72 Pickwick Rd, Hamden, CT 06517

Our comfortable two-story Cape features a living room with large front windows and a glass-faced fireplace flanked by built-in bookcases. It connects to a dining room that opens through French doors onto the mahogany deck. The kitchen is filled with light from windows on two sides and centered with a granite island containing a gas range and work space, with cupboards below. There is a walk-in pantry on one side and an eating area on the other, near the windows. A full bath is located on the main floor next to an office/library with windows on one side and two walls with built-in bookcases. Upstairs we have four bedrooms, including a spacious master bedroom with a walk-in closet, another full bath and a wide hallway closet for linens. There are large closets in every bedroom and a pulldown ladder leading to a well-insulated attic with a fan. The basement has a temperature-controlled wine cellar with space for 600 bottles, as well as shelves, a workbench and daylight windows. A storm door leads to the outside, near the garage. The two-car garage connects from the back of the house through a passageway, past the laundry room, into the kitchen. The wrap-around porch is of Douglas Fir, covered by the overhang in the front of the house, and of mahogany around on the side, where there is a retractable awning over the area where our picnic table is. We can look from there onto the hummingbird and butterfly garden. Details and maintenance: Shortly after we moved into the house in 2000, we had the window on the west side of the dining room replaced with Anderson French doors and added a new mahogany deck outside, an extension from the front porch, with steps down to the backyard. The other existing window in the dining room was replaced with a double-pane tilt double-hang window. In the kitchen, we had 6 double-hung tilt windows framed and installed (4 in the east wall, 2 in the north wall) to replace the existing single window, bringing in considerable light. (We added a granite workspace to the island in the kitchen at that time.) In a corner of the basement, we had walls framed, insulated and a floor and door installed for a wine cellar, which is temperature-controlled. We also installed, at advice of the contractor, a support beam in the basement. In the attic, we had a whole house fan installed and replaced the louvers in the gable ends. A pull-down stairway was installed for easy access to the attic. In 2004, we had both bathrooms remodeled. Downstairs, a new tub/shower was installed, also double-hung windows, and a sheet rock ceiling with new lights and fan; upstairs the tub, toilet and sink were all replaced as well as the tiled counter and new wooden cabinets. In 2005, we had 12 double-paned double-hung replacement windows installed throughout the house. (Basement windows were replaced in 2017, along with insulation beneath the area under the laundry room.) A new roof was put on in 2015. In 2018 we added solar panels, replaced the old asphalt driveway with a new one, and had a stone paver walk laid to replace the old stepping stone front walk.