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OUR (VERY) OLD HOUSE

By Kaitlin Servant

The house was beyond overdue for a paint job.
We had this done professionally while we
worked on interior projects that would allow
us to move in as soon as possible.

In 2020 we closed on a c.1740 house in Brookfield, MA Our first Fall in our new old house

n January 2020 we said goodbye to the house we had lived in Speaking of history, this house has
for the past ten years. The house we had poured our love, it. From what we can tell, it was built
Isweat, and tears into. The house we had brought our children in 1740. We never imagined we
home to. would live in a home older than the
Because we didn’t have a new house to be excited about yet, United States itself but now we do. Six
most of our furniture went into storage while we moved into a families have owned it before us and
small rental as we figured out what was next. now we are part of its long history,
and it is most certainly a part of ours.
People love our house. So many
people tell us that they wanted to buy
it. Sort of. And I laugh because we
were the only ones crazy enough to
Everyone was expected to chip in!
actually do it. She is beautiful but I
always tell people “She’s a handful.”
That’s an understatement.
When you live in a very old house
it’s almost as if the house is another
member of the family with its own
A photo of the house from need for constant attention. When
around 1940 given to us by someone asked me what I do for fun
the previous owners. The
landscape has changed quite recently I was a bit puzzled. “I live in a
a bit but the house has not. 280-year-old house. I pretty much just
do that.”
The Find
This was a pretty exciting but scary time for us. We knew our next The Exploits of
house needed to be special because we were never moving again. Taking Control
Then, it happened. Our agent suggested we go see a (very) big Our home sits on 30 acres with
(very) old house that was out of our price range and needed a lot more conservation land on three sides and
work than we wanted to take on. She knew my weakness for old A typical weekend. had not been lived in full time for
houses, but I also wanted move-in ready with a pool. This house did close to three decades. The house was relatively well taken care of, but
not check those boxes, but she assured me it was special and worth Mother Nature had made herself at home around the property and in
checking out. “It can’t hurt to look.” Famous last words. some cases, inside the house. “Mature landscaping” had been on my
Very long story short, we bought it. Our closing was delayed house wish list, and it did have that. We love the majestic maple trees,
repeatedly because the Covid shutdown had begun. This gave us plenty perennial flowers, the sunken rock-walled garden, and the gigantic
of time to second guess the biggest decision we have ever made. Were we hydrangea bushes. But we also inherited equally mature invasive species
crazy? Could we do this? What was even happening in the world? Was and spend a lot of our time battling them.
the market going to crash? Should we wait? I asked myself these questions One time a piece of Japanese knotweed came up between the floor-
a few hundred times a day for months. But on April 20, 2020, it became boards in the parlor! It was one of many times I questioned if we could
ours. The rest is history. really make this work.
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