15 Stillman Lane
15 Stillman Lane, which sold new for $5.5 million in 2006, has been further marked down to $4.495. Bill Gardiner builds a superb house, so apparently the only thing wrong with this property is its location.
Hard to believe a house of this quality could realize a million dollar loss after ten years, but there you have it.
For What It's Worth 
I continue to be amazed at what happens at Stillman/Sherwood Farms. Perhaps some of the usual pundits on here can comment, but I see:
1. a neighborhood that is a pretty easy drive to town
2. a nice family-friendly cul-de-sac
3. nice lots
4. very well constructed homes that seem to have weathered their 10 year history fairly nicely
5. a lot of house per SF for Greenwich standards
What am I missing?
Western Middle School district perhaps…
I think buyers may be phobic about Western Middle. Never mind that 99.9999% of people in this range eventually apply to private schools, whatever their intentions are with regard to public. The nagging urge to seek out and find a “something better” rears it’s head after a year or two, or the wife starts ogling the WCK stickers on the backs of the other Range Rovers parked at Whole Foods, or maybe she starts imagining how cute little Hayden would look in a GA uniform… The Why doesn’t matter. It’s really a matter of When.
From the Brunswick Standards Guide:
When referring to Brunswick School as ’Wick, it must always have an apostrophe since it is an abbreviation of our school name. Please make sure that the apostrophe is oriented the correct way. Also, when abbreviating the school name for any usage, e.g. labels or bumper stickers, do not use alternate abbreviations such as BWCK, WCK, or BRWCK.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwiw0_uktq_MAhVHFj4KHUv5CxYQFggqMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fusmfiles.s3.amazonaws.com%2FphpCAKmCr%2FBWK%2520Standards%2520Guide_10-14-10%2520FINAL.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFz9pIWRtOx5WP34G_mLqPI1ECnSQ&cad=rja
I prefer Bruns-weak
Does that mean all those WCK decals in town are against school regs, or that a bunch of suburban moms are really into the West Coast Killas?
I wondered about that too, but maybe those WCK stickers refer to something else. The official sticker, issued by the school I believe, is a bear’s paw with no lettering. My wife used to have one on her car, but I’ve always hated stickers.
Childish, Matt. I don’t know about you, of course, but generally people who make such immature, mocking remarks about selective schools are pea-green with envy.
Anon@ 4:19. Long ago GHS alum here…that is what we called them, like it or not. Same thing with Pember-weak. Except I actually was friends with kids from that neighborhood so when we said it to them, they took it in stride and likewise made fun of OG. They / we didn’t take ourselves so seriously.
Anon@4:08: I see a lot of regulation Brunswick decals in town, too. I may have made the wrong assumption about the meaning of the WCK in the oval – every other school has its version of the same decal, so I’ve always read it as shorthand for Brunswick. I Googled “WCK” to see what else popped up, and all I got was Windward Caribbean Kulture, West Coast Killas and a couple of radio stations. Anyone know what the real deal is?
Glenville/Western Middle is one issue. Have also heard from a couple of friends who have kids over at Brunswick/Sacred Heart (and live near the school) that private school mommies are mostly in midcountry and don’t want to drive over to the western side of town for playdates.
Doesn’t one have nannies for that sort of thing?
In all seriousness, we have a child in private, and it’s not come up as an issue for us. Perhaps it’s a bigger problem for parents at the nursery school, though – you’d have to schedule around multiple nap times.
CT2CA….how about the fact that it looks like an upgraded Toll Brothers track home master plan community for millions of dollars???
Clearly there are things that many find wrong with it, so I can’t argue that….but while the style of this one isn’t my personal cup of tea, it is pretty well done, has a great floor plan, lots of features/amenities, a beautiful rear portico/pool area and a flat yard……..all in all far more impressive than Toll Brothers work product!
And, again, not my style, but I applaud it for not looking like a cookie-cutter pseudo-Craftsman/pseudo-Shingle Style dipped (inside and out) in light gray paint. 🙂
I agree: I like it too, for the same reason; non-cookie cutter, nice layout.
