This isn’t your ordinary “Just Listed” post

I just took a new listing this morning that I am even more excited about than usual.  Why is that, you wonder? 

Well, because I used to live there!  But it is even better than that…my mom was the original owner of the home which she designed and built in 1987.

Last week I was researching and mailing notes to people who were selling their home For Sale By Owner.  As I was scrolling through Craigslist ads a photo jumped out at me and I said out loud, “That’s my house!”.  Of course, it isn’t REALLY my  house, but I always loved the home and had such great memories of my time living there.  I wrote to the owners that I used to live there and that if they decided to hire a REALTOR, I would love the chance to work with them.

Yesterday I met with them to tour the house and discuss their plans.

As I crossed the threshold I resisted an overwhelming urge to yell out “I’m home!”. 

While many things have been changed and updated since I lived there, the distinctive floor plan and one-of-a-kind features that my mother so carefully installed were all still there and I was transported back in time.  Flooded with memories of holidays and parties, I toured the home in a sort of split screen awareness. 

Stepping down to the basement I laughed and exclaimed, “I can’t believe no one washed this off!”.  My sister, Michelle (known to many as Mich), myself and our friends had done graffiti on the basement walls with chalk.  The current owners are the fourth since we moved out and no one ever washed it off or painted over it in all that time.  There used to be an old gold couch and a pool table down there.  Memories awoke of cranking records and hanging out with friends on a Friday night.

The home has a beautiful double sided open fireplace that splits the formal living room and family room.  It now has a gas insert, but I recounted the tale of the time I started a fire at a Christmas party and smoked everyone out and then froze them as we aired the house.  The living room has a cathedral ceiling with a balcony overlooking it and I remembered the band that we had playing up in the balcony, I thought that was very swanky.

In the bathroom that my sister and I once shared I told the tale of the time my mother hired a cleaning person to come and they had to use a razor to scrape the layers of Aquanet hairspray (It was the 80’s remember) off the counter top.

As I toured the yard I remembered the hours I spent on the temperamental riding mower which I learned how to repair and my small flower garden that I was so proud of.  I pictured my Trans Am parked in the extra parking space that my parents added for my car.

I will do a traditional “Just Listed” post on this home, but it is too special of a listing not to share the wonderful tale of 19 Tow Path Lane, Westfield, MA.

 

It isn’t often we get to tour our childhood homes and even more rare that we get the opportunity to work as the REALTOR on the sale.  I will enjoy every moment of marketing this fine home as I stroll through my memories.

 

 

Lesley Lambert, Park Square Realty 413-575-3611