You are standing on Spring Street in Vineyard Haven, looking at house #18, the house that I bought in 1995 with my wife, Beth Rosenberg.
This house is more than 150 years old. It was built in three stages. In the 1840s, the front half of the first floor was built. In the late 1800s or early 1900s, the back half of the first floor was built, and the house was extended to a second floor. Then, in the 1940s, a porch was added in the rear of the house.
At the left of the photograph you can see a small garage that haunts the eastern side of the property. There is also a very large driveway that can accomidate four cars.
This house is not in the Williams Street Historic District (in fact, it is one house away from the historic district). Thank goodness! We were not so lucky with our house in Belmont.
From this angle, the house looks like it is in excellent condition. In fact, the house is in dramatically better condition since when we started this project in 1995. We have replaced the roof, plastered and painted all of the second floor rooms, stripped most of the second floor windows, sanded the floors, painted the first floor, built two new bathrooms, replaced the major appliances in the kitchen, installed a computer room, a basement work bench, and replaced the heating and hot water systems. We have also rewired both electrical and network. It's been a very long and time consuming project, made longer by the difficulty of getting contractors on Martha's Vineyard.
These days we spend very little time on the Vineyard. We're mostly at our house in Belmont. But we do get down to the vineyard from time to time, and when we do, it's great to have some place to stay.