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Welcome to Centers and Squares
As a Cambridge real estate agent, the city squares of Cambridge, Somerville and Medford and the town centers of Arlington, Watertown and Belmont, Massachusetts are my home turf. And as a lifelong New Englander who’s lived within twenty miles of Boston most of my life, I can introduce you to other nearby towns as we search for your new home. If you’re planning to sell your home in Cambridge, MA or nearby you’ll find plenty of info about the home selling process here too. Questions? Send me an email or call me at 617-504-1737.
How Much Space Is Enough?
Our tour was short this week because of the upcoming holiday weekend. We saw only four properties, two of which were under 500 square feet in size. It really made me think – how much space is enough?
The 390 sq. ft. condo that we saw really drove home the point that a relatively small amount of space can be enough – can be just right in fact. The one-bedroom condo we saw had a small bedroom, a living room / dining room that fit a couch, a small desk, and a dining table, and a little kitchen. It was compact, well laid out, and very appealing.
Truth be told – those are the rooms in which I spend almost all of my time. I work at my desk, I hang out in the kitchen, I sleep – though not enough. The rest of the rooms in the house? Storage for my stuff.
There’s a Tiny House movement afoot in America. In Cambridge, you can opt for a small condo if you want to downsize dramatically. Here are some options on the market – click on the small photo for more photographs and additional info:
And if you’re in the market for a condo or house in Cambridge, don’t let the lack of new listings this week get you down. Few new properties are listed for sale close to Memorial Day. Next week should be a good week for new listings.
Remembering Tip O’Neill
Reembering Tip O'Neill - Family Panel at the Cambridge Public Library
When I first saw this beautiful banner on Mass Ave in Cambridge I thought it must be commemorating the centennial of Tip O’Neill’s first days in Congress – we just seem so far removed from those days with today’s Congress. But no – Tip would be just 100 this year and Cambridge is commemorating the centennial of his birth.
On Tuesday, May 22nd Chris Matthews of MSNBC (which makes it even more exciting – in my family we’re all addicted to MSNBC) and former aide to the Speaker of the House will be moderating a panel of O’Neill family members reminiscing and remembering Tip O’Neill.
Two more panels are planned by the Tip O’Neill Centennial Committee: a panel featuring former O’Neill staff members in September and a November panel in which community members will be invited to share their memories of Tip O’Neill.
The Family Reminiscence Panel will take place at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 7 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
Check out the City of Cambridge website for information on other tributes to Tip O’Neill that are planned and for excerpts of audio interviews with O’Neill, including his memories of growing up in North Cambridge.
Open Studios This Weekend
Open Studios in MA 2012
I finally had a chance to update the Open Studios in Massachusetts page for 2012. A long overdue task!
Good thing – five communities, including Cambridge, are holding open studio events this weekend.
Check out the list – there are open studios scheduled for many weekends in 2012. I’ll add more as I stumble across them.
Art House In Arlington
Art car owner has an art house in Arlington
Don’t miss today’s Boston Globe which, in a cover story in G titled “House of Mirth: Quirky by Design”, profiles an amazing house in Arlington, MA. Turns out, owner Rebecca Perlo, whose art car I’ve spotted more than once, has an art house.
The Jason Heights mansard Victorian, known locally as ”the purple house” according to the Globe, is awash in art, color, and quirkiness – it’s awesome. More than a dozen photographs accompany the article and I’ll bet twice as many wouldn’t be enough to document the delights that await inside the purple, red and green house. From the Where the Wild Things Are murals to the fishtank toilet, the house is a wall to wall celebration of creativity.
Nowadays, when almost every house looks like the next, and decorating cliches abound, Perlo’s house is a rare treat. And since I’m firmly in the camp of more is more this is my kind of house. Pick up a copy of the Globe and be prepared to be amazed.
East Cambridge Houses For Sale
Inventory has been tight all year but it looks like one sliver of the Cambridge real estate opened up a bit this weekend. Four new listings for East Cambridge houses for sale priced between $450,000 and $600,00 came on the market this week. Cambridge real estate buyers hoping to find a condo or single family house near Kendall Square, Boston and MIT have some good choices this weekend.
Somerville and Cambridge houses in this price range have been selling quickly, more often than not with multiple offers. Cambridge and Somerville single family houses with asking prices between $450,000 and $600,000 that were listed recently were on the market an average of only 17 days. In fact, more than half sold within one week.
