Spring home improvement 2015 e sub

Home HudsonValley MARCH 19, 2015 • ULSTER PUBLISHING • ºWWW.HOMEHUDSONVALLEY.COM

Spring Home Improvement

Spring at last!

Outside repair jobs and inside improvements with an eye to real estate needs and words of inspiration

19, 2015 2 | March Home Hudson Valley

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March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley

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All that gets uncovered

By Paul Smart hat a complicated time of year this is. We despair as the mud creeps into all parts of our home accompanied by old leaves from last fall, assorted lost toys and tools, and dog waste that has begun to gain visibility as we celebrate the departure of winter’s snow. Inside, new smells let loose by warming days emanate from old walls. And those old projects not completed last year roar back into the forefront of our guilty to-do lists.

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I need to get that old Ikea bunk bed off the porch and to a new home. What was a cute family of squirrels in one of our chimneys is now a mini-metropolis that sounds back when I try to scare the critters out by smacking on the flue with a hammer. The small bit of peeling I noticed last fall is now in need of immediate attention.

I want to understand tackle additional promising stories. I want to talk with the guy down in Gardiner who’s building a new house using 3D printing technology. I want to explore how people are using online tools to sell real estate. I’m wondering how to replace the old jungle gym with a basketball hoop.

Our cover, our contributors

A detail from Still Life by Lynn Woods.

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he covers this issue are by longtime Ulster Publishing writer and painter Lynn Woods, a Kingston resident who is coauthor of Adirondack Style: Great Camps and Rustic Lodges and co-director of the film Lost Rondout: A Story of Urban Removal.

Our contributors this time around include: Andrew K. F. Amelinckx of Catskill, who writes about crime, food and art, but not necessarily at the same time Susan Barnett, a licensed real-estate salesperson affiliated with Gary DiMauro Real Estate, lives in West Hurley. She has been an anchor, producer and reporter for WRGB-TV in the Capital District and was Hudson Valley Bureau Chief for WAMC Northeast Public Radio. She’s also the author of the short-story collection, “The View From Outside,” published by Hen House Press.

Elisabeth Henry, a writer and an actress who lives in Hunter with her husband, where they raised their children. Henry has appeared in plays for Performing Arts of Woodstock and The Byrdcliffe Theater, has worked on several films shot in the Hudson Valley, including The Sisterhood of Night, The Ticket and Fourth Man Out, and has written for many local and regional newspapers and magazines

Jen Holz raises sheep, chickens, and kids in the Catskills.

I’ve chosen to give you a sense of how we handle things here in the Hudson Valley and Catskills this year, with a goodly bit of humor and some serious searching for greater truths which might be embedded in our home interior and exterior projects.

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Consider them “pre-selected” by dint of their participation in this special section.

Before you know it, this short window of projects-listing and initiation will have been overtaken by the sudden and swift bounties that accompany the summer months. We’ll all be outdoors.

And then too soon it’ll be getting cold again, and we can again put away the projects started now.

Barbara Mansfield is currently writing a middle grade fiction/recipe book with photographer husband Phil Mansfield (Bloomsbury, Wiley). She recently completed an illustrated book, Grumpy Fish Aid: Comfort Tips from Kids With Cancer distributed in hospitals nationwide.

Harry Matthews, who lives on an old farm on the Kaaterskill creek outside of Palenville with his partner Catherine and their three cats. He can most often be found in the woods building things, gardening, or plucking his tenor guitar on the porch of his cabin by the creek.

Rossi — yes, she only has one name — has been a writer for many publications including The Daily News, Time Out New York, Mcsweeney’s & Huffington Post, as well as the “Eat Me” column for Bust magazine, her own hit radio show on WOMR and WFMR in Cape Cod called “Bite This,” and her upcoming “edible memoir,” The Raging Skillet: The True Life Story of Chef Rossi, forthcoming from the Feminist Press.

Paul Smart, a writer and editor for Ulster Publishing of two decades standing, has edited a number of other regional weekly and biweekly newspapers and has served as a radio host on WGXC-FM in Hudson, Catskill and Acra. He lives in Greene County.

Violet Snow is a journalist and author, and frequent Ulster Publishing presence, specializing in history, genealogy, suspense fiction and nature, as well as also expressing herself through photography, video and music.

Sparrow is an American poet, activist, musician, and rabble-rouser. He is the author of several books of poetry and prose, is a frequent contributor to a number of publications, including the Woodstock Times and New York Times, and is known for having started the Slow Read Movement.

Robert Burke Warren is a lifelong musician who has been delighting children over the past decade as “Uncle Rock” while maintaining his own solo recording career and playing in The Catskill 45s. He is also an accomplished writer and Weekling.

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19, 2015 4 | March Home Hudson Valley

Who you gonna call?

House repairs tend to increase, Barbara Mansfield reminds us, when winter is ending

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irst it was the dishwasher. After a few searches husband Phil and I arrived at a mutual conclusion that the intake water valve was broken. My genius search was “bottom not draining,” which for a moment occurred to me could have lead to some scary forum where plastic surgeons trouble-shoot implants. The search, however, ended up yielding exactly what I was looking for: link after link of online product manuals for dishwashers.

I refined the search, adding the make and model of our dishwasher. The instructions were quite clear: “Try A. If after trying A the dishwasher still won’t drain, then try B. If B still does not work, you will need to order this part in order to try C.” “We can do this,” said Phil, so cheerfully that my only appropriate response was to smile and nod. We are not the handiest people, my husband

and I, but we had to try. We budgeted tightly this year for house repairs — by tight, I mean we actually didn’t budget anything. So, the A-to-B-toroundabout-C route was inevitable.

It didn’t appear we could do much damage. We could always wash the dishes by hand while we waited for the part to come.

Then the hot water in the bathroom went out.

“We can’t mess around with frozen pipes. We should phone Gene,” I told Phil, putting my foot down.

“We still owe him for the service check he did on the boiler,” Phil responded. So much for my foot being down. We needed to settle up before phoning Gene.

We took to our laptops to find out how much trouble we might get into fixing what we guessed to be a frozen pipe. The DIY Network, producer of Project Treehouse (one of my favorite late night veg-outs) has one of our best sites for emboldening minor electrical, plumbing and other repairs.

But it was on a site called The Plumber that I learned that it’s a terrible idea to use a blowtorch to unfreeze a pipe. “Duly noted,” said Phil, “I’ll use the blow dryer.”

His determination might have won the case for

DIY, but he was rewarded with a filthy, frozen crawl under the house in minus-zero weather.

The blow dryer worked, but the fact that the insulated pipes froze in the first place indicates that we will have to find someone to advise us about how to do more insulation in spring. In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, “It’s always something…”

The seemingly endless rabbit hole of home repairs is endured through minor victories. The dishwasher part arrived a few days later, and in a masterful show of dominance Phil turned the dishwasher on its back, installed the part and had it working again in less than an hour. It’s not that I believe fix-it jobs are the sole purview of the man in my house. He’s just more game. Successful DIY home repairs are 50% sweat and 50% interest.

(Phil correction: 80% sweat and 20% interest).

After weighing whether to fix it yourself you decide that you need a pro, who do you call? I believe there are organized people who have wellresearched lists of repairmen — with multiple contacts in each category, just in case one’s preferred electrician or plumber is unavailable in an emergency. Who might these together people be?

Candida at Coldwell Banker Village Green Re-

If it’s springtime, it’s tool time Terence P. Ward interviews an expert with advice about what to buy and what to borrow

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olf Bravo, a local sharpener, tool-repair expert and resiliency expert in central Ulster County, recently took time out from remodeling his new home to talk about tool needs for the spring and summer.

No matter what the project, Bravo stresses safety before anything else. “The first thing anyone needs is a pair of safety goggles,” he said. “They’re good all the time.” They’re essential for working with diverse materials such as paints and varnishes, tree branches, or any kind of wood or glass. Eye protection is an easy way to prevent injuries that will delay work even when they’re not serious.

The first thing Bravo recommends is a good set of screwdrivers inside the home. “The winter dries out wood in a house or apartment, and it shrinks,” he said, “so this time of year I like to go around to every cabinet door pull, doorknob and handle, and tighten the screws. It’s a good time to inspect other household hardware fixtures as well, such as hinges, which may have shifted so that doors don’t quite close as smoothly as they should. Just apply a little oil and tap a few times with a hammer.” With that, doors should open and close effortlessly.

Bravo prefers tools with a lot of versatility. Hammers fit that bill. A gentle tap can knock loose pieces back together. The above-mentioned oil is also something he likes to keep handy. A mineral oil can lubricate all manner of stuck things, such as bolts on a toilet seat or water cutoff valves. For loosening and tightening, nothing beats a solid pair of channel-lock pliers, which can be adjusted to grip any number of objects.

