First impressions of Plainfield

The house as it was when we bought it in December, 1983.

Neighbor Fred Cone and Dan take the hemlocks down,
Christmas Day, 1983.

The new, improved view, Spring 1984.

Fred Cone and Dan take down hollowed-out maple
next to rear of house, June 1984.

The Reillys introduce Maggie to her new home. She adopted us
quickly and became the undisputed head of the household.
A sweetheart, she had become unmanageable when the
Reillys' baby arrived. They lived in the house that later
became The Pillars bed and breakfast.

We closed on our Plainfield house in December 1983, at a sheriff's sale at the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth. It was hardly the sale we envisaged when we signed the contract in September.

Besides its grand look, one of the attractions of the house was that the New York bus stopped literally at the front door. In the first year and a half, I was still working at my job in publishing on 39th Street in the city  and made the daily commute. Nat was still at IBM on Water Street in the financial district.

Our first lesson about Plainfield was looking for a restaurant downtown on the evening we closed on the house. We drove right by Lily Greenleaves without realizing it was a restaurant, and open. One certainly wouldn't have that experience these day in downtown Plainfield.

Another surprise was the cost of fuel oil for the 1,000-gallon tank that first winter. Needless to say, by the second winter we had installed a new energy-efficient gas furnace from -- where else? -- Sears.

I'm posting a few pix from that first year.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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