Our story

A house first.

Alder House began with the house. Corinne had walked past it for years on her way somewhere else: a 1920s bungalow on a North End street, wide porch, deep eaves, a garden gone a little wild behind it. When it came up for sale, she went to see it on a Saturday and stayed most of the afternoon.

She didn't want a clinic. She had worked in enough rooms with fluorescent lights and paper on the table to know how they make people feel. She wanted a place where you could take a breath on the way in.

The bungalow from the front walk: deep gable, moss trim, tapered columns on river-stone piers, autumn maples on either side.

The front room: cream plaster walls, original oak window trim, a worn leather armchair and a linen sofa, the garden through a big window.

Kept, patched, painted

The house

The house had been a family home for most of its life. You can tell. There are pencil marks inside one closet door where someone measured children, and we left them there.

The restoration was slow on purpose. We kept the fir floors and sanded them by hand where they'd worn. We kept the plaster walls, patched what needed patching and painted them the color of oat milk. The built-in bookcase in the front room stayed, and so did the glass doorknobs. Behind the closed doors the rooms are new: clean, bright where they need to be, and quiet. The rest of the house was asked to stay what it was.

The back garden in evening light: a flagstone path through lavender, catmint and feather grass to a weathered bench under a tree, the back of the house behind.

Out back

The garden

Out back there is an old alder by the fence, which is where the name came from. Around it there are raised beds, a gravel path, a bench in the shade, and more mint than anyone needs. In summer the windows on that side stay open and you can hear it.

Willa looks after most of it. Everyone else is allowed to water.

A pot of tea and two green cups on a small oak table between two porch chairs, a sage throw over one arm.

Out front

The porch

The porch is the front door of Alder House in every way that matters. There are chairs, a small table and a pot of tea, which in summer is often made from that mint. People arrive early to sit there. Some stay after. Neighbors wave from the sidewalk.

We think the first few minutes of a visit set the tone for the rest of it, so we gave those minutes to the porch.

A linen curtain lifting at an old window, the garden green outside and the window's shadow across a plaster wall.

The reason

Why it's built this way

People choose a person before they choose anything else. A house like this one lets that happen. It slows everyone down enough to say hello properly, to sit, to talk, to be met by someone rather than processed by something.

That's the whole story, really. A good house, a garden, a porch, and four people who wanted to work somewhere that felt like this.

Meet the four of us

Come see the house for yourself.

Book a consult

Or call 208 555 0163.