Nest — Summer 2022
In Morrisville, Thea Alvin Creates Art of Place; More Vermonters Are Putting in Pools; A Gardening Guru Unearths Her Secrets; Aussie Damien Helem Is Building a Reputation
Obituary: Stewart McHenry, 1935-2022
Former professor’s passions were his family and studying other cultures
Obituary: Andrew Sargeant, 1953-2022
Lifelong athlete treasured his connections with others
Last Quarter: Summer 2022 Vermont Housing News
When Staige Davis started out in the real estate business in 1980, the typical contract filled just one legal-size page, nobody talked about radon and there was no such thing as a home inspection. “You had your uncle Charlie come look at the house, and that was it,” said Davis, who is now executive chairman…
In the Swim: Orders Are Flowing In to Vermont Pool Companies
Vermont has a lot more backyard ponds than swimming pools. Or so it looked to surveyor Jack Milbank on a pre-pandemic glider ride over the town of Stowe. That appears to be changing. In the past two and a half years, more splashes of blue — in some cases, classic aqua — have been added…
Designing Dinner: Lessons From Ellen Ecker Ogden’s Kitchen Garden
“I garden because I love to eat,” Ellen Ecker Ogden wrote in her most recent book, The New Heirloom Garden: Designs, Recipes, and Heirloom Plants for Cooks Who Love to Garden. A well-designed kitchen garden, the Manchester-based kitchen-garden designer, educator and cookbook author continued, can “turn ‘work’ into ‘play.'” In 2003, Ogden downsized dramatically from…
With a Small Crew, Charlotte Builder Damien Helem Prioritizes Creativity and Quality
The creativity that builder Damien Helem brings to his projects is evident in his own Charlotte home. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom house, which he renovated in 2017, features cathedral ceilings, an open floor plan and huge windows that provide stunning views of Camel’s Hump and the Green Mountains. But it’s the industrial-chic design, midcentury modern décor…
For Stonemason Thea Alvin, Life Is About Making and Sharing Beautiful Art
An astonishing stone corkscrew arch marks the spot along Route 100 where Thea Alvin put down roots — and rocks — in Morrisville. It took her two years to build the Helix, as she named it, which frames the Green Mountains in the distance through a series of arches that resemble a stretched-out Slinky. Her…
Nest — Summer 2022
It’s time to seize the summer, when the living spaces of Vermonters briefly expand to the great outdoors. No one blurs those lines more artfully than stonemason Thea Alvin, whose Morrisville property is a manifestation of her creative mind. Although her rows are straighter, garden guru Ellen Ecker Ogden of Manchester brings the best of both…