Even for someone who’s just renting, a home tool set that includes flathead and Phillips head screwdrivers, a hammer, a can of 3-in-1 oil, and a pair of channel locks will save a lot of headaches.

“You can do a lot with those tools,” he said.

Outside, Bravo’s go-to tool is the hoe. “A lot of people like something with a blade that’s mounted straight on the end of the handle,” he said, but

PHOTO COURTESY OF WOLF BRAVO

Wolf Bravo, the man behind the region's Tool Exchanges, says what one works with makes all the difference in how one works. he prefer the 90-degree bend of a hoe because it provides leverage to push, pull and chop without straining one’s back. He uses his to break up ice in the winter, and when spring comes it will not only break up soil for planting but also remove plants growing in sidewalks. It’ll also clear rocks from the garden, and pull all manner of weeds. He even uses it for cleaning out gutters. “The first time I tried one, I just fell in love,” he said. “I prefer tools that have multiple uses.”

Beyond that, one’s outdoor tool set should include a shovel or spade (the spade Bravo prefers is “beefier,” and capable of carrying rather than simply digging), a set of clippers, and a garden saw. That selection is enough to address most cleanup, gardening and outside work in the warmer weather.

Bravo thinks most people don’t use power tools such as drill guns often enough to need to own them. He’s instead working on establishing toollending programs throughout the county. “I look for groups of friends, gardening clubs, and organizations to host and share tools,” he said. “Why pay

for a shovel if you can borrow one? I teach how to use the tools, care for them, repair them, and I often provide them, too.” The New Paltz ReUse Center hosts one such collection.

Providing free tools is something Bravo does because of the values he learned in his native Peru.

“We didn’t waste anything, we fixed, and fixed, and fixed again, and when they couldn’t be repaired, we’d go to a garage for new,” he said. That same sensibility was common in the United States until after World War II, when industrial advances made buying new cheaper.

Older tools are often of a much higher quality than what can be bought today, so he trolls flea markets, estate sales, and garbage people leave for curbside pickup to find tools worth salvaging. “The best tools are old tools,” he said.

“They need taking care of, but the quality is much better.”

“Look into your own garage,” for tools, he recommends. Clean up the ones that are rusty and ugly, find videos on YouTube, or bring them to a repair cafe to be fixed.” Repair cafes, a growing movement in the area, are where people with a passion for tinkering and fixing will repair tools and other household items for free.

Bravo’s own niche is sharpening kitchen knives and garden tools, services which are always in high demand.

What the participants have in common, Bravo said, is, “We all like to repair things.” Part of the allure for the repair crew is the collaborative problem-solving that takes place when tackling broken items. Because of his environmental bent, Bravo is also driven by a desire to keep usable items out of landfills, an especially appropriate commandment in a county that hauls its solid waste some 250 miles for final disposal.

If older, high-quality tools can’t be found, a local hardware store is often the best way to go to buy new. Generally these are owned and staffed by people who own and use similar tools, and can offer their personal advice, recommendations and tips on how to safely and effectively use whatever is purchased. In addition, dollars spent at locally owned businesses tend to circulate in the area, stimulating the economy and providing security for friends and neighbors, including the next person to whom you turn when you need to borrow a tool you only need once or twice a year.

March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley

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PHOTO BY PHIL MANSFIELD

Babs Mansfield and husband Phil figure out plumbing and all that's hidden under the kitchen sink, including the knowledge that not all jobs are DIY. alty in Woodstock provided me the anwer: Realestate agents. “We have the opportunity to see literally hundreds of renovation, remodeling and restoration projects a year,” she explained. “We see everything from the happy endings, to the neverending stories, to the sad tales of woe. Over time, an experienced agent will develop a network of professionals with a proven track record of quality workmanship and honest dealings. It’s a good place to start.”

One might start there, if one were organized enough to stop by the friendly neighborhood real-estate agent prior to a home emergency. I’m impressively disorganized, though. I’m usually pulling my hair out in immense frustration before seeking someone to fix whatever’s broken. Sometimes I luck out on recommendations, and might even remember them.

Originally, I found Gene through our neighbor Mark. I had been complaining about how costly our service contract with an oil company was, and Mark asked, “Why not use a plumber?”

To which I replied, “Well, we have this boiler, called a System 2000, and we have to use someone certified for a System 2000.” Mark told me that he too had the System 2000 and that Gene happened to be the only plumber certified in our area.

In the end, Phil and I saved a little on service.

Because Gene is in the neighborhood, he tends to respond to emergency calls sooner. It also means

we feel terrible about that payment being late.

Since the first cup of sugar was borrowed, neighbors have been an important resource for service recommendations. Even if you hate your neighbors, or hate neighbors in general, personal endorsements supplanted finger walks through the Yellow Pages long ago. There are loads of sites that offer feedback from “real people” about plumbers, electricians, and other fix-it folk.

But, if you’re reading comments on Yelp, hopefully you’re aware of all the hidden agendas behind those reviews. Angie’s List is a popular pay-for service that is better vetted by really real people, but I’m too cheap to use it. And, after checking

out Angie’s List I was somehow ad-stalked by two similar online services.

I mostly find repair people by posting what I need on Facebook or Twitter. Recommendations from some friends hold great weight — those detail-oriented pals who get the jump on multiple price quotes and ensure that repairpersons have proper licensure and insurance. Other friends I take with a grain of salt. I usually get a mix of responses, like this post from my friend Sneha asking for an appliance fixer: Recommendation patterns emerge, even if in between a smart-aleck post like “Clothes Busters” appears in response to “Who you gonna call?”

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19, 2015 6 | March Home Hudson Valley

What’s under your house?

Violet Snow describes her adventures in the crawl space under her trailer f you have a basement, you probably have a general idea of the functional units lurking down there supporting the operation of your home. There’s a furnace or boiler, hot water heater, plumbing pipes, a sump pump if you’re subject to waterlogging, and probably heating ducts snaking all over the ceiling. But until something breaks, the only basement dwellers you’re intimate with are most likely the washer and dryer.

My house, the only one I’ve owned, is actually a double-wide trailer, so instead of a basement I have a crawlspace. When my husband and I were considering buying the house, the owner opened the little plywood door in the foundation, allowing us to poke our heads into the crawlspace. “I hate

I

going under there,” he admitted.

I was surprised. He seemed like a tough guy, a trucker who had renovated the trailer himself, putting in materials that made it feel like a regular house. Structurally, of course, it was still a doublewide, sitting on a less-than-three-foot-high foundation. I peered into the space, seeing only a few pipes and wires, with darkness beyond, and wondered what was so bad about it.

We moved into the house in January, and for several months I remained blissfully ignorant of the crawlspace. In the fall, a musty smell in the house made me worry there was mold underneath, maybe from a leaking pipe. I decided to check it out. took a flashlight to the end of the house and opened the little door. Just inside was a dolly, a board with wheels attached and a little pillow at one end. I flung myself belly-down on the dolly, rested the flashlight next to the pillow, and paddled into the dark by pressing my hands against the floor.

I

It was actually fun at first. I felt adventurous, spelunking among the pipes, lifting up sagging wires that went up into the ceiling to who-knewwhere, so I could slip awkwardly underneath them. Sometimes I had to shift off the dolly as the wheels stuck in a seam that made a ditch in the poured concrete slab, and frequently I bumped my head on the metal trusses that arced a foot lower than the ceiling.

I soon noticed two metal boxes that hung from the ceiling and ran longitudinally down the center of the house. (Years later I learned to call them “plenums.”) A big flexible tube, made of insulation, coiled wire and plastic covering, connected the two plenums. Nine smaller tubes (“flex ducts”) led from the plenums to metal sleeves sticking down from the ceiling along the walls.

I deduced that the plenums held heat from the furnace, located inside the house, and the tubes distributed heat to the vents in each of the rooms.

Since it had never occurred to me to wonder about the path of heat in a forced-air system, I was intrigued by this revelation. (Many homes

Houses dislike anxiety Sparrow’s guide to home maintenance

M

y relationship to home repair is like a Manhattanite’s concept of cooking: my main task is to dial the phone. (I am a Manhattanite by birth, and grew up in a housing project where all maintenance was speedily accomplished by city employees.)

One of the numbers I dial is Paraco, our propane company, once a year, to ask for a furnace inspection. A gentle but methodical fellow named Ralph usually comes, cleans our furnace, and saves us from death by frostbite. (Many thanks, Ralph!)

Another of my efforts involves mice prevention.

