The Owners' Manual | Issue 20 | Winter 2021

In the late 80’s when I was working construction, most of my projects were in the Fairfield County area. I had a number of celebrity encounters, but two were particularly memorable. We were hired to construct an addition to a house in Greenwich, CT and upon arriving, learned that it was the home of Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford. It was not the mansion they had overlooking Long Island Sound, but instead, it was a colonial they owned further inland.While working on the addition, we were frequently visited by Kathie Lee who was very particular about how things looked. She had hired an architect, but Kathie Lee was hands-on in the process. I recall on one occasion that I had to go into their garage, and there on the wall, above the boxes, trash cans, lawn tools, and other household items, were dozens of photos of Frank with celebrities, sports figures and other prominent people. Even a picture of Frank and Richard Nixon… in the garage!! I guess they ran out of room inside. It was that, or perhaps Kathie Lee wouldn’t let Frank keep the pictures inside. I never asked.

A second encounter I had involved another home construction project.This was a brand-new house being built inWeston, CT for Keith Richards (Rolling Stones).The property would have the main house with a smaller (2,500 SF) colonial on property. I believe the smaller house was for Keith’s father.The house was a modern design (for the late 80’s) and had a stucco façade.When completed, the house had a large basement studio with a separate 30x30 guitar showroom with cedar/felt lined shelves for his guitars, a beautiful kitchen complete with pizza ovens, maple floors with walnut inlays and a secret “get-away” room on the 2nd floor that was only accessible via a secret passage. In the yard there was a wonderful garden with speakers concealed to look like rocks (that was new for those days). During construction, Keith’s wife, Patti Hansen, would stop by the project every couple of weeks. Nearly every time she stopped in, she would bring their dog “Doobie” and would bring us tea. Even though I’m not a tea drinker, I would stop each time she came and would sit with her and Doobie to enjoy a cup. She was very down to earth and a delight each time she stopped in.When the project was complete, Keith arranged for a housewarming party for all of us that worked on the project. Keith had a great sense of humor and clearly had a “presence” about him. It was quite the party.

John Jenney, Meriden