I opened and managed stores on Long Island, in Manhattan, and on Boylston Street in downtown Boston. That was my dream: to have my own store in heart of a big city. Yeah, living large in Boston or New York City! However, after a while, with the exorbitant rents and the 60+ hour work weeks managers had to put in to pick up the slack, I came to realize that the dream was a lot more appealing than the reality.

Around that time, Pier 1 had begun expanding into smaller markets, and Mike and I saw the opportunity to open a store in the Portsmouth area. Of course, Portsmouth was a very different place back in 1983. Pease Air Force Base was still in operation, so there was a lot of military personnel around from there, as well as the Naval Shipyard. Portsmouth was also just beginning to be discovered by professionals moving up from Boston or New York, so it made for a diverse and very interesting mix of people.

Personally, it was the ocean that attracted me to this area. I've lived in Rye since I moved to town, and I still enjoy hanging out on the beach. In fact, a group of us still get together and play beach volleyball (somewhat competitively) most Friday evenings. I also enjoy skiing and golf, but the majority of my free time revolves around my two children, and these days I spend quite a lot of time refereeing Portsmouth youth football or umpiring little league baseball games.

We really try hard to make shopping at our store a pleasurable experience. Providing quality merchandise at a good price—that’s what we've always aimed to do and will continue to do at Abode. I think something that really differentiates our store is our employees. Every person has a hand in the buying and merchandising for their department. Not only does that make them more knowledgeable, it means they have a personal investment and take ownership because they have a sense that it’s their store too. I know our employees enjoy being at Abode, and that positive attitude is reflected in the shopping experience you enjoy as our customer.