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Maryclare Roos - Home Restoration and Treasure Hunting · She’s Smart

0:02
Hey, everybody. Welcome to She's Smart. I'm your host, Maria Robotham.
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On today's episode, I have Mary Claire Roos, a mom of three,
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a history lover, and the present-day steward of the Peter Thorpe House,
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a 1739 Connecticut farmhouse that's
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full of charm, mystery, and a few unexpected visitors from the past.
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From the moment Mary Claire and her family stepped onto the property,
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it felt like the house chose them.
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Since then, she's uncovered centuries-old artifacts hidden in the ground,
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become a backyard archaeologist, and connected the dots between coins,
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pottery shards, and people who once called the land home.
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Oh, and did I mention the house is haunted? If you're into old homes,
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buried treasure, secret midden pits, and a few friendly spirits, you're in for a treat.
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Mary Claire takes us through the joys and chaos of renovating an antique home,
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what it's like to raise a family alongside some ghostly residents,
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and how she's built a following by sharing her finds and her humor on Instagram at Peter Thorpe House.
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So get cozy as we connect, learn, and laugh together on She's Smart.
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Music.
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I hide them up my sleeve because they make noise. You can hear the jingle.
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The clanking. Yeah. And I wear them every single day. I can't.
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Thank you, Mary Claire, for being here today. Oh, my gosh. I am honored. This is exciting.
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You grew up in Weston? I did. I grew up in Weston.
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I grew up here. I went away to college. Did you go to school?
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Then I went to the University of Michigan. Oh, that's all the Michigan stuff. Big blue.
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Did both of you, did you and her husband go there? No. We met at work,
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actually, which is a funny story.
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My entire family is in market research. My grandfather was one of the mad men
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in the 60s and 70s doing advertising literally on Madison Avenue.
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And he started a market research firm in Connecticut. So my mom worked for him.
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My first boss worked for my grandfather. We were all in the industry.
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And my husband started working at this company for my mother.
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I was an intern in my last year of college, and she's telling me all about Garvin, Garvin, Garvin.
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And I'm thinking, I don't remember someone named Garvin.
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And I start working there full time, and he's the opposite of me. He's a Marine.
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He's very serious. He's very analytical.
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I remember at one point he asked one of my friends, who's that loud girl at
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the end of our row of cubicles?
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It was this cool group of young people. There were probably 10 of us in our
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early 20s. We would have house parties on the week. It was a college 2.0.
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Someone was having a party way up in Connecticut and he offered to drive me.
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I thought, I don't know you.
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It's a long way to go with someone who's kind of serious. And I'm thinking,
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I'm going to have to talk the whole time.
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But we drove up together and we hit it off. And like, that was the beginning.
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And I remember someone calling my mom upstairs, one of the other executives, and was like,
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What's going on with Mary Clarence Garvin? And she said, nothing.
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I don't know what you're talking about. Nothing is going on with Mary Clarence Garvin.
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And the next thing you know, we're planning a wedding.
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Oh, my gosh. How long was he in the Marines? Was he out of school?
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In the Marines for five years before he went to school.
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So he was in the Marines from 99 to 04. So September 11th.
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And he was out in the Persian Gulf on an aircraft carrier.
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Holy cow. Yeah. So he has seen and heard all kinds of things,
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but it was such a pivotal point in our country's history that he has a lot of
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pride, as do I, over the time he served.
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I have a bunch of family members that were in the military. Yeah. My uncle was in Vietnam.
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He was born on the 4th of July. Oh, wow. And he was paralyzed in Vietnam. Wow.
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Paraplegic. Oh, my God. Yeah. And he is the most amazing man.
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Uncle Joaquin played tennis. He worked at UCSB. Wow. He is so badass.
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And so is my aunt, though. My aunt, who's married to him, my mom's sister,
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my auntie Sheila, is one of the coolest women I have ever known. She's a woman's 80.
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She still rides horses. Wow. She uses a shotgun on the ranch. Go, girl.
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They live in California, like in a big ranch. They've raised horses and trained
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them and done all this stuff.
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Yeah. She used to ride the Andalusians in the Santa Barbara Parade.
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Oh, my God. She's amazing. I want to grow up and be as strong as she is.
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There's a story that my uncle, Joaquin, was in his wheelchair outside on the ranch.
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And they're in California in the dirt. So there are rattlesnakes,
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bears, there are animals everywhere. He's yelling, Sheila, Sheila.
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My Aunt Sheila's like, what? And she's like, there's a rattlesnake at my chair.
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Oh, no. A rattlesnake at the bottom of his wheel.
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And he can't do anything about it. So she brings out the shotgun and she shot
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the rattlesnake at the wheel of his wheelchair.
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Like think about that amazing shot. The margin of error. The margin of error.
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And she shot it. But then rattlesnakes, I didn't know this, they die,
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but they have one more bite in them.
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So then she had to bury the head. My God.
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What a woman. She's amazing. She's incredible. So then she had to bury the head. She's just badass.
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That's fantastic. Like she'll all grow up and be badass. Like that. That's incredible.
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I have a lot of respect for military families. I love that. Ben's dad was a Marine.
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His grandfather served in World War II.
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Their ancestor was the bugle boy in the Revolutionary War. No kidding.
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It's pretty incredible. So you grew up here. Yes. And you get married.
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You have three beautiful babies.
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And you buy this house, the Peter Thorpe house. Yes, we do.
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Tell me a little bit behind the story of, because that wasn't your first home in Weston.
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So you found this house. I need to know the story behind it.
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There's so many interesting details to it.
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I firmly believe this house picked us.
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We lived on Georgetown Road in a house that was just fine for us.
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We had no real reason to move.
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We loved Weston. We loved our house. Everything was great. I am a late night Realtor.com scroller.
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I am not, but I have very close friends who do that. Yeah, I still do to this
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day and I'm not going anywhere. I'm trolling Realtor.com as I do,
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and I came across this house.
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And I have always wanted to live in an antique.
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During COVID, home prices were through the roof. People were coming out in droves
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to see these properties.
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Everything was going into multiples. Sight unseen. No inspection.
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All cash. They were just like, get me the hell out of the city. Take whatever's there.
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So we really had no business making a move at that time. But I conspired with
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one of my dearest girlfriends, Kristen Sherb, who is a fantastic real estate
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agent, super strategic and thoughtful, and I adore her.
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I called her up and said, we got to get Garvin to this house.
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We talked and schemed, like, how can we pitch this to Garvin, my husband?
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Who, again, being a Marine, super pragmatic, very analytical,
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very thoughtful. And I'm a Pisces.
