Nest — Summer 2019

home design real estate

SUMMER 2019

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Home Tour: Sustainable timberframe in Lincoln

Backyard soil science for a cooler planet

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A Richmond company In the Northeast helps clients make Kingdom, a lavender the “Moov� farm blooms

22 Brian Stark on the ABCs of real estate law

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And we’re going to spend some of them doing our part for the climate, one eco-friendly lawn at a time. Summer is also a sweet time for agritourism at the aromatherapeutic Lavender Essentials farm in Derby. Speaking of visits, for this issue we took a home tour of a lovely hand-built timber-frame house in Lincoln. We also chatted up a real estate attorney to ask what the heck he actually does; and talked purging, packing and new-home styling with the owners of Richmond-based Moov. Whew, it must be hammock time.

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18 ON T HE C OVER Will Gusakov and Emily French’s timber-frame home in Lincoln. See page 6 for story.

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In With the Old Sustainability and reverence for nature inspire a handcrafted house in Lincoln B Y M EG A N F U LWI L ER

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HO ME T O UR

ALMOST EVERYTHING IN THE HOUSE IS SALVAGED, REPURPOSED OR HANDMADE.

Nestled deep in the heart of Lincoln, just off a rutted dirt road, sits the newly built timber-frame home of Emily French and Will Gusakov. Surrounded by conserved land and a Christmas tree farm, the place smells of spring buds, fresh sawdust and just-turned garden soil.

Clockwise from opposite: Inside the timber-frame home in Lincoln; Emily French and Will Gusakov; salvaged doorknob; stairs; salvaged hardware; and apothecary space

French, a traditional herbalist and founder of Sweetgrass Herbals, and Gusakov, owner of Goosewing Timberworks, designed and built the 1,600-square-foot house themselves. A visit to their quiet, rustic homestead, just 30 minutes from Middlebury, feels like stepping back in time.

The new house, sited at the edge of a large meadow and ringed with perennials, looks as though it’s been part of this hidden landscape forever. The natural-looking clapboards are quartersawn spruce (dipped in Heritage Natural Finishes exterior oil), which will weather into a soft gray over time. The scalloped slate roof was salvaged from an old barn in Essex. “Will put that on in the middle of a blizzard,” French noted.

All the wood used in the house comes from within a 40-mile radius and was milled at two Bristol sawmills: the A. Johnson Co. and Lathrop’s Maple Supply.

With a shared background in sustainable agriculture, the couple is committed to sourcing local materials whenever possible.

“Unlike the local food movement,

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UNLIKE THE LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENT, LOCAL SHELTER IS NOT REALLY A THING — BUT IT SHOULD BE. WILL GU S AKO V

Details of Will Gusakov and Emily French’s Lincoln home

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local shelter is not really a thing — but it should be,” said Gusakov.

The couple bought the two-acre parcel six years ago. French originally hails from Massachusetts, but for Gusakov — who was born and raised in Bristol — moving to Lincoln was coming home. He spent 11 years working as a builder in Europe and elsewhere in the U.S. before returning to Vermont. The first structures he built on their land were a toolshed, a small apothecary building (“to woo Emily,” he said) and the barn for his shop.

They spent five summers camping in the loft of the rough-hewn barn, built the house over two winters and moved in last September. Every detail illustrates the pair’s commitment to sustainable building.

Inside, the home is light and airy, with sunlight pouring in the large windows. (Each has a 12-inch sill.) The wooden floors are made of Vermont ash.

Gusakov constructed the walls with a “double-stud envelope” — a technique that ensures maximum energy efficiency and creates a 10-inch insulation cavity.

The home’s primary source of heat is a woodstove in the living room, supplemented with a mini split heat pump in the kitchen.

Timber-frame, aka post-and-beam, homes are built using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery locked into place with wooden pegs called trunnels.

This type of construction doesn’t use any metal fasteners and results in a more durable frame. Inside, the exposed beams and wooden braces create the sensation of sitting in the warm, golden center of a huge tree.

French and Gusakov designed the house around three “bays” — a builder’s term for boxlike sections — with an open floor plan and high ceilings. The kitchen, with a maple island, is in the center.

Garlands of dried flowers and corncobs wind around exposed beams, and open shelves frame the large soapstone apronfront sink.

The walls are coated in neutral earth tones with nontoxic paint from Unearthed Paints and Colorhouse. “I was the executive director of painting,” French quipped.

