Transforming An 1850 Farmhouse Into A Modern Escape From City Life

There’s a moment when the endless hustle of city life stops feeling energizing and fun and starts to become draining and chaotic. Despite upgrading from a cozy one bedroom to a three bedroom townhouse, the desire for space, quite, and nature is to strong to deny. Like so many New Yorkers before us we began our search for an upstate weekend house. We had one simple goal, to find a home with history that could become a pastoral escape for us and the people we love.

A photograph of our home from the winter of 1969 given to us by our realtor.

After a brief and intense search of every home on the market that was with 2.5 hours from the city and 30 minutes from Hudson, we found it - an 1850 farmhouse on two acres with views of the Catskill mountains. We closed on our weekend house in the fall of 2019 and started painting, cleaning, and meeting with contractor every weekend that winter.

Then the pandemic hit and after a month of debating if we should make the move to our very much a work in-progress upstate house, we made the move and doubled down on working on the house. Two years later, we’re full time Hudson Valley residents stilling working on creating the relaxing escape we first envisioned plus some amazing new friends, a flock of chickens, and a home we affectionately refer to as the WKND house.