https://www.thehour.com/realestate/article/Wilton-colonial-a-certified-wildlife-habitat-12941948.php
Wilton colonial a certified wildlife habitat
Updated 5:47 pm, Thursday, May 24, 2018
WILTON — One of Karen Kissling’s favorite spots on her 2,972-acre property is the stone bench on the front lawn. Her brother made it for her after she moved into the Federal-style colonial home with her family 24 years ago.
And the green moss that now covers the bench is a result of Kissling’s cultivation efforts.
“It took about 20 years,” Kissling said on a recent afternoon. “I’m not kidding.”
The moss is just one way Kissling has made her home at 613 Nod Hill Road into a certified wildlife habitat — a home, school, or workplace recognized by the National Wildlife Federation for providing food, water and shelter for animals and their young through sustainable practices.
This shows in the care she puts in keeping the rhododendron trees in front of the home healthy, tending her vegetable garden that she installed and building the surrounding structure using cedar from the property and grapevines from the woods.
Kissling said she takes her role as a caretaker and steward of wildlife to heart, since she considers herself as a naturalist and environmentalist.
“People don’t realize you’re in the woods, so you have to,” she said. “Even with the trees, it’s part of pruning. They need haircuts.”
The home is also a place where Kissling has fostered her artistic passions. A jewelry maker and painter, one reason she purchased the home was because of its location. The home is tucked away behind the woods on its own knoll in North Nod Hill, or what she affectionately refers to as “NoNo,” and is a walk away from Weir Farm, the only national historic site dedicated to American impressionism.
Like the historic site, Kissling said she has tried to make her home inviting for her family, guests and wildlife to enjoy. As for herself, her home has served as a “magical place” where she could make jewelry and paint inside her home or the garden shed she added to the property and eventually transformed into her own personal art studio.
“As an artist, I always loved the impressionists and that’s all about light. Very similar, that kind of sensibility is in this house,” she said, standing inside the cellarium which she later used as a space for her yoga sessions. “I have to say, it’s a little hard to let go because I cultivated it. I was the steward. It’s very personal to me and it has just brought me so much joy, serenity.”
With two of her children now grown, Kissling has put up the four bedroom home for sale at $725,000 through Rob McCullough and Laurie Mortensen of William Pitt Sotheby's Realty.
McCullough, who’s been a real estate agent in the area for 12 years, said the home is not only unique because of its certified wildlife habitat status but also because of its construction.
The 1972 home was built by locally renowned architect Charles Cornell, who has built many homes in Wilton. However, unlike many of the colonial houses in Wilton and in Fairfield County, the home at 613 Nod Hill Road is a reproduction of a Federal-style home that were popular in the 1700s and the early 1800s.
"There are some out there and they really are as rare as hen’s teeth,” McCullough said. “This house is very different. You can look at 20 colonial houses in Fairfield County and your head will be spinning because they all look the same. This is very different.”
McCullough said interested buyers typically have been young families. Kissling hopes the home will go into the hands of such a buyer.
“That young couple to fall in love like I did and love it and care for it as my family and I did,” Kissling said.
skim@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2568; @stephaniehnkim
