At 76, I Bought Back Our First Home for $3—The Mayor Called Our House an Embarrassment—One Year Later, It Was Worth More Than His Mansion

installed a proper bathroom door, finished the built-ins, and built a tiny porch just wide enough for two chairs. Edith’s garden filled in with coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, wild bergamot, sedges, and switchgrass. Rainwater that once rushed down the block now disappeared into her gravel-bottomed rain garden.

The house on the corner stopped flooding.continue reading …