Doesn’t seem to impact other areas zoned for the same schools. Maybe it’s the “Glenville” stigma?
WMS? I put a question mark there because most of these folks are sending their kids to private school.
Fully agree, but it’s the only thing I can put my finger on. Maybe they don’t like Glenville Pizza.
Glenville stinks !!!
How much time have you actually spent there? GV center is a hell of a lot nicer than that strip mall next to Exit 5. Or are you lamenting the fact that it doesn’t have a problem with al fresco partiers from JHouse?
exit 5 and the strip mall any day ! Only good thing in glenville is Rebecca’s restaurant !
It’s too bad they won’t allow sex in the parking lot, then it might have more of that Riverside vibe.
Not since American Felt closed, and that was in the 60s
Riverside’s version of a Main Street is that junky section of E Putnam between Riverside Ave and Walgreens, easily the junkiest stretch of road in all of Greenwich. Old Greenwich, on the other hand, has its own very classy little downtown.
Of course Riverside does have Ada’s Kitchen. I’ll give it that.
Gardiner/Larson homes are indeed spectacular.
This house seems to have an identity crisis. Iowa farmhouse meets Greenwich? Etched glass front door and side panels. Fanciful trim at posts. Fleur motif in the uppermost windows. Doesn’t work for me. Maybe I’m not alone. It might be built well but it looks strange.
I don’t understand it other than to point out there are many housing choices at this price point and often the others have a bit more ‘neighborhood’ too them or land or street name or proximity to something of interest like the sound, or the ave, the private schools themselves (ga and country day) or the clubs.
Beautiful homes – but on an island of sorts.
The home is beautiful – Victorian farmhouse
I live in Riverside and agree glenville town center is nicer than our strip malls any day of the week …although it can’t compare to Old Greenwich.
OG is great.
Glenville is also not very convenient to a train station….
Glenville people often use po cho for rail. Especially those close to king street.
Which is just stupid. Having to technically go into another state to board a commuter train, in crap hole PC, sucks.
Well, technically you don’t have too, but Po Cho station closer for many along the border and its 5 mins closer to NYC on the ride time, so – for some, they save 6 to 10 mins each direction (to and from NYC).
Of course, but like you said, why go backwards to the Greenwich station? Takes more travel time to get there, and more time on the train.
Glenville/Pemberwick really should have went ahead with that proposed train station many decades ago.
“…should have went ahead”? Really.
He went to RES.
You people need a life.
I wonder looking at the pics whether the photographer used a wide angle lens or something because in many of the rooms the furniture seems too small and we’re seeing a lot of floor space. Looks odd.
It’s been said here before that those that bought in 2006/7/8 and selling now will take a beating and this is another example of that.
Builder has a great rep but I wonder about the style. Styles change very quickly. Victorian farmhouse?
I’ll leave other to argue schools, location for commuters and play dates.
Okay, but any info on the true meaning behind the “WCK” sticker? Inquiring minds want to know….
Because its predominately affixed to very fine automobiles, one must conclude its a sticker for PemberWICK and not that other place, BrunsWICK. Stop in to the Pemberwick X-Change on Pemberwick Road and ask for the WCK sticker and don’t let them tell you it cost $40k when they snicker.
Some actually spell Wancker with a “C”. Maybe that’s it!!
“Dip your wick at ‘Wick?”
Some sort of teacher recruiting slogan, maybe.
all this talk about schools….blah blah blah….anxiety about the schools & whatnot is the insecurities of parents running amok. if you’re good parents, your kids will be good no matter where they go, public or private. and if you suck as parents and have your interventionist on speed dial, then guess what, you’re a mess and chances are your kids will be screwed up in more ways than one, thanks to you.
Yes, yes. But new parents/buyers haven’t learned this yet. They consult the Schooldigger app like supplicants at the Delphian Oracle: If My Child Attends Exactly The Right School, He Is Destined To Become A Harvard-Bound Genius…. If He Attends The Wrong School, His Destiny Is To Become The Night Manager At A Subway Franchise In Poughkeepsie.
Or sit in a cubicle next to you for half a century.