I wash the dishes every night and then scrupulously wipe the stove top. Finally, I remove all the trapped vegetable matter from the sink strainer.

When I see a mouse turd in the silverware drawer (for some reason our rodents love to lick forks) I immediately inform my wife, who prepares the weapons of death: black plastic traps daubed with peanut butter.

When we lived in the East Village of Manhattan, We ultimately shared our apartment with 63,000 cockroaches, due to certain lapses in sanitation.

To repent for our sins of the Nineties, I am perfectly vigilant today. (Cockroaches never venture north of Newburgh, so luckily they’re no longer an issue.)

Author Sparrow heralds his ascent into home ownership, and most of the blessed responsibilities entailed.

Despite my personal inadequacies in home maintenance, I have compiled a list of suggestions for you, gentle reader: 1) Name your house. The English do this, and it’s always appealing. My wife and I stayed in a mansion named Colimace in Cheltenham in 1986.

Four American soldiers had been billeted there during World War II, and the house’s name was a combination of their states of origin.

Here’s a suggestion: title your domicile after your favorite beer. “Budweiser Manor” or “Dos Equis Hall” are memorable destinations.

2) Write an anthem for your house. Here is one, based on the Swedish national anthem: Thou ancient, thou free, thou mountain-encircled home; Thou quiet, thou joyful and fair!

I greet thee, most beauteous house upon earth;

The noble sun rises above thee!

Sing it every morning when you awaken, just after urinating.

3) Act swiftly. A small problem will grow more grievous. A little leak will get larger. Two mice will become fourteen. I hate to spend money, but I force myself to call the plumber before the bathroom is underwater.

4) Read books on home improvement. At my mother-in-law’s house I found the Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Masonry. I quote from Step 14 of “How to Build Garden Steps Using Timbers & Concrete”: “Smooth (screed) the concrete by dragging a 2 x 4 across the top of the frame.”

Did you know “screed” could be a verb? This alone is a reason to immerse yourself in home maintenance.

March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley

PHOTOS BY VIOLET SNOW

Plenums and other scary phantoms await under our houses, a key to the resilience and healthiness of our homes.

In addition to the lessons he's learned about cleaning tubs, Sparrow has also written odes to the wonders of bathification.

5) Dancing improves a room. Aesthetic motion makes a home happier. Late at night while I do the dishes, I listen to K104.7, the station of “today’s hit music” out of Poughkeepsie. If I like a song, I’ll set down a soapy bowl and undulate around the kitchen. I know my house approves.

(At the moment, my favorite song is Flo Rida’s “G.D.F.R.”) 6) Open your windows! We live in a valley full of lively air. Let the air disinfect your carpets and chairs. (Even in winter, open the window two inches for half an hour in the morning.) Two thousand six hundred years ago, the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote: Cut out windows and doors In the house as you build; But the use of the house Will depend on the space In the walls that is void.

Mr. Tzu meant that one should have as much air in a house as possible, and as few objects. Clutter in a house attracts dust, dust attracts mold, mold attracts illness. Material possessions make you sick, in other words – while Catskills air engenders health.

7) Employ the sun! Drape your blankets and towels out on the deck, or on the clothesline. Let the sun cleanse your cloth.

8) De-clutter the garage. Here I’ve learned an important lesson. If you suggest to your spouse, “Let’s look around the garage and decide what we

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with basements have squared-off metal ductwork instead of the cheaper flex ducts.) It was another year or two before I realized that the ducts, which leak a certain amount of heat into the crawlspace, also keep the pipes from freezing in winter.

The dolly did not corner well, as I found upon reaching the end wall and turning, with difficulty, to proceed up the back side of the house. I had to duck under flex ducts and dodge copper pipes that apparently led to the kitchen, bathroom and washing machine. Someone flushed the toilet, and I heard the contents rushing down a big plastic pipe that disappeared into the ground.

It was fascinating to track the guts of the plumbing and heating systems into the everyday world above. There was also a long pipe that crossed the basement diagonally, connecting to the two outdoor spigots.

I left the crawlspace exhilarated by my adventure but with a stiff neck and bruised head. Emergence into the open air was a pleasure.

My exploration had revealed no evidence of mold or moisture. I decided the musty smell had come from condensation in the heating ducts that developed a bit of mildew in the cooler weather and then was blown into the house when the heat first came on. Within a few days, the ducts dried out, and the smell was gone.

The following spring, we replaced the wall-towall carpets with a bamboo floor. As the installer was leaving the house on his last day, he glanced at a little vent near the front door, built into the foundation. “You should open those vents,” he told Continued next page

don’t need,” she’ll reply, “I can’t deal with that right now; I’m overwhelmed.” But if you find a particular useless-looking item – say, a half-deflated basketball – and ask, “May I throw this out?”, she’ll answer, “Whatever …” (At this point you swiftly toss the ball in the car trunk, for Family of Woodstock.)

9) Wash the bathtub. My wife and I bought an elegant clawfoot bathtub – for $100 – from the Zaborski Emporium in Kingston. Here’s my secret formula for cleaning it: mix equal parts Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and Borax Detergent Booster, add water and smear this paste on the porcelain late at night. Next day, wash it off with a sponge. You need not strain or rub. With no effort, your tub will be radiantly clean! (I have no idea whether this works on plastic.) I learned all this from Anique Taylor.

10) Don’t vacuum. Usually it’s unnecessary to sweep or vacuum your house. Just wait for the dust to form “dust bunnies” or “dust mice” (lovely phrases!) and toss them out the front door.

11) Use a plunger! The toilet plunger has existed since the 1860s, and all our space-age digital technology has failed to improve it. (This device also works on stopped-up sinks – though you’d be wise to wash the plunger in a solution of water and bleach first.) Plunging a toilet is a weird, vaguely sexual experience. Pushing the wooden handle, I feel heroic, like a medieval knight: O young Lochinvar is come out of the west, Through all the wide Border his plunger’s the best…

Of course, occasionally plunging fails, and the results are unspeakably disgusting. But this is true of most projects – even novel-writing.

12) Don’t worry. Don’t waste time worrying about your house. Houses dislike anxiety. They prefer action, but also admire leisure. Either fix the problem, or lie around ignoring it. But worrying makes every crack grow larger.

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me. “Otherwise moisture will build up under the house in the summer, and the floor will warp. You can close them in the winter to keep in the heat.”

Opening the five vents, spaced around the house, required removing rectangles cut out of the sty-

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Understand everything else.

Read Ulster Publishing’s It’s the Economy column and hudsonvalleybusinessreview.com for insight into the local economy.

March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley rofoam insulation lining the walls. I gulped, realizing I wasn’t in a big hurry to go back under the house.

But I went. And I still go, steeling myself every spring and fall, to take out or put back the chunks of styrofoam from the little wells in the foundaContinued next page

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19, 2015 10 | March Home Hudson Valley tion walls, as I crack my head on the trusses and writhe among the many obstacles, beneath a ceiling so low that I can’t even sit up.

and I realized a flex duct must have been knocked down by the floodwaters. So under I went, suited up against the mud with an old pair of corduroys over my jeans and wearing an oversized jacket.

Sure enough, the duct was dragging on the floor, sullied with mud. Feeling macho, I decided to replace it myself.

I should mention here that my husband is not handy. Due to carpal tunnel syndrome and a bad back, he avoids tangling with tools, while I like

n April 2005, a flood sent the Esopus Creek to rampage through our garage and crawlspace, leaving muddy storage boxes of papers on the garage floor and a quarter-inch of silt on the crawlspace slab. After a few days, I noticed there was no heat coming into one of the rooms,

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After measuring the ruined duct — which meant a second trip inside with a tape measure — and examining the plastic loops (“draw bands� or “zip ties�) that secured the ducts to the sleeves (“boots,� I think) leading to the vents, I went to the hardware store to buy flex duct material, zip ties and a head lamp. I cut the duct to the right length and dragged it under the house, where I lay on my back on the dolly, finding the little pillow momentarily of use.

I’ve done lots of fix-it jobs around the house, and this one was definitely the hardest. I was workContinued next page

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19, 2015 12 | March Home Hudson Valley ing with my hands up in the air, trying to keep the duct in place around the boot above it while affixing a zip tie in the semi-dark and breathing dried silt. It turned out I’d cut the duct too short and had to start over. But I got the job done.

I’ve dived under the house many times since

then, to deal with the vents, to trace leaks, to redo a shoddy taping job on the new dryer hose. In 2011, Hurricane Irene deposited three inches of mud on the slab, and I cleaned up about a third of it. The sensuous pleasure of wriggling in the mud almost made up for the dread I felt each time I

plunged into the underworld. We hired workmen to clear out the rest of the mud and replace the sodden insulation and silt-filled heating ducts and plenums. I felt sorry for those men.

