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Friday Front Porch Feature: A House Perfect for a Retreat

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Are you looking for a spacious private retreat with exciting features. Then this is the home for you.

Our Friday Front Porch is a weekly feature spotlighting attractive homes for sale in Berkshire County. This week, we are showcasing 1030 Simonds Road.

This five-bedroom and five-bathroom post and beam home was built in 1986. The house is 4,102 square feet on a little over seven acres. 

The house comes with kitchen appliances like a cooktop and dishwasher. It also features an attached two-car garage, a sauna, fireplace, finished basement, wraparound deck and lots of natural light.

We spoke to real estate agent Carrie Swift Heck with Compass Massachusetts LLC.

What do you think makes this property stand out in the current market?

Heck: This seven-acre property has beautiful grounds and gardens, and also abuts Trustees of Reservation's Mountain Meadow Preserve land and hiking trails. The outdoor space feels made for gardening and relaxing. There's a wraparound deck along the front and side, and a second deck in the back garden area as well as a pergola covered in vines. The home really feels like a part of its natural habitat. 

What was your first impression when you walked into the home?

The house feels like it has space for everyone to have their own privacy, but also has a strong focus on gathering. You can easily see your family in the eat-in kitchen playing games by the wood stove, playing pool in the basement rec room, or having holiday gatherings in the great room. The light coming through at all angles, garden views from every room on the main floor, and the unique beam ceilings all make the home feel very cozy for a home of its size. 

Do you know any unique stories about the home or its history?

The current owners bought the home only a decade after it was built. They've raised their family there and made it their own. After three decades in the same family, it's ready for its next chapter. 

What kind of buyer would this home be ideal for?

While this home certainly has something for anyone, it has been a family home since it was built, and was built with family in mind. That being said, it has all the makings of a home-away-from-home retreat as well — with a soaking tub, sauna, and central wood-burning fireplace. I can see it being a great getaway for winter skiing and summer adventuring. 

Are there any recent renovations or standout design features?

There is a newer addition that is a large primary suite with a walk-in closet and bathroom with a separate shower and soaking tub. They really maximized the natural light by adding two walls of windows, a skylight tube in the closet, and a picture window above the tub. They took advantage of the renovation to put on an enduring metal roof in a fantastic granite color.

What would you say to a buyer trying to imagine their life in this space?

I would say that the possibilities are endless. There are: two primary suites; a third-level bonus space; a huge garage with loft space above; a sauna, wood stove, and pool table in the basement; a wet bar in the dining area. This home has so many cool features that could easily be reimagined in today's script. 

You can find out more about this house on its listing here.

*Front Porch Feature brings you an exclusive to some of the houses listed on our real estate page every week. Here we take a bit of a deeper dive into a certain house for sale and ask questions so you don't have to.

 




Tags: front porch,   Real Estate,   

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Mount Greylock Schools Bracing for Another Big Health Insurance Hit

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Like municipal entities across the county, the Mount Greylock Regional School District is bracing for another year of steep increases in health insurance costs.
 
It is unknown just how steep, but Superintendent Joseph Bergeron tried to prepare the School Committee at its January meeting on Thursday.
 
"The rumors, just so you hear them from me … are not confirmed, but right now, the projections are we might be close to a 20 percent increase in what's proposed in order to have premiums cover cost," Bergeron said. 
 
"We're going to see where that goes. That's not at all confirmed. But, if true, a 20 percent increase, if that needs to go all to the appropriated budget, that by itself would be a 3.6 percent increase in our assessments."
 
Those are the assessments the district makes to member towns Lanesborough and Williamstown that voters each see in the form of, effectively, a bill that gets approved each spring at the annual town meeting.
 
For the current fiscal year, FY26, the district sent the towns assessments that were up from FY25 by 6.45 percent in Lanesborough and 7.59 percent in Williamstown.
 
Those hikes largely were driven by the 16 percent health insurance hike sought by the Berkshire Health Group to cover the cost of municipal employees covered by the joint purchase group.
 
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