3-Acre Mini-Farm with Vintage Outbuildings in Dutchess County 110K

Fired up with enthusiasm after writing my first blog post in ages, I remembered why I started blogging in the first place, more than ten years ago.

My very first post, “In Search of the Perfect Beach House,” in December 2008, was the beginning of a quest to find just that, documented here in words and pictures. But my search only lasted three months. I found, purchased and renovated a 1930s cottage on the South Fork of Long Island, N.Y., and continued blogging as I discovered this new world of country living.

I still enjoyed trawling the real estate listings, even after I’d bought a house, turning up properties I’d theoretically buy if I had unlimited energy and borrowing power.

Turns out the house wasn’t perfect. Five years later, I sold it and bought a different one nearby, whose renovation I also painstakingly recorded. Along the way, there were other renovations, apartment searches and decorating juggernauts, but the original intent of casaCARA was as an inspirational nudge to readers toward the affordable real estate that actually still abounds within two or three hours of NYC.

Last night, for the first time in quite a few years, I went back to my favorite multiple listing site: the Columbia Northern Dutchess Multiple Listing Service, which, despite its name, lists properties in many Upstate New York counties. The site was just as I remembered, with the same Y2K-era user-unfriendly interface.

Nevertheless, it works, and by searching on properties in Dutchess County, older than 1900 and cheaper than $200,000, I came upon a listing worth sharing. (I’ve owned a cottage on 20 acres in the town of Milan since 2002, though I don’t live there.)

I saw its wide open fields and sunny aspect and immediately thought “flower farm.” For two reasons: one, I’ve been following Lisa Ziegler of The Gardener’s Workshop, a professional flower grower in Newport News, Virginia, who teaches seminars and publishes books on her joyful trade. I would gladly pursue flower farming myself, at least as a hobby, if I was at my Long Island property all through the growing season (I’m not; I usually rent it out in summer) and if I had enough sun (I don’t, though I daresay Lisa Z. would find a way to make it work).

The other reason I thought this property would be ideal for flower farming is that it’s located on Battenfeld Road in northern Dutchess, a few miles east of Red Hook and Rhinebeck, near the sole remaining anemone farm in the area. Called Battenfeld’s, they grow anemones in greenhouses and have a Christmas tree business in the off-season.

Did you know….? More than a hundred years ago, anemones, which one rarely sees at all anymore, were a craze among Victorian women who wore them on their clothing and pinned them to their hats. There were numerous anemone farms in the area, and their flowers were shipped daily down the Hudson River by boat to New York City.

Nothing as charming as that happens any more, but I’ll bet the land is still plenty fertile. Grazing sheep is another option, if you have any sheep to graze — there’s a Merino sheep farm nearby called Morehouse Farm.

About the buildings on this lot: there are many and they look dire, possibly unsalvageable. Given untold amounts of work and money, though, wouldn’t it make a great compound, centered on the tree-shaded vintage house, with a separate studio and two barns, one falling down worse than the other, and of course, the flowers and sheep?

The listing agent is Paul Hallenbeck of Rhinebeck and there is more info and photos on his site. Won’t somebody please buy it and fulfill my fantasy?

Nearly Untouched 1829 Townhouse in Historic Center City Philadelphia $550K

IT’S ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF, that a grand 1829 townhouse like this, now on the market (<- Sotheby’s listing with many more photos) for only $550K in a primo Philly neighborhood, should remain in such antique condition to the present day.

Not that the owner of 31 years, a craftsman, didn’t put a lot of work into it. He did, even hand-laying slate tiles on the pitched roof.

The current condition reminds me of the Dennis Severs House , which I once toured n Spitalfields, London, and which was never even electrified — this Philly house has much new wiring and plumbing — or the aesthetic of designer John Dorian’s New York apartment, where cracked plaster and scuffed wide plank floors were cherished, not renovated into oblivion.

Can you imagine granite countertops and a marble bath in this house? Sheetrock walls and recessed lights? Horrors. Sacrilege! Someone buy it, please, and live in it the way it is — or don’t live in it, just let it be. It’s a perfect house to do nothing to.

I’m sort of kidding. I would need to undertake some restorative plasterwork of the walls and ceilings, and there’s only one half-bath operational at present. No doubt one could sink millions into it. On the other hand, look at the asking price.

A recent post on Curbed Philly says the house was built by Joseph and Eliza Shoemaker, Jr., who used the ground floor as a drug store.