Small construction details throughout the house, from the rounded bull-nose corners on the window frames to the tiny Fibonacci spiral built into the side of the maple island, reinforce the couple’s aesthetic and values.

“All the really great details were Emily’s idea,” her husband acknowledged.

When French and Gusakov began

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designing their home, they first went to a tea shop to sit down and draw their dream house. French sketched hers in just a few minutes — “like a castle,” complete with turrets and window boxes, she said. Meantime, Gusakov painstakingly measured the precise location of the staircase. The two laugh as they describe their very different styles, but the finished home draws on both of their visions.

Though there are no turrets, floral accents are sprinkled throughout the house, such as in the antique stainedglass windows above the bedroom doors and the vintage wall sconces found at the Brimfield Antique Flea Markets in Massachusetts. And the spiral staircase, made from local ash, is a masterpiece of precise proportions.

Upstairs spaces are open and filled with light. A graceful landing showcases red-and-purple floral wallpaper that looks hand-painted and evokes French’s herbal apothecary. All three bedrooms have high ceilings and eightfoot doorways designed to accommodate Gusakov’s six-foot, six-inch frame.

Almost everything in the house is salvaged, repurposed or handmade. Two of the bedroom doors are vintage chestnut, found and gifted by Gusakov’s brother, who’s also a builder. The black French doors of the master bedroom were discovered in a local antique shop and modified to fit the large doorways. The bathroom features a Vermont soapstone sink and a blue-and-white painted wood floor that French hand-stenciled.

Both French and Gusakov are selfemployed, but their approach to earning a living is shaped in part by the “solidarity economy” — an economic model that values cooperation, sustainability and bartering. For example, a friend in Bristol made the large cherry front door.

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“So now I’ve got an IOU,” Gusakov said with a laugh.

As a timber framer, he works closely with sawmills to source local wood for both new construction and historic restoration projects. This house, however, is the first one he’s designed, framed and built himself. The ethos of hand building stands out at a time when most construction involves tools such as air nailers and new materials wrought by technology and mass production.

“In traditional building, the person — not the technology — is the linchpin and source of the craft and knowledge,” said Gusakov. “You can start with a tree, and you can make a house.” m

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Earth

Angels

Underground microorganisms build healthy soil for a cooler planet

BY E L IZABE TH M. S E YL E R

I live in a Burlington neighborhood where uniform, lush lawns and manicured flower beds are standard. From a distance, my yard might pass muster. But up close, it’s a mishmash of grass, violets, dandelions, mystery plants and bare patches. It also harbors a happy grub colony and becomes a dust bowl by midsummer.

Attempting to help it, I’ve given it compost, yanked dandelions, sprinkled Milky Spore (a bacterial grub control), set the electric mower at four inches and mowed less often. I’ve also eschewed chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides.

After recent interactions with the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition, however, I have a completely new way to think about my lawn — and the plight of the planet.

I’ve learned that healthy soil is key to a healthy lawn and is a complex ecosystem. Healthy soil sequesters more carbon and is better able to absorb heavy rainfall and to remain moist during droughts. What makes healthy soil so 10

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amazing? Tiny creatures invisible to the naked eye.

Under the Microscope

“There are millions of microorganisms in one teaspoon of healthy soil,” said Cat Buxton, a compost consultant, soil health educator and cofounder of the coalition. Using a compound microscope at 400x magnification, she said, “you’d see bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods and mycorrhizal fungi.”

These creatures feed on organic matter, creating humus that locks carbon in the soil, keeping it from escaping into the atmosphere.

Mycorrhizae spores are particularly

important to soil and plant health because they attach to mineral particles on roots and grow mycelium, a network of filaments, that aerate the soil and boost plants’ ability to take up water and nutrients from humus. While mycorrhizae can live on shallow roots, like those of Kentucky bluegrass commonly found in Vermont lawns, they do best under diverse plant species with roots of varying depths — from six inches to six feet — that provide multiple pathways for air and water.

“Eighty percent of land plants have mycorrhizal relationships,” wrote Jess Rubin by email. She’s an environmental scientist and the founder of Vermont’s MycoEvolve, which provides “ecological restoration from the soil up” through research, education and ecological landscaping.

Ecosystem Intel

In Earth’s 4.6 billion-year geologic history, “microbes showed up

approximately 4 billion years ago, fungi 1.5 billion years ago and plants a half billion years ago,” wrote Rubin. “Given this trajectory in evolution and succession, it makes sense that when we restore disturbed ecosystems, we partner with the original builders of the soil: microbes and fungi.”

