Western Mass Homes Lesley Lambert

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A REALTOR’s Snowy Sunday Drive in Western Massachusetts

Mill River, Leeds MA
The better part of today was real estate time spent showing houses to a buyer client of mine. We started late this morning in the Leeds section of Northampton, Massachusetts next to the Mill River. I got there early and took a quick walk up the street to see the river. It had just snowed last night a few inches of beautiful fluffy clean white snow and the river was babbling up against the white fresh white blanket of snow. It was simply lovely.

After showing houses in Northampton, we took the back roads to Chester, Massachusetts. The drive from Northampton through Westhampton and into Huntington was simply breathtaking. The fresh snow was highlighting and outlining the beautiful vistas along these country roads. At one point we turned a corner and on my left was a grove of apple trees covered in snow; their twisted old branches were made more graceful with the blanket of snow and beyond the apple orchards was the valley opening up below.

We were able to stop at one of my favorite hilltown country stores, the Huntington country store.
After brief fueling with the coffee and one of their famous wrapples (I indulged in the Apple Raspberry), we were back on our way to the center of Chester, MA.   After viewing our property, we journeyed down Route 20  back through Huntington, Russell and into Westfield.
As we descended from the Hilltowns back down into the Pioneer Valley and Westfield the sun broke through the winter clouds and the snow was shimmering along the banks of the Westfield River.
Now continuing our journey from Westfield to Agawam, the skies opened all the way out the sun was shining blue sky and the temperatures started to rise and I was feeling very content after our Western Massachusetts journey.
I don’t know if my buyer will buy any of the seven homes we toured today, but our drive from Hampshire County to Hampden County was a slow, serene, snowy Sunday drive that I appreciated for the experience.
Exploring the back roads after a fresh coating of snow made me especially aware of the beauty in Western MA and I feel very lucky to live in a place of such stunning vistas. Today’s beauty made for an especially pleasant day as a REALTOR in Western MA showing houses to a buyer.
You can hear my thoughts from the drive today here:

Showing homes in #westernma. This snowy scene is Leeds, MA

Why are there so many brick homes in South Hadley and Chicopee, MA?

Western  Massachusetts just got walloped with two big snow storms and most of us are snowed in.  While working from home today I asked on Twitter if there was anything real estate related that my Western Massachusetts friends would like me to write about. I got this question from Karen Lynn @sipclipandgo on Twitter, who owns a 1953 brick home in the area:

I’d like to know why there are so many brick homes in South Hadley and Chicopee.

brick houses in chicopee south hadley ma

So, I embarked on some good old fashioned research on Google and discovered a few clues, but not as much information as I would have thought.

I suspected that there must have been a local brickyard and after quite a lot of digging around I found that South Hadley was home to Robinson’s Brickyard.  Interestingly, there isn’t much information available on this business, at least that I could find.

What I did discover, though, was that the heyday of this brickyard was in the late 1800’s and the brick homes that are in question were built largely in the 1950’s.

So, I turn this question over to you…

Do you know why brick construction is so prevalent in South Hadley and Chicopee, MA?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Building Houses in Western MA: for Fairies!

I happen to have extensive new construction experience in Western Massachusetts, including managing the marketing of new construction subdivisions in Westfield and working as General Contractor and assistant to the carpenter on one of my own homes. I was glad of this experience when my daughters and I decided to build fairy houses this past weekend.

Inspired by a new Tinkerbell movie in which a little girl creates a fairy home and manages to capture Tink, my girls and I embarked on a creative adventure to build our own fairy houses.

Using cardboard boxes we fashioned the house and roofing, cutting open a door. We then went foraging in the woods for items that a fairy might enjoy, such as pine cones, birch bark, twigs, leaves, grasses and acorn tops. Using these items we created tables, chairs, beds, curtains and even a hat stand!

Once created the houses were placed in the garden and entry welcome stones were added along with bridges over tiny moats. All told my girls spent hours on the project and were very intent upon making their homes just right for the fairies that might stumble upon them.

The day after placing the houses in the garden the girls went outside right after breakfast to see if fairies had visited. An animal or even the wind had managed to knock a few things about and my girls took it as a sign of the houses being occupied. I decided to play along with their joy over the visit and last night added “pixie dust” (glitter) to the houses to infer that a fairy had shaken the dust off their wings when they entered.

The girls are now totally convinced in the existence of fairies (hey, they COULD be real) and I did a bit of asking about to see what people thought fairies would like in their homes or leave behind.

A close friend researched it for me and came up with the fact that fairies do not like iron. They love chocolate and sparkly things.

I think I will encourage the girls to leave an M & M in the houses to invite the fairies to visit further. I am still looking for suggestions as to what a visiting fairy might leave behind besides glitter….any ideas?

Now I am sure there will be a few of you that will think I am awful for fibbing to my daughters, but we are having so much fun and I want them to stay young for as long as possible. I feel magic all around me and am the first one to shout out “I do believe in fairies” when I watch Peter Pan. This project was a wonderful bonding event and a great chance for us all to be creative and share a wonderful story.

Edited to add:
Based on the recommendations of friends on Facebook and Lorri-Anne in the comments below I am fashioning a Christmas gift of books on Fairy Houses, field journals and garden statues for the girls.