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five-year-old or even a ten-year-old. Seems like a no-brainer, but this process is always rife with missteps and mistakes, a clumsy dance most families know well. Your kid has his own life, his own friends. His world is not yours. Staying engaged while backing off is a challenge.

You can talk about this stuff ad nauseam – I know I did – but luckily, in a quiet moment between conversations, I heard and, most importantly, heeded, the call of the land, which I’d begun to decipher on my stressed-out nighttime wanderings.

After a decade of living on it, I looked intently at our acreage, assessing the arc of the sun over the maples, the firs, the birches, the mountains. I listened to the earth’s call resonating in the space where resided my need to obsessively care for something. Perhaps I was not only born to parent, but to garden. The time was ripe, if you will, to find out. hat first season, I started late (timing is not my strong suit). I bought small plants and potting soil, Googled “starting a garden,” and built a raised bed from spare wood salvaged from a disused tree house I’d built for my son when he was tiny. I upcycled it into a square, about the size of a small table, and placed it in a sunny spot. I poured in soil, planted my tomatoes, lettuces, and cukes, and waited.

A late frost almost took out my tomato plants, PHOTOS BY ROBERT BURKE WARREN but to my elation – and I do mean that – they surWhat better way to get past the last snowcover than with dreams of summer tomatoes? vived and budded. I watched the bees pollinate, and the process captivated me. I’d never fully understood why sex was euphemistically called “the birds and the bees,” but seeing the insects burrow deep into the dripping petals, I got it. When the fruits and vegetables swelled from those petals, I really got it.

I tended my garden every day, loving the scent of it on my skin, the dirt under my fingernails, my actual red neck. I watered and weeded, pruned the plants, and talked to them like a crazy person, sometimes well past dusk. My family made good-natured fun of me, but they loved my little handful harvests. Meanwhile, I felt ever more like a hunter-gatherer, a little more ready for the grid to go down, connected to a shadowy part of my ancestry. n winters past, I complained loud and With regards to being a parent, gardenlong about the weather. But no more. What ing, I think, made it easier to step back has changed? Am I mellowing with age? and better realize what I can and cannot Hardly. control, what aids growth and what stunts One word: gardening. These days, I look it. Again – I knew a lot already, intellecat the snow-packed ground and easily sumtually speaking, but not in my body. And mon the feel of soil yielding to my fingers, as both gardening requires patience. I couldn’t memory and prediction. force my plants to grow any faster, or bear Of course, like you, I always realized snow fruit on cue. They did it on their own time, would eventually melt, ground would soften, buds which I had no choice but to respect. would bloom, etc. Even in the noticeable throes of Thankfully, I couldn’t afford to muse climate change, nature still grants us our someovermuch on this stuff. (That’s what winwhat predictable (although less so) seasons, parter is for.) There was blessed work to do, ticularly here in the Hudson Valley. But gardening always. The vines grew ever faster, and I extends intelligence beyond the head and into the hammered in stakes and old pieces of fence hands. I retain the feel of dirt in my palms, the to keep them vertical. My tomatoes in parmuscle memory of my fingertips digging, wieldticular thrived, yielding fat, juicy fruits, ing a trowel, stroking stems and buds, the sweet which I foisted on neighbors and friends. snap of the bounty dropping into my palm. Like The first time I ate produce I had actuthe music I’ve learned to play, the knowledge isn’t ally grown, it tasted quite different from only in my brain. It’s in my flesh. the store-bought varieties, which, by comYou think you know yourself, especially when, parison, were virtually flavorless. From One of the tricks to a successful first garden, the author like me, you are smack in midlife. But no, I had the moment the juice squirted from the has found, is the essence of simple containment. no idea I’d love gardening as I do. I didn’t think skin, I was as hooked as a crack head.

I’d be on the verge of tears the first time one of Last year, I expanded to a space twice my tomato vines fell from its stake and broke. I as big. Mysterious and tenacious blight didn’t think I’d be elated seeing bees congregate plagued my tomatoes both years, but luckily it araluminum pans hung from stakes. on my plants, or blindly furious when an idiot dog rived at the end of the season, after I’d harvested a figured my garden an excellent place to dig and lot. The first year, the unsightly black fungus upset he land called out, but I ignored it for defecate. Apparently, moments of looking in the me, but last year, not so much. Humbled is a betabout a decade. I didn’t quite get the mirror and saying, “Who are you?” never cease. ter word than upset. I will fight it again, I know. It language it was speaking, and I was too It was a long time coming, this shift. When my will win, ultimately. But fight I will. busy to learn. I was the hands-on parent of an wife and I moved with our four-year-old son from One of the biggest getting-to-know-yourself aselementary school kid, re-inventing myself as a Manhattan to the Hudson Valley in 2002, I had pects of gardening has been my deeper sense of teacher, attending to children, and spending my been a city dweller my entire life, an admirer of connection to the natural cycles pervading all life, spare time playing and writing music. My nurgardens but a stranger to them. Arriving in Phoeand by extension, my hardening realization that turing energy was spoken for. nicia, we fell in love with and bought a 1910 Vicwe, as a species, are screwing that up. I’ve also reIn times of great stress and heartbreak, howtorian house on four acres of land, a significant alized that political action ultimately means nothever, I found myself wandering into the back yard chunk of which had been gardened. ing if this disregard for the Earth continues. and talking to the land, regardless of the season. I After years of consideration, I joined the Green Coincidentally, we purchased the property asked for signs, for solace, for clues. While I rarely Party. The last straw was my changed relationship from one of this company’s former editors, Parry got answers, the asking helped. We got further to the Earth through my garden. Even in my little Teasdale, and his wife, Carol Vontobel. As inacquainted, the land and I, and she helped me plot, I hear her voice, even when the snow is thick trepid, back-to-the-land techno-hippies (Google through some tough times. Still, I wasn’t ready to on the ground. I recognize my own necessary “Videofreex”), they’d lived in the house for 28 go all the way. subservience to her. Despite her awesome power, years, raised three girls, farmed the acreage, and Finally, in 2013, when our son was 15, my wife she needs allies. She’s taught me and given me so done a lot of gardening. Vestiges were evident: and I began the process of stepping back as parmuch, especially in these last couple of years, so fenced-in plots, long-dead vines among the ents, letting him go in some ways. Obviously, you it’s the least I can do. loamy earth, and, to keep away birds, glinting can’t parent a 15-year-old the same way you do a

T

Back to the garden Robert Burke Warren connects to his inner greenness

I

T

19, 2015 14 | March Home Hudson Valley

Spring chores carry promise...

Jen Holz knows what draws winter to a close.

I Chickens are ruled by light. It is imprinted on their DNA: the fact of seasons, hours, days are all pressed into their awareness. When I saw my rooster swooping down across the mountainside, flying from tree to tree on subzero currents oblivious to the cold, I knew. The light was back. Spring. It’s cold. The dogs follow me to the barn, exhilarated at first, then worried. Ruby lifts a tender paw. Tess whines. “C’mon,� I say. We hurry down the hill though tunneled paths, back into the house where they will stay by the woodstove while I finish chores.

The sheep, chewing contentedly, are oblivious to the cold. Chickens huddle and stick to the paths we make for them –– except for the intrepid rooster. He is the first sign. There are others.

Yesterday the flock stood in front of the barn, faces upturned to the sun which was riding everso-slightly higher. Icicles dripped. Sheets of snow slipped off the tin roof. It’s a kind of faith, not the hoping and praying kind, but the faith that comes of observation: the sun’s path, icicles’ dripping, sheep’s faces, and the Red Jungle Fowl’s flight as he scouts the mountain for territory. pring is a fact already written in light. Now is the time to prepare.

II The most valuable part of the sheep is not the meat, milk or wool. It is the manure. We have acres of green pasture and gardens. Manure is the foundation for everything. To us, it’s pure gold. We begin clearing the barn as soon as possible each spring. Even before we can wrangle the ATV up the mountain, we begin forking the stuff outside in warm heaps, a little each day, removing as much as we can before first melt. A healthy barn has a green, earthy smell. The manure is left to pack over the winter, the heavier composted layer on the bottom and the lighter fluffy hay on top. If the barn is too tightly insulated, ammonia builds up as the weather gets warmer, tainting the air for sheep. It is imperative both to clear the manure and to ventilate more as temperatures rise. We spread the heavy stuff on the pastures and layer the lighter stuff on top. This will have plenty of hayseed, so we don’t buy commercial seed for pastures. Moreover, it is local and more likely to thrive in our location. We cover our gardens with a light mixed layer, with last year’s manure nicely composted underneath. Again, the light stuff will have live seeds, so we’ll manage weeds with black landscape cloth.