You’re right. Bad things never happen to good people. Easy to judge from a distance. But you know better.
Don’t you guys know that the WCK sticker started as an insider joke on the Nantucket ACK euro bumper sticker.
“The usage of these white oval decals originated in Europe in the early 20th century. European countries are relatively small and drivers have always frequently crossed from country to country. Moreover, in those days European licence plates all looked confusingly similar, so Europe needed to find an easy way to identify each vehicle’s country of registration. They came up with the idea of making it mandatory to put a white oval-shaped sticker with black country initials on the back of all vehicles.
This European custom became an international requirement in many countries after the U.N.’s Geneva Convention on Road Traffic (1949) and Vienna Convention on Road Traffic (1968). It was agreed upon that a distinguishing sign of the country of registration had to be displayed on the rear of the vehicle. It also stipulated that the sign could either be placed separately from the registration plate or could be incorporated into the vehicle’s number plate and if the international registration letter was incorporated into the licence plate, it also had to appear on the front number plate.
These days, oval stickers with an international circulation mark are not as common anymore in Europe, since standard E.U. number plates have integrated the country code into a blue strip on the left side of the plate. This blue section is actually the flag of Europe (a circle of 12 yellow stars on a blue background), with the country code of the member state underneath it.
Since only two countries border the United States and the vast majority of Americans, Canadians and Mexicans hire a car instead of bringing their own when they go abroad, there was no need for car ovals at all. This explains why these oval-shaped country stickers have never been subject to any kind of regulation by the American Government. At some point in the early 80s, however, it became trendy for Americans to look European: with the yuppie bimmer craze, it was pretty common to see BMWs with the German “D” oval sticker (Deutschland) driving on American highways (see picture on the left). A lot of U.S. servicemen who had been stationed in Germany, also brought back all kinds of German cars and they tended to leave those decals on their vehicles, just to say “Hey, I was stationed over there”.
Soon, some Americans started putting all kinds of other European country code stickers on their cars. Many of the stickers were silent boasts about what amazing destination the driver had been to. White oval bumper stickers gradually became a fad status symbol, so people started making Euro-looking stickers with abbreviations for places in the States. Common stickers are for instance things like “MV” for Martha’s Vineyard, “CA” for California, “ACK” for Nantucket (which is the airport code) and “OBX” for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Knew that already. But does the WCK stand for something other than Brunswick? That is the question…
no, just similar to Nantucket ACK, similar demographics
Those naughty WCK mummies! And it’s against official school bumper-sticker code to boot. That’s actually pretty old school preppy – in a good way. 🙂
Tsk tsk. Apparently those bottles violate official school policy, anons. 4th comment down.
Since Google seems clueless on this, the obvious solution is to accost the driver of one of these WCK-bearing cars, in a parking spot maybe, and ask him or her. Then report back here.
The Whole Foods Parking Lot is fertile hunting ground for the WCK-Decaled Range Roverian. And they’re in season, too.
Sadly out of print, my own “The New Millionaire’s handbook” (Andrews McMeel) discussed this whole silly phenomenon back in 2000. I even gave suggestions on coining one’s own mysterious acronyms, although I gave top honors to our neighbors to the north with their Bedford Fire Department oval: BFD.
Dude, I recently bought your book. Shipped from Texas, paid pennies for it. I plan to drop in for an autograph sometime. Amazingly, after 16 years, the damn book needs very little updating.
Btw, I told my wife I plan to start carrying around town on Saturdays. I figure it would be hilarious to be caught with it at Richards (while look in the bargain bin) or even Cos Cob starbucks.
No s***, really? I’m honored.
I too own your book. Was always a great read.
I bought a copy off of Amazon awhile back. Any plans for an updated edition?
Probably not, but just this morning I purchased and downloaded a copy of Scrivener. Blogging is a fine outlet for my urge to write, but novels are the most fun, by far, and I have a number of plots running around my head that I’d like to set free.
New treatment?
Aren’t there are a lot of examples of properties in more prime locations in 06830 that have sold for 20% below 2006 prices, effectively the peak?
taxes!