Wishing Well

Our 1939 cottage began as the garden house for the nearby house up the hill. After WWII, a returning soldier and his wife asked to purchase the cottage for their home. They worked on renovations, as did successive owners over the years, until the three room cottage was expanded to a thousand square foot home.

Our builder friend says that the house is ‘a bunch of shoeboxes put together’. Truly so, though this suggests that the place was thought by previous owners to be charming enough to renovate and build upon rather than having the whole place pulled down to start afresh.

When my husband and I saw the house late last Summer, it was in a state of decline. Our modest bid was slightly higher than that of an offer to buy the property for development and knock down the little cottage. When I browsed the property, I could feel the house pleading through its walls that it would be a delightful house for us if only we would care for it. (It is a wily and charming cottage!)

In the end, we bought our little Orchard House and the near-acre of trees and meadows upon which it rests. The cottage is up in the hills, overlooking the river valley through the woods where birds sing and animals play. We dearly love it. Now we just have to take care of it.

My husband says our home is a wishing well. We throw our money in and make a wish.