The House

It all started with a thought that maybe we were unhappy because of the city. Its almost too trite of an idea to actually be true, so we questioned it for years, but eventually decided that we would never know for sure unless we tried to get out…so we did.

We needed something that wasn’t too far from the city, as we both needed to come back for work, so we started looking in the Hudson Valley area. We’ve never owned a car, and loathed the idea of owning one, so our biggest criteria was that the house needed to be near the Metro North. So, we started by checking listings in towns around each stop of the train. After visiting numerous towns we came to really like the area around Pawling, NY. It was quaint, rural, accessible, and much more affordable than towns like Cold Spring along the Hudson River. After searching online we found a local broker that seemed to have her name on every house in a 30mile radius, Gillian Stewart, so we called her up and began a 3 month long search.

After a false start (a contract fell through on a place in Holmes because the seller was crazy), we finally ended up with a farmhouse in Wingdale, NY. It had everything we were looking for.

• Size – It is small, so (hopefully) easy to maintain and heat.
• Character – Its from 1850, and while renovated in the 70′s it has all the original flooring and details. It also has a 2 story gazebo that looks like it is from Children of the Corn.
• Land – It has 9 acres, most of it wooded but two large fields for animals and garden
• No Grass – The open land is either fallow field, or trees, no need for a lawnmower
• Secluded – Its tucked into the woods up a 150 yard driveway
• Dog-friendly – Sadly, one of the un-spoken reasons we wanted to move out was for a better life for our dogs. A previous owner fenced all 9 acres for her sheep, and consequently we can let our dogs roam free with no fear that they will eventually end up on Route 55.
• Barns – There is a  barn, complete with stables, for us to raise livestock

We moved in around Thanksgiving, and as corny as it sounds, have started living our dream. The hope with this blog is to document our conversion to the country life, learning how to sustain ourselves with vegetables from our own garden, poultry from our own coops, milk from our barn, water from our well, and heat from the wood on our land.