What is your name and the name of your business?
Ben Bullard, H.B. Bullard and Company, Inc.

How did you get to Sandwich, NH?
In the early 1970s, Betty and I would visit her family's summer home. We were living in Boston and going to college. She had been coming up to Sandwich in the summers since she was born and we both liked it so much that directly after graduation, we moved here and were married in the summer of 1973. At the time, there were 600 year-round residents. Sandwich was a different town than it is today. It attracted us because of the arts and crafts nature of the town, which persists today.

What got you started in this profession?
Trained as an artist, I loved working with my hands and creativity, and building became the way to use both simultaneously. Most of the carpenters back then in our age group started working for Van Adriance in some capacity. He started a large crew and we all, as friends and co-workers, built a few houses  together. After a few years we started to peel off from that to start our own ventures and partnerships. 

Rich Benton and I worked together for a few years, then Roger Korpi and I partnered up for 20 years and built many beautiful buildings together. Around 2000, I started this company H.B. Bullard and Company, Inc.

Tell us about your work. What do you make, do, or offer as a service? 
I started doing mostly timber frame construction. I was intrigued with Eric Sloan's books explaining the age old practice of mortise and tenon joinery in barn and house construction more than 200 hundred years ago. My first effort was building our house at Lower Corner. Trees on the property were cut down and  hewed into beams with an adze and joined into a timber frame. Later we used local sawyers to mill the beams. 

Our company designs and builds custom homes and barns, does restoration work on old buildings, does whole house renovations and everything in between. Eighty percent of our our work is in-house designed, twenty percent with architects. Personally I like classic design, be it house, barn or camp and the use of as much local product as I can.

What is the hardest?
The challenge of course is to be a good scheduler, keep everyone happy and make a consistently great product. You have to really like people and remain optimistic to do this consistent juggling. 

How has this last Covid year affected your work? 
Our industry is going strong in the Covid era but circumstances have changed making scheduling challenging because of lack of supply,  lack of labor and availability of sub-contractors.

What are your goals and hopes for the future?
My goal at this time is to retire soon, become a recovering contractor and let the next generation of excellent builders take over! Hopefully I  can use my fifty years of experience in building to inspire others to take up this vocation that I love. It is financially rewarding, and you use your head, heart and hand.

What else can you tell us about yourself and your life in Sandwich?
Sandwich is a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family. The strong sense of community is a valuable and special aspect of our town, and one that has meant a lot to our family over the years and continues still.

How/when did you get to Sandwich, NH? Life before Sandwich?
We visited Sandwich regularly for the past 10 years but only became Sandwich property owners two years ago when we bought Polly Jewett’s house. 

​Before Sandwich Mark and I lived in Nebraska City, Nebraska for about 30 years. It was there that Mark retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency as well as his 28 year career as an Air Force active duty and reserve member. We were both intelligence officers in the Air Force but I separated after seven years and started “Peppercricket Farm,” an antique store and Bed and Breakfast.  

How/why did you start your business?
Mark and I always wanted to restore another old house and looked at dozens of homes in the New England area over the years and never could find “the one” to restore. Too expensive, wrong location, beyond our capabilities etc etc. 

Then there was this big old yellow one with the awesome porch.  Mark loved it right away and I couldn’t wait to paint it!! So we bought it and got to work. We weren’t sure what kind of business we were going to start but the longer we worked on it the more sure I was that it had to be retail. This house was meant to be shared with others. 

Tell us about your business. What do you make, do, or offer? 
The Porch features an eclectic blend of antique, vintage and new home décor as well as a women’s clothing line.  The building, with all of its natural light, high ceilings and expansive floorspace provides a great backdrop in which to showcase the merchandise.  The antique furnishings also blend in nicely with the new items so that customers can better visualize what they may look like in their own home or office.       ​

What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your job?
The restoration process of the house and working on antique furniture that will have a new home are definitely the most satisfying, but finding inventory with Mark and setting up displays with my sister Chris Milanovich are the most fun. Mark calls it “playing house”! 

