It was a beautiful day, and so I stopped by 52 and 54 Huntington Street on my way back to the office to take some photos of their front yard gardens.  These make a great addition to the street and complement the garden up at 102 Huntington.

Okay, so not exactly.  "Closed" or "Transferred Title" would be more accurate, but neither has the dramatic impact of ... "Sold!"  Today, we happily saw 52 Huntington Street off to Asylum Hill's newest homeowners, and we wish them well in their new abode!

Looks like we'll be closing on 52 Huntington very soon now, so it seemed a good time to take one last look around the house while it's still ours.

We got this idea from the kitchen The Hartford donated to us over at 94 Ashley.  How cool is this?

These plants just sprang up.  We liked them, plus there’s an old 4-H ethos that you never, ever kill a plant, so we’ll leave its fate up to the new homeowners.  However, when we took a look at the seed pods, we sort of kind of wondered if that was the best idea …

All that's left is the paint.

Standing on the second floor, looking up.

The final touches:  a view of the newly finished study, and a view of the newly installed front walk.  In case you're wondering, no grass:  the homeowner plans a small urban farm (or a large home garden) that will include crops in the front yard as well as the back.

It's not really all that dramatic, but it is one of the last things we need to install before we can declare "House!"

This view looks eastward from the dining area into the kitchen.  You can see where everything will go now:  the unpainted areas represent where cabinets and appliances will go.  And you can now see what the hardwood floors look like, as they've been stained according to the homeowner's request.

We poked up on a Saturday to get you an update on how the painting is going.  The homeowner has selected more interior colors, and we've also started to construct the front porch.  And, we included a view of the seldom seen rear of the house!

A quick peek inside -- more paint, and we also opened up the study on the first floor to let more sunlight in.

An updated look at 52 Huntington, 52 Huntington, and 181 Collins Street.

With the west gable installed, 52 Huntington Street looks more and more like its next door neighbor, 54 Huntington Street.

Our new homeowner has made her first selections on interior paint colors, and we started applying paint at the very top of the house, in the stairwell up on the third floor.

The woodwork has been installed in the south gable.  Next up is the west gable.  And sure, I'll admit it, there's actually two gables to go, but the one on the north side is impossible to photograph!

It's on the market!  It's a bit brazen to put it on the market so early, but we've already been getting lots of inquiries about it, we thought we'd try it out early to see how it performs.  The MLS listing went live yesterday, and here's the official description we put out on the listing:

It's definitely a house now!  The roof is on, complete with copper flashing, the windows are in, and the siding is being applied.

A beautiful, sunny day after Thanksgiving.  A perfect day for roofing.

The roof is framed!  This effort also created what will be the third floor bonus space.

The view of the new house looking down Huntington Street.

The second floor is up.  Next stop, the roof!

Okay, so we don't really call it "capping" the first floor, but it's the same process we undertook with the basement.  Here, the first floor walls are in place, and the beams that will support the second floor have been installed.  Next step:  putting on the actual floor, and then we'll frame the second floor.

With the help of a group of volunteers from The Hartford, we raised the first wall of 52 Huntington Street this morning.  For us, this is the equivalent of laying the cornerstone:  it indicates that our new home is fully underway!

At the right side of the photos are Valerio Giadone, architect for this project, and Ken Johnson, NINA's executive director.

We had a good group from The Hartford today.  Led by Andy Daly, who is Assistant General Counsel, Lead Counsel Contracting Center of Excellence and President of NINA's Board of Directors, 16 employees from The Hartford (plus one from Travelers) raised all of the walls on the first floor of the house.

We've poured the foundation at 52 Huntington Street -- next step is to cap it, so that we can start building the house.