Wednesday Loves: Manchester Edition

This week I've decided to focus on all the things I love about Manchester... you know those things that if you live here you see every day and yet still adore it each time you walk by...

First off, The Stock Exchange. It's a wildly overpriced consignment store (like stuff I could find on the side of the road and redo) but I just love the elegance of the outside (I adore the awning and their door) and how they have window displays that change weekly.

This house is on one of my running routes; there is so much that I love about it... the navy of the door and the mailbox / house number, the way they used gold in a classy, not tacky, way and the clam shell walkway. Oh, and I am in love with the topiaries.

You may wonder why this next photo is of a broken down greenhouse... I don't love the decrepit look, although what you can't see in the photo is the For Sale sign... this is a huge piece of property within walking distance to the school. I would love to knock down the green house and put up four or five gorgeous single family houses... and do the inside and outside on each one completely different from each other. I would also put up a small greenhouse as a token to what the property formerly was and use the materials from the greenhouse that was knocked down. Now... I just need millions. :)

Here is the quaint Captain Dusty's... the price of an ice-cream is about the price of a half gallon at Market Basket but you'll still find the line out the door during the summer. This is the spot where AJ and I met for our blind date... and where he brought me back for an ice-cream five months later right before he proposed. I'm pretty sure I got Chocolate Raspberry both days (creature of habit).

This is right up the road from Captain Dusty's and on the way to the ocean. I never grow tired of watching the tides come in here... and wishing I owned the property to the left so that I could host weddings on their gorgeous lawn.

Here is Singing Beach, we spent many days here last summer and a lot fewer here this summer... something about having a baby makes it a little less appealing than it used to but I still love walking / running down here. Drew did his first swimming in the ocean here and I'm pretty sure ate his first fistful of sand here as well (how am I still surprised by how fast he grabs things and eats it?). On a different note, the spot AJ had set up for the proposal with roses was in the upper right hand corner of the photo... sort of where you can't see the sand anymore (and did I mention he had a photographer lurking around the beach capturing photos of us as we walked and of the actual proposal so we would be able to remember it forever?). He's a keeper. :)

For years I've wanted to buy this hideous house. Can you see the potential in it though? Picture it with ZERO pink and natural cedar shingles anywhere you see pink... then picture gorgeous huge white pillars instead of the ones with a stone facade on them. As for windows: let's do large and long ones on the top of the house with full size window boxes just spilling over with gorgeous flowers. Then for the bottom floor we'll do oversize windows and a french door for the front door. Did I mention it overlooks the harbor?

This is where AJ works teaching seventh grade history. The school was built three years ago with a real focus on "green" initiatives. The gardens you see on the left side of the photo are actually used in the meals that are prepared for lunch... I love that... and I'm pretty sure he loves the fact that there are no longer buckets in the hallways catching rainwater every time it pours like in the old building.

This is on the running loop I call "the private / no trespassing loop"... all the best houses and views seem to be from areas you are not supposed to be. The house on the top left was from an early Macaulay Culkin movie and the house on the top right (rumor has it) is the summer home for one of Apple's top executives... the views are SO much better in person.



Hope you enjoyed the Manchester version this week!