Happy New Year from Lesley Lambert, Western MA REALTOR for Park Square Realty in Westfield, MA!
western ma
Savoring 2010
This is the time of year when everyone talks resolutions, or even better, goals and start looking ahead to the next year. Many people are glad to let the old year go and expect great new things from the fresh start. Me, I want to savor the blessings that 2010 gave me.
The following video was shot “after hours” in my kitchen in my PJ’s (g-rated of course). I wasn’t going to shoot the video, but my Twitter friends including Lisa Laoden and Chris Smith thought that it would be “keeping it real” and that people would like to experience the real me. Well, ready or not, here it is:
I wanted to add some pictures to flesh out the events and people that I discussed in my video, I hope you enjoy them even partly as much as I enjoyed being part of them. I am one heck of a lucky girl…blessed in almost every way.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I just feel the need to focus on the gifts that I have already been given before I go marauding into the next year. I hope that you remember to do the same. Happy 2010, what there is left of it!
Happy Hanukkah!
To my friends and clients in Western Massachusetts and beyond who will begin their Hanukkah celebrations I wish you a wondrous season of light. May your holiday bring you many cherished and joyful family moments together.
photo courtesy of hotzleplotz on flickr.com
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.
The Greenest House
When you think of a “green” house, most people think of new, streamlined, energy efficient and angular. Most people imagine solar panels or elaborate water systems, but how many of you imagined an old home?
While driving to show a home in Springfield, MA tonight, I caught an interesting story on Marketplace about older green homes. I found it very interesting and it got me to thinking on this subject further.
Long a lover of old and historic homes, I have always felt that it is important for many reasons to leave property in place whenever possible. My reasons didn’t include the fact that this is the more green treatment, but it makes a lot of sense.
Discussing this topic with my boyfriend, Morriss, he pointed out a statistic that he remembered about land fills. He stated that we often hear negative statistics about the number of items like diapers that are filling landfills, but in reality it is construction debris that is a huge problem. Known as C & D Debris , it is a big problem in New England. In 2002, C&D debris accounted for 36 percent of all residential and commercial solid waste generated in Massachusetts.
With this knowledge in hand, it seems to make ultimate sense that renovating existing properties to be more efficient is the better route to take in most cases. Not only are you reducing the amount of debris that might be sent to a landfill, you are reducing the use of the existing resources like wood and you are taking a less efficient property and making it highly efficient.
I love the idea that a beautiful historic home could have added value by becoming “green” and efficient. I think that a home like that would appeal to a large number of home buyers in Western Massachusetts who love the charm and quality of an older home, but are energy and green aware and trying to reduce their footprint.
Interviewed in the story that inspired my train of thought was Emily Wadhams who said, “The greenest building is the one that’s already built.”.
photo courtesy of taberandrews on flickr.com