As these microorganisms go about their business, they produce what Buxton lovingly calls “the goo, glue, snot and slime that literally holds our landscapes together.” These biotic glues stick to plant roots to form soil aggregates that are hydrophobic — water can move around and even into them, but it can’t pull them apart. In heavy rain, the soil acts like a sponge, absorbing water and staying put rather than washing away. In drought, aggregates help the soil retain moisture for longer periods of time.

But these microorganisms “and the networks they are woven into,” writes Rubin, are sensitive and fragile: They do best when not disturbed. Tilling, for example, exposes them to extreme

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changes in temperature and moisture, killing them and their nutrientexchange networks rather quickly. As they die, they release the carbon they had sequestered, and the soil itself becomes unstable because aggregates are destroyed.

Wait — since when was tilling a bad idea? Organic farmers and gardeners have been doing it for years.

The study of soil microorganisms “is definitely a new field!” wrote Juan Alvez by email. The research associate at the University of Vermont Extension’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture noted, “We are really good at classifying and categorizing things, but the ‘treasure’ is mainly in the realm of interrelations among microorganisms, their functions and processes.”

OK, I’ll definitely revisit my gardening practices, but what can I do to help my nearly half acre of turf-covered sandy soil in a sustainable way? Quite a lot, it turns out.

But before taking action, I decided to find out just what was in my soil — or wasn’t.

Becoming a Soil Sleuth

Soil tests exist for everything from texture and porosity to compaction and a tendency to pool water. I chose two easy ones, suggested by Buxton, that would provide baseline data for the soil amendments I had in mind.

The first was a soil stability test that detects the presence or absence of aggregates. I suspended mesh pouches in the top inch of two clear glass vases filled with water and gently filled each with a soil sample: one from the vegetable garden tilled annually, the other from a lawn-covered corner of the yard.

The garden soil immediately fell apart, making a beeline to the bottom

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of the vase. The annual disturbance had killed the microorganisms and destroyed the aggregates. By contrast, some of the yard soil drifted downward, but some remained intact in aggregates.

I was somewhat crushed to discover that my garden soil was crap but heartened to see that my lawn soil wasn’t too bad. It met three of Buxton’s five criteria for healthy soil: keep living roots in the soil, minimize soil disturbance and minimize bare soil. It would have been better had it met the other two criteria: maximize plant diversity and keep animals in contact with the soil.

The second soil test I performed was a simplified version of the visual assessment created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. I used a flat-bottomed shovel to cut a six-inch-square patch of turf that was about seven inches deep. Lifted out of the ground and placed on its side, the sample showed primarily grass roots three to four inches long, plus a few clover roots about six inches long.

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WHEN WE RESTORE DISTURBED ECOSYSTEMS, WE PARTNER WITH THE ORIGINAL BUILDERS OF THE SOIL: MICROBES AND FUNGI. J E S S R UBIN PHOTOS: LUKE AWTRY

NOURISHING A SOIL-BUILDING LAWN These steps are based primarily on a handout by Cat Buxton, cofounder of the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition, and Mark MacKenzie, president of Appleseed Organic Lawn Care in Ontario. All of the items described can be found at local garden stores.

1. Aerate the lawn. During the summer, poke holes in the turf monthly to allow more rainfall and air to penetrate.

Walk around the lawn wearing spiked shoes or push in a hayfork at intervals of about a foot.

Soil stability test using samples from the garden (left) and lawn

Earth Angels « P.11 would fall out. I was hoping for worms, centipedes and feathered webs of delicate mycelium. Nope. Just soil. One cautious worm poked its head out of the hole in the ground, but the test showed that I had minimal aggregates on the short roots of my nearly monocropped lawn.

Steps to Better Soil

I was totally ready to give my soil some TLC, but, according to Buxton, the best time for major improvements is early spring or early fall, when temperatures tend to be cooler and rainfall more common.

For now, I’ve begun walking around my yard with 1.5-inch cleats strapped onto my sneakers, punching holes in the turf. Aerating it monthly reduces soil compaction and brings more air and water to grass roots.

Come September, I’ll first de-thatch the lawn to break apart dead root matter.

Then I’ll spread compost that’s been

inoculated with mycorrhizae. Finally, I’ll seed the lawn with annual ryegrass, deeply rooted fine fescues and perennial ryegrass, and white clover. The nitrogen-fixing properties of clover make it an ideal companion plant for grasses, according to Ben Waterman, a soil biology specialist at UVM’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

“If the goal is to increase carbon stores [in the soil], then biomass production is what you’re after,” he wrote by email. “A small input of nitrogen can catalyze biomass production.”

