My parents were first-generation Americans and my grandparents were from Ireland and Poland. They taught us everything about the homes in New England. So much that my youngest brother and I are completely knowledgeable in Colonial and Victorian paint colors.

They also taught us how to care for a home. As a young girl, I learned to paint and putty windows, creosote the tobacco board barn, and do landscaping, among other tasks.

Victorian homes were built for the middle class, typically at a cost of $5,000. A home was designed, built and customized in three months, in most cases with seven men worked on it from start to finish.

Immigrants built them from the 1880s to the 1910s, usually Italian, Polish, Irish, French, Romanian, Czechoslovakian and Lithuanian. Dutch, English and German immigrants built most of the colonial homes.

Too many of these Victorian homes have been neglected or poorly repaired. At the same time, the materials that were used to build them no longer exist. The wood floors, siding, structural beams, bricks and foundations were of superior quality. When these homes are condemned, these items are often sold and used to restore and save other New England homes.

The areas of New England that boast the finest restoration efforts are Boston, Newport and Nantucket. The areas of New England that are neglected are Woonsocket, Westerly, Lowell, Framingham, and East Hartford. The rest of New England falls somewhere in between.

We must remember our ancestors, who put very little in their pocket but built Victorian homes.

Shawna Kathleen Milne