From Ashley:
Sometimes walls make a place look unapproachable; and sometimes they make the place intriguing…. For months, every time I drove to and from Balance Studio from our home in Braintree to teach my weekly yoga classes, I wondered what exactly was for sale behind the big brick wall. So many vines; so many trees; so little maintenance, it seemed. So I just assumed, as we often do, that the property was out of our league and a bit more for us to bite off than we would be able to chew without a bankruptcy filing.

Enter Homesnap. Ever heard of it? It’s an app that made all of our dreams (which we didn’t know were our dreams yet) come true. On a Saturday not unlike many others before it, a friend who came down to take my class was driving us home, and as we drove by the property behind the wall, the statistics popped up on my phone screen:

1.3 acres… that’s a lot of land in a small town like Cohasset

12 bedrooms… whaaaat…..???

List price: $1,050,000. No way.

Because my husband Paul is a real estate broker who also knows his way around a construction site, I decided that I would mention it. Crazy? Probably. Worth looking into? Definitely.

So the following week, Paul returned home early from our trip down to see my father and his wife for the 4^th of July, and went to see the house. He reported back that it was a lot of work, but worth looking at together.

When we went to look at the house, I fell in love. It’s magical – huge rooms (and closets!), three fireplaces, detail work and paneling everywhere… That said, I’m also a realist; and I know that this place – because it’s so grand and gorgeous – is going to have a GRAND budget. A main house, guesthouse and carriage house – with gorgeous grounds (have I mentioned that I can’t even keep a cactus alive?) –located directly across the street from the local elementary school. Too good to be true… well here we sit, about two months into the renovation with a few surprises popping up here and there – but so far, we’re 100% sure that this is where our family is meant to be.

The neighbors brought freshly-baked bread, the nursery school where our oldest daughter goes is perfect and she’s settling in nicely, and we have a wall separating us from the rest of the community. This is essential, because we’re a bit Beverly-Hillbillyish during our construction phase.

Bottom line – we’re thrilled. We’re thrilled to do another project (we did the same thing to our last home in Braintree… took it down the studs and made it exactly what we wanted), to live in a town where our kids will be able to get a wonderful education, and really thrilled to spend the summer at the beach!

So that’s the story of how we came to be Cohasset residents (never thought I would say those words!). Please don’t be afraid to poke your head in if you’re walking by – we’re excited about the house and excited to be members of the community… we’d love to show you around the mess!

P.S. We have a loosely-made plan to invite anyone who would like to come see the project over for a BBQ this summer… we welcome any and all prayers for the completion of this huge project somewhere in the neighborhood of our projected timeline!