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I fly by the seat of my pants.
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So we went into this from very different vantage points. But we pull up to the house.
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We walk the property. And I look at him and I'm thinking, OK,
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Marie Claire, you got to get your sales girl hat on.
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And he said, this property is incredible.
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So for anyone who doesn't live here the house that mary
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claire purchased sits up as you drive up
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a really bucolic road in weston and
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you look to the right and there are houses in front of her right
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as you go up this driveway you see the first house which is like a little barn
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or a side house then you see the main house but as you keep driving up the road
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the house keeps rambling just stretches out never told you this before it's
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one of my husband's favorite houses in weston Oh, that is so sweet.
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Every time we drive by it to take the dog on the hike up by Wells Hill,
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he's like, I love that house. It just keeps going.
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And it's almost like in California we have ranch-style houses.
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Yes. A lot of ranchers. It is a ranch-style house, right? It's one floor.
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Yes. Half of it is. So it looks kind of like that. And just the property itself
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has these beautiful stone walls wrapping around the front of it.
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And it's just a beautiful space just so you guys can get an idea, picture it in your mind.
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Yeah. And very different from the house that we were moving from.
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In a garrison colonial, very nice square rooms.
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This house was originally a salt box.
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It was a one-over-one salt box pre-revolutionary. It was built in 1739.
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Oh, my gosh. Which, you know. Before we became a town.
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Before we became a country. Okay, so really quick, let's do some history here.
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I can't remember what year it was established.
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I want to 1780-something. Say 1787.
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So established then. But what people might not know is that we had British officers
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staying in a few of the houses in Weston.
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They made them like bars. My friend Curry, who owns Florico,
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she used to live in Weston, and her house was a bar inn.
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Wow. And it's like a tavern. Oh, a tavern. Thank you. It was a tavern.
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And it was just the most quaintest, like, old floors. It was amazing.
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But all of the soldiers that landed at Compo Beach in Westport,
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Like they had to have their officer somewhere. They came forward into Weston.
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Like the history here, it's always amazing. I can't wait to get into what you found.
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But that's some of the history about Weston for those who don't know.
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It's got some great things that have happened here.
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Absolutely. From Campo to Danbury. There were all kinds of stops along the way.
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I need to learn more about that.
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So I will do more research on the history part of it because I know tidbits
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of it. Just the kids because they do a whole Weston history thing.
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Exactly. And later this year, the Historical Society were hoping...
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Can continue our Weston at Work initiative, which is going to be huge for the
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kids to learn all about commerce and industry in Weston and surrounding towns.
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Unfortunately, we were burned. We just found out this week that the grant we
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were awarded for this Weston at Work exhibit, a $25,000 grant that we were approved for back in March,
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we got a letter from Doge.
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And they are effective immediately terminating our grant. Imagine the little
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Western Historical Society in Connecticut.
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I think it's important for our community members to see that,
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you know, we hear about it, we see it on the news, but it's actually hitting our communities.
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It's not just these big museums and federal initiatives. It's the teeny tiny
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little historical societies.
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That really need it to function well. Yeah. So we're hoping to recoup the funds
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in other ways and still be able to put on this exhibit.
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But that's exactly the goal of this, to teach the kids and really excite our
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local communities to learn more about the history.
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Because Weston and all of the surrounding towns have such a rich,
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revolutionary history.
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Absolutely. Yeah. I wonder if we can put it down below. If there's a link to
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this historical site. Are they fundraising? Yes.
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All right. We'll put it down below. I'll pass it along. So people know and we can plug it. Awesome.
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I love them. When I first moved here and joined the Women's League,
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I was like, what else am I going to do? So we did a tequila tasting for Historical
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Society, and that was so much fun. And then they just kept going with it and
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doing different things.
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Yeah. I'm always, I've just been a big fan of theirs forever.
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We tried to do the farmer's market there again when we first moved here,
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but that was just too difficult with all of the, there's so many farmer's markets now. So amazing.
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It's hard to compete with that and have your little vendors not go there and
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get all the money there. Yeah.
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They're bringing back music at the barn in the summer, which is so much fun.
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Oh, people love that. So there's a lot going on.
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Yeah. And that's an easy one because it's Sunday nights, right?
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Sunday late afternoons, you can just roll in. Yeah, bring a picnic.
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Yeah, it's fun. Okay, that's fantastic.
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Okay, so the house, you fell in love with that? We fell in love with the house,
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but people were coming from New York in droves.
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Our agent said, listen, if you want this, you've got to move.
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We hadn't even put our house on the market yet, and we were like,
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okay, we're going to put our offer in, put our best foot forward.
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And we were the lowest of five offers.
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I said, you know what? This is just not going to happen. I need to move on.
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I did exactly what my father told me never to do, which is I fell in love with
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a house. Yes. So I was heartbroken.
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But don't you love that dads always say that? Yes. My father said it to me.
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My best friend's dad said it to me. They're like, it's just a house.
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It's just real estate. Yep.
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But then you fall in love with it. Yep. And then you don't even see what's wrong with it after 11 years.
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And then you're like, shit, we got to do some work to this house.
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And we have to do this and that. But I love it.
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That happened to me when we walked into Kettle Creek. We literally were from
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New York. I was pregnant. I had Easton.
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I walked into this house, and I'm like, I love this house.
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I love the feeling I get. I feel like I'm at home here. Yeah,
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worst thing to do. Because you can make any house a home.
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And I realized that over time, as we travel so much for the kids for snowboarding,
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we're in all these Airbnbs constantly. It's not my house.
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I treat it like my house. I'm always very respectful of where we stay.
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And I end up putting flowers in. I end up, like, bringing the lights on,
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like, zhuzhing it up. I'll pay Lo Santo. I'll sage.
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Like, I'll create this atmosphere. And I'm like, wait, I can do this anywhere.
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And that took a long time to think about that. It's true. I still love my house.
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But you can make anywhere home. That's what I realized as I've gone through
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this process a little bit.
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Yep. You fell in love with the Peter Thore house. We fell in love with the house.
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And we were the lowest of five offers. So I was really preparing myself to just
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put it to bed. It's not going to happen.
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The 600-page inspection report.
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600 pages? It's an antique.
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And then there are two big additions. That's the part that rambles of the main house.
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There's a guest house, a cottage, and a barn. So it's a lot of structures.
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It's a lot of deferred maintenance.
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Which is code for, yes, which is code for a lot of things that need to be addressed.
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What did the electrical look like?
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It's a patchwork job on a patchwork job. Some of it is like tube and knob from the turn of the century.
