What is the appeal of a country home in upstate NY

barren and bleak? have you ever been upstate? Every season is a riot of nature. Summer can be so incredibly lush, and I've been all around the world and ah ya ya.

OP hasn't been out of Manhattan.

The NATURAL world

90 minutes and you're in a small town with a laidback feel, a Main St with all the amenities, some room to kick around and that rare commodity, relative quiet. And nature. Not sure what the wonder is. If you prefer the beach, then go find a beach.

And you could be on a lake upstate! Or swim in the pools at the bottom of waterfalls. These are everywhere.

The homes are less expensive. I saw that the old family home our great grandfather had built (5 bedrooms) and recently remodeled. Included were five acres of pasture. The listing price was $275,000. I considered buying it but I live on the west coast. That would be one hell of a commute.

Corn

Apples

"Camp"

Hipster haven Americana

peace.

big old mansions

Fixer-uppers. Better have cash for AMPLE local guys to do the work.

It’s a depressing place filled with hillbillies.

There is none now.

In the old days before A/C it was necessary for the upper classes to have a home upstate, so they could vacations, weekends, holidays, ad so on, where it was cooler.

This is why Maine was so popular. Chicago would have steamships travel via Lake Michigan to the northern Lower Peninsula for similar reason.

With the wide adoption of A/C country homes aren't needed.

I know they call it the Hillbilly Hamptons but I love upstate New York. Every year we rent a house for a week up there and swim, hit the antique shops, stroll down Main Street in Woodstock. I prefer mountain lakes to just about anything. Look forward to it all year long.

R8, I was thinking the same thing. My nephew is an engineer, he's 25, he just bought a condo in whiteplains for $165,000. 2bedrooms and 950 square feet; 50 mins train ride to the city. Smart young man.

Real estate porn like this

Can you imagine trying to get rid of bed bugs in R20’s house after someone used it as an AirBnB?

Some people are beach people, some are country people. My family were always beach people, but I had friends growing up who had places in the country. Not everyone has to like the same weekend/vacation place.

I don’t hate the country, I have friends now with places up in the Hudson Valley, the Berkshires, the Catskills, and have visited them, and had a good time. The key word there is “visit” - to me, it’s nice to visit these upstate towns but I couldn’t imagine doing it every week, or living there. On the other hand, I have no problem heading out east every weekend, and could easily live there year round.

Just different strokes for different folks, OP.

Geez the victorian furniture and wallpaper is just heinous in that house. What a pity.

[quote] On the other hand, I have no problem heading out east every weekend, and could easily live there year round.

Believe me, it’s not easy living here year round. And you’d better be good at doing your own home maintenance — electricity, plumbing, pool, painting, staining, power washing, landscaping, roofing, shingling, mold abatement, snow removal, tree removal after every winter weekend noreaster/blizzard because you’ll wait forever and pay through the nose for anything to get done by someone else.

That house needs a thorough exorcism once those dolls are removed.

OP it would be much more challenging to find a way to show off your AussieBum Speedo collection in the mountains