I always wanted to do it. I talked to Charles (the last owner) about it. He wondered why we would want to leave a nice area of Massachusetts where our son and grandchildren are nearby.
Here’s my idea- as the grandchildren get older and more involved in their own schedules, their own friends, etc., we invite my son's whole family up for a weekend. We get them ALL for a weekend, for a week! Meals! Activities! Go to Lake Champagne. Go for hikes in Vermont. Visit my horses in Charles’s barn. Instead of picking them up from school or an evening of babysitting so parents can go out to dinner, we get them all together as a family for a visit.
Charles knew the house was in bad shape. He thought it would need a lot of work or to be torn down and started fresh. So I am not doing something he wouldn’t agree with, so that is comforting. I know many of my decisions will not be shared or appreciated by some. This house is very important to many. It's their last tie to their parents or grandparents or wonderful summers in Vermont. Or maybe they even lived there...I did not; why am I privileged enough to get to make decisions when they don't? Or maybe they just drive by every day for years. Or they are neighbors with a tie to the area.
I want to share the importance of a house being a home. Family coming together there, creating new memories folded into the old memories of a house. Inviting extended family to come stay- with the upstairs being all ‘theirs’…two bedrooms and a bath up there. Saving something from the past rather than discarding it and starting completely ‘fresh.’
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