Assuming the weather cooperates, the new grasses and clover will grow deep into the soil, microorganisms will attach to their roots, and biotic glues will form oodles of aggregates that hold moisture and sink carbon.

homeowners and turf managers followed suit, we could make a difference.

In 2011, there were 40.5 million acres of turf on lawns, golf courses, parks and other areas in the conterminous U.S., according to a study by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. The same study estimated that the acreage of lawn surpassed that of the eight most prevalent irrigated crops combined.

I’ve long felt overwhelmed by the job of reversing the climate crisis. But learning about microbial “Earth angels” has given me hope and purpose. Forget the perfect lawn. I’m all about the beauty of diversity and the thriving ecosystem below. m

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2. Prepare to inoculate the lawn.

In early September, put some mycorrhizae in finished or nearly finished animal or vegetable compost and let it feed for about two weeks. Keep the compost moist and at a tepid temperature under shade.

3. Rake or de-thatch the lawn. In mid-September, break apart the dead layer of roots between the grass base and the soil using a hard garden rake, an aeration mower attachment, a rented machine or a professional aeration service.

4. Spread inoculated compost. On a mid-September evening when rain is imminent, spread the inoculated compost on the lawn.

To get established and thrive, mycorrhizae need water, air and organic matter (such as compost or dead plant matter).

5. Overseed the lawn for diversity. Use a mixture that includes perennial ryegrass, fine fescues and white clover. Cover seeded, bare soil with straw to help it retain moisture while the seeds germinate.

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A Richmond business helps clients purge, pack, relocate and restyle

BY CAROLY N SHAPIRO

After 14 years of living in their 1840s farmhouse in Starksboro, Susan Thompson’s family decided on a major renovation. She, her husband and their 9-year-old daughter had to pack up the entire house and relocate to a 1,000-square-foot garage apartment for about six months.

As the May 18 move-out deadline approached, Thompson had no idea where to start.

So she called Claire Mahoney and Marlene Simson, owners of Richmond-based Moov Home & Moving Consultants. The women came to Thompson’s home and went through it room by room, helping her come up with a plan. Their organizing process allowed Thompson to purge unneeded items before putting the rest of her home’s contents into storage.

“I’m not a pack rat, but I have a lot of stuff,” she says. “I was just super overwhelmed.”

Even in the best of circumstances, moving is chaotic and stressful. It can be emotional to leave an old life and embark on a new one. It’s time-consuming for someone with a job and kids with soccer games and dozens of other tasks. Most people can’t just drop everything else to accommodate the transition. That’s when a client might call Moov and say, “I need to get my life back on Monday,” Mahoney says.

Established in September 2018, Moov is a hybrid business: part packing and unpacking service, part house-staging operation, part interior decorator, part professional organizer, and — unofficially, of course — part therapy. Mahoney and Simson will help clients clear out closets and downsize. They’ll pick paint colors to spruce up a house for sale or brighten a new living room. They’ll even manage contractors such as plumbers and electricians.

Some moving companies offer packing and

Marlene Simson packing a moving box

unpacking, but they won’t usually organize in the process or put a new home together the way a customer wants it.

Moov does that. Mahoney and Simson transfer every last utensil into a kitchen drawer. They hang shower curtains. They place laundry detergent near the washing machine. They make the beds.

“We literally fold the towels. We put the towels in the linen closet,” Simson explains. “When [the clients] walk in, they are box-free and can eat at their table if they like.”

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“I’ve worked in newspapers for more than 15 years, but not anywhere like Seven Days.”

“I like to think of the design department as the nerve center of Seven Days,” says John James, “where everything flows through: editorial, sales, web, marketing. There’s never a lack of excitement on the desk.”

Not with John in charge of it, anyway. The bearded production manager has the painstaking task of “marrying” the story spreads with the ads — and getting every page to the press on time, in the right order.

It requires skill and concentration, but John never stops joking, singing, swearing and cackling during the long hours it takes to complete — unless he’s out walking his faithful Westie. Rufus is on the Seven Days masthead with a job title that often relates to the cover story. The design team decides each week if he’s going to be “Dr. Dog,” “Backup Vocals” or “Gnome Chompsky.”

