My friend, a real estate investor, and his wife, a doctor, had left Manhattan for Darien, Conn., shortly after 9/11 and were raising two girls in a neighborhood of two-story Colonials and adjoining lawns.
It seemed to Levinson that, between two houses with adjoining lawns, a paver fed by a dump truck was laying asphalt on a new roadbed, leaving only narrow strips of grass on both sides.
With a two-story great hall, carved mahogany molding, octagonal library, dining room, music room, reception room, veranda and adjoining lawns, Estherwood is one of the swankiest settings in the county for a wedding.
The Weill gift, which includes a $4 million one-to-one challenge grant, will also help finish an adjoining terraced lawn for an additional 3,000 guests and a commons that can become an amphitheater with 10,000 seats.
If you have a lawn adjoining the bed you are digging, remember to leave yourself mower access.
OUTDOOR SPACE: Adjoining the pool is a lawn and garden.
The smaller, adjoining, Manor Gardens combines both lawns and shady areas as well as a rose garden.
On the books, it is considered a vacant lot, but it is actually quite crowded with fences, trees and the lawn furniture of many adjoining backyards.