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There are switches that we don't know what they do. To this day.
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We've lived here for three years. What does that turn on?
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I'll never know. You don't know. We actually just renovated one of the little
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cottages on the property. It was like an experiment for the plumber and the
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electrician who came because they opened things up and they were like,
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whoa, we haven't seen this in a hundred years.
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And they were going on about all the crazy things.
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But it's a puzzle. And we have to build in a big contingency every time because
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there could be spit and horse hair as insulation.
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And you have no idea until you open it up. So that can be a sometimes unpleasant surprise. But.
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You know it going into it that this is kind of the way it is.
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But that scared away the buyers.
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It was this young couple from Brooklyn who were coming from an apartment with
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a super and thought, cool, let's go live in Connecticut.
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And had no idea that like asbestos and wells and septic systems and,
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you know, the on and on of this property.
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I think they thought, yikes, OK, this is not for us. And at that time,
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you had to move so quickly that the other couples who were in the running had
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moved on to other properties.
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So it was ours. And we had a long conversation of like, you know,
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are we here's the inspection report with all of its warts?
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Are we prepared to take on this project? And I just felt such a connection to
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the idea of being this property's stewards.
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It needed love. It needed a breath of fresh air.
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And I just felt like I was the person to do it. I love when the universe brings things together.
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It really was so serendipitous that I thought, you know what?
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Maybe the universe is telling me. So when you bought the house,
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you were in it. You're like, let's do this.
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Did you come up with a strategy or a plan of what needed to happen first?
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Or did you live in it for a year?
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For instance, we're in construction. They're like, don't do anything in the
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first year. Just live in it. See what it needs.
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How did that process work? And that's so funny you say that because I just had
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a conversation with my mom yesterday.
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We now have two different bathrooms that are leaking into the ceiling.
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I said to my mom, it is so frustrating that we have zero control over what has
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been done to the house so far.
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The house has told us what has needed to be done so far. The first project we
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did was the barn because when we moved in...
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Contractors and the inspector said to us, you need to address this or you're
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going to lose it. It's going to fall.
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Yeah. So structurally, we had to invest in shoring that up and bringing that back to life.
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What was really incredible when we moved in, we received documentation from
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the Historical Society and the prior owners about James Melton,
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who lived in the house in the 30s and 40s.
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He was a radio star, which to us now doesn't sound like that big a deal,
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but they didn't have TV the way we had TV now.
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So he was truly a Hollywood star.
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He is two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Wow. So he was a big deal. I have no idea. So we received all of these photographs,
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all of this information.
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I've since befriended his daughter, who is in her 80s.
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She lives out in Vermont. And she and I have said to each other,
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we are soul sisters. There is some cosmic connection. We're like family.
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So getting all of this documentation and all these photographs,
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we had a blueprint to restore the barn to the Melton era. And it was such a
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big part of his life in Weston.
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In addition to being a star, he was an antique car collector. Our barn fits.
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Three cars by three bays. And that was his primary garage for this collection
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of antique automobiles.
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This land is meant for people who want to keep things and restore them.
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That is incredible. And that's become such a passion for me,
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encouraging this next generation of homeowners who are coming to Weston to learn about your property.
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Bring it back to its original glory.
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Because a lot of the way things were built back then, they were meant to last.
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They were meant for the legacy.
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It's not the quick turn, fast paid, disposable way a lot of furniture and construction
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is happening today. Clothing.
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Yes, exactly. I talk about this all the time, how things used to be made so much better.
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Yes. Washing machines were made better.
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So my mom had a Maytag, I think it was, for like 30 years that thing lasted.
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I remember we got it. It showed up when the big Loma Prieta earthquake happened in 1989.
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And we were downstairs. We thought it was the washing machine.
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Because we were down there looking at it and being like, this is so cool.
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Look at our new washer and dryer.
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And then my mom was like, I think we should get into the doorways.
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And then the earthquake was like on.
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But that lasted. I think they just replaced it. Just replaced it.
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My in-laws had the same ones up in Rhode Island.
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And we asked for new ones because we bought ones that were, I won't say the
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brand, but we bought ones that were supposed to be like eco and this, that, and the other.
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Okay, first of all, it didn't wash anything. Second of all, mildew created everywhere. Yeah.
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And I looked at Ben. I'm like, I just want one like we used to have. It washes. It dries.
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Like, I know how to take care of clothes. Right. I don't need it to call me
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on my phone when the laundry is done.
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Because most likely I'm not going to do it until tomorrow anyway. Exactly.
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But I'm with you. Same with clothing. It's hard to find that,
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unless you're spending...
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Uber amounts of dollars to get something quality.
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And even then I have purchased items for clients that are so expensive and you
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get it in the mail and it's crap quality.
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Returned all of it. It's hard to find that. And that's why I loved your post
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the other day about going out and going into vintage and antique stores to purchase
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all of your wares. Yes. Because it's true.
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I find some of my best pieces when I go vintage. Absolutely.
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And I think I said in the post, not only is it sustainable.
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But, you know, in today's geopolitical climate, all of these industries.
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Especially furniture, homewares, fashion, they're going to get knocked with
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tariffs. Tariffed up the lawsuit.
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Yeah. So go hit your antique shops. Go hit your thrift stores.
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It's good for the environment.
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It's good for your bank account. And you're going to find incredible quality
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that's built to last. Yeah. And if you can't see it, bring the friend who can.
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I go with Jamie and Steph. We love going to the vintage stores.
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Yeah. We have the best time.
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They're both so creative and they find the pieces and I find the pieces.
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My friend Sarah is so good at consignment.
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She will go in anywhere and find the one piece that everyone should find.
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Like if you're not good at it, bring a friend to help you. I can't do interiors
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for the life of me. No way. I'm not good at that. That's why I have Tyler.
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You don't have to be good at it if you have someone else who knows. Exactly.
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Do you have favorite places around here that you like to go to or do you go online?
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Honestly, Facebook Marketplace can be a treasure trove. Someone's cleaning out
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Grandma Sally's attic, and they've got beautiful pieces for a fraction of the cost.
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So Facebook Marketplace can be a first stop.
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I love Trove up in Old Saybrook. That's one of my favorite places.
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Notes down below so people can pop over there if they want to go up. Trove's fantastic.
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When was the first moment? The treasure hunting. I want to talk about the treasure
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hunting part. And then I want to know about as you're redoing the house...
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What has come up that you've had to deal with. But as you're redoing the house, you find treasures.
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Have you always looked for special things in different places or did you find
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something and then you're like, I got to keep finding something?
