Old Friends, New House
Boston Globe, by Doreen Ludica, June 3, 1999

The four friends had known one another for 20 years. They traveled in tandem, created and ate countless meals at one another's homes, raised children together, and shared plenty of laughter, tears, and prayers.

Then, one evening over dinner, someone tossed out the idea of buying a house together. Everyone laughed. But the idea kept gnawing away at them, especially after children went off to college and family homes became too large for the parents left behind. Last year, the home-sharing talk turned serious. And Candace Chang, Ann and Peter Anderson, and Paul Brown set out to find a house that would accommodate their individual tastes and need for privacy, but would also provide the sense of "intentional community" that all were longing for.

"We liked the extended family feel, and we were looking to have people, friends, close by," says Peter Anderson, 55, a judge. "Our children and parents and siblings are so spread out, we decided to be each other's close families."

The foursome met at the Paulist Center and continue to go to church together. They are part of an even larger "gourmet group" of friends who would cook elaborate dinners, alternating homes every month or so.

They all knew they wanted to live in Boston in a diverse neighborhood with people of all races and ethnicities.

After many years as suburban dwellers, the Andersons and Chang especially longed for the energy of urban life. Brown, 46, a family shelter director, had been living in Jamaica Plain for several years; he sold the others on the up-and-coming neighborhood.

After the group looked at several homes, including a large Victorian in Dorchester that they almost bought, the Andersons went to an open house in Jamaica Plain on a whim last summer. They fell in love with a house they never thought would suit their tastes or needs: a traditional Boston triple-decker.

The turn-of-the-century house needed some work, but it had certain charms -- built-in mahogany china cabinets, hardwood floors -- and it abutted a magnificent community flower garden that all agreed they wanted to live near.

The group decided to purchase the home as three separate condominiums, "so anyone could sell at any time, in case we got sick of each other," jokes Chang, 50. They call the association The August 11 House, which is engraved on a plaque on the front door. Peter Anderson, Chang, and Brown all share that birthday.

The next major step was to get the house in shape, and to craft each identical apartment -- all have two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, one bath, and a small kitchen -- into more individual spaces.

First floor

The Andersons, who chose the first-floor apartment, have done the most extensive reconstruction. They wanted to add on to the house, but knew they had to do it carefully: Because three deckers are so linear, additions can tend to look out of place.

So they hired Boston architect Bill Boehm to help conceive and design a bump-out sun room/family room where the dining room had been. The result is a bright, octagonal space with long windows that gives the apartment a very modern feel. The walls were painted sky blue to bring the outdoors in.

Boehm took space away from the kitchen -- which is now a small but very workable space open to the family room -- to give the Andersons the large gathering spot they desired.

"We always had the largest dining room in the group, and we didn't want that to change," says Ann Anderson, 55, who works helping people with disabilities receive affordable housing.

Boehm also increased the size of the master bedroom by knocking out a wall and including a small porch in the footprint. The room, at the back of the home, has sweeping views of the flower garden, making it a very serene space.

The couple also had a more pressing design need: They wanted their apartment to be wheelchair accessible so Peter's mother, who lives in a nearby assisted living facility, could visit frequently and comfortably. A ramp was installed as part of a new back deck design, and they added a second bathroom that's twice as wide as the original. The Andersons also note that the accessibility feature is something they may need to use themselves someday.

"Obviously, we're prepared to grow old here," Peter Anderson says, laughing. "Yeah," quips Chang, "the last one standing brings in the groceries!"

Second floor

Chang, who lives on the middle floor, chose to put her rehab energies and funds into the apartment's smallest rooms: the kitchen and bath.

A gourmet cook, Chang took one look around the "really, really, really nasty" original kitchen, with its orange paint and prefab cabinets, and set to work designing a cheery, state-of-the-art space that would be the furthest thing possible from "the ugliest kitchen I ever saw in my life."

Now, there are Corian countertops and beadboard cabinets, a work island with stools, built-in cubbies for appliances, and a huge window above the sink for bird-watching. Chang chose Salt Marsh Pottery from Cape Cod as tiling accent pieces, and the wildflower motifs add just the right splash of color to the yellow and white room.

Since this is the first home that Chang, a director at a family services center, has owned, and it may well be her last, she figured she would splurge on a Jacuzzi for the bathroom. The old clawfoot tub was a neat antique, she said, but it would do nothing, comparatively, to pamper her renovation-weary muscles.

Perhaps the most tiring part of her renovation was the laborious steaming of ancient wallpaper from the dining and living room walls. Plaster fell out in chunks in the process, but Chang persevered until all the surfaces were smooth and ready for fresh paint.

Third floor

On the third floor, Brown did his share of paper steaming and plaster repair. Brown lived in the house before everyone else moved in and well before his apartment was fully refurbished.

"I lived with no kitchen and barely a bath," Brown recalls as he gives a tour of his place. "I was the pioneer of the group."

In the living room, Brown tore down some built-in bookshelves that he found obtrusive and rebuilt the archway that leads to the dining room. He also installed new kitchen cabinets and rearranged the side pantry so that he could fit not only a refrigerator, but also a laundromat-hater's dream: a stacked washer and dryer.

Brown's kitchen is much simpler than Chang's. The cabinets are new but simply done, in white with black accents and novelty drawer knobs shaped like frogs. He left space for only a small table and chairs but splurged on a skylight, a feature that's uniquely his, as the top-floor resident.

Brown also has a small porch off his master bedroom, and the majestic tree in the back yard sways close by, making the little balcony feel like a private treehouse. The flower garden expands below, and the treetop views defy the home's city address. It is his favorite feature of the apartment.

"It is just so silent and beautiful up here," Brown says. "I like to make the others jealous," he adds with a chuckle, "by reminding them I have it and they don't."

The four friends decided that, even though they are living in their own apartments, they would need rules of the house, since they would be sharing back yard and deck space, and each would have a key to the others' apartments for sugar-borrowing and plant-watering purposes.

One of the first things they decided was that the spare bedrooms in each flat had to be open to everyone. Chang has two children and the Andersons have four, all of whom threaten to visit often.

An important rule for these foodies was to be sure everyone knew the setup of everyone else's kitchen.

"It's really important when you're cooking in groups that everyone knows where the saute pans are or what shelf you keep the olive oil on," says Chang. "And it's even more important if someone's not home and you need to borrow something. You can sneak right in and get it."

Food is a major thread through this friendship. So much so that Ann Anderson talks wistfully about the first pot of soup she will whip up in her new kitchen, and how she can just call out into the main hallway for her neighbors to "come and get it."

Chang looks forward to stepping out of her front door and ringing a hand bell when she has finished a batch of homemade cookies and is ready for milk and company.

"Ugh. It's going to sound like this is a commune or something," Chang jokes. "But it's really an intentional community . . . where we borrow food and feed each other's cats and live like a family of choice."

But all families have conflict, and the foursome is gearing up for its first clash: where the Andersons will put their plastic, light-up Santa at Christmastime.

"I hate that thing!" says Brown. "It will have to go on the back porch."

"Or maybe you will," says Chang, and the friends share another of a million laughs