The blue Real Estate One sign stuck out of the rocks on the shore. The dock had rotted years before, and zebra mussels, an invasive species that looks like striped pistachios, populated the shallows. The house itself, protected from view, needed repairs. In 2001, prospective buyers called it a tear-down. My grandfather had built it 40 years earlier for his five children and for us, the future generations. When my grandmother decided she could no longer keep it up, nobody else offered.