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It kind of happened in two parts.
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I had bought Garvin a metal detector for Father's Day like five years ago.
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It was in the box for five years. So we moved to this property and I thought,
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well, it's an old property.
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Why don't I just take a whack at it. I had no idea what I was doing.
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I opened the box. I'm fumbling around outside, and I start finding things.
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At first, it was a nail, and then it was like this pretty decorative iron piece.
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Then I found a brooch, a beautiful mid-1800s brooch.
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Then I find a coin from the 1700s.
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This This is a 1798 Liberty large cent.
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And when you think about that, that is one of the first iterations of coinage
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in our country. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
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So. How did you clean it? Well, I've learned a lot.
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I started this Instagram account
23:52
just for my own ability to document what we're doing and what we find.
23:58
It has been such a godsend in connecting me with experts and academics.
24:06
One guy's been metal detecting for 50 years. And I pinged him and I said,
24:10
hey, I just found this coin.
24:12
What do I do? And he not only walked me through the proper process for cleaning
24:17
it and not destroying it,
24:19
but he then connected me with an academic who researches and catalogs old colonial
24:27
coins, who then connected me with someone else who works in a museum.
24:30
So as silly as social media may seem, it has been such a blessing for me in...
24:38
Learning and meeting people and understanding a lay of the land and building
24:43
this community of people who are passionate about the same thing,
24:46
which has been really magical.
24:48
Imagine without it, we'd be searching through the Yellow Pages.
24:51
Right. How are they? Are they in different parts of the country?
24:54
Yes. All over the country. A lot of them are on the East Coast,
24:58
naturally, because that's, you know, the colonies were here.
25:01
It's been so cool connecting with people and learning. I have learned so much
25:06
in the last couple of years.
25:07
So I'm metal detecting, finding more and more incredible pieces around the yard.
25:14
I happen upon, with my metal detector, I find a pewter spoon from the 1800s, which was fantastic.
25:22
And as I'm digging the hole to dig out this pewter spoon, I'm coming up with
25:28
fistfuls of glass and shells.
25:31
And I remember this old metal detector saying to me, when you find shells, keep digging.
25:38
And I actually have a video of my discovering this little pit.
25:42
And I say out loud, someone told me when I find shells, keep digging.
25:46
And I'm digging and digging. And unbeknownst to me, I am at the top of a midden.
25:53
Which is that? What is a midden? That is a question everybody asks me.
25:57
So a midden is a pit that all early American homes had.
26:02
When you think about it, there were no hefty bags, no garbage cans.
26:06
So anytime something within the home broke or they didn't use it anymore,
26:12
didn't need it, or it was refused from the kitchen, they would dig a big pit
26:17
in the back and throw everything in there.
26:20
And then they would burn it and bury it and dig a new pit.
26:24
I was at the top of a pit full of artifacts from,
26:30
you know, We found stuff in there as early as the late 1700s all the way to
26:35
like the mid to late, around Civil War time, mid to late 1800s.
26:41
Isn't that wild? And I would go out there. You know, we joke.
26:45
I'm the backyard archaeologist. I'm not a trained archaeologist.
26:49
So I'm out there with my. That's a great name for a book, by the way.
26:53
Backyard archaeologist. I'm going to write that down. You've already used it.
26:55
No one's allowed to take it.
26:56
I'm out there with my kitchen gloves, my eyebrow tweezers, and a bowl from my
27:03
kitchen putting these precious artifacts, you know, digging them out of the ground.
27:08
The more research I've done, you can learn so much about early American living
27:13
by how you dig these midden pits.
27:18
The stratification of what you
27:20
find at what level will tell you how long certain things have been there.
27:25
You can use context clues of what is around the things you're digging up to
27:32
date them and learn about them. For instance...
27:36
I found a clay pipe. It's one of my favorite things I've ever found.
27:41
And back then, tobacco was not as refined as it is today. So the hot tobacco
27:47
would get clogged in the pipe stem.
27:49
It was a long pipe stem. They would just break off the stem where the clog was,
27:54
toss the piece in the pit, and keep smoking it until they got down to the bowl.
27:58
And then the bowl would go in. It was practically disposable.
28:00
Get out! So, you know, I found a pipe bowl that I could date pretty definitively
28:08
to a like a 10 year window next to a piece of pottery that based on its design and composition,
28:16
we could attribute to a potter in South Norwalk.
28:20
No way. Yeah. So all of the like contextual clues of finding things near each
28:27
other told us about what was going on on this property during a certain time period.
28:34
It's been incredibly fascinating.
28:36
So what do you do with all the pieces now? Are they I know you had a display
28:40
at the Historical Society, but is there are they all over the house?
28:43
Like where is everything? So I typically don't take stuff from other sites.
28:49
Everything that's in my house is from my house.
28:52
All of the stuff from the Historical Society is also from my house. We just closed.
28:57
Last weekend was the final weekend of our Historical Society exhibit,
29:03
which was such an awesome experience. The Historical Society,
29:07
Samantha, the executive director of the Historical Society is brilliant.
29:12
She and the volunteers helped bring my vision of Peter Thorpe House to life
29:19
and dimensionalize all of it, which was really fun. So that is all coming home.
29:25
I have to figure out where I'm going to put all that next.
29:28
So you finished the cottage and we got to watch it because you had an Instagram. Yeah.
29:32
How was that experience when you first opened it up?
29:36
Was there a big issue that you had to deal with or were there little issues
29:40
that kind of popped up as you were going along?
29:42
Was there a big surprise in there? Yes, there was a big surprise.
29:45
So like the barn, this was another thing where we had to address it or we were going to lose it.
29:53
There were mice. There were holes.
29:55
There was deferred maintenance, as they like to say.
29:59
And I think that would be a perfect place for my parents when they come to stay.
30:04
Yes. So I really wanted to fix it up and have it be functional because it was
30:07
just sitting there wasting away. What are those units called now?
30:11
ADI units? Oh, I don't know. They're popping up all over the place. Yeah?
30:14
Well, my mom sends them to me because she's like, you guys could do this for us, right?
30:20
Yeah. They're like separate units and they're meant for in-law suite or something
30:24
like that, but they're off of the actual building.
30:26
Yep, yep, yep. I love that idea. It would be great even for an Airbnb,
30:29
which would be really fun.
30:32
Totally. Yeah. So we wanted to get it going, check it off the list before it fell into disrepair.
30:38
We have a fantastic contractor who we adore.
30:41
We had to really peel back the layers and the entire bathroom floor was completely
30:49
rotted. We thought this would be just like a three fresh. Let's do some new tile.
