Get to know us

As the last of our four children gets ready to graduate from college and Jim and I get ready for a permanent “empty nest”, we are now realizing a dream that has been in the works for as long as we’ve known each other (34 years this February).

If there’s one thing we are certain of, it’s that we make a good team!

We met on a snowy night in Watertown, MA in 1986. Jim was in law school and I was a store manager for Victoria’s Secret. We started dating soon after and never looked back. We were married in 1989 and moved from Boston to New Hampshire for Jim’s work. We had planned to be there for only two years, but soon fell in love with our life in sleepy New Hampshire. We liked that we were only an hour from Boston, the mountains and the ocean, and enjoyed exploring all three.

In the fall of 1991 we welcomed the first of our four kids. We bought our first home in Concord, NH six months later. It was a New England style home that was built in 1893. I remember the realtor asking if we were willing to put in some “sweat equity”. But when she showed us the house, the gingerbread features and the screened porch were all we needed to see to realize this was what we wanted. We soon filled that home with three additional kids, one in 1993, one in 1996 and our last in 1998.

While life was a blur of painting, pregnancies, remodeling, babies, decorating, toddlers and school-aged kids, we knew that we would soon need more space. We moved to our second home in May of 2004, a cedar shake cottage style home. This home was built in 1900, so Jim told everyone we bought a “new” home! The craziness of a house full of four kids and our yellow lab puppy, Rufus, continued as did making this home ours.

Throughout the years, Jim used his artistic talents to not only paint various rooms in our home, pieces of furniture, the faces of our kids and their friends, he also hand drew our birth announcements, birth announcements of family and friends, our Christmas cards and spent any free time painting various pieces to simply relax. He has even expanded his artistic talents recently to include constructing pieces of furniture.

I had stopped working outside the home when our first child was born and started figuring out how to decorate with flea market, rummage sale and second hand store finds long before “DIY” was a thing. I wanted our home to be comfortable and to reflect our lifestyle. My style has changed over the years, but my love of color was perhaps born out of the long grey cold months that are part of New England living.

Jim is my “go to” whenever I come up with a plan or a vision for a space in our home. His artistic talents enable him to sketch what I’ve envisioned. I realized early on that I could decorate with his artwork. Our home is essentially a JPArt gallery with ever-changing pieces to match the seasons. As often as I consult him, he will just as often consult me when he begins a piece of artwork and ask my opinion as to color, composition and orientation. We love to collaborate and this new venture is an exciting dream realized. As I said, we make a good team and we’re glad that you are along for the ride.