My memory brings me back to the year 1950, when I was a 24-year-old young man looking to set down roots with my family on a newly mapped out street named Bungalow Avenue in Greenfield.
On the south side of the street, Frank Collinwood and Everett Greene had the same idea, and bought their lots without issue. I decided to buy mine on the north side that had good frontage, and had big plans for construction of our house.
Much of the nearby land was pasture for the Stoneleigh-Burnham School, which had cattle in their barns at the time. Today, the cattle have been replaced by horses. All of this was before the Route 2 bypass ran parallel to Bungalow Avenue and Oakland Street.
After my cellar had been excavated, the next day it was full of water. I was told by the construction workers that if I built the cellar in that hole, I would need to have a sump pump running all the time to collect the water. Other builders constructed their cellars on concrete slabs, or built homes with no cellars at all.
Eventually, the water, sewer, electricity and telephone work was done, and the new street was made.
I decided to start over on my house and had a concrete cellar constructed. Tons of fill had to be brought in and bulldozer work done to fill all four sides of the walls. A sloping hill was the result, and that is why my former home looks up in the air. But the time my house was built, we couldn’t finish the interior because of the exterior’s expense.
Today, there are beautiful houses and trees on this street, and property owners take excellent care of what they own. With fall coming on, the trees there should be especially beautiful.
Unfortunately, my building experience on Bungalow Avenue was not the dream come true I had imagined. My advice for aspiring home builders: examine your prospective building lot with ground penetrating radar before you buy. At least you’ll know what lies below the ground’s surface.
Good luck to all future home builders, wherever you may be.