30:54
We need to rip out the entire floor, which was cool for me because I could poke
30:59
around in the ground underneath the building. It's the contractor like Mary Claire.
31:05
I know. Mary Claire, get right. Exactly. Get out of the floor. I need to tile.
31:09
So was the foundation fine or did that have to be redone? I love that you think
31:14
there was actually any foundation. There was no foundation.
31:17
It was built up on stones.
31:20
Which makes sense because it wasn't cement back then. No, there's stones strategically placed.
31:26
I think there are no reflakes. And frankly, it was pretty sound.
31:30
There was a lot of thought in how these, and they're, you know,
31:34
mortared together, so it's not going to crumble.
31:37
But there is a stone foundation and dirt underneath.
31:43
The dirt releases a lot of moisture and the temperature control is very different
31:48
than it would be in a traditional space.
31:50
We had to put some controls in place to make sure that the plumbing under there isn't going to freeze.
31:55
And that's kind of the impetus of needing to do this. We had a cold snap a year
31:59
ago, a pipe froze in there. So we had to turn off the water and it was...
32:03
If we don't do this now, this is going to be a mess. We got in there, we fixed everything up.
32:08
But like I said, it was a thrill for the plumber to come in and see some of
32:14
the remnants of the original plumbing.
32:17
He got such a kick out of seeing that. So that was probably the biggest hiccup
32:22
was that we just had to redo more than we expected.
32:25
The way the house is structured, there's this cottage, there's our house,
32:30
and then we have a well house.
32:32
It's another building on the property.
32:34
And underneath it is where all of our well mechanics are, as is the original
32:40
cistern that was built into the wall.
32:42
They used out front with the bucket until the 20s.
32:47
There was no indoor plumbing until the 1920s, which is when they put this cistern into the well house.
32:53
We then had to upgrade the well to today's mechanics.
32:56
But the water goes from the well house to our house to the cottage.
33:00
It's like a big triangle.
33:02
He had to test the pressure and do all these special tests to make sure it was
33:08
running properly. That's really been the biggest lesson.
33:10
Nothing about our house is standard.
33:14
There is no applied formula that you can use to replicate anything.
33:19
Everything is a surprise. What's been the most exciting discovery so far? Oh gosh.
33:24
You know what is the coolest. Another coin that was found on the property is
33:30
a 1787 New Jersey copper.
33:35
And when you think about what that means, it is specific to New Jersey.
33:40
So we didn't even have a U.S. mint yet.
33:43
The mint wasn't established until 1792.
33:47
So according to the articles, all of the colonies could have their own coinage.
33:55
And somehow a New Jersey... And you think about, what does that tell us about commerce?
34:00
Could you go over to New York and buy stuff? Something from New Jersey found
34:04
its way into my backyard and New Jersey copper was sitting there.
34:09
But when you think about how that predates the U.S.
34:13
Mint, that just always blew my mind that we didn't even have a mint as we knew it.
34:19
There were two mints in New Jersey And I can't remember exactly where they were.
34:24
It became too disorganized for the colonies to have their own coinage.
34:28
Yeah, how are you going to be traveling back in front? There's been a lot of
34:30
regulation of this size coin with this amount of copper equated to the same
34:36
in Connecticut or New York.
34:37
So it quickly brought a need for a centralized mint and a centralized coin.
34:45
You know, money system. The education that you are getting is pretty incredible.
34:50
Like, did you ever think that you would be like, know what happened in there?
34:53
I mean, it's fascinating. It's fascinating. Really cool.
34:57
So do the kids get involved to you? Yes. Sometimes they'll dig with me.
35:01
It's a lot of duds, though. They don't quite understand that I'm not going out
35:07
and finding a pre-revolutionary coin every single time I go out there. Some days are all nails.
35:14
And there's something to learn about nails.
35:17
There are square shank nails. There are rectangular shank nails.
35:21
There's a modern nail that is circular all the way down the shank.
35:25
And that tells you different things about not only what were they used for,
35:29
but what time period they came from. The really early nails are square.
35:34
There's type A nails, type B nails. Even that can tell you there may have been
35:38
a structure here or that likely was used on a barn versus a house or a ship.
35:45
There's a lot to learn even just about silly little nails.
35:50
Who would have thought? I want to talk about the guests or you are the guests
35:55
of this house, the stewards of this house, because there are spirits.
36:00
There sure are. In your house. Yes.
36:02
So we've talked about this on the podcast before. I believe in ghosts.
36:07
Tyler, the house we're in right now, has one. There's an old lady who lives in the upstairs.
36:14
I've sensed her. I've had a conversation with her that I'm not going to do anything
36:18
in the house that will disturb her.
36:20
She went away. I told her I needed an hour. Exactly an hour later,
36:23
she came back. Oh, my gosh. Yep.
36:25
I sensed them really easily. I can kind of get if we're in a good space or a
36:29
bad space. She wasn't bad. She just didn't want you in her shit.
36:31
So the spirits in your house, what was your first experience with the spirits?
36:35
So my, I'm not gifted in that way.
36:38
I wish I was because I,
36:41
I would love to experience it. People are, I'm sure, going to say,
36:45
be careful what you wish for. I don't feel it the way others do.
36:48
It kind of just happens upon me. And then I think later, oh,
36:54
I wonder if that was whatever.
36:57
So for me and for my family, it's of whatever is there is kind.
37:05
I never feel, except for one place, and I will tell you the story.
37:09
I never get that icky, like tingles on your neck kind of feeling.
37:15
Whatever energy is around is happy energy, happy that we're there.
37:20
There's no feeling that ever makes me feel intimidated or unwelcome or afraid, which is wonderful.
37:26
The first summer we moved there. So there's the big red barn.
37:31
And then around the side of the barn in a little knoll is a root cellar.
37:38
If you can picture a stone root cellar built underneath the side of the barn.
37:43
So for those of you, like in California, I don't think we ever had these.
37:45
They look like a hobbit hole. Exactly.
37:47
Like it looks like you were in the Lord of the Rings and you're in a little
37:51
hobbit hole. And they would keep things cool under there.
37:54
It's the coolest spot, right? It was built in stone for that good insulation.
37:58
It kept things cool in the summer, kept things warm in the winter.
38:02
We didn't even know it was there until the day of our closing.
38:05
I had driven down Sunset Road, which is like a little side road leaving our house.
38:12
It's a private road that kind of cuts through to another road.
38:15
So you wouldn't normally take that route. I looked to my left and I'm on the phone with my realtor.
38:20
I said, what on earth is that under the barn?
