New Listing $145,000!

Located at 454 Route 109 in Waterville, this wonderful home is very affordable!



Here is our new listing in Waterville, Vermont, a quintessential Vermont town with a village green for baseball games, town cookouts, and gatherings and a country grocery store. This is the view of the front of the house. It goes back quite far. There are two bedrooms officially, but a third room on the second floor is currently being used as a nursery.

Here is the view looking out the window from the living room toward the Town Hall. On the left is the country store.












This is the living room which is very large and open to the dining area. In an 1880 house, it's hard to get an open floor plan, but this house has it.










Here is  a view standing in the family room, looking past the dining area into the living room. There are hard wood and soft wood floors throughout the first floor. Windows were replaced in 2003. The state came in and did a winterization program with lots of insulation.

















There is a huge back yard with two sheds. One used to be a chicken coop! The town ball fields are next door. What a great place to live -- 15 minutes to Smugglers' Notch skiing and about 50 minutes to Burlington. 35 minutes to IBM.

Shelburne Museum -- a Vermont Treasure

Today at the Shelburne Museum the grounds were transformed to a circus theme called Circus Palooza. They already have a wonderful carved circus train exhibit that must run 500 feet in a U-shaped building. All the animals are to scale with life-like features, expressions on faces, clowns, handlers, wagons, and more. It is one of my favorite exhibits located right behind the carousel.

Today, there was a huge tent in the space between carousel and building with wonderful acts. There were also other "circus" activities for the children such as "lion taming," balloon popping and bean bag tossing. We didn't get to visit the fun house but we did ride the carousel two times.

I didn't mention the most important part of the experience was getting to visit with our granddaughter! She loved the face painting best of all.

The Shelburne Museum has an incredible collection of folk art including quilts, dolls, and Cigar Store Indian statues, to name a few. Separate buildings house these exhibits, buildings that were either built for the museum or were brought to the museum from their original location. A lighthouse from Mallett's Bay in Vermont was brought to its resting spot on a gentle slope on the museum grounds. A full size steam ship called the Ticonderoga was brought from Lake Champlain across land to its spot on the property. A recent multi-million dollar renovation brought the ship to its original splendor.

The gardens are beautifully tended and contain perennials and annuals designed in formal and informal spaces. Lilac Sunday in May features hundreds of varieties of the most magnificent smelling flowers!

My favorite exhibit by far is the Webb Memorial Building. Electra Havemyer Webb's children built a Greek Revival style building, dismantled several of the 18 rooms that were in the Webb's New York City apartment and rebuilt the rooms in the Memorial, transforming the space to look like the apartment. The walls, trim work, rugs, and  furniture was brought to  Vermont. Leather walls were removed and put on the library walls in the Memorial. Real leather!!! The bedrooms were reconstructed on site. If the Webbs had lived to see the building, it would have felt like home! But, the most incredible part of the Memorial is the art work hanging on the walls: Monet water lilies and hay stacks; Manets, Degas ballerinas, Rembrandt! The collection is outstanding. There are four Mary Cassatts including one of Luisinne Havemyer and her daughter -- little Electra! Her mother was one of the earliest collectors of Impressionist painting.

What a gem we have in Shelburne, Vermont! What a wonderful place to explore. There are reasonable memberhip prices. But if you just want to visit for two consecutive days (they let you come back the second day for free) Vermont residents with a valid license pay only $10 admission. For more information, visit shelburnemuseum.org

Great Ideas for Organizing Spaces

I am always looking for new ideas for sellers. These came from pinterest.com. This first one looks like they stacked storage bins in a little-used closet. In our house, there are no little-used closets. We are constantly looking for more space. One way to do that is to try and use EVERY available space.





Look at the purses below. Clever idea with shower hooks on the rod.

Many condos in our area have open stairways to the second floor. We have many buyers who do not like these because they have the perception of falling through -- especially if they have small children. Look at this bookshelf. Also, since many condos have no basement for storage, homeowners are looking for new storage areas.

I love this idea -- put a towel rack on the wall and hang your pot lids. It is so simple!



How's this for a clever hanging pot rack? Take an old window -- look for an architectural salvage company -- and hang hooks on it and suspend from the ceiling. In a small space you have to look at all available space at eye level plus above and below.


I am afraid that in our house we have so little space I'm discouraged and feel I'll never be able to organize it unless I pay someone to build shelves. If anyone has some clever ideas, please let me know. Look at Pinterst for ideas and be sure to share them.

Working with Cooperative Sellers

We recently listed a house in Essex and the owners wanted our help staging the home. The house is a wonderful saltbox style with four bedrooms and two and one half bathrooms. The floor plan flows well but it needed to be staged to show it in its best light.

The house has incredible curb appeal -- beautiful gardens with perennials, specialty trees, blueberries and raspberries. The lot is large enough for a woodland garden. The owners created a waterfall that runs down a back slope. Next to the waterfall is a meditaion bench. Just perfect!

Inside, the house needed some staging.



Living room

Woodland Garden

They started by decluttering. Half the books came off the bookcases and art objects were placed in staggered spots. Next we removed all the silk flowers and other artificial flowers. Eveything was cleaned off of kitchen counters except the most important cooking items. We moved a large bureau to a spare room to make the master bedroom look bigger. The mudroom was stripped of everything but  few necessary coats. Two rooms on the first floor felt as if they were lacking purpose -- are these living rooms or a living room and an office? We staged one room as a formal living room with an Iranian rug we had in our staging inventory, and the other as an office and sitting room for quiet reading.



Family Room over Garage

The feeling of size increased! The owners said they wished they had done this years ago. (I hear this all the time.)

With great photos and a virtual tour, the house shows beautifully on the Multiple Listing Service. Staging makes a huge difference but we can only stage if we have cooperative sellers. If sellers are not willing to declutter, to move furniture, and to set the home up differently for showing than they usually have it set up for living, we won't be able to present it in its best light.

Check out this listing and let me know what you think! http://www.nnerenmls.com/nne/maildoc/sd_oBosoJ20120707231107.html

Enjoying the Burlington, VT Downtown and Waterfront

We took this photo tonight at the waterfront. We had just finished having a maple creemee with our family at Burlington Bay. Afterwards, we walked past fragrant trees in flower, and sat on a bench and watched the sunset.

When we lived in Grand Isle, we were able to gaze out at the lake every day. Now we live in Burlington and see the lake if we walk or drive down. This made me think -- I get to enjoy the lake with very little effort and a lot less taxes! I have to exert some effort but I get exercise doing it. The lake is very accessible and I don't have to live right on the water to enjoy it.

We first had dinner at Leunig's, our favorite restaurant on Church Street. Our granddaughter danced to musice from street musicians. People were juggling, doing acrobatics atop piled chairs, and making balloon sculptures.

 Other restaurants we enjoy on Church Street are The Scuffer and Three Tomatoes. By the lake we eat at The Ice House and Shanty by the Shore.

As the sun was setting, the ferry from Plattsburgh came by and sounded its horn. Sailboats under motor were coming in for the night. All I could think of was how great it was to live in Burlington, Vermont and enjoy its lively waterfront. And it was especially wonderful sharing it with family.