I finally make the move- almost

In my early thirties I was renting the first floor of a Victorian in Lexington.  I had saved enough money designing and building to buy a starter home in North Lincoln.  It wasn't my dream house, but it was a beginning.  As I was walking out the door to sign the P&S agreement, my phone rang.  I debated whether to get it, but thinking it might be the realtor or attorney, I went back in and grabbed it.  My landlord said "I just want to tell you I'm selling the house, so please clean your apartment".  Normally this would have been fortuitous timing, but the truth was I loved that Victorian and wanted to stay.  I asked him how much he wanted for the house, and a negotiation began.  A few minutes later, the attorney from the closing called  to find out why I was late.  I put him on hold for a moment, completed the deal with my landlord, and then gave the attorney the bad news that I was backing out of the deal.  In ten minutes I had gone from buying a house in Lincoln to buying one in Lexington instead.

As can be seen at left, the Victorian had been hacked at and added to over the years.  The cornices were boxed in, the wooden columns and rails replaced by wrought iron, the clapboards covered with asbestos siding.  But glimpses of the old grandeur remained, particularly the massive granite stair leading down the long slope to the pond across the street.  Thus began a 15 year labor of love, and a 15 year delay before I would put a down payment on another house in Lincoln.

My favorite part of the house was the west-facing water view.  I still miss those spectacular sunsets, and getting the last bit of light every day.  Often I would bike through wooded Lincoln until it began to get dark.  Coming home to my hilltop, I would have another full hour of daylight.  So one of the principal goals of the renovation was to open the house up to the view, and build a deck to enjoy it.  I opened up the west face with a band of windows in the living room on the second floor (my office occupied the first floor), and a composition of windows in the gable end (master bedroom). The new deck off the kitchen featured a half-round parapet where I could stand and call my son to dinner, when he was playing down at the pond.  I also added a shed dormer on the third floor that we used as a guest room.