12 Redan Street

I've known for a good long while that 12 Redan St. was coming to market. And it's rare for me to watch a house rise towards its listing date, like a bubble of air through water, with such anticipation. This lovely three-bed, two-bath semi, strikes me as a special sort of house. Unusually pretty, for starters. That midnight siding like charred Japanese cypress harvested from that soft hillside behind McBurney's old burial ground and its new slides. It is bracingly modern (all those Marvin windows, the steel support beam) and pleasingly traditional. Open-plan but warm. Bright, but with strategically placed shadows to take the glare off a new book. A main floor perfectly organized around a kitchen all butcher block and stamped tin. A minimalist gas stove warming the corner between the living room window and the front door. It has the feel of a sentry, a guard against the cold. Nothing will get in the way of 12 Redan offering a warm greeting.The sitting/dining room at the back of the house is a modern addition, and looks out to the west-facing porch, the lawn, the lush perennial beds, the pretty shed. A top-notch heat pump and new furnace keep a lid on the utility costs, even with the Prius getting plugged in most nights. The upper bathroom was re-done last year with hexagonal tile and a long-legged chrome sink. The softwood floors are beautifully refinished and reflect that this much-improved house sits comfortably alongside its own past, like a couple holding hands.