OUR BUILDING In 2002, Joe and I bought a building in downtown Pawtucket, that had been abandoned for about 18 months. We were a bit starry-eyed with the dream of buying an industrial building and turning it into a home with our own elbow-grease and McGyver attitude. When we found the 1926 Nainteau Building, we were immediately smitten. With high ceilings, wood floors and a completely open space, this double-decker special was much larger than we imagined tackling. Before we knew it we were standing alone in the dead of winter in our spacious, heatless, bathroom-less new home with crowbars in hand - ready to rip what little there was apart. Despite the fact that there were moments that closely parallelled the movie The Money Pit, I think it's safe to say we're happy we went through it and equally happy we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Four years later we still have a lot of work to do - but it really is home. We've gotten some good press to boot. OUR HOOD, PAWTUCKET a.k.a. THE BUCKET One of the things we had not imagined was what it would be like to live in our neighborhood. The first summer we were here, I started planting flowers and veggies in the limited space we have available. I was incredibly surprised to find that gardening became an amazing vehicle to meet our neighbors. Before long, I was given a wealth of gardening tips from Super Dave (who works at the federal housing complex next door) and Chick (a local celebrity/resident of the housing). I can thank them for giving me the skill set to pull off a garden my first year here. Our grand little city is now home to an arts high school, two loft renovations, a cool architecture/furniture design firm, and a host of interesting projects that we hope will bring life to the downtown area. In addition, we have only just begun to discover a wealth of amazing family owned restaurants that span the gamut from Portuguese to Polish to Mexican to Lebanese. Not bad for a gritty little city on the rise!