From the minute Julia and Randall Hesse closed on a rambling Victorian house in suburban Boston last year, their real-estate agent, architect and handyman all issued a warning—change the locks.
For 17 years, their home in Jamaica Plain, Mass., was part of the Taylor House, a popular bed-and-breakfast, the keys to which the former guests and staff could still have. The Hesses heeded the advice, just one of many fixes they are making to convert the roughly 3,500-square-foot house into their family home.