Our friend Don layers mulched cut grass to form a thick mat which prevents the weeds from grow-

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Ewes have it clear -- with warmth comes shearing time, soon. ing. Manure is a science and a philosophy. Spring begins with the labor of last year’s waste.

III George gets his best gardening advice from our good friend Don, who likes to start seedlings enveloped between wet paper towels and covered with Saran Wrap under a grow light. He moves the sprouts to soil pots and later transfers them to the garden. This takes the guesswork out of knowing which seeds have sprouted and which are duds. It gives him a great head start on the season. Don is

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a good deal more organized than we are. Here’s his calendar: Early March: Start parsley in wet paper towels covered with Saran Wrap and move to four-inch pots with potting soil, four or five seedlings per pot, when they sprout. Parsley is slow growing.

Transplant to garden in early May. Prune back old asparagus, raspberry canes and fruit trees.

Mid-March: Start lettuce, kale, and chard under wet paper towels, transplant into the garden after the last hard frost has passed. One planting

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| 15

pot, transplant around June 1. Very few folks start corn in pots but this system yields a crop about ten days earlier than planting directly in the garden.

Continue to stagger plantings every ten days or so.

You’ll get corn until late September.

Last frost: plant the following directly into the garden early (mid to late April) but after the last heavy frost: beets, carrots, lettuce, kale, chard, radish, spinach, and onion sets.

IV New life is not for the faint-hearted. It is messy.

It is also the great happiness of farming. There is nothing lovelier than a clutch of newly hatched chicks or a pair of energetic kids or lambs. In the past, we’ve ordered baby chicks from hatcheries like Stromberg’s, McMurray’s or Cackle. Hatcheries typically have higher minimum orders (15 to 25) and offer a wide variety of birds. Local feed stores like Tractor Supply or Agway will sell as few as six chicks and have proven production breeds.

In recent years we’ve had plenty of our own Red Jungle Fowl chicks who brood very well.

For those considering baby chicks, you’ll need a heat lamp, tin tub, shavings, thermometer, chick starter feed, waterer, and a few marbles to put in the waterer. Plan on keeping your chicks under a heat lamp for a few weeks before transferring them to an outdoor run.

For those thinking about buying a few lambs or kids, now is a great time. Consider starting out with a few bums that need to be bottle fed. Bottle feeding can be a great way to bond, especially for children. We’ve watched generations of 4H kids raise chicks, lambs, and kids, and it builds a wonderful sense of confidence.

V Dee calls to confirm our shearing date. George begins pulling stacks of sugaring buckets from the garage: “Where’s my evaporator?” A fishing buddy writes, asking about Opening Day of trout season on April 1. Spring is accelerating, gathering momentum. The ground is turning tender mud. The smell of sugary smoke and sticky lanolin permeates our work clothes. Tiny spouts smile up at us.

Though it’s cold today, the sun persists. My rooster flutters gaudy orange against a grey sky, lands on the porch railing, stretches his wings and neck and shouts a bodacious aaaaawk! The sound permeates the air: rude, beautiful, and clear. Spring.

Chickens, meanwhile, pass each season much the same... waiting, clucking.

of three to six kale and chard plants should be enough for a family of four. Do a second planting of lettuce with seed directly in the garden about ten days later, then stagger more plantings of lettuce and mesclun every ten days or so.

Late March: Start peas under paper towels, transplant to garden in late March or early April.

Peas have a poor germination rate, so starting under towels will yield an earlier crop and prevent the waste of unsprouted seeds.

Rototill the garden.

Early April: Start eggplant, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, sweet peppers, and hot peppers under paper towels, transplant to garden in May, transplant hot peppers to black plastic pots on the deck. Note that eggplants need a lot of manure/ compost. Stagger the broccoli so harvest continues throughout the summer.

Mid-April: Start tomatoes under paper towels, place sprouts one to a six-inch pot, transplant to garden in late May, clip off all but the top two branches and plant deep, right up to the base of those top branches. Best to place plants at least ten inches apart so they do not spread fungus from one plant to another.

Late April: Start summer squash under paper towels, move sprouts to six-inch pots, one per pot, transplant in late May. Also start watermelons, pumpkins, and basil.

Approximately May 10: Start corn under wet paper towels, move sprouts to one per two-inch

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PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY ELISABETH HENRY

The slow build-out of a Catskills' homestead has its challenges, but also its obvious rewards.

Dressing for success I used to be a virgin, claims Elizabeth Henry hough the movie “She-Devil” received lackluster reviews, one moment in it remains as instructive as the Torah.

Mary Fisher, a successful romance novelist played by Meryl Streep, meets with her editor at a tony Los Angeles restaurant. Mary’s new work is the product of her changed circumstances. Once a fabulous single woman, she is now embroiled in an affair with her accountant, Bob. He and both his recalcitrant children have moved in with Mary.

The title of her new manuscript is “Love in the Rinse Cycle.”

Mary’s editor is dubious. Doubt hardens when Mary, after sipping her martini, plucks a gummy bear from her hair and pops it into her mouth.

Mothers of young children howl in recognition, while cringing with fear that this scenario is all too horribly possible in their own lives.

If you are the mother of young children, I know you. If you also are in the middle of building a house, I know you, too. And if you also have animals, oh boy, do I know you. When Helen Gurley Brown said you could have it all, she did not mean this.

But you can do it. You can come through your personal maelstrom like when that Mother of Dragons walked out of the fire and claimed the right to lead her people.

New mothers, people on the first day of a home renovation, and those with a new pup in arms are all at the threshold of a life cycle. I’ve decoded that life cycle into stages, just like Elizabeth Kugler-Ross did with death. My series will not be a tissue of lies, like “Amish Mafia” or “Dude, You’re Screwed.” And unlike those series, with their provocative titles, unlikely conditions and ironically disappointing fare, mine will be instantly recognized.

I intend to suggest my work as the newest offering in the Discovery Channel Series. It will be true, and familiar. It will validate.

It will simply be entitled, “I Used to be A Virgin: Is This Really Happening Right Now?” That question will be asked with equal fervor, but for different reasons, throughout the three stages of “I Used to Be A Virgin.”

T

n that first stage, “The Plunge,” you are delighted. You may have stitches in places you never thought possible, you may be terrified of the balloon mortgage, you may be uneasy after reading things about the breed of pup that is nuzzling your ear, but such is your joy that those things matter little.

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Rural fun demands its own sense of unique styling.

March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley Your happiness is profound. You ask yourself, “Is This Really Happening Right Now?� Your infant yawns and squeaks. You peruse the architect’s sketch. The puppy at your feet gazes deeply into your soul.

Yes. It is really happening. You feel complete, uplifted.

I am reminded of a day when I waitressed at a ski resort cafe. A party of seven or so came in.

Among them was a woman with an infant. The woman was outfitted in expensive ski wear. The infant was swaddled in immaculate clothing, luxurious woolens. The woman stood for a moment, as though to allow the entire dining room to admire the tableau she had created, with her exquisite taste, her enviable genes, her fortunate marriage. “Oh, yeah,� said the senior waitress. “I wanna see that broad two years from now when that kid won’t sit down and nails her with a muffin. A chocolate-chip muffin.�

It was only years later that I understood the verity of that prediction after I was nailed by mussels posillipo, hurled by my toddler. Yes, indeed. The first stage passes quickly. nd now you are sliding into the second stage. You are “Hitting Bottom.�

Surely you remember a time when your closet was hung with clean, hairless and neatly pressed clothing. Below that was an assemblage of footwear, each pair slated for a certain purpose.

This may exist in the home you presently occupy.

You have not visited it much since your child became a toddler. Or you have put on so much weight that poking around in there is depressing.

Or everything was moved to the attic, basement or garage while the renovation that was started be-

fore the seasons changed and the snow started so they just put a tarp on the roof and now that part of the house is closed off and the living room really is where you live. And eat. And sleep.

You live in sweat pants and hoodies. And crocs.

You are so faklempt that you care not for the disdain of the clerk in the Vision Center of Walmart who sneers at the pair of glasses your dog ate, and no, this is not covered under the warrantee. You sigh, and pay for a new pair. You hope your breasts won’t leak. The month-old is asleep in the baby carrier. Your two-yar-old protests when you take away the bag of candy he or she grabbed from the counter, which breaks, and you pluck a gummy bear from your hair. Maybe you eat it. After all, you have to pay for that, too.

Across the aisle you see a vaguely familiar face.