John supervises four graphic designers at Seven Days. The New York native, who left SUNY Plattsburgh “five credits shy of a journalism degree,” also knows his way around the Adobe Creative Cloud. He gave the Burlington Free Press its best story layouts until the company outsourced its production department to New Jersey.

John wanted to stay in Vermont, so he applied for a job at the weekly.

“I’ve worked in newspapers for more than 15 years, but not anywhere like Seven Days,” says John. “Everybody works really hard, but we have a lot of fun doing it.”

Bonus: “I get to bring my dog.”

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“killing it.” Mahoney suggested that Getting a Moov On « P.15 Simson try that line of work. temporary apartment, Mahoney and Simson balked at doing it on her Simson created cozy bedrooms out of own, and finally Mahoney agreed they the open floor plan to make it feel like should launch Moov together. home, she says. They even returned to The women have no inventory, no the farmhouse to grab a few colorful overhead, not even an office. To see items for her daughter’s nook. clients, they carpool from Richmond’s “They had this amazing vision for city park, with Simson driving and how the bedroom Mahoney schedulwould be set up,” ing with clients on Thompson recalls. the phone. Though “They really have the they travel around skills — the way they the state, their Work with an agent pair things and place primary focus is on who knows your market. things and arrange Chittenden, Addison Cady is a native Vermonter things ... They sprung and Washington who understands the value into action.” counties.

Vermont offers as Their website Companies like MARLEN E SIMSON calls them consulMoov exist elsea place to call home. tants, but Mahoney where, particularly and Simson consider themselves “move in urban areas. Many such services have Reach out today! managers.” Its name notwithstanding, carved out a niche in the senior housing Senior Mortgage Loan Originator NMLS: 103643 802.238.5879 though, there is one thing Moov will market, focused on clients who are cady@rrvermont.com not do: “We’re not movers,” Mahoney downsizing and transitioning to assisted clarifies. living facilities. Moov offers that, as well.

She and Simson might shimmy a Simson merged her interiors busicredenza into its designated spot in a ness with Moov. Their first project was 30 Kimball Avenue, Suite 200 dining room, but they won’t load fura decorating job that’s still ongoing.

South Burlington, VT niture onto a truck. They’ll let movers For the client — a couple who lives in pack a 52-inch TV and get it safely to its Taiwan and purchased a second home ublocal.com • 802.318.7395 new quarters. in Waitsfield — Simson and Mahoney “They are strong guys who are are outfitting the place from top to coming to lift baby grands,” Mahoney bottom, artwork to carpeting.

1 6/5/19 12:18 PM N8h-rossi&riina-cady0619.indd 1 5/30/19 N8v-unionbankkellydeforge061219.indd 2:29 PM says.

The women have had about two Mahoney and Simson, both dozen clients since launching last fall.

Richmond residents, had completely Often, Moov’s services overlap. When different careers when they met as the women unpack a family after a move, neighbors with kids in the same school. they might also design the layout of their Mahoney grew up in South Carolina and new rooms. When they stage a client’s spent 20 years in education, first as a home before a move, organizing and teacher and then in school management. purging excess stuff is a big part of it.

She came north to New Hampshire and Mahoney and Simson each charge ultimately made “a lifestyle move” to $50 an hour for Moov’s services, or Richmond when her husband got a job in $100 per hour if they do a job together.

Vermont. She became the manager of the They’ll take on projects large or small, private Bellwether School in Williston. working within a client’s stated budget.

Simson, a Shoreham native, went to Recently, one young mother of a toddler nursing school in Washington, D.C., and called Moov because toys and clutter became a psychiatric nurse. She worked had overrun her home; she hoped the in hospitals from Boston to California team could restore her sanity. For a few before returning to Vermont to do home hours’ work, she paid $200. health care. After getting a bit burned “We did her bookcases and gave her out on that field, she jumped from cloth- some ideas,” Simson says. “Sometimes ing store ownership to pharmaceutical we’re just eyes, and they pay us to come sales to working in the design center for an hour and a half” and offer advice. at the Ethan Allen furniture store in For Moov’s owners, packing skills are Shelburne. less important than interpersonal ones.

There, Simson realized she had a They need to build rapport with clients, knack for interior decorating. In 2017, gaining their trust before rummagshe left to start her own decorating ing through closets and rearranging business, called Pure Living Interiors, furniture. and moved with her husband and two Each successful relocation means 863-5625 daughters to Richmond. easing a client’s stress. Says Mahoney, One day, she and Mahoney were “There’s some level of satisfaction in HomeShareVermont.org talking in the school parking lot when making it all come together.” m Mahoney mentioned some friends in South Carolina who had started a INFO moving-assistance business and were Learn more at moovconsultants.com.