38:23
So naturally, the first nice day we had in the summer, I wanted to go explore under there.
38:28
I had a fan that I had plugged through a little air hole into our barn.
38:36
I had a heavy-duty battery-powered light and my metal detector.
38:41
I'm poking around down there, and all of a sudden, my metal detector dies.
38:46
And I'm like, geez, I could have sworn this was on full battery 20 minutes ago.
38:54
No sooner do I utter the words, the light goes off.
38:59
And then 10 seconds later, the fan shuts off.
39:03
And I yell up thinking Garvin has seen some plug and unplugs it.
39:09
I yell up to him, hey, turn the fan back on. It's so hot in here.
39:13
Nobody answers me. And then it dawns on me, oh my god.
39:19
Don't spirits suck energy out of things?
39:24
So then I'm shaking in my boots alone in the dark in this little hobbit hole.
39:30
I bolted out of there quick.
39:31
And I haven't been back in there since.
39:35
Nope, that spirit doesn't want you in there. It was just so funny how it took
39:39
several minutes to dawn on me that not only is no one up there unplugging my fan, I'm alone out here.
39:46
But it's not a coincidence that all three of those things lost their power at the same time.
39:52
Oh, did you test the metal detector when you came back? It was dead.
39:55
Totally dead. I needed new batteries. Yeah, it was crazy.
40:00
That happened like late spring, the first year we moved in.
40:05
Ever since then, we've noticed shadows. I tried to describe this to someone
40:11
not being familiar with the paranormal or any of that.
40:16
I said I saw a little shadow peeking around the corner in the old hearth room.
40:23
A lot of the spooky things have happened around the original staircase.
40:29
So I'm standing around the corner from the staircase and I see a little thing
40:33
peek out and then it's gone. It
40:35
was just a split second, enough that I registered it and I turned my head.
40:40
And what I have described to people, I saw the back of a young boy's head.
40:47
Okay. And I did not see it with my eyes.
40:50
It's like an image of it popped into my head. It must have sounded like a lunatic saying this to people.
40:55
I kept saying, but I didn't see it with my eyes.
40:59
I saw it in my head. I know that sounds crazy, but people have said that it
41:05
can be just a flash of recognition or it's your mind's eye.
41:12
You don't have to see it in front of you with your eyes like I'm seeing you.
41:16
It can be a quick flash in your mind.
41:21
That's exactly what happened. A curly, messy, curly back of a little boy's head. My husband, Mr.
41:30
Pragmatist, who I don't think until now ever believed in spirits.
41:35
Maybe a year later said the same thing.
41:38
I thought I saw a little boy. I thought it was one of our kids.
41:42
But it was 11 o'clock at night, and they were sound asleep upstairs.
41:46
Do you know if there were kids that lived there? The history.
41:48
I'm the family that lived on our property the longest, the Brown family,
41:53
were buried at Coley Cemetery in Weston.
41:56
They lived on and farmed our property for almost 150 years.
42:01
Could have lost a child. So I'm sure the descendants of the Brown family reached
42:07
out to me. One lives in New York.
42:09
Another sister lives in Norwalk. And they found my Peter Thorpe House page.
42:13
They said, we've done the genealogy of our family. Our ancestors lived on your property.
42:19
We hosted a fundraiser for the Historical Society this summer.
42:23
James Melton's daughter came. It was like we had the legacy of the ancestors
42:29
of our property in the home, all of us at the same time, having a meal together.
42:34
We all said the house must be smiling because we're all together.
42:38
Oh, that's incredible. Do the kids notice the spirits?
42:42
My littlest is four. At the time, she was two.
42:47
We were going up the old staircase to change her diaper. She looked at me and
42:52
said, can he come too? Okay.
42:55
Not scared, not worried, just very matter-of-factly, can he come too?
43:00
And then she just turned right back around. We walked up the stairs together.
43:03
Children are open to spirits.
43:07
It seems that. They're open to spirits because they're not shut off into the world yet.
43:13
Jaded like we are. Right? They're so innocent. So when we were kids,
43:16
my sister used to stand in the hallway and look at me like I'm looking at you, right?
43:22
I'm standing here and I'm looking at Marie Claire and I'm pretending that something's behind you.
43:27
And she would back up and she'd go, Maria, just don't move. Okay. I would freeze.
43:34
I would be terrified. Frozen terrified.
43:38
We're talking about this on the podcast. And she was like, Maria,
43:41
there was someone behind you.
43:43
No. What are you talking about? There was a ghost. And it was a he. And he was behind you.
43:49
This whole time in my life, I would be terrified while sleeping. I'd get frozen.
43:54
There was some dude, some ghost man who lived in our house. And my mom had seen him.
44:00
Really? Yes. And the dog would bark at it. I'm the one who's furthest away from everyone,
44:04
having to run in front of the doorway to get to my family when
44:07
i'm terrified yeah there was a hundred percent unreal
44:10
maybe their house was built in like 1920 or something a california stucco
44:13
house oh yeah totally my kids will
44:17
say that they feel the dogs in my
44:21
parents house we've had like three elster and shepherds but the last one that
44:24
passed away charlie they would feel him they're like charlie just walked by
44:28
i'm like well that's very special because you don't always get that a medium
44:32
reached out via instagram and gave me her perceptions from afar of what's on our property.
44:39
She said that there is a dog that plays with our kids.
44:42
I don't know if my kids can see or feel the dog, but she said that there is a dog.
44:47
I have found metal detecting three dog tags. I always wondered if it was one
44:52
of those dogs. I think dog spirits are so special.
44:54
I feel like they protect the home. Yeah. They really do.
44:57
They protect it. Isn't that wild? I love spirits so much.
45:01
Just a couple weeks ago when we were finishing this cottage,
45:03
we had the floors done. Tyler said that when you're doing construction or kind
45:08
of disturbing the status quo, it can stir up some energy.
45:13
The other day, we had the floors stained.
45:15
So we knew that we could not go in the cottage for a couple days.
45:19
I had two big pieces of painter's tape across the door.
45:22
So we would all remember we cannot go in. In the middle of the night,
45:26
Garvin looked out the window and the lights are on.
45:29
And he said, Mary Claire, why don't you turn the lights off before they stain
45:32
the floors? I said, Garvin, they were off. What are you talking about?
45:36
The next morning, they appear to be off.
45:39
And in my mind, I'm thinking, well, it's light out now. So maybe we just can't see that they're on.
45:44
But I peeked in the window and the lights were off. So I thought,
45:47
OK, maybe he was mistaken because I hadn't seen it.
