The Swellesley Report » houses

Wellesley says good-bye McMansions, hello whatever is ever so slightly smaller than a McMansion

bbrown — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:59:19 +0000

The Globe has a good review of how the Large House Review bylaw has panned out in Wellesley since going into effect two years ago. The upshot: Most big houses are still getting approved, some homeowners and builders are scaling back their plans ahead of time and some builders are still claiming houses aren’t as huge as they seem.

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Wellesley board approves biggest house in the history of earth

bbrown — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:09:04 +0000

When a 7,200 sq. ft. Cliff Estates home described on Zillow as a “distinctive 1938 English Country Estate on over 1.5 acres of level professionally landscaped grounds with private magnificent gardens and walkways in continuous bloom” doesn’t quite cut it, the next logical step is to tear it down and erect a house roughly double that size. Wellesley’s Planning Board has approved what officials say will be the town’s biggest house, despite some objections during the large house review process. But when your next door neighbor basically has a golf course in their back yard, it’s pretty hard to be too out of place, even with a house this size…

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Dixie slept here

bbrown — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:09:05 +0000

One of Wellesley’s purplest (OK, maybe orchid or something) and most riverfront properties is on the market, with an asking price of about $1.2 million as listed with Coldwell Banker.

The nearly 150-year-old house, which overlooks the Charles River across from Elm Bank Reservation, is currently the home of none other than Dixie Whatley, a local and national entertainment reporter who more recently has grabbed attention for her sculptures.

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MACRIS: How to really house hunt in Wellesley

bbrown — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:32:54 +0000

The Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS) is a really swell website for looking up the way back history of your home or a home you might be thinking of buying in town. The system also has historical info on neighborhoods and other structures in Wellesley.

My introduction to MACRIS came while researching town sites on the National Register of Historic Places website, which is in the process of digitizing material and is pretty tough to navigate. Members of the Wellesley Historical Commission pointed me to MACRIS (thank you!).

You can search Wellesley for properties and objects (including things like the giant world globe and Ominous Icon Sculpture at Babson College, the latter of which is shown below) by sections of Wellesley, such as Babson Park, Lower Falls, Wellesley Farms, Wellesley Hills and the Fells.

Results will include documents in PDF format with all sorts of handwritten details about the place or object, including who built a home, who sold it, resold it, etc. Some results also include digital images.

I learned, for instance, that the Fells section of town off Weston Road was called the Wellesley Gardens — Sunny Acres area (former farm land) , and was known for its bungalows built in the 1920s.

Warning: If you do look up your house or neighborhood, be sure to be sitting down when you see how much some of this property originally cost vs. how much it goes for today.

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Another Wellesley teardown

bbrown — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:07:35 +0000

This teardown, at 16 River Glen Rd. in Wellesley MA, involves a home sold to a builder. Thanks to DN for passing along the photos.

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Diary of a Wellesley flood survivor

bbrown — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:37:30 +0000

Tuesday, March 16, PM: 2 inches of water in the basement. Ho hum, that’s life living on the Charles River. Squirrels spotted swimming around swing set in backyard.

Wednesday March 17, AM: 2 feet of water in the basement. Uh-oh. … Two electric sump pumps doing their thing but no match vs. water incoming from all sides of the stone basement foundation…. Head to Natick Outdoor store for some hip hugging boots. Don’t have any. Head to Dick’s on Rte. 9: success. Extremely fashionable. Return to lug dozens of plastic bins containing Christmas decorations, art supplies etc upstairs and into garage. … In honor of St. Patty’s day, the art supplies coincidentally turn the basement water green… Fortunately nothing too fancy down there…. Erect “No Wake” sign and put on tree stump rising above water and facing the street (top photo)….. Our raised gardens really got raised by the water…Detour saw horses erected on street by town….. Kids enjoying the scene, floating around street and back yard in kayaks and snow tubes, reminds us of scenes from nightly newscasts over the years from the banks of the Mississippi, the Red River, etc. …. See insane people kayaking down the river…. Witness both flotsam and jetsam, but fortunately our barrel-shaped composter is not among it.

Wednesday PM: Neighborly landscaper and excavator save our house by offering up a gas-powered pump that shoots out 300 gallons of water per minute. We needed it…. Though lose furnace pilot light and cranky NStar guy pays a visit that night to fix things…. Can’t sleep because the pump is so loud and like a baby, needs to be fed every few hours.

Thursday March 18, AM: Our home is technically an island, completely surrounded by water. Street filled with water, cars can’t pass…. Even the mailman bails, delivering stuff the next day marked “Street Flooded.” … Take an early morning trip to Wellesley dump to get rid of 6-7 bags of wet junk…. Dad swings by to try his magic cement, but it’s no match for water pressure. Leaves us with a couple of fans and a dry-wet vac…. Heartless Canada geese use our few non-submerged patches of yard for their bathroom….Red Cross visits the area, taking only notes, not giving out any sandwiches… Water starts to recede late in day.

Friday, March 19: Another nice day, water continues receding…finally get to turn off the gas-powered pump… Feeling lucky compared to people who had finished basements washed away.

Saturday, March 20: Neighborhood party in the “deep end.” Everyone shares their war stories. Lots of inspiring tales of neighbors going all out to aid the clueless and helpless among us.

Sunday, March 21: Start to fret about wet weather forecast for this week…

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Wellesley house makes its move

bbrown — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:39:33 +0000

This house was moved on Saturday from Seaver Street to Rice Street via the Wellesley High School parking lot. As you might imagine, the scene drew a crowd.

We’re thinking this endeavor qualifies the home dwellers for a new set of house warming gifts. Thanks to Madison Louis for sending along.

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We found one! We found one!

bbrown — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:05:44 +0000

Home sales have been hard to come by in Wellesley of late, according to the latest Warren Group numbers. Last June 48 single-family homes were sold in town, but this June the number is just 37, down 22%. However, the median price has snuck up to $1.2 million from a little over a million. Statewide, number of homes sold dipped 5% and median price fell 8%.

We did come across one recently near downtown though.

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Median home sales price creeps up in Wellesley

bbrown — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:40:06 +0000

According to the latest Warren Group data, the median price for a single family home in April was $1.24 million, up from $1.15 million last April. The number of homes sold, however, fell by almost half from 19 to 10 year over year. Only 1 condo unit sold vs. 2 last year, according to the Warren Group data.

Overall, sales of single family homes and condo continued to slide in April across the state, according to Warren Group, which publishes Banker & Tradesman.

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Wellesley housing update

bbrown — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:00:25 +0000

A newly released Mass Audubon study that looks at changes in land use from 1999 to 2005 showed Wellesley to have the state’s 8th biggest average living space in new homes at 4,614 square feet (Dover blew away Wellesley at 6,700 sq. ft. on average). Note that these Wellesley numbers were from before anti-McMansion rules went into effect in town. The study also includes a batch of other data related to land use and ecology in Wellesley and other towns/cities across the state.

Separately, the Globe reports:

By this time last year, three local homes had gone into the final stages of foreclosure. This year, there have been none, according to The Warren Group, publishers of Banker & Tradesman.

We’re not totally sure about this year”s stats though, having seen at least one foreclosure sign in front of a Wellesley home earlier this year and heard rumblings about others.

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