Glasco Cottage, Woodstock NY - Finito.

Says Wiki - "Glasco's name was taken from a glass company located in the mountain area several miles inland. The glass was carried by horse down the "Glasco Turnpike" to the banks of the Hudson where it was shipped on for ports of sale. The settlement along the river where the glass was loaded became known as Glasco."

So, you all know how fond I am at saying how talented, precise, tasteful our clients are - Well, Carl, this Bud's for you.  I'm not sure if Carlos and Carl read this blog (no one admits to it), but they know what I'm talking about - attention to detail, ha ha.  And it turned out frickin' pretty darn nice.

(Also, I like to write these 'end of project wrap-ups' after a martini or two, but here I sit all mature in the cool corner bookstore in Saugerties - so if my humor falls flat, that's why-)

These guys are veteran home owners - a lot of our clients are first time home owners.  They may have a place in the city or something, but haven't purchased anything in the real world (NYC process being unique onto itself), so that's always part of our job - helping them navigate the world of mortgages, lawyers, surveyors, building inspectors, zoning regs, etc... We are like upstate concierges. 

So these guys are veteran homeowners, having previously owned on the oldest houses in Ulster County which probably dates back to the 1600's or so.  Super interesting that they chose 'this new old house' after living in 'that really old house'.  And super cool that we were the team that got to do it.

We were hired at first to take a piece of land and make it build-able.  It was a smaller piece of land, right on a little creek, right off of Glasco Turnpike.  Our challenge was to take this house and make it fit on the land, with the septics, streams, driveway, building footprint, well/septic separations - each of these details have 'setbacks' set by the town, state, DEC, etc... and anytime you have water, you have an added set of rules, and oversights.  So we had the Woodstock stream guy involved, and the surveyor, and the septic guy and the driveway guy and the town highway guy - all these folks with their rules to enforce and we had to insert this house right perfectly just so-so so it fit.  It's the type of thing that you really rely on the professional relationships developed over dozens and dozens of homes, relationships that keep you out of trouble and ask the question you forgot you ask.

These guys knew what was important to them - lot's of porch, with an area gated for the dogs to go wild.  We build dog gates, kid gates, cat gates...  Whatever it takes...

 So we leveraged on this professional expertise as a one-stop shop for these owners.  We do that a lot - help people figure out what to do where, and what not to do, and since we are typically pretty 'on it', we help navigate the sometimes conflicting information coming from the disparate professionals.

This 1300 sq ft 2 bedroom 1.5 bath home was inspired by Cottage 38 over in Stone Ridge.  Boy was that a good house, and boy does this one pick up where that one left off.  We also finished off the 600 sq ft basement but more on that later.




Clean with the light floors and light paint and delicate spindles and french doors and crown moldings.  This is the living room, with the kitchen and dining to the right.




















Front door, stone entrance, book shelves, wood burning fireplace, wide plank floors.








First floor half bath with half wall, wainscoting, dueling sconces and stone floor.

I think there were 4 sets of 5' double french doors, 3 sets in the kitchen.

They had these cool pain in the ass to install cabinet clad covers over the refrigerator and dishwasher.

Upstairs foyer leading to the two bedrooms and bath - we used a lot of pocket doors in this home, which is an unusual treatment for us.

Bedroom 1 over looking the stream.

Very good-looking bath, overlooking the stream.

Bedroom 2.

And the basement buildout with gas fireplace and lots of light - overlooking the stream.

Well, another success story.  We are uncommonly consistent in our ability to deliver on our promises - and it's not like we don't encounter problems - both unforeseen and of our own making - but the trick is to identify them and fix them without missing a beat - that really is an important trick to learn - how to look good while being imperfect.  Most of clients are pretty savvy, and have had plenty of lackluster consumption experiences, be it a shoe purchase or a home purchase, so it's not like they don't expect to have a hiccup or two. 

The key is the quick recovery.