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?

Converted Rhinebeck Barn 329K

IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I PLAYED AROUND on the Columbia Northern Dutchess Multiple Listing site. It’s the best MLS I know — it actually covers a wide range of upstate New York counties, and allows you to search on properties based on when they were built.

Tonight I entered “thru 1700” just to see what would pop up. While I don’t for a minute believe this barn conversion in desirable Rhinebeck, N.Y., was originally built before 1700, it’s a place I would definitely investigate, were I in the market right now for a weekend/summer place with gardening opportunities in the Hudson Valley.

The 1,200-square-foot post-and-beam house, on three acres with a pond, looks like a child’s drawing. You couldn’t get more basic in terms of structure. Before its renovation in the 1990s, it looked like this:

I’m not sure I love what was done in terms of window placement and other design choices, but it’s still appealing, and the property looks pretty. There are wide-board floors and a metal roof, and taxes aren’t horrific.

Here’s a view of the interior, below. Living, kitchen, and dining are on the ground floor. Stairs lead to the bedroom, study, and bath.

For more pictures and all the nitty-gritty, go here.

Upstate Farmhouses, Acreage, 650K+

IF EVER THERE WAS A ‘BACK ROAD,’ it’s Starbarrack Road in Red Hook, N.Y., a little-traveled, winding two-laner with nothing on it but old houses and barns. In northern Dutchess County, heart of the Hudson Valley, Starbarrack Road is a hamlet unto itself; I’ve often driven it just for the pleasure of traveling back in time.

Three old houses on Starbarrack Road have hit the market in recent weeks, including my favorite, #105, above and right. An 1820 Greek Revival on 4-3/4 acres, with Catskill views, a lovely pond, 3 fireplaces, wideboard floors, the “right” windows, and beamed ceilings on the lower floors, it’s been stylishly done up, and done up right (except for the vinyl siding, though some might argue that’s a good thing). Ask is 650K, which is rather a pretty penny for these parts, and taxes are high ($11,000/year). But it’s still wonderful. I would if I could. Go here for the listing and more pics.

Then there’s #71, left, an 1850s Victorian farmhouse on 11 acres of former apple orchard. You got your wraparound porch, fireplace, yada yada, but the main attractions of this historic farm, “once owned by the Apple King of North America,” are several vintage outbuildings, including a stone summer kitchen/smoke house, and a couple of extraordinary barns, one English, one Dutch, both a faded aqua color. Because of those fabulous barns and the acreage, the ask is 895K, with taxes of $7,000 per year. Details and more pics are here.

Registered Dutch barn, above; summer kitchen, below

Finally, check out #30 Starbarrack, below, an 1890s Victorian on 10.7 acres with a serviceable 8-stall barn. Very attractive house, but nearer Rt. 9, not as secluded as the others — and within sight of several modern houses on bare plots. They’re asking 695K; taxes are $10,000. For the listing, click right here.

Why the sudden exodus from Starbarrack Road, when it’s not even a good time to try and sell a big old house? Damned if I know, but it looks like a negotiating op there for those poised to take advantage.

Anomalous April

View of the Hudson River and Catskills from Montgomery Place

THIS APRIL IS A STRANGE ONE in the Hudson Valley. The forsythia is not quite finished, which is normal for the time of year, but the lilacs are already in full bloom; ordinarily that doesn’t happen until mid-May. Forsythia and lilacs simultaneously? Weird.

Things are generally much greener than they ought to be. Loomis Creek Nursery’s e-mail newsletter says  the growing season is at least two weeks ahead, due to unseasonably warm weather early in the month, and yesterday at Montgomery Place, the romantic Hudson River estate whose gardens I popped over to see, I overheard the woman who runs their farm stand saying this is the earliest spring since 1945. I believe it.

Montgomery Place, designed by A.J. Davis in the mid-19th century, is actually rather unpretentious, of modest size, with a grand open-air verandah

I just wonder what will happen from here on. Will the lilacs stay in bloom longer than usual while the calendar catches up, or fade and be gone by Mother’s Day? Will the peonies be out in May instead of June, and the day lilies in June rather than July? Remains to be seen, I guess.

Above and below, the gardens at Montgomery Place were designed in the 1920s and ’30s. The brick pathways between beds have delightful scalloped edges.

For my purposes, the season being a bit ahead is not a bad thing. I’m up here to divide perennials from the Dutchess County property where I gardened for several years. Dividing perennials has never been my favorite thing, but this year it’s imperative, both because I have lots of bare dirt to fill at my new place on Long Island, and because certain things, like threadleaf coreopsis and rudbeckia (black-eyed susans to lay folks) have been getting out of control and taking over the central island bed, below (as it looked last September).

I spent most of Saturday digging, and amassed a huge number of pots filled with catmint, lamb’s ear, coreopsis, astilbe, cimicifuga, mint, epimedium, and more. In the end, I took only a small amount of rudbeckia because it is very late to show, even this year, and I wasn’t sure what was what.

Add to that a bunch of stuff from a local couple who sell fresh eggs and potted-up plants from their own garden, for a relative pittance: a kerria japonica bush, a viburnum, bee balm, obedient plant, iris tubers, more astilbes.

Now the big question is, how much can I get in my car?

Tight Fists in the Mortgage Market

IN LATE 2007, I GOT A NEW MORTGAGE from Sovereign Bank on an investment property in Philadelphia, and refinanced a weekend house in upstate New York with Countrywide, just before the fall.

In both cases, despite a perfectly lovely FICO score, I had to jump through an extensive series of hoops. So I’ve never quite understood this whole business about mortgages having been handed out freely to anyone with a heartbeat (I suppose the difference is that I was looking for a decent rate).

Lately I’ve been wondering: if I were to find that next great old house this weekend, would I be able to get a mortgage in this market? How much cash do I have to hoard? What kind of creative financing would be in order?

Short of applying for a new loan myself and finding out the hard way, I decided to e-mail my questions to several real estate brokers I know.  I got replies from Gary DiMauro of Gary DiMauro Real Estate, a vintage-property specialist with offices in  Tivoli, Hudson, and Catskill, N.Y.; Jim Cumisky of Quogue East Realty, East Quogue, L.I.; and Johnny McDonald, a Philadelphia realtor and developer of LEED-certified ‘green’ condos in the Northern Liberties area, including Onion Flats and Thin Flats.

Here are my questions, and a summary of what they had to say:

• How “frozen” is the current mortgage market?  Is it really more difficult to get a mortgage than it was a year ago?
• How much down payment is required now?  Is that percentage more than in the past?
• How flexible are sellers as to prices?  Are sellers taking back mortgages more than in the past?