History with modern comforts. Beautiful, red brick townhouse in the heart of Cambridge. 45 second walk from the Central Square T-Stop. Built in 1855 by a master mason, it is recognized as a historic property. Classic Cantabrigian roots but meticulously renovated in 2023 to be a modern luxury 4 BR house with a private gym, spa, and garage. Brand new fixtures, equipment, infrastructure (central AC, in-floor heating), and the latest tech for spa, fitness, entertainment, cooking, and sustainability. Easy-to-Use Modern Comforts As you approach the house, you immediately notice the dramatic, unmistakable ivy coverage on the red brick wall. Walking past the black iron fence and the roses in the newly redesigned and renovated front yard, you get to the carefully restored original doors of the Cambridge Ivy House, as it's come to be known over the years. Once in, you’ll see that everything from top to bottom has been recently (2023) and thoroughly overhauled. New light-colored, hardwood floors and a red carpet welcome you in. Light New England Maple hardwood, Boston brick red, and gold tones throughout the house. Coming from the American South, we found the Boston Area to be charming but at the same time, not an easy place to live at first, especially in the winter. People are busy; roads are small, windy, and hard to navigate; parking is tough, etc. So we built a place for ourselves that would make life easier and more comfortable so we could enjoy the beauty and depth of our neighborhood and town. When you walk in you will notice the following comforts: Super Fast Wifi It goes without saying for a place like this but the house has 1 Gps (1000 Mbs) internet and is bathed in a high-speed Wifi 6 mesh network with plenty of eero devices and repeaters all over the house, even in the garage. The rooms have Cat 8 ethernet ports if you want old-school. Central AC and Double Redundant Heating For the hot summer months, we have central air conditioning. It works great as it was replaced and upgraded to a higher efficiency system in 2023. As for the cold winter months, first in line is the toasty in-floor radiant heating. We love it because it’s a gentle heat and doesn’t dry up the air like central heating might normally in other homes. For extra cold days, we also have electric baseboard heating built into the rooms for added coverage. Finally, we also have a bunch of portable oil-filled and electric space heaters available for use if that's not enough. We used to live in Asia and then moved to the American South so we are pretty wimpy when it comes to the New England cold. Entertainment Music: We love music and have both in-wall speakers as well as wireless speakers in every room (including one of the bathrooms). The in-wall speakers in the living room / kitchen can be accessed via the amplifier. The wireless speakers can be accessed via Spotify (or whatever your music streaming service is) and the Alexa App. You can listen to your music anywhere in the house. Video: We assume if you’re watching something, you’re probably streaming to your tablet or phone. But we like movies and game days, so there’s a nice large screen TV that folds out in the living room that you can use. It is connected to the in-wall 7.1 speaker system. Connected Fitness On the third floor, we have our private gym that has a Hydrow Connected Rowing Machine. Now you can row in the Charles without so much hassle! Great whole-body workout, especially when you don't have the time. Also in the room is a workout mat and basic equipment for yoga, strength, and movement workouts, all also a part of the Hydrow experience. Jam or Zen, you can set the mood with the connected speakers in the gym. Jacuzzi Downstairs from the gym, we have a 7-foot Bain Ultra Jacuzzi you can laze into after a good work out (or to recover from last night’s activities). Lights, bubbles, action! Or nothing at all if you just want a long hot bath. Cabinets are loaded with Ahava Dead Sea salts, gels, and other goodies you are free to use for a good soak. Got spoiled on this stuff living in Israel so we brought them back with us. Double, Jet-Powered Showers No time for a soak? Down the hall from the gym in the third-floor bathroom is a double shower with dual rain heads, dual hand sprays, and 12 water jets. It’s a bit overkill, even when showering for two but we spared no expense in upgrading our dream home to have a spa experience. Good thing the house is fitted with *two* brand new instantaneous water heating systems and a pump to provide lots of water pressure and sustainably heated water vs. having inefficient old-school water tanks. All-New Kitchen / Equipment All this mental and physical exercise can make you hungry! And we love cooking and hosting. That’s why we completely rebuilt the kitchen from scratch in 2023 with brand new equipment including high-end: range/oven, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer, and other small appliances. The walls are a beautiful metal finish, the knives (forged, of course) and cutlery are new, etc. Everything is clean, easy to use, and just works. More detailed instructions for use in the Guide Book. All-New Washer and Dryer Both are easy to use and work great. High efficiency - check. Earth-friendly detergent - check. Smart / Wifi-Connected Everything Outside Smart locks for the front and back door (we’ll send you the code ahead of time). Motion-activated and wifi-connected smart lights and security cameras outside the house. Wifi-connected video doorbell and garage door opener too. Convenient Parking and EV Charging Parking in Cambridge is generally quite challenging to say the least, not just because of the lack of availability, but also because of the complex conditions. We’ve got you covered at the Cambridge Ivy House. You have not one but *three* possibilities for parking solutions in case you actually want to brave it and drive yourself in the Boston area: 1) Driveway Parking. Two spots are available for use. One by the side of the house and one behind the Right Side Garage. 2) Permit Street Parking. In case the *three* spaces available are not sufficient for whatever reason, there’s street parting on Washington Street or Norfolk Street. There’s almost always a spot available within a minute’s walk. 3) Green Street Parking Garage. There’s almost no reason you’d need to use it but it’s there. About a five minute walk from the house. Tons of cheap parking there. EV Charging. We park our car in the left side garage and leave all our light electric mobility vehicles in the right side garage. However, if you need to charge your EV, just let us know and we'll work something out since we do have a Level 2 ChargePoint EV charger with an NEMA 14-50 Plug (compatible with Chevrolet Volt and Bolt EV, Hyundai Kona and Ioniq, Kia NIRO, Nissan LEAF, Tesla models, Toyota Prius Prime, BMW i3, Honda Clarity, Chrysler Pacifica, Jaguar I-PACE, etc.). Children Welcomed The house has not been made child-proof but we have two young children of our own and they’ve been fine.