45:51
The next day, I got up at 5 o'clock, and it's still dark out.
45:55
I look out the window, and the cottage is ablaze.
45:58
Every light in the cottage was on.
46:01
So I'm texting him, did you go in there? You're not supposed to go in there
46:04
with the floors. Why are the lights on?
46:06
He's texting you back, Mary Claire, I don't know what you're talking about.
46:09
I didn't go out there. And the tape is still across the door.
46:13
Isn't that crazy? So I think maybe it was just, you know, somebody checking
46:19
on our work, Making sure they like the stain I picked out.
46:21
What did you do with the door in that room? Did you keep it natural?
46:25
I kept it natural. Yep.
46:27
We're still debating if we paint it or what we do, but I kind of like that you
46:32
can see the evolution of those doors and what they were painted years ago.
46:37
It's so beautiful. It's paint over paint. I love that you're restoring it in
46:41
keeping with the colors, like the feeling, updating it to standards for today.
46:47
But you're not making it modern, changing the aesthetic entirely.
46:51
Exactly. It makes it really special. I think so, too. And that's been really
46:54
important to me. I've met with new homeowners of historic homes,
46:59
and that's really important to me.
47:01
We're very lucky that through the Meltons, we have a photographic archive of
47:06
what our house looked like back in the 30s.
47:09
So that's what I use as my guideline for respecting what the house looked like.
47:15
If I can peel back the layers and bring it back to what it once was,
47:21
I love to try to do that because I think that's just part of the fingerprint of the house.
47:27
What is the strangest comment or thing someone has reached out to you about your house?
47:32
Someone asked if I'm planting things in the ground to then find,
47:37
which I thought... I'm sorry, you went to the coin collector and you grabbed coins and buried them?
47:41
I went to a museum. I found a pre-US mint coin. I stuck it in the ground just to find it.
47:47
Someone did ask me that, which I thought was pretty funny.
47:50
Hysterical. Yeah. I'm not out there ruining my manicure, digging up all of these
47:55
artifacts to ruin your manicure. That was probably the weirdest.
47:59
If you could travel to one moment in your house's past, when would it be and why?
48:04
I would love to go back to when the Browns lived on our property in the 1700s.
48:10
Knowing that they lived there for so many years. And there were Browns,
48:15
Jacob Brown, Samuel Brown, John Brown, all lived up and down our street in various houses.
48:22
And the farmland was vast. It was like 400 acres of farmland.
48:28
So I would love to understand them. Like what animals they have.
48:33
Someone mentioned to me if I found any horseshoes on the property.
48:38
And I thought it was so strange. I have found not one single horseshoe on the
48:42
entire property, but I have found dozens of ox shoes on.
48:48
Ox have cloven feet, so there's a half for each part of the ox hoof, and they come together.
48:54
I asked the Historical Society, where are the horseshoes? I would love to find
48:57
a horseshoe to display in the house.
49:00
What we learned is that oxen were very easy.
49:05
They would eat anything. They were easy to maintain. They were low maintenance.
49:10
So poorer farmers relied on oxen far more than horses because they were just higher maintenance.
49:18
They were more expensive to maintain. They were more expensive to care for.
49:22
So that told us a little something about our property.
49:26
They were not the richest of farmers and relied on oxen to do the bulk of the
49:31
work, which I thought was so interesting. Did you find chicken stuff,
49:35
like coops and things like that? I wonder what that'd be really fun.
49:38
No, that would be really cool. So in the midden, I have found a lot of teeth and bones.
49:46
I found an entire jaw. They were pig.
49:50
So they farmed pigs on the property. And part of what went into the midden,
49:55
if you would cook up a pig, the scraps, so to speak, would go into the midden.
50:02
And pigs back then had tusks.
50:06
So I didn't know this. They don't have tusks anymore over time?
50:10
They have tusks, but the cute little pink piggies that we see today at the farms
50:15
don't have their tusks because they're like domesticated.
50:19
Not domesticated. These feral pigs would grow tusks.
50:25
And those would be in the midden. Cow teeth would be in the midden.
50:29
The jaw I found was of a sheep.
50:33
That's another way we've learned about the different animals on the property.
50:37
The pig tusks made me think of that when you said chicken.
50:39
They look like chicken talons almost, like little chicken feet.
50:44
I thought, is this part of a chicken or a pterodactyl claw? But it was, in fact, a pig tusk.
50:51
Wow. Yeah. How far down do you think you are in the midden? Do you have to go further?
50:55
Is there more? That's a great question. I think that where I am in today's midden
51:01
is a secondary pit because it's a lot wider than it is deep.
51:08
I've probably dug down two or three feet and where it is in relation to the
51:14
road is not typical of a midden of that time. Fun fact, Steep Hill Road was moved.
51:23
It ran right up our driveway. So this is an interesting thing to think about.
51:27
Where the stone wall is? Correct. On the other side.
51:29
Most pre-revolutionary homes, like when you think about the homes from the 1700s
51:34
in Weston today, they are right on the road.
51:37
And I always thought it was unique that our house is set back.
51:42
Given its age, it should be right on the road.
51:46
It's not. When the Meltons moved, they said to the town, listen,
51:51
this is too close to our house.
51:53
We will give you the 40 acres that today is Catbriar and Hackberry Hill if you move the road.
52:02
No way. Can you imagine having that kind of leverage?
52:05
I mean, yes, that would be amazing. So you'll notice when you drive up Steep
52:09
Hill, it bows right around our property.
52:12
And that's because the Meltons moved the road.
52:15
I love that. And when you think about where the midden is, it's right next to
52:20
the road. And a midden would be smelly. It's where you put your trash.
52:25
The homeowners wouldn't necessarily want something like that right up against
52:29
the road, which makes me think that at some point,
52:32
maybe in the construction of our house or as they dug the basement in the 1930s,
52:37
they disturbed the actual deep pit.
52:41
And that ground and those artifacts were displaced to where they are today because
52:47
there was also a tree planted right in the middle of it based on the rings.
52:51
What is that called? Dentrification. Yeah.
52:53
Is around 80 to 100 years old, which is pretty close to 1937 when they dug our basement.
53:02
So they put a nice tree on top of it. So I'm thinking there's another pit I
53:06
have to go fuck. They also would use outhouse vaults to throw trash.
53:12
Like where the refuse goes, the hole, they would throw it in there.
53:15
So if those of you who own old properties find what looks like a little stone
53:21
foundation and a depression in the middle of it, that's likely an outhouse vault.
53:26
They would dig that hole, use it, dump stuff in it.