Oh. It’s that woman who came, shyly, to audition

| 17

for the community theater piece you directed. She was not cast. My, how times have changed. Her hair looks just great. Her clothes look just great.

She looks just great.

You are miserable, and not just because you haven’t had eight consecutive hours of sleep in two years. You ask yourself, “Is This Really Happening Right Now?�

Suddenly the fluorescent lights in Walmart are misty and green and seem to be emitting noxious fumes. ou are ready for the last stage: “Coming Up for Air.�

When you first break through the surface of the water, you must realize that, first and foremost, with the birth of your first child your personal universe exploded and remains swirlContinued next page

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When handling a homestead, family, and plenty of pets, comfort trumps style. IS style, in fact.

ing around you in kaleidoscopic chunks. But the world at large has not changed for women. The right to vote, and the other accoutrements of feminism, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give you a pass if you show up at any kind of meeting with cat hair on your lap, baby burp on your shoulder, or smelling of dog.

This applies equally to job interviews, parentteacher meetings, or lunch with that college friend who just got her doctorate. Even if you got your doctorate ten years ago. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world,â&#x20AC;? thank you, James Brown,

and men donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t nurse. If you are to come up for air for the purpose of making life better for your family, and most of all, for yourself, you must make yourself look polished and confident.

And hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how. Have a uniform.

A Carhart jumpsuit worked for me. I realize this is not the formula for everyone. However, adding two or three of these to my wardrobe allowed me to jump out of bed, make breakfast for the kids, dress them, hop into my Carhartt, and drive them to school, after which I did the barn chores. Once

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back in the house, I could peel off the Carhartt and clean the house in my pajamas. This practice eliminated a lot of decision-making and laundry, two things no mother of young children wants in abundance.

There are other â&#x20AC;&#x153;looks,â&#x20AC;? of course. But, however you roll, make it simple. Have a few almost identical choices in reserve. Neat slacks. Crisp tops.

Sweaters and jackets styled to retain structure.

Hang your uniforms in a closet or space out of reach of kids or cats or dogs or birds that may escape a cage and perch. And do other things.

Yes, this happened to me. And believe me, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want surprises when you reach for your attire after getting that call to substitute teach at 6 a.m. This is especially important for shoes. Get some clogs, which are sturdy and good in most weather. Leave them, firmly paired, in the out-ofreach closet or be ready to have one and not the other when you need both most. Assess your life in such way that your uniform complies.

Still nursing? No back-button dresses or blouses.

White dog? No black angora sweaters.

For Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sake, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feed hay to the horses after you dress for public life.

Allergies are everywhere. And if you have animals, watch where you step on the way to the car.

One misstep, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re struggling with a stench in compressed time, a circumstance that can lead to tears.

On that note, to make sure your uniforms are

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19, 2015 20 | March Home Hudson Valley

Real estate realities Spotting the perfect house, figuring out how to sell and making what you have your eden

Home HudsonValley

19, 2015 22 | March Home Hudson Valley

March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley

| 23

Finding the swan amid the ugly ducklings Susan Barnett teaches homebuyers how to separate dreams from nightmares

Y

ou’re ready to buy a house. You have a budget. You know where you want your new home to be. You’re pre-qualified for a mortgage. You’ve found a broker you like.

Now comes the fun part, right?

Maybe. It depends on how realistic you are. The process is likely to be frustrating if you don’t understand that you’re going to have to compromise.

No matter how much money you have available for a house, when you buy an existing home you’re buying someone else’s taste. Even if the house has been rehabbed and repainted top to bottom, it’s not necessarily what you would have done.

Today’s buyers and sellers are educated, thanks to HGTV. The endless variety of programs about people buying, selling or remodeling their homes has injected a healthy dose of reality into the romantic dream of house hunting. We’ve become better at seeing potential. Websites like Houzz and Pinterest offer creative ideas for turning “eek!” into “aah!”

Will you recognize your dream home when you first see it? What if you’re living in your dream home and don’t even know it? Here are five tips to help you separate the dreams from the nightmares.

Location location location.

It’s still true – you can change the house but you can’t change where it is (at least not without a laborious and expensive moving process). Zero in on where you want to be and please, please listen to your broker when he or she tells you why the house you’re not sure about is a good buy because it’s in a great area. Even if you never intend to move again, things happen. Your dream home is more likely to reward you for your labors when it’s time to resell if you’ve bought in a neighborhood where other people want to buy, too.

Walkability is big now. It’s key if you don’t own a car. If you own a car but just want to be a little more earth-friendly, being able to walk to stores and services is a huge plus. Parks, trees, goodlooking houses near you and views are all pluses.

Look at the taxes. Some local communities not only have surprisingly high taxes, but they’re wildly different from house to similar house. Look at the assessed value, compare it to the asking price.

Then ask your broker to check if neighboring, similar properties have similar tax bills. If you’re likely to pay a thousand dollars a month each year in taxes and you don’t have the evidence to support a request for a reduction, your dream house might break the bank.

Look for the house with good bones.

Good bones are the basic structure of the house.

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Local real estate, before and after... It's important to learn how to recognize a property's potential, along with decent bone structure.

Do you like the layout? Is it chopped up or does it flow? If it’s choppy, can it be changed relatively simply? Kitchens that feel boxed off are a common issue. Many buyers open walls or create passthroughs to link the cook with the living rooms.

If you think this house is the one for you, ask an expert whether the wall you want to eliminate is load-bearing. Your open concept is going to cost more if it is.

Are the bathrooms tiny? Outdated? Outdated can be fixed eventually. You may even grow to appreciate that Pepto-Bismol pink 1940s bathtub.

Cast iron holds heat like nobody’s business. Tiny, however, is tough to change. But think creatively.

Maybe a tiny bathroom should have a shower instead of a tub.

Is there at least a half-bath on the main floor?

That’s a big plus. If there isn’t one, is there a place to add one down the road?

Bounce on the floors. A solid house will feel solid. If there’s some bounce but everything else about the place is great, bring in an expert.

Check out the basement.

If you find a good, solid house with a bright, dry basement, you’ve hit pay dirt. It’s a joy forever (take it from someone with a four-foot-high crawlspace accessed through a trap door in the floor) and may offer you space to expand. But don’t let a sump pump scare you off. We live in an area blessed with underground water. Sometimes it goes where we don’t want it. If the house is equipped with a good drainage system, keep it on your list.

Does the wiring look like something from a museum? That may be expensive to fix. But again, for the right place it’s not necessarily a deal-breaker.

Get an estimate to bring the wiring up to code from an electrician. Old furnaces and old plumbing are not cheap to update, but they shouldn’t stop you if the house is for you and the price is right.

Scope out the neighborhood.

Drive around. Before you look, you can do a virtual area tour with Google Earth. You’ll see every-

thing, good and bad, when you “walk” the streets of Google Earth.

Thanks to Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and a boatload of other sites, you can find out not only what the house you like may be worth, but whether the rest of the neighborhood is of similar value.

But please don’t take anything these sites say as gospel. They don’t know the area, and they are notoriously inaccurate. Use them as a first step, but talk to your broker. That’s your expert.

Listen to your heart.

Mid-century modern may be hot, but if your heart belongs to the Victorian era you won’t be happy living like the Jetsons. If you like lots of light, that house in the woods is going to be the wrong fit for you. If you like neighbors, find a house where you’ll have some. If you want to be alone, don’t settle for the suburbs. Find yourself a house in the country or at least one that’s set back and hidden from the neighbors.

If your partner and you don’t see eye to eye, that’s another story. Relationship is, after all, an opportunity to perfect the art of compromise.

Final thoughts Most of these issues are ones you will learn more about from a licensed home inspector before you go to contract on your dream home. But if you can pick up on (and prioritize) problems before that point, you’ll save yourself a lot of time.

If we were to continue this list, I’d remind you of the transformative power of landscaping. A great location may not initially be a pretty one, but a visit to your local nursery and landscapers may provide you with a plan that turns your scrubby yard into the perfect flowering setting for your jewel of a dream home. All it takes is a little vision.

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Dream homes online ow does one sift through the many offerings to find those diamonds in the rough, or simply to train one’s eye for potential? A growing number of local brokers are finding new ways to provide increasingly inclusive means of allowing potential buyers access to all a home offers via Internet.

For instance, those headed out the Route 28 corridor have been discovering Coldwell Banker Timberland Properties’ new 3D online home tours, available on the Catskillpremier.com website. The website is not good for seeing both the houses and the property around them.

It seems the industry is pushing to provide opportunities for all those in the metro area and far beyond to catch on to the new hipness of our region as a tourist and second-home destination.

Brokers also seem to be improving their services through quicker response times to phone inquiries. With more nimble competition, they have to.

