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Archive for the 'Everything Else' Category
Medford Elm Tree
American Elm tree in West Medford
I was psyched to see this newly planted elm tree aside the West Medford fire station.
Elm trees once lined New England’s streets. I loved the canopy of green, leafy trees that I walked beneath on my way to school when I was a kid. It was years later, when I went back and found not a tree on the street, that I realized those must have been elm trees lining the street. Dutch Elm Disease wiped out 100,000s of American Elm trees.
There are efforts underway to plant DED-resistant elm trees. This tree, a Liberty Elm, from the Elm Research Institute of Keene, NH was planted by the fire station in memory of West Medford resident Laurie Cote.
I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Mr. Cote but found this tribute in a newsletter from the Piano Technicians Guild.
West Medford elm tree plaque honoring Laurie Cote
Wednesday What’s It – How Well Do You Know Cambridge?
Ok – I think this is an easy one – don’t prove me wrong!
Win a cup of coffee and a donut - tell us what it is and where it is in Cambridge
The first two people to identify the what-and-the-where of our new Wednesday What’s It will get a card for a cup of coffee+ on us.
How well do you know Cambridge? Tell us what this is.
Cambridge Flamingos
It’s October and Fall is in the air – and the Halloween decorations are popping up in Cambridge yards.
I spotted these variations on the pink flamingo in a yard on Eustis Street in Cambridge when we were on tour this week. No pink flamingos for us – we’ve got skeleton flamingos – Halloween themed yard art.
Skeleton Flamingos in Cambridge
Boston Globe Magazine Home Design Issue
Kitchen Booth in a Cambridge House
The Home Design issue of the Boston Globe Magazine is always one of my favorites. I was psyched when I opened the newspaper this morning and found that today’s Magazine’s theme was Your Home: Kitchens and Baths. Be sure to check it out.
The magazine features some beautifully renovated kitchens and baths. There’s also an article about building new – not something many home buyers in our area are able to do.
Another article features the return of kitchen booths. I love kitchen booths. My favorites are the ones that look like old fashioned restaurant booths that were put in houses in the 1910s to 1930s. I don’t have a good picture yet of one of those – they’re often in a hard to photograph spot in the kitchen I’ve found. But the stylish booth pictured here is similar to the ones featured in today’s article about the revival of kitchen booths. These booths are newly created and crafted for modern kitchens. The Globe features booths with padded seats – or “banquettes” as some have taken to calling them. Me? I’m tempted to call them “diner booths” no matter how stylized they’ve become.
The booth above was in a superbly renovated house at 15 Bellis Circle, Cambridge that sold earlier this year. De
Groton Inn Burned in Fire
The Groton Inn has long been one of the signature buildings on the lovely main street through Groton Massachusetts. Sadly, the Groton Inn burned in a large fire on August 2, 2011.
Groton is lined with gorgeous Colonials and parts of the Groton Inn dated to the 1670s. The inn was on the National Register of Historic Places. At least one mural in the inn was thought to be painted by Rufus Porter.
I wrote up an offer on a house for sale in Groton over breakfast at the Groton Inn earlier this year. It’s hard to believe it’s gone.
It’s actually not gone yet. I was surprised several weeks ago to see it still standing, albeit terribly damaged. Turns out that there are many pushing for parts of it to be salvaged. The Historic District Commission and an architectural preservationist from the National Park Service have toured the badly damaged inn and identified a portion that might be salvaged. The town has since issued a demolition order and it seems that the current owner is intent on demolishing the inn in total. A petitition has been started urging that whatever can be saved be preserved.
It’s difficult to think of Groton Center without this beautiful old building. Here are a few photos we took of the Groton Inn several weeks after the fire.
Groton Inn Destroyed by Fire
Remains of the Groton Inn Groton MA
Catastrophic Fire Damage - Groton Inn
Good Stamps
Good Stamps
Representative Stephen Lynch has proposed a bill to tweak the USPS pension payments in an effort to keep the USPS afloat. Good thing since I’ve got a lot of stamps to use.
I love good stamps. I’m that picky customer in front of you making the postal clerk produce every commemorative stamp he’s got in his drawer. But I buy a *lot* of stamps so I figure I’ve earned those few extra minutes at the post office counter.
My latest haul at the post office filled me with joy. Now these are good stamps!
I had stopped by the post office because of a Cambridge-postal stamp connection. Botanist Asa Gray, whose 1810 Cambridge house at 88 Garden Street sold for $3,400,000 earlier this year, is one of the four scientists featured on the American Scientists stamps from the post office.
While I was picking up the Asa Gray stamps I couldn’t help myself. I also bought:
The new Mark Twain stamps. If you’ve never been to Mark Twain’s house in Hartford CT you are in for a treat. It’s magnificent.
The new Pioneers of American Industrial Design stamps. These stamps are so cool. Designers responsible for such signature pieces as the Selectric typewriter, the Brownie camera and Fiestaware are featured. Designers honored on the stamps include Russel Wright, Norman Bel Geddes and Raymond Loewy.
The new Go Green stamps. I love what these stamps depict - actual environmentally friendly, simple practices as opposed to “green” (as in the color of money) marketing efforts. The stamps promote:
- Composting
- Turning off lights when not in use
- Fixing water leaks
- Buying local produce and reusing bags
- Insulating your house
- Adjusting the thermostat
- Using public transportation
- Sharing rides
- Hanging your clothes out to dry
- Choosing to walk, not drive
- Planting trees
- Maintaining tire pressure on your car
All of these stamps, like all the new USPS regular rate stamps, are “forever” stamps. Let’s hope the USPS is around for years to come – I’ve got a lot of stamps!
Skateboard House
PAS House - Skateboard Dream
PAS House, aka the Skateboard House, is a fantasy made real for any teenage skateboarder or former skateboarder.
But you’ve got to grow up and make a lot of money to make your dreams come true if your dream is to have one of the world’s most unusual houses designed for you.
Pierre-Andre Senizergues, formerly a professional skateboarder and now the owner of Etnies, a sportswear company, commissioned architect Francois Perrin to create a house in which every surface is skateable.
PAS House (the name uses the owner-to-be’s initials) is a skatepark of a house. The walls are curved, the kitchen counters can be skated on, even the furniture is designed to be used by skateboarders.
This summer a full-scale prototype of the inside of the house was on display in Paris. The skateboard house will be built in Malibu, California.
The Etnies website has amazing videos of skateboarders and cyclists in the PAS House prototype. A recent New York Times article includes an article with architect Francois Perrin about the skateboard house.
Senizergues’ current house, filled with skateboard art and artifacts, is pretty fabulous as well. In fact, the LA Times called it the “ultimate skateboarder’s place”. It’s almost as though Senizergues thought “I’ll show you the ultimate skateboarder’s place” – and commissioned Francois Perrin to create it.
Move Gone Wrong – Sprinklers Flood Condo Building
Broken sprinkler floods condo building in Boston
Moving is never easy. If you were joining the masses moving into Cambridge and Boston this weekend I hope your move went smoothly.
One move went terribly wrong this week.
The Boston Globe reported that it was a mattress strapped atop a car that broke off a sprinkler head in the garage of the Metropolitan condo building at 1 Nassau Street in Boston. The fire protection system then pushed additional water through the system, eventually causing a sprinkler to burst on the 23rd floor of the high rise. Water flowed through a number of floors, damaging multiple condos. Ouch!
The Metropolitan was built in 2004. Penthouse condos in the building sold for $1M+.
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