What To Do With An Old House (besides tearing it down, I mean)

314 North Maple, new price $1.775M (rear view shown). Mere steps from Greenwich Academy, Brunswick, etc.

314 North Maple, new price $1.775M (rear view shown). Mere steps from Greenwich Academy, Brunswick, etc. Great house, with a small kitchen. Bring your architect.

My parents once sent me into NYC for “aptitude evaluation” by the Johnson O’Conner Research Foundation (still very much in business, although the upper East Side brownstone where I went to be tested was recently unloaded for around $20M).

For one of the tests, they sat me at a table with a small pile of multi-sized pieces of wood. I was told to assemble them into the shape of a cube.  After about ten minutes, the administrator came back in the room. I said, “Wait, I’ve almost got this!”. She shook her head sadly, as though regarding a dog trying to get a tennis ball from under a couch. “If you had structural vision, you’d have finished in under a minute.”

Ok, so I don’t have structural #@%&-ing vision,  but you know who does? Engineers, for one, but also architects! That’s why an architect can walk into a house and immediately tell you how to fix a problem.  A broker might suggest you “remove that wall”, but a good architect develops a plan to not just remove the offending wall, but to make a dozen other small or large changes that dramatically transform/re-vitalize an existing house.

314 North Maple Avenue, listed by Shore & Country’s Jennifer O’Brien, needs just such a transformation, but it will be worth it! This house, a few doors down from Greenwich Academy, is ideally located close to Town, and is loaded with charm, elegance, and character. You don’t get any of that with a newer house. Just reduced to $1,775,000. At least go look.

Note: click “slide show” on the Houlihan Lawrence link to see the beautiful interior.

 

Ada’s To Become Trader Joe’s

 

Trader Joe's comes to Riverside...really? What about parking?

Trader Joe’s comes to Riverside…really? What about parking?

Yep, you heard it here first *, Trader Joe’s has bought the venerable Ada’s candy store, the beloved shop that generations of  Riverside children have grown up with.  Will the Trader keep the famous candy selection? What about the rumored Jaguar dealership opening up in back? Only time will tell…

Ada’s Candy Shop Being Renovated: Greenwich Time

 

 

 

* Possibly because I made the whole thing up.