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Purple Reign In the Northeast Kingdom, resilient lavender farmers grow an agribusiness

COURTESY OF LAVENDER ESSENTIALS OF VERMONT

BY J UL I A S H I P L EY

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Driving east on Herrick Road, where it charges up Herrick Hill less than a mile from the U.S.-Canada border, motorists pass telltale signs of the ways Vermonters make a living from the land.

On one side, a network of plastic tubing weaves through a grove of maples. On the other, firewood is stacked next to a sugarhouse. Ahead are a broad cornfield, two silos and a big dairy barn. Higher up, the hill affords an expansive view of Jay Peak Resort across the valley and the glimmer of Lake Memphremagog.

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PHOTOS: JULIA SHIPLEY

At the top of the hill, a far more recent land-based endeavor is under way. It’s a project that combines the agriculture and tourism industries: a 50acre farm and event site called Lavender Essentials of Vermont.

This spring marks the third growing season for agripreneurs Pierre Capron and Michele Judd, who have been harvesting three species of lavender and selling lavender aromatherapy products.

This year, for the first time, they will open their farm to the public and offer overnight camping on the land, guided day trips, and even “romantic date night” and massage packages.

The business may be new, but the land has been in Judd’s family for four generations. In 2017, she and Capron decided to find a way to utilize the land that would allow them to be outside and work from home. At the time, Capron was a manager at a local car dealership; Judd was a pet groomer at Animal Kingdom, a business she launched at age 19 in Derby (it’s now in Newport).

Although the two had both attended North Country Union High School, they reconnected in 2016 on a memorial motorcycle ride for a mutual friend, and their relationship blossomed into love.

One day while they were at a farmers market, the couple encountered a man selling a tonic out of his Subaru. Capron tried the liquid, billed as a cure-all, and thought it tasted god-awful. When

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From left: View from Lavender Essentials of Vermont; Michele Judd and Pierre Capron; row of Phenomenal lavender

he asked the man if he was making a living selling the product, the vendor explained that since he’d retired from a successful career, he was making less money but doing a lot more living.

It was a light-bulb moment for Capron and Judd.

Having both grown up on dairy farms, the pair agreed they wanted to grow a specialty crop that would net them a solid profit. And they wanted to develop a business their kids could someday inherit. They initially PURPLE REIGN

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Purple Reign « P.19 considered hemp but dismissed it as “too volatile” — at the time, it was federally illegal. So they went online and searched for “the highest-grossing crop you can plant in the U.S.” “Lavender was No. 4 on this list,” Judd told Nest, standing in front of the house she inherited from her grandmother.

That same year, Modern Farmer magazine claimed that a one-acre planting of the fragrant purple flower could produce “about 12,000 bouquets per year, worth $10 each or more on the retail market.”

Intrigued by the plant — which is not only aromatic but has antiseptic, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties — the couple began to envision an agribusiness in which they could sell the raw product and create health and beauty merchandise from it.

But in spite of the plant’s promise, they hesitated. Could lavender thrive in northern Vermont? After all, it originated in the Mediterranean and prefers a dry, temperate environment and well-drained soils.

By contrast, Judd Farm is situated at 1,500 feet between two invisible but significant lines: the 45th parallel (the midpoint between the North Pole and

© DILYANA NIKOLOVA | DREAMSTIME.COM

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PHOTOS: JULIA SHIPLEY

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the equator) and the U.S. border with Canada. Both underscore how far this place is from the mild Mediterranean.

“We are in Zone 4b,” Judd said — meaning the local growing season consists of 92 to 100 consecutive days and nights above freezing. Furthermore, the land’s rich soil receives significant annual rainfall: about 43 inches per year.

But the couple decided to go for it when they learned that Bleu Lavande, a dozen miles north in Stanstead, Québec, claims to be the second-largest producer of lavender oil in North America.

So, in the summer of 2017, Capron and Judd planted just under an acre of three cold-tolerant lavender varieties: Phenomenal, Munstead and English.

Unfortunately, a harsh winter ensued, and the following spring they discovered that they’d lost 70 percent of their 1,400 plants. They replaced the dead ones and added even more.

The summer of 2018 was hot and dry, and the lavender thrived.

