9 Orchard Street

When the day begins on Orchard Street, light moves first across the garden — through the silver maple, past the Asian magnolia, in through floor-to-ceiling sliders, and onto decorative hardwood floors bordered by perimeter inlay. The garden was designed by Soren DeNiord of Portland, Maine. The fence enclosing it — cedar and bamboo, an arrangement that quiets the city without sealing it out — was built by Green Futures Bamboo. Between the two, you have something rare in Cambridge: a true garden room in the heart of Porter Square.

The house is an 1860 front-gabled clapboard with Greek Revival elements, set back from a one-way residential block. A 1981 rear addition opens the back of the house to the garden through a wall of glass. Eleven rooms unfold across three levels: 2,873 square feet on the main two floors, plus a finished attic of approximately 660 additional square feet under five skylights.

You enter onto inlaid hardwood floors with a sightline that does real work. Straight ahead, the graceful staircase curves up to the second floor. Beyond it, the eye carries through to the kitchen at the back of the house. To the right, the living room flows into the dining room, then into the addition. The dining room has a built-in window seat tucked into a bay where wisteria climbs the exterior. The addition is anchored by a Vermont Castings wood stove and the wall of sliders that pulls the garden inside.

The kitchen is set up to be the natural center of the house. Stainless appliances pair with older details: a marble pastry inlay, a deep plant window projecting outward for herbs and morning light. There's basement access, a full bath off the kitchen, and a rear "morning staircase" that lets the house be used from multiple directions at once. Built-ins appear at nearly every transition: storage under the main stair with drawers, shelves, and coat hooks.

Up the painted treads of the staircase: three bedrooms and an artist's studio. The main bath centers on a clawfoot tub. The primary bedroom faces the garden; from the window you can see the birdbath below and the canopy beyond. Two more bedrooms sit on this floor, as well as an adjacent half bath that incorporates the laundry.

Above the addition, an artist's studio pulls soft diffused light through a floor-to-ceiling window — the kind of consistent illumination painters prefer. The wood stove flue from below rises through the studio, carrying residual warmth.

Up a stair with a rope handrail — a little nautical, old New England detail — the finished attic opens under five skylights. Two more bedrooms sit here. Built-in bookcases line the front and back walls. It's the kind of space designed by people who collected books, paid attention to light, and wanted utility without sacrificing warmth.

Two systems are worth naming. In 2014, the oil furnace was converted to gas-fired forced hot air, and two-zone central air conditioning was added throughout the main house. The same year brought a full basement fortification — spray foam on exterior walls, fiberglass in the ceiling, an on-demand water heater. The kitchen and baths await a new owner's vision.

Porter Square is around the corner. The Red Line and commuter rail are at the station. Davis Square is five minutes the other way.