The one on one conversation we have with our customers is also a fun part of the job. It is truly amazing where folks are from, their background and what their plans are for the pieces they buy from us. We both love the interaction with our growing customer base at The Porch.

What is the hardest?
The days when no one comes in.  It happens in all retail but is never easy.
​ 
What are your goals and hopes for the future?
To become a shopping destination that brings more people to Sandwich to appreciate the unique beauty of the community. We are looking at expanding the shop into the second floor to complement what we already have in the barn and first floor. The architecture of this house lends itself to display and is something we want to take advantage of. 

What else can you tell us about yourself and your life in Sandwich?  
Our number one priority in our lives are our two daughters Helen, who is now a freshman at Stonehill College, and Mary Lynn, who is a junior at Moultonborough Academy.  Family is a very big part of our lives and something we have learned to cherish. 

We truly love the town and the folks who live here and the surrounding communities.  Sitting on the front porch of the shop in the summer invites conversation with all who walk or ride by. We hope to be doing it for many years to come.

theporchnh.com
facebook.com/porchnh
theporchnh@gmail.com 
(402) 326-5450

What is your name and the name of your business?
Nancy Jones Hansen, my business name is Sewing. It leaves no question as to what I do!  ​

How did you get to Sandwich, NH?
I met a guy....! I came to Sandwich in 1980, married a local. We lived here for several years and then moved to Bethel, Maine for 15 years, returning in 1999. On our first date, my husband, Carl, looked at the Brick Store and announced he was going to live there some day. So here we are in the Brick Store, running our businesses from one of the most iconic buildings in town. 

What got you started in this line of work?
My mother was a sewer, and taught me to sew over Easter vacation when I was 12, on my grandmother's treadle sewing machine. (Sounds like I'm really old, but it was a really old machine at the time.) I've been sewing ever since.  

Once out of college I realized I could make money sewing. I applied for a job with a small wallpaper/fabric store. I had a basic  book on how to sew everything. The owner would ask me if I know how to do... whatever. As long as it was in the book I said yes and got the job.  I've been sewing for people in Sandwich for 30 years.

Tell us about your business. What do you make, do, or offer as a service? 
There is no Home Economics any more in schools, so people are not learning sewing as a craft or vocation. I think it's a dying art. I am fortunate that I have sewed for over 50 years and have done just about everything in the field, from simple alterations to designer drapes and swags. I've done prototypes for people with new ideas, and repaired antique quilts.  

When/how did you begin your business?
In the 80s Carl worked as a contractor and I became a division of that, Hansen Homes & Interiors/Sewing. Carl has retired from building, mostly, so now he works for me.

What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your job?  
I like to see people happy with something they thought was ruined and now it's good. Weird is fun, repetition is repetitive, but it pays the bills. Quite often I get clothes or ties from someone who has lost a loved one and want a quilt made from them. T-shirt quilts are fun because usually all of the shirts have meaning to those who receive it. If I know the person, even better, then I can add to what I know of their personality. My business is my hobby, so I get to do it everyday.

What is the hardest?  
The hardest is being sure people are happy. Even after all of these years making things for people, a little voice always wonders, "will they like this?"  So far so good.

What has happened to your business in this last Covid year?
I had the best job during Covid. People still needed things fixed. I just did a lot of business out on the porch. Of course I made many, many masks. Both donated and some for sale. It was a good way to use up small pieces of fabric. ​

What are your goals and hopes for the future?
My goal for the future is to retire! This seems impossible as the phone keeps ringing. Two or three seamstresses have closed in the last year for different reasons so there are not as many people sewing.  For the near future, I'm still working. I have a new shop space at our house and I hate to give it up.

What else can you tell us about yourself and your life in Sandwich?
In 1980 I married into Sandwich. Coming from Detroit, it was a big change, but a good one. Friends from 1980 are still here and still friends, and now their grandchildren play with mine. All three of our children live in town, which made our Covid bubble very nice. We travel more now, but it's always nice to come home. We live in the most beautiful place.

Sewing4u525@yahoo.com
603-387-4767