It’s at 1221 Pine Street on the corner of Camac Street in the Center City neighborhood of Washington Square Park. It’s over 2,600 square feet, with six bedrooms. Only one half-bath currently functions; another full bath is almost ready to go.

The house is zoned RSA-5 for residential or mixed-use, with a historic designation the requires consulting with the city’s Historic Commission.

“Restore to historic grandeur”? Maybe. I like it the way it is.

More description gleaned from the Sotheby’s listing:

City records report 2,643 square feet, but the house could be over 3,000 if you count the basement was dug out and expanded top floor.

The exterior has two working gas lanterns, brick sidewalks and an iron fence.

The home has four entrances on both Pine and Camac Streets. The first floor has an entry vestibule and three large rooms with 10-12′ ceilings.

The second floor has three rooms with two fireplaces, one marble. The third floor has three rooms, one with fireplace, and the fourth floor has one large room with a fanlight window and a door leading to the roof.

The basement has been dug out, with high ceilings and a sidewalk entrance.

There are gas lines for some ceiling and wall fixtures.

The previous homeowner installed some new wiring and plumbing. There is one working half bath and a full bath will all new plumbing, but the water is not on to test it. There are two other bathroom spaces that have been roughed in.

 

Vintage Cottage on 2/3 Acre, East Hampton, N.Y. 580K

IF THIS HOUSE HAD COME UP when I was in the market a few years back, I would have seriously considered it, even though Sotheby’s is advertising it as a teardown. (The address is 110 Old Stone Highway, East Hampton, NY. You can Google it.)

The house needs work. So what else is new?

But what an upside this property could have: it’s a 1950s cedar-shingled cottage with great interior spaces (as seen in my through-the-window shots, below), on a flat, sunny .6 acre that would be terrific for gardening.

There are two outbuildings: a freestanding summerhouse (screened porch) that looks to be in good condition, and a guest house that reeks powerfully of mildew and needs to be gutted ASAP. That’s the one potential deal-breaker, as far as I can tell from my trespassing, if the house itself smells the same (only the guest house was unlocked).

It’s located on the historic Springs-Amagansett Turnpike, AKA Old Stone Highway, where a number of avid gardeners and high-profile people make their homes.

See the full listing here, with a photo of the pool in season.

It won’t last long. Don’t say I didn’t tell you!

Historic Upstate New York Farmhouse 350K

THIS LISTING COMES DIRECT TO YOU from a longtime blog reader of mine, Lillian DeMauro, who is selling her late 18th century house outside Andes, New York, in Delaware County’s Catskill Mountains, under three hours from NYC.

Looks and sounds good to me. For more specifics, read on:

Built c.1790 as a tavern along the Esopus Turnpike, the house has served as a community meeting house, a link on the Underground Railroad and, more recently, a farmhouse.

The house was featured in the 2013 book A Simpler Way Of Life, Old Farmhouses of New York & New England.

There are five fireplaces, two with bake ovens, several pine-sheathed rooms, original chestnut / pine flooring throughout, plaster walls throughout. The house retains “original surfacing at a rare level,” writes Lillian, including sheathing, plaster, flooring, staircases, paneling and paint.

Rooms include 4-5 bedrooms, 1 bath, library, dining room, living room. “Rooms can be used flexibly; you decide,” Lillian writes.

Much work has been done since 2000, including new cedar shingle siding, new hot air heating system, new hot water heater, plumbing, wiring and new basement.

The house sits on two-thirds of an acre, surrounded by state-owned or leased land, planted gardens, lawn and trees.

In Lillian words, it’s “near 21^st century cultural and social amenities, with the natural world at your back door.”Among the nearby diversions: hiking, kayaking, canoeing, swimming, tennis, golf, world-class trout fishing, theatre and opera.

For more info: Paul or Lillian, 607-746-7199 or  lilliandem@gmail.com

Two Cute North Fork Oldies, 450K & 399K

NOT ONE BUT TWO genuinely antique houses hit the market last week on Long Island’s North Fork, where farmland, farm stands, vineyards and wineries abound, and the feeling is of an earlier time.

The front-porch charmer, above, said to date from 1920, is in Peconic — 1-1/2 hours due east of NYC, with luck. It’s 2,000 square foot, 4BR, 2 bath, with an asking price of $450,000. The full listing, with more pics and details, is here. 

The Greenport clapboard house, above, is older still — built in 1884 — with 3BR, 1 bath, and an ask of $399,000. Greenport is a great little bayfront town, comprised almost entirely of vintage housing stock, with an abundance of quirky shops and good restaurants. More photos and info right here.