But the challenges weren’t over. Last November, an early storm dumped two feet of snow before Judd and Capron could properly prepare their beds for the winter. To save their plants, Capron used a leaf blower to clear the beds. They hired some local teens to shovel snow off the lavender. Judd’s dad, a retired dairy farmer, examined the situation and

imparted this wisdom: “The impossible only takes a little longer.”

After clearing the snow, Judd and Capron created an improved protective covering of straw and an impermeable blanket, which they described as a “lavender cocoon.” Four months later, Judd peeked underneath it and found that her plants had survived.

But not a week after she and Capron uncovered the lavender in anticipation of this year’s growing season, the temperature plunged to 38 degrees, setting off another round of panic for the farmers. Judd tuned in to a webinar with 400 other lavender growers across the country who were experiencing similar weather conditions and concerns. The webinar was called “Are my plants dead?”

As it turned out, yes and no. “Only half of our lavender in the field survived,” Judd lamented.

wash and pain-relieving gel. In the garage, their Harley-Davidsons shared space with more than 2,000 plants.

Another thousand were en route from a specialty nursery.

Meanwhile, Capron had tilled the ground for a pumpkin patch and a lavender labyrinth, new this year. Some 30,000 bees in nearby hives were presumably gearing up for their seasonal mission: turning lavender pollen into lavender honey.

On Lavender Essentials’ website, Capron and Judd acknowledge how with “a brave entrepreneurial spirit we took the leap, and fully committed ourselves.” In person, Capron echoed that sentiment. He and Judd will enjoy an enormous reward, he surmised, if they can weather the storms.

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View from Lavender Essentials of Vermont

When Nest visited Lavender Essentials on a Saturday in May — six weeks before blooming season — a flat of 100 lavender seedlings was growing next to the couple’s living room window. A back bedroom had become a laboratory where Judd, a certified aromatherapist, makes lavender-based concoctions such as hand soap, body

amble the lavender labyrinth, reserve a tent site, pick a bouquet, or simply lie in the fields and breathe.

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COURTESY OF ANDY DUBACK

Brian Stark at his office in South Burlington

Always Be

Closing Attorney Brian Stark makes real estate transactions happen

BY CA ROLY N FOX

Brian Stark could tell you a lot of horror stories. Not the spooky ghost tales you’d relish around a campfire over s’mores, but the sort of stomach-churning stories that might run through a first-time home buyer’s head around 4 a.m. a few weeks before closing.

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Stark, 41, is an attorney with South Burlington’s Stark Law, a firm he started in 2013. A native of Grand Rapids, Mich., he earned a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning from Indiana’s Ball State University, followed by a master’s degree and juris doctor in environmental law from Vermont Law School. Stark has specialized in Vermont real estate transactions since 2003. A Burlington resident, he also serves on the board of HomeShare Vermont.

When I went under contract on a Winooski home last winter, my Realtor gave me less than 24 hours to hire an attorney. I picked Stark’s name at random from a list and sailed smoothly through to closing. It wasn’t until I actually met him in person, at the end of the process, that I realized I had no idea what his role had been. I only knew that those waking nightmares had, thankfully, never materialized.

I interviewed Stark a few months later and learned about all kinds of complications he’s helped buyers and sellers navigate in his years on the job. They include having to sue over a seller’s unsatisfactory home repairs; the “domino effect” in a chain of home sales when one party’s closing date gets pushed forward; and a memorable land dispute in which neighbors showed up with a deed to a buyer’s newly purchased property. (Title insurance saved the day.)

For Nest, Stark illuminated some of the legal work behind a real estate transaction. Our interview has been condensed for space.

I heard an analogy recently that a real estate attorney is like a duck. It looks like it’s gliding easily along, but there’s serious paddling below the surface.

One hundred percent. I’ve had people say that about our office. And it’s true. You walk into closing pretty nervous, but we do this every day.

Fine Lighting

REAL ESTAT E You’re also not seeing all the background that’s going on. Unless we come across a title issue, the buyer has no clue that we went to the land records, we did the title search. We give you that title opinion at the closing, and then you get the title insurance policy after the closing.

All of that stuff is really one of the most important pieces of the process, because it’s certifying to you that what you, as buyer, have just paid a large sum of cash for, you truly purchased.

At what point in the home-buying or -selling process do you recommend somebody hire an attorney?

Everybody says, “Oh, I’m buying a house. I need a Realtor and a lender.

Why do I need an attorney? I’m not suing anybody.” And so it’s typically the last thought, or we’re the last ones into the process.

