Although I spent my childhood summers in Quidnet Village, I have now lived in town for 35 years. I was lucky enough to buy my first property for $150,000 in 1988 (at the time it was the height of the market) and I remember feeling so lucky that I got a mortgage with a 10 ½% interest rate! I bought the house not because I liked it, or the location, but because it was the least expensive property on the market at the time. The house was on a quiet side street in town and was constructed out of ammunition crates by the US government in order to house surplus military personnel at the end of World War II. I still have some pieces of ammo crates, stenciled with the words, “CAUTION: Store as you Would Smokeless Powder”. The market turned down a few years later and my property was worth about half of what I had paid for it. The good news was that, by renting it out, I was able to afford to keep it. In 1992 I had saved some money, interest rates had dropped and my contractor brother Andrew was available to build me a new house in the same location. I started working with an architect and friend on designing my own house.
Andrew and I had a running family joke that he would build a home for me someday and I think we were equally surprised that it actually happened. In the winter of 1993, I had the ammo crate house carted away, dug the hole for the foundation and had the foundation poured. Andrew and his small crew arrived in early February and in spite of the 15 snow storms that winter, I moved into my house on June 25, 1993. Andrew’s crew was some friends from college and a fellow from (the former) Yugoslavia whose father had been the tailor for Tito. The crew took ballroom dancing lessons that winter and two of them later ended up getting married. I rented a house for the crew for the winter and we started a tradition of Wednesday night dinners that quickly expanded to include other friends.
I like living in town because I can walk just about anywhere that I need to go. It is a short bike ride to my office (also in town), the post office and shopping. I can walk into town for dinner and enjoy the walk home. I like seeing lights on in the off season. When it gets dark in the winter at 4 o’clock, I like walking my dog around town. I like being able to get, on my own two feet, to the ferry. I recently went on a vacation and started by walking to the boat and ended up on another small island in the Bahamas. Although I live on a small lot it doesn’t feel closed in. I have a back yard with an apple tree and big privet hedges for privacy. I have a path to my neighbor’s house and we call it “cup a sugar way”. Even though you think it would not be as noticeable in Town, I like the changing seasons. In the winter I can see the harbor and Monomoy.
Penny Dey