Here are the newly listed houses for sale in East Cambridge:
47 Harding Street, Cambridge has two bedrooms, two baths, and a rarity for East Cambridge – two parking spaces. It’s listed for $459,900.
125.5 Spring Street, Cambridge is a restored Cape with three bedrooms, two baths, and a nicely landscaped patio / garden. It’s new to the market at $460,000.
209 Hurley Street, Cambridge was a wonderful surprise when we saw it on tour on Wednesday. It’s tucked away off the street and a 2005 renovation resulted in a house as modern as can be. It has two bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and a fenced in yard with patio for $487,000.
4 Dickinson Street, Cambridge has three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, one parking space, a fireplace in the living room, and a landscaped yard with patio. It’s priced at $599,000.
East Cambridge provides great access to Kendall Square, MIT, the Charles River and Boston. It’s an architecturally rich neighborhood growing ever more popular with real estate buyers. Let’s see what the weekend brings for the newly listed East Cambridge houses for sale. I’m betting it’s a busy weekend!
Click on the small photos below for more information and additional photos of these East Cambridge single family houses.
Garden Tour Season
It's Garden Tour - and Lilacs - Season
The lilacs in my yard have been out for over a week. Like most everything else, they’re early this year with this topsy-turvy up-is-down weather we’ve been experiencing.
I know they’re early because Lilac Sunday is held every year at the Arnold Arboretum on Mothers Day. And Mum doesn’t get her day for two more weeks.
It seems that gardeners won’t have to worry that things haven’t bloomed by the time this year’s garden tours roll around. I finally had a moment to update the garden tours page here so you can check out the upcoming Massachusetts garden tours in 2012. The list seems a bit shorter – putting together house or garden tours is a huge undertaking for the groups that put them on. Some have discontinued their tours, others have opted for an every other year schedule.
A garden tour is an opportunity to get new ideas for your yard and garden, to see private outside spaces that you otherwise wouldn’t, or just a great way to enjoy a spring or summer day. Not to mention – your ticket purchase benefits local libraries, historical societies, museums, etc.
Two-Family House for Sale in Cambridgeport
1-3 Rockingham Place Cambridge MA
It’s tour day! Happily it looks like a great day weather-wise for our tour. Our tours this time of year are a bit of a marathon and this weather suits me much better than the 80+ degrees that the runners faced on Monday.
I’m most excited today to introduce 1-3 Rockingham Place to my coworkers. My colleague, Allan Rikhi, and I have listed this big two-family house in the Cambridgeport neighborhood of Cambridge. It’s a beauty and bound to be popular.
1-3 Rockingham Place has a five-room apartment on the first floor. Upstairs is huge with nine rooms, including three bedrooms. two studies and a spacious family room. The house is filled with light and the upstairs decks have amazing views. Outside there are two separate patio areas, garden beds, fruit trees, mature shrubs, and parking. It’s truly an urban oasis.
This is the neighborhood where my father grew up – in fact the house our family owned for eighty years abuts the yard at 1-3 Rockingham Place. It’s a great place to live in a neighborhood filled with Victorian houses. The Charles River is around the corner, Magazine Beach is nearby, there’s a playground and ball field down the block, you can walk over the bridge to BU as my Dad did, and nowadays Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, etc. are close by.
Yesterday when I stopped by Rockingham Place I daydreamed about how the neighborhood used to be in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Growing up, my dad played baseball with the Rockingham Sox. Billy Harris, who used to live in 1-3 Rockingham Place was on the team. My aunt Irene who grew up around the corner on Granite Street remembers visiting the Harris’s house at Christmas time every year for a party.
It’s time for new memories to be made at 1-3 Rockingham Place. Call me if you’d like more information or would like to schedule a time to see this lovely home.
Raised Garden Beds Talk at the Somerville Garden Club
Raised Garden Beds in a Community Garden in Cambridge
Raised garden beds are popular with backyard farmers and gardeners in Somerville and Cambridge. In a talk at the Somerville Garden Club on Wednesday evening, Jesse Banhazl will talk about raised garden beds as well as other options for growing produce in limited space – on roofs, on porches, or in small urban backyards.
Jesse Banhazl is owner and co-founder of Green City Growers, a Somerville-based business that helps to bring organic produce gardens to homes, schools and businesses.
The Somerville Garden club meeting and lecture is free and open to the public. There is parking available or you can take the T to Davis Square and walk up Holland Street.
What: Raised Garden Beds Talk at the Somerville Garden Club meeting
When: Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Where: Tufts Administration Bldg., 167 Holland St, Somerville MA
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