But if you think about it, that [purchase and sale] contract is a legally binding document, so [it] might be a good idea to have an attorney look at it before you sign it. Or, at a minimum, have an attorney review clause in there.

those contracts are written, they can just extend and extend and extend as long as they want. So, we’ve had people in situations where they’re running up against the date that they’ve gotta be out of their current home, and the bank/ seller just can’t get their act together to close in time.

And your role in that is to…?

Run our head against the wall until we can get ’em to close, if we’re on the buyer’s side! And usually we can get it to work. But it can be challenging sometimes.

What’s the deal with title insurance?

It really is something that confuses the living bejesus out of people. It’s something that we think is important and we recommend on every transaction.

It’s a one-time premium paid at the closing and good even after you sell the property. So, if a subsequent owner came back and said, “Hey, there was this issue with the title when you bought the property; we want you to fix it,” you can turn back around and make a claim on that policy.

GETTING TO GO CRUISE THE HIGHWAYS OF VERMONT

DOING TITLE SEARCHES IS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST. B RIAN STARK

If you do hit a bump in the road, what it says in the contract can have large implications for that big deposit that you gave the seller, your ability to get that back, your ability to back out of the transaction and the ramifications of doing so. In an ideal world, the attorney is brought in right at the start of the process so they’re reviewing that contract right when you sign it.

If a house turns over quickly, aren’t you basically repeating the same processes the last attorney went through?

Yeah. Which can kind of feel monotonous at times. But then you come across something that is wrong in the chain of title, and you’re like, How has this been missed this many times?

What are some complications you’ve run into? Any horror stories?

It can run the gamut. [For example,] people like to buy properties that have been foreclosed, because you’re getting a really good deal on them. The problem is, the bank — who is the seller — could give a rip when you close. The way that

We have seen people that had a neighbor come across the street after they had bought a property and say, “Hey, here’s our deed to your property.”

I spent three weeks searching that title.

I was all the way back to the late 1700s, and I couldn’t tell you who owned that lot. The title insurance company ended up paying the neighbor … so then the buyer had what they thought they bought. The only thing they paid for was the title insurance premium. So they were out a couple hundred bucks and got multiple tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of coverage out of it.

Do you ever drive around town and recognize houses that you’ve helped change hands?

Having lived in Burlington 17 years come August, you just know the area well enough. So every time you’re doing a title search, you’re like, “Oh, I know where that one is!” Most of the time. It’s fun. It kind of gives you a better sense of place than you necessarily would [have] just working and living here. And especially getting to go do title searches out of town. On a bright summer day, getting

for your Home and Office

to go cruise the highways of Vermont doing title searches is an absolute blast.

I guess I don’t really know what it means to do a title search.

In Vermont, we keep our land records at the town/city level. So, in our tiny little City Lights state, there’s 200-some-odd recording Flex Lamps jurisdictions. To do a title search, we actually have to physically go to the town clerk’s office. They’ve got a big vault with all of the land records books in it, and indexes. A lot of the towns still are on an old-school Dewey decimal card system, and so each deed has a corresponding little index card that has seller and buyer on it, grantor and grantee, and same with all the mortgages and easements and stuff like that. ... Buy American & Local So, you’re starting with the current owner and working your way back through the chain of title 40 years, plus one good deed. You make sure you find out everything you can about the property, as far as encumbrances. It’s really interesting.

Not so much in [Burlington], but 490 Shelburne Rd., Burlington those farther-out places, you’ll read 802.658.5444 • www.city-lights.com the description, and it’s like, “Along the stone fence, and when you get to the big oak tree, turn left…” You go back far enough, and you’ve got original N8v-citylight0617.indd 1 5/17/17 chartered lots for the town. A lot of the towns still have their original town grant in their vault. That’s pretty cool to see — you know, the governor of New Hampshire, under authority of the king of England, granting the right to establish this town.

4:50 PM

What do you find rewarding about this type of law?

Your closing was one of the coolest things you’ve ever done, right? It was one of your best days: I bought a house!

It’s right up there with getting married and having a kid. I get to be part of that every day.

And, yeah, we have the ones that are horror stories or whatever. But on balance? No! To see how happy people are at the end of the closing because the buyer has this house that they’re now so excited to move into, and the seller’s off to their new adventures that they’re excited about — and to play a role in making that happen — that’s my favorite part of my day, sitting in here doing these closings. m Contact: carolyn@sevendaysvt.com

INFO

Learn more at starklawvermont.com.

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