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19, 2015 24 | March Home Hudson Valley

Staging your house Andrew Amelinckx finds a way of getting a new house without having to move hipping paint.

Dirty windows.

Old boxes filled with forgotten curios stacked in the garage.

Clutter everywhere. Too many pieces of furniture crowding the living room. When you look at your home through the eyes of a potential buyer, you start to see house’s flaws both big and small that you’ve lived with so long they’ve become invisible.

In 2011, I got a new job an hour from our town and soon after that we put the house on the market with the idea of moving to Massachusetts to be closer to where I’d be working.

As first-time homeowners we didn’t realize all that would go into making our house showready. It was a bear of a job.

There was spackling, painting and lots and lots of cleaning. All that turned out to be just for starters. Come to find out there was something called “staging.”

I called Peg Duncan to help explain this stuff. She’s a broler from Westerlo who was saintly enough to drive us around a three-county area back in 2006 until we found the perfect house. She said decluttering one’s home and staging one’s furniture were important in order to help the rooms appear more spacious and inviting.

To make this happen required us getting storage unit, because in the years since buying our place we had sort of become a dumping ground for our families’ “treasured keepsakes” that no one else wanted. Plus I had gone through a phase of making giant-sized paintings while in art school, and those big boys may have looked good in a gallery they didn’t quite scream home sweet home hanging on PHOTOS BY KARA THURMOND the walls of our abode.

Staging a house is essential to selling a home, as well as falling in love with one's abode all over again, our author found.

Once we had hauled the extra furniture, art, knicknacks, and other various and sundry items, we actually photos and other personal mementos on the variHere’s what Peg had to say on the subject: You had some space to push the remaining furniture ous mantels, bookcases, and other spaces where can have some tasteful displays of personal items, around for best effect. We pared down the family these items tend to end up. We even removed but “don’t have your entire collection of knicksome of the excess books in our bookshelves to nacks out” or hundreds of family photos covering make them look a little neater. every surface. You’re trying to sell your house, not

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Need to unload?

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o you’ve perfected the pre-sale three-card monte in your home and finally gotten a load of junk to send out into the world. What next? How about working with the various waste options our local municipalities offer?

Fortunately, this is the time of year when many communities offer free pick-up days for larger items, including old appliances. Just check with your municipality’s website and see when the big day is.

Also, be sure and remember that Ulster County resource recycling is having its free household hazardous waste and pharmaceutical waste collection event on Saturday, April 18, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at its headquarters at 999 Flatbush Road in Kingston. You’ll need to schedule an appointment. Remember that maximum unloading will be 220 pounds or 25 gallons worth of materials.

Call 336-0600 or visit www.ucrra.org for details.

March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley prove youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the best grandmother ever.

Whether you should keep your family photos out or not depends, said Peg. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tastefulâ&#x20AC;? is the byword here. Peg told me she recently saw a home where there were family photos on the walls that were nicely displayed and helped give the place the feel of a warm and inviting family home.

The closets are often overlooked spaces that needs some arranging to get your home showready. Since potential buyers are going to open your closets when they check out the place, try to Continued next page ULSTER PUBLISHINGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S REASON

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19, 2015 26 | March Home Hudson Valley keep them neat and organized.

Peg also mentioned to me that homeowners should clean up the garage and basement. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want half-filled paint cans lying around that seem to scream â&#x20AC;&#x153;lead!â&#x20AC;? or leaky pesticide containers littering the floors. It could give potential buyers pause if they walk into a space that looks like Three Mile Island or Love Canal.

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March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley that didn’t sell to the Salvation Army.

As I mentioned, we repainted some of the rooms in the house that had been painted in colors that seemed dated. We took the advice of a friend and went with a nice gray. Turns out that was a good choice. Peg said “If you decide to paint, use a neutral color. Bright colors aren’t everybody’s thing.”

The aim, she said, is to provide a blank canvas for the potential buyer to imagine how they could put their personal stamp on the home.

She doesn’t recommend major renovations if you’re planning to sell. “If you put green carpeting ULSTER PUBLISHING’S REASON

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down it will inevitably be the color [the potential buyer] hates the most,” she said.

The house was now show-ready. We needed someone to come take a look and fall in love with the house just like we did the first time we saw it.

Well, that comes with its own set of issues, especially if you have pets, as we do..

When the house was scheduled to be shown, we

| 27

would clean and straighten up and then drag our two big dogs into the car and drive around while the house was being shown. Our dogs love to bark at people, squirrels, cats, other dogs and anything else that might catch their fancy, so car rides aren’t always the most pleasant. Sometimes we would make an outing of it, but most of the time, since Continued next page

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both my wife and I freelance above and beyond our day jobs, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d often have to return home in a hurry in order to get back to half-finished work projects.

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We ended up getting rid of many of the things in storage since after having lived without them for months we realized we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need them.

Since then, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve continued to make improvements around the house, not for some potential homebuyer, but for ourselves. And if we ever do decide to put the house back on the market, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll know what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in for. We can deal with that when the time comes. Until then, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be enjoying our new digs.

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| 29

Kitchen-o-rama Mama Chef Rossi of Raging Skillet fame has found that comfort is the best ingredient for good cooking. And life. remember an apartment I had in Manhattan, when I was just 20. It was at the top of a sixfloor walk-up with marble stairs. Even at 20, I wanted to leave an oxygen tank on the 4th floor for laundry day. But a huge two bedroom in the West Village for cheap rent was hard to come by, even in the 1980s. Plus there was a handy bonus: My parents couldn’t make it up the stairs. No more surprise visits. WIN! We called the apartment the Ranchhouse and decorated it with Clint Eastwood posters and western-style furniture. It was a completely NOTrenovated pre-war tenement, where the landlord never did a thing. Once a year or so, part of the ceiling would fall down, and we’d have to tape plastic bags to keep out the pigeons.

The kitchen was like stepping back in time to the 1950s. It had a huge sink in which you could wash two babies and a water buffalo, and an old country gas stove made years before electric starters came into fashion. You had to light a match every time you used it, then jump back or lose your eyebrows.

Since the bathtub was as close to the stove as the nearest counter was, it became an extension of the kitchen. One of the first parties I catered, years before I could afford a commercial kitchen, I had to make a hundred quiches. Fortunately there was loads of space in the Ranchhouse kitchen. I opened up two folding tables for more kitchen prep area then bleached the clawfoot tub, filled it with ice, put the quiches in disposable containers and stacked them in the tub.

A caterer was born!

I threw at least one dinner party every week in the seven years I lived in the Ranch. Big pots of chicken curry simmered away on that funky stovetop regularly.

Part of the reason for all that home cooking was that once you got up all those stairs, you never wanted to go down again and part of the reason was that big kitchen with the 1960s country gas stove and old cupboards, just made you feel like cooking.

If you spilled a sauce or dropped the eggs, so what?! It was the Ranchhouse, stained, scratched and comfy.

A few years later, I had the pleasure of moving into a designer home (lost it in the divorce, alas) with a kitchen that was featured in a magazine or two. I never saw so many gadgets; I wanted to hire an IT guy just to show me how to turn on the oven! But something about that super swank, electric, brand new, “cook’s kitchen” shut down my mojo. I don’t think I cooked a meal at home the whole five years I lived there, unless you count salad.

For me, a dream “cook’s kitchen” needs a gas stove, but I can make electric work. I once catered a party for 300 people out of a Xerox machine closet using two butane camper stoves and a prayer. So I know just about anything can be done if you have enough gusto.

I can forgive the electric stove as long as I have a lot of room and an easy, it’s-OK-to-make-a-mess, we-can-just-clean-it-up feeling kitchen. Not the case for that designer kitchen. Everything about it read “pretty but don’t touch.”

I was recently invited to a family supper to share, great food and lots of love, but also to show off my cousin’s swank new kitchen with the gorgeous tiled counters.

As with 99% of the dinners I get invited to, I was asked to help prepare the meal. It goes with the territory. Folks finding out you are a caterer is like finding out you are a doctor. Doc why does this hurt? Chef, how long do I cook this beef?

So I pulled up my sleeves and jumped in to help crank out the supper. But every time I tried to put something hot down on those gorgeous, Spanish style counters, her husband nearly had a coro-

I

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nary! “Don’t scratch the counters! Don’t get burn marks on the tile!”

I wound up breaking down a few cardboard boxes, covering all the tile with them and then covering the boxes with tablecloths to make it look a little nicer. So yes, gorgeous new kitchen, but NO, not my idea of a cook’s kitchen.

I’m not a designer or a contractor or a spokesperson for any sort of pot or pan or sort of kitchen appliance. I’m just a downtown girl who loves to cook and am lucky enough to get paid doing it.

