Hudson River Victorian 399K

Get your turret and wraparound porch right here!

I IDENTIFIED IMMEDIATELY with Phyllis of Reclaimed Home when I first read her blog (subtitle: Low Impact Housing and Renovation Options for Thrifty New Yorkers). She and her husband are serial renovators; they’ve bounced back and forth between Brooklyn (first Park Slope, now Bed-Stuy) and the Hudson Valley (Kingston first, more recently Beacon) for years. She’s also a real estate broker and funny as hell.

Phyllis and her husband are about to bounce again, back to the city full-time, and have just put their outrageous c. 1900 Queen Anne house in Beacon, N.Y. (best known as home of Dia:Beacon, the contemporary art museum) on the market.

It’s 4BR on 1/4 acre and loaded with period detail: fabulous woodwork and staircase, vintage hardwood floors throughout, wavy glass windows, ornate antique radiators, fireplace mantel, old school bathtubs, original plaster, and lots of colorful Bradbury wallpaper. Not to mention upgraded mechanicals and a pretty backyard.

Go here and let Phyllis tell you all about it, give you the run-down on living in Beacon, and show you lots more pictures.

The official listing is here.

Queen Anne for Sale or Rent

THIS 1890s QUEEN ANNE IS JUST ABOUT PERFECT, as far as I’m concerned. Why? Well, because:

It combines seclusion and convenience. It’s in the hip, historic village of Sag Harbor, but surrounded by a thick hedge. When you’re there, you’re unaware of the outside world.

It’s a solid, year-round 4 BR house with a limestone fireplace, yet it’s directly across the street from a wonderful bay beach, with water views from the upstairs windows.

The landscaping is lush but low-maintenance.

There’s a separate, totally delightful backyard studio, above, made up of salvaged windows and barn doors (renting artists have set up their easels there; it would also eliminate any excuse for writer’s block), and an outdoor shower affixed to a tree.

The house, which was in rough shape when owners Eric Anderson, an architect, and Hali Breindel, a photographer/stylist and psychotherapist, bought it 10 years ago, has been sensitively and charmingly remodeled. Among myriad other things, they added on a huge, sunny, glassed-in living room at the rear, encircled by French doors and oversized windows.

It’s cozy for family living yet expansive for entertaining (the dining room, with a coffered beadboard ceiling, seats 12). The kitchen is vintage in style but up-to-the-minute in function.

It’s reasonably priced for what it is — see listing and more pictures here or here. The house is also available for rent — see rental listing (and still more pictures) here.