Stillwater Road, Stone Ridge NY Cottage 38

Our first effort in the cool area known as Stone Ridge New York continues to move ahead briskly. I think we started this home in November, found some lucky buyers and went into contract in December, and now are on the home stretch here in early April.

Below is a picture of a nice rock we took the time to place strategically.

I'll tell you what - if you ever want to create some general aggravation in your life, outsmart yourself by arranging all your icons and apps on your phone into uber smart and organized folders so the next week of your life is spent looking for stuff you used to find with your eyes closed and arm tied behind your back.

Although I do have to admit moving my go to calendar from some arcane home screen location to the hot four at the bottom of my phone has reinvented my life in a small way.

The Stillwater cottage is pretty hot, inspired by past homes but enhanced in a lot of small little ways. It's not cheap but if you are looking for perfect, Cottage 38 comes pretty close - with 3 acres, a stone wall, 1300 sq ft, 1.5 baths, 2 bedrooms, screened porch, loads of decks/porchs and a 500+ sq ft finished basement with a bathroom, open living space and an office.

We are just entering the final carpentry stage which means I send in our Seals team of six highly trained and thoroughly experienced carpenters to spend two weeks installing the wood ceilings and wallcoverings, installing the window trim, the flooring, the doors, the door trim, the closet shelving, the kitchen - and through a dusty cloud of action arises a home that is ready for the painter. We hope to close on this house in the end of May.

Like many of our homes, the floor plan allows a view of the entire home as you walk in the front door.

Although not a big house, the floor plan is smart enough to allow for this 2 story stone chimney to define both floors of the house.

And of course having a 120 yr old barn beam accenting a handsome woodburning stove never hurt anyone either. Catskill Farms handpicks the salvaged beams and posts for our homes.

And here is how the sausage is made - walls up, and the 12" wide plank floor separated and left to air dry and acclimate for a few days before installation. That prevents, or attempts to prevent, cupping, cracking or shrinking of the boards.

Cottage 38 in Stone Ridge New York has a lot happening inside - here's a shot of the cathedral ceiling clad in wood planks.

The finished basement area is always a bonus. Note the plentitude of light finding a way into this room even though it is partially underground and covered by a deck. We installed a gas fireplace for good measure.

A view from the 2nd floor top of the stairs area, looking down to below.

And then over in Bearsville, a few miles outside of Woodstock proper, sits the new foundation for Cottage 40, a super sweet reinvention of Cottage 36 for a family and their young baby.