53:30
When it filled up, they would bury it, pick up the structure,
53:34
and move it to a new pit. But so somewhere on our property is the outhouse vault as well.
53:40
Oh, you've got a lot more to find. A lot more to find. That's fascinating.
53:44
I can't wait to hear more about what you find in there. This summer at a couple
53:48
of the local farms, people have been reaching out to have me come and dig their
53:52
properties, which has been awesome.
53:55
You have a business. And my whole pitch to people is you don't have to have
53:59
an old house to have old property.
54:02
And I encourage people to go walk your property. See if you can uncover any
54:10
little stone areas that could have been an outbuilding or an outhouse or a root cellar.
54:17
You could have hidden history on your property, too. Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
54:21
I want to get one of those metal detectors. This has been so much fun.
54:24
Okay, at the end, I ask three questions. Yes.
54:27
So the first question is, what have you changed your mind about recently? Spirits.
54:31
I was never a big believer. I'm not gifted, really, in the feels of spirit.
54:39
And I had never really experienced it until we moved to this house.
54:44
And kind of seeing it through my children's eyes and the few experiences Garvin and I have had,
54:52
I have definitely opened myself up to learning more and understanding whoever
54:58
is on our property is happy that we're here.
55:01
And it's my job to relay to them that we see ourselves as stewards of this property.
55:08
We're here to protect it. We're here to restore it. We're here to love it and restore it.
55:13
I'm open to a medium coming. I want to learn more about it. That's definitely
55:17
something I've changed my mind. What piece of advice would you give your younger self?
55:20
To stop caring about what it looks like. I mean, I must look like a lunatic
55:26
out there with a metal detector.
55:29
One minute I'm getting my nails done and the next minute I'm swinging a metal
55:34
detector with headphones on, I probably look like a lunatic.
55:38
And I've just told myself, who cares?
55:43
Who cares? Let your freak flag fly. Exactly. Like, who cares? If I can bring to light,
55:52
For myself or for other people whose properties I'm working,
55:56
really interesting artifacts about their property and get them excited about
56:01
preservation and restoration and learning about their town's history. Amen.
56:08
So I have learned to just stop giving a shit.
56:12
Can I say shit? There's an E for expletive. In fact, Ben told me I had to stop
56:15
swearing as much. I'm like, well, that's just me. Well, that's just how it rolls.
56:17
I drop an F-bomb every once in a while.
56:19
I definitely say shit a lot. I agree with you, but I think it takes time to learn that.
56:23
People are blessed if they're young and able to be like, I could give two shits.
56:28
And it's not that you don't care. You care about what you're doing,
56:31
but other people's perception of it.
56:33
Yeah. Who freaking cares? And I used to care. Yes. And it would stifle you,
56:36
right? A hundred percent. You wouldn't do all the things you wanted to do. Yeah.
56:40
Overthink it. Yes. What is the five second rule? Like just one,
56:43
two, three, four, five, go. Go. If it feels right. Get out there. Do it. Yes.
56:47
I love that. None of this would have been possible if I had given more shits.
56:54
I said, you know what? This makes me tick. This makes me excited.
57:00
This is my passion project. And if I look like a wackadoodle walking around
57:04
outside of the metal detector, who cares? Honk at me and I'll wave.
57:07
So is there something cool in your bucket list? Yes.
57:10
My bucket list, and I am fulfilling this in a couple weeks, which I'm super,
57:17
super excited about. My husband has to go to London for work,
57:20
and I am tagging along to see what kind of trouble I can get myself into.
57:25
One of the things I am doing, if you follow my page, you'll see that I post
57:30
a lot of things from the Thames River mudlarks in London.
57:36
Mudlarking is treasure hunting, but it's using eyes only.
57:41
This group of experts walk up and down the Thames foreshore at low tide.
57:48
So when you think about the things I'm finding from the 17 and 1800s,
57:51
in London, they could find things from the Roman times.
57:55
The sky's the limit on how old these artifacts are. And like a midden,
58:00
when you had trash or things that you didn't need anymore, they'd pitch it into the river.
58:05
Went into the Thames. So the tide line of the foreshore is full of artifacts
58:13
from, like I said, it could go back as far as the Roman times.
58:17
So I have hooked up with a licensed and permitted Thames mudlark who is going
58:24
to take me out on a mudlarking adventure in a couple weeks, and I am beside
58:30
myself with excitement.
58:32
I cannot wait. And he's going to teach me. It is an art of looking with your eyes.
58:38
There's no shovels. There's no metal detectors. There's no, you know, digging.
58:42
It's all using your eyes and learning about the context and the things around
58:48
certain things to find artifacts. So why do they do it that way? Is it to preserve?
58:55
A lot of it is for preservation purposes.
58:58
But yeah, they'll go out there with a stick. Or, you know, you may be able to
59:03
use a little hand trowel to move things around, but there's no digging.
59:07
Can you take whatever you find? There are a lot of regulations.
59:12
Theoretically, everything belongs to the crown. And there is a whole submission
59:15
process. if it's above a certain dollar amount or if it's made of a precious metal.
59:21
It has to go to these authorities who then work with the museums to identify.
59:27
So there's a lot of regulation of what you can and cannot take and you have to submit.
59:32
I will follow all of the rules and I'm going with a licensed mudlark.
59:37
I am just so, I mean, this is a long time bucket list opportunity.
59:42
Gosh, are you going to document it? Yes.
59:45
We can follow you. A hundred percent. As you go through it.
59:48
Yeah. I'm psyched. That's so fun for you. Yeah. I'm really excited.
59:51
Oh, this can be amazing. I can't wait to follow along. I'm psyched.
59:54
Wait. Also, Domino Magazine. You were in Domino Magazine.
59:58
I'm going to put that article bottom. We were in Domino Magazine.
1:00:00
You have a section in the heirloomist.
1:00:02
The heirloomist. Which is by Shana Novak. She's an incredible photographer.
1:00:07
Beautiful. She wrote this coffee table book rich in storytelling.
1:00:12
Her photography is just so impactful
1:00:16
and beautiful she's so
1:00:19
talented and she wrote this book that details people's
1:00:23
heirlooms and yeah this is pretty we were
1:00:25
lucky enough to be included oh power i'm
1:00:28
gonna link the heirloomist too this is very cool yeah
1:00:31
this has been so much fun this has been so much fun sharing this with us and
1:00:35
i can't wait to see everything else that happens and to watch you and thank
1:00:39
you for having me the best thank you so much for joining me today on she's smart
1:00:45
new episodes drop every thursday don't forget to subscribe and share stay cozy.