Housing Trust helped orchestrate one family’s Salisbury homecoming

SALISBURY — The walls are bare and the rooms are not yet fully furnished, but the modest, gray house at 70 East Main Street is a happy home to Bill Sherwood and his three children, ages 4 to 17, thanks to assistance from the nonprofit Salisbury Housing Trust (SHT) and countless others who gave of their time and talent to help the young family return to the community where their ancestors go back generations.

“I always wanted to live in town and previous to this opportunity, I couldn’t afford to live in town,” said Sherwood on a recent Saturday morning two weeks after the housing trust transferred ownership of the renovated, 3-bedroom, two-story home to him for $250,000. 

Just one week earlier, the family had spent their first night in their new home. It was SHT’s 16th house to be sold as affordable housing in Salisbury.

“Carter slept in his own room for the first time,” said Sherwood of his youngest child, who is 4. The youngster, taking a break from giving bear hugs to the family’s yellow Lab, Max, talked excitedly about dressing up as his favorite superhero, The Flash, for Halloween, “because he’s fast.”

 “I’m having a sleepover tonight,” said Carter, naming all of his friends who would be arriving later that day. The youngster attends pre-school at Salisbury Central School.

 “All the people that helped us out who were seen and unseen, it’s really a miracle,” noted Sherwood, who sold his house in North Canaan so that he and his children, Jase, 17, Abby, 15, and Carter, could move closer to his mother after the tragic loss of his wife, Katy, to cancer three years ago.

“It was a tough time. We also lost my dad Robert, who was known to everyone as Bullet, around that same time,” Sherwood recalled of the family’s trying times.

Leo Gafney, Trustee Emeritus of the housing trust, remembered Bullet Sherwood as being deeply committed to the community. He served the Lakeville Hose company for 48 years, was the “informal mayor” of Salisbury and “an amazing guy,” said Gafney.

“If there was anything going on, he was there. If there was an accident, he would direct traffic. If there was a fire, he would help with housing. He even played Santa Claus at the church during the holidays.” 

Gafney noted that one of SHT’s main missions is to make affordable homes available to volunteers.

 “Getting Bill back to Salisbury fits our model perfectly,” he said, noting that Sherwood has followed in his late father’s footsteps as a volunteer firefighter with the Lakeville Hose Company for 15 years.

In addition, Jase is a junior member of the hose company. The teen, a junior at Oliver Wolcott Technical School, has his sights set on a career as an HVAC technician. He said he wants to give back to the community in the same ways his grandfather and father have.

Abby, who will turn 16 in early February, is a sophomore at Housatonic Valley Regional High School and member of the girls’ volleyball team, which she revealed is enjoying a successful season.

As a bonus, said Gafney, the home is located across the street from a portion of the rail trail leading to the commercial area around LaBonne’s Market, providing easy access for the children to where Sherwood’s mother, Catherine, resides.

Paying it forward

At the same time Sherwood was purchasing the Salisbury home from the housing trust, he needed to find a buyer for his circa-1900, single-family house on Pease Street in North Canaan, which he had purchased in 2013.

That’s when John Harney, president of the Housing Trust and local real estate agent, contacted Melissa Gandolfo of Gandolfo Realty in North Canaan asking if she knew of buyers who would be interested in the property.

“We were searching in the community for a young family that needed an affordable home that was responsible, pre-qualified and ready to go, and we just worked together,” recalled Gandolfo.

She found a “lovely young couple to work with,” who was expecting their first child.

The couple had been renting in Torrington, and the husband was commuting daily to and from work at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury, said Harney.

“Here was another local kid who grew up, went off to college and came back,” only to find that he and his wife were priced out of the real estate market. “That’s where Melissa worked with him and suggested Bill Sherwood’s house,” said Harney. 

Sherwood suggested a price of $150,000, which was accepted by the young couple. But to meet FHA loan requirements, the property had to pass a “strict appraisal,” Harney explained. 

That meant all hands on deck, as family and friends, including Sherwood, spent several weeks in July and August making repairs and demolishing an old barn on the site.

 “They were all over the house. There were people over people putting down floors, painting and spackling every room, installing a new deck,” recalled Harney, who compared it to an old-fashioned barn-raising. 

Housing Trust board member Ryan Cooper, owner of Tri State Landscaping and Property Management LLC, lent Sherwood his excavator to tear down the barn and repair the grounds. 

“When the FHA appraiser arrived, she must have thought she had the wrong address,” said Harney.

Referring to the $150,000 sales price on his North Canaan property, Sherwood said he could have upped the asking price a bit, but “I wasn’t trying to make a couple of bucks, I wanted to help the buyers out. That’s the kind of people we are.”

Sherwood noted that, coincidentally, the purchasers of North Canaan home are his late wife’s brother’s stepchildren, “so that house is kind of still in the family.”

The ties that bind them

The Housing Trust’s Cooper and his landscaping crew were among the dozen or so contractors and businesses who volunteered their time and resources to help with renovations on the home. Little did Cooper know at the time that his childhood friend would become its owner.

“Earlier this year when we began seeking applicants, I was excited to hear of Bill’s interest to come back to Salisbury,” Cooper explained. “I thought this would be a fresh start for Bill and family following the loss of his lovely wife, and great for our volunteer fire department, which Bill is very active on.”

 “SHT couldn’t have selected a better family for this home,” said Cooper, “and I hope it brings Bill and his family some much needed positivity and new beginnings. It makes all the hard work my team and I put into it that much better knowing a lifelong friend has taken the keys.”

Sherwood had also been an employee of Cooper’s landscaping company before landing his current property management job at Harris Farm, a 1,000-acre, private estate on Smith Hill in Salisbury managed by Don Stevens, a well-known woodcarver.

The father of three pointed to a delicate, hand-carved wood duck which occupies a place of honor on the fireplace mantle along with his late grandfather’s military flag.

 “Don also presented our family with a hand-carved cardinal when my wife passed away,” he noted.

Gandolfo said she was thrilled by the circle of friendships from both communities that helped two young families obtain affordable homes. 

Housing Trust board member Judy Gafney asked that homeowners with smaller houses who are looking to sell contact the Salisbury Housing Trust before putting them on the market. 

“Come and sit down and talk to us. We may be able to purchase them.”