Grove Lane
Not much in the way of new listings this time of year but one that impressed was Renee Gallagher’s at 1 Grove Lane. A neat old Victorian, close to town yet on 1.3 acres, this house was written up a few years ago when its owners repainted it in its original Victorian style, which means multiple colors. It looked great then and still does today. If you have a collection of Stickley furniture and want a beautiful house in which to live with it, this will do nicely. $3,350,000.

High End Condos
They continue to sell, with yet another one at 211 Milbank going to contract – asking price, $4,600,000. Wow.

Low End Condos
I checked out the Greenwich Gate condos on the Port Chester/Greenwich border recently and thought they were pretty nice – granite kitchen counter tops, decent bathrooms, etc. But the developer has already sold out the few two bedroom units available and now has only one bedrooms left. This is ironic because there was a long delay on this project while the builder fought to include moderate income units in his plan. I’m no foe of such housing – Greenwich needs far more of it – but I suspect they fought so hard out of a desire to build more units than zoning would otherwise allow, and for what? The market in Greenwich is for multiple-bedroom units, not single. The developer could have complied with zoning, built fewer, but larger and more expensive units and hit a home run. The builder’s from Stamford and I think he confused the two markets.

House Organizer
I recently met with Ms. Carolina Wurster to discuss her new business venture, organizing houses to prepare them for sale. Wurster is a personal assistant, travel organizer, etc., but thought that many houses in town could use a good organizing and boy is she right. For a modest hourly charge, she’ll plow through a house, eliminating clutter, organizing closets, kids bedrooms and even the refrigerator, tossing out that half-empty jar of anchovies you’ve been saving for the past two years, just in case. The difference between a tidy house and an un-holy mess is tremendous, in my opinion (and I should know, I fall in the latter category) and your house will sell more quickly, for a better price, if potential buyers don’t have to strain to imagine what a room might look like under different circumstances. Your real estate agent might treat you to a few hours of this service or, if she’s as cheap as I am, you can call Wurster direct at (203) 531-0889, or mcwurster@aol.com. The service is also available for buyers – Wurster will show up on moving day or soon thereafter, unpack everything and put it away neatly. A nice home warming-gift.

Grace McCarthy
Grace has recently moved her practice down to Old Greenwich, where she’s happily ensconced in what she calls the Hirshburg Building and what I remember as the location of Fairfield County Trust before they became Union Trust and moved across the street. Anyway, she’s with Prudential Connecticut and likes her new digs. So if you’re loking for her, now you know.

Let It Snow
Because I recently decided to buy out my Honda at the end of its lease I went out and treated it to four new snow tires. The car is a great car most of the year but it came with all season tires which are fine as long as you spend all four seasons in Florida. But put four snows on the thing (not two, as in the past) and it’s a tank. I knew this – the same process worked wonders for our Volvo, but the idea of owning eight tires for one car is always a bit daunting. It was all worth it during our recent snow storm and, in my business, I need to get around. I bought Blizzaks by Bridgestone (from Mavis, in Riverside) based on recommendations of Consumer Reports and the testimony of friends but I imagine almost any brand would be a huge improvement over all seasons.

Speaking of Blizzards
Just in time for Christmas our police force has announced a ticket blizzard on Greenwich Avenue to free up that street from double parkers and the like. Good idea, but I was struck by their admission that most of the tickets they’re handing out are for seatbelt violations. How pulling someone over and blocking the street while you write them up for an unbuckled seat belt will ease traffic escapes me but I learned regular logic when I studied philosophy, not cop logic. A different discipline entirely, it appears.