So what I can tell you about creating that dream kitchen of yours is this: It’s your dream, not mine.

Find whatever makes you feel comfortable. If an egg dropping on the floor in a kitchen sends you into cardiac arrest, something is wrong with that kitchen (or perhaps less caffeine would be a good idea, dear). Keep it user-friendly!

Give me a kitchen that’s big, with loads of counterspace, a cook’s island, a heavy-duty gas stove, lots of good, heavy-bottom pots and a few windows to let out the smoke if it doesn’t have an exhaust fan, and I am good to go.

So what’s the moral of this kitchen story? Moral shmoral. Just be comfy and make sure to cook with love. Everything else falls into place.

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19, 2015 30 | March Home Hudson Valley

“Art is the path of the creator to his work”

PHOTOS BY HARRY MATTHEWS

Now is always the time to ponder one's property, its essence and possibilities, as well as how the natural intersects with the personal. It's why we're here.

Harry Matthews believes as did Thomas Cole that we are still in Eden

W

ith the leaves gone and the bright long nights I sit near the wood stove, shifting my gaze between the flames and the long shadows of the trees outside, dreaming of all the things I might do as spring finally arrives: new gardens, new trails, another woodshed, and maybe a treehouse by the creek.

For most of my life I had wanted to own a house and, more importantly, a piece of land.

Not as an investment, nor to gain equity. I’m not

particularly into ‘ownership’ per se. I wanted a place I could settle into, to be in and on and of the land.

I had rented for years in Brooklyn, transforming a number of derelict warehouse spaces to semi-livable lofts (semi only in the sense that the living was rough and most of what we used for construction was scavenged from the streets). In 2008, wishing to see more trees than people on any given day, I left the city and moved upstate, renting for a few years in the forested outskirts of Woodstock. Each time I would return home to these places I couldn’t help but imagine what I could do to change them -- tear this off, build that on -- if only it were mine. I would put in countless hours on the grounds clearing paths and building stone steps and walls, and eventually making my balanced stone statues through the woods

and along the roadways. Like the precariously balanced stones of my sculptures and the tumbled-down walls I built them from, they would eventually fall into disrepair when I would move on, leaving them behind.

Finally, in the spring of 2010, my partner Catherine and I and our old grey tiger cat Ama rented an old farmhouse on the Kaaterskill Creek in the tiny (and some would say tony) hamlet of High Falls, just over the Greene County border from Saugerties. The owner told us that the property, once a working farm, had at some point been an extension of a large summer camp in the area, and thus the stables and chicken coop had become cottages. The house dated from the early 1860s, and the camp from 40 years later. A month after we moved in the property came up for sale, and miraculously by the end of July it was ours.

March 19, 2015 Home Hudson Valley

A

s I write this the worst of winter has passed.

We might get more snow, but it’s March, which means it’s almost April and spring seems finally in sight. At least we had Boston’s epic ten feet of snow to console us. Traditionally the days start to warm enough to begin reducing the snow cover and the sap starts to run in the maple trees, activating countless backyard sugaring setups, like stills, in the hollows. And I will be there in mine, stirring the bubbling maple tea and scanning the landscape for possibilities of transformation.

Soon after moving in, I found we had a massive pile of stones from an old quarry in the woods. As the Catskills were once mined for their giant slabs of bluestone, carted off for sidewalks around the east, the jetsam of that labor still lies everywhere in great mounds of perfectly usable stone.

One of the reasons Harvey Fite bought his property in High Woods was the unending supply of free material. (Catherine’s mother had been best friends with Barbara Fite, who had convinced her to buy the adjacent 40-acre farm, and Catherine had grown up playing in what would become Opus 40. The farm on Glasco Turnpike that her parents bought had been a junkyard with 50 or so rusted old cars on it, which they removed and in their stead planted fruit trees and kept bees). The magnitude to which Harvey transformed his derelict quarries was to a degree that lesser mortals can only imagine.

But what do we do? A shrine, a path, nothing?

We can take inspiration from his achievement, looking to our own patches, no matter how small, and wonder what else it might be. Do we grow food? Shepherd the woods for firewood, syrup, mushrooms and berries? Create havens for wildlife to flourish? What about lawns and the terrible poisons that go into making them ‘perfect’? Do we put up bird feeders in the winter and sow native wildflowers in the spring for the bees? Do we make art? Isn’t it all art? In “The Poet” Emerson wrote, ”Art is the path of the creator to his work.”

So here, in our little bit of wild I make paths, metaphorical as well as real.

After moving to our farm I found like-minded artist-farmer neighbors who inspired me in what

might be possible and how I could watch the seasons and learn the land to more naturally understand how to be a part of it, as opposed to ‘taming’ it. I met Jared and his blueberry labyrinth (he also taught me how to syrup). I met Matt and his ever-growing Clarence Schmidt-like village of sculptural buildings made from scavenged and

| 31

salvaged materials that he calls ‘b-home.’

O

ver the years we have built stone walls, planted fruit trees, perennials and vegetables, cleared the woods of overgrown wild grape, rebuilt much of the farmhouse and the two Continued next page

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19, 2015 32 | March Home Hudson Valley cottages, and cleared paths through the woods.

Two years after we bought the property, Hurricane Irene smashed through, devastating our creekside and nearly destroying a cabin that had stood precariously over the creek.

In what could have been an outtake from Herzog’s “Fitzcaraldo,” some friends and I dislodged the cabin from the trees using ropes and winches and rolled it to a new spot on logs. I then rebuilt the cabin and where it had stood made a stone fire pit. The debris of roots and driftwood left by the storm became furniture, the logs firewood. Up the hill I built a sugar shack to cook the sap, installed a wood stove in the main house, built a couple of woodsheds, more stone walls and continuously stacked and re-stacked numerous balanced stone sculptural pieces through the woods and field.

This fall we realized that many of the trees and the perennial gardens we had planted needed to be moved. But this is the process, the learning.

You do something, see if it works, and change it if it doesn’t.

Thankfully, nature is very forgiving. This year we plan to expand the vegetable garden, replant many of the fruit trees, build a treehouse, an outhouse, extend paths, and do necessary repairs to the cottages that two harsh winters have wreaked upon them. I’m finding that I’m not so interested in the construction of something new as in the observance of what is already here and the rough tweaking of my place in it. The rest is just upkeep and dreaming.

Yesterday while visiting The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls I saw a quote by Thomas Cole which read, “Nature has spread for us a rich and delightful banquet. Shall we turn from it? We are still in Eden; the wall that shuts us out is our own ignorance and folly.” I believe that what the seasons, the land, the trees, the stream, and the gardens (and our cats) teach me more than anything is how to slow down and watch and learn what there might be to learn in their slow movement, their transformations over a year.

As Walt Whitman wrote, “I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.” And this I try to do as much as I might build and plant and tend. We keep our property as equally wild as it is kempt, and I’m finding that all I may need to learn or know or want or need may already be right here.

EXPLORE HUDSON VALLEY

‘Where To’ Guide Where to shop . . . where to eat . . . where to stay . . .

Where to find art, entertainment, fun, and . . .

A

t least since Thomas Cole painted his first pictures of the region in 1825, the Hudson Valley has been an intriguing cultural destination for visitors. New York metropolitan area residents, tourists from all over America and world travelers alike find the region within easy reach. The attractions of “America’s first wilderness,” a place of history, romance and unparalleled beauty, are legendary. This guide will direct our visitors “where to.” They will not be disappointed.

In addition to our existing circulation throughout Columbia, Dutchess and Ulster counties, this guide is distributed at the chambers of commerce throughout the Hudson Valley, as well as train stations, Thruway rest stops and other high-traffic tourist locations.

Be a destination in our ‘Where To’ Guide.

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Personal mortgage decisions made . e m o H o t r e s o l C CUST 0MIZED

MORTGAGES FOR YOUR HOME

“It brings me great joy to help my neighbors with their mortgage needs. ” —Joe Murphy Mortgage Loan Originator

F 5-STAR SO EX ER CE T R

CE EN LL

Awarded for 25 Years of 5-Star Excellence

100 QU A

s &IRST Time Home Buyers s 3ECOND (OMES s 2EFINANCING s #ONSTRUCTION TO 0ERM ,OANS

Only 4.2% of banks qualify for the “Best of Bauer.”

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JAN UA R Y

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300 Broadway, Kingston 130 Schwenk Drive, Kingston 1296 Ulster Avenue, Kingston Hurley Ridge Plaza, West Hurley 4269 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park

(845 ) 331-0073 always working for you and our community

www.RondoutBank.com