A New Old House

Monday was moving day for my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. They moved into a Classic Queen Anne Victorian home in Amherst, Massachusetts.  This house will not only be the family's home but it will also serve as their Chabad house for four of the five colleges in the Amherst area. (That explains the six bedrooms(!)—many of the students who do not drive on Shabbat and high holidays and live too far to walk, will be sleeping over.)

Below is the entrance from the sidewalk to the front door.

Imagine it trimed to look like an English garden hedge with a gate added in the center.

The house is a five minute walk to downtown Amherst...a charming small college town.

It needs a lot of TLC and I'll be helping them with the decorating (for the next few years!) but it also has some incredible features that you rarely see in homes today, like...

this kitchen window...

a huge front porch. (see the peeling paint on the wicker and icky cushion? I told you it needs work!)

This is the door knob on the front door—you don't see anything like this now-a-days.

Gorgeous spindles on the large staircase and...

incredible hand craved details.

Not one but two butler's pantry.

According to an age-old Jewish custom, the first items brought into a new home are bread and salt. It is also recommended to bring some Jewish books and a charity box into the home even before the movers bring in the rest of the boxes. This establishes the Jewish flavor of the home; a home which will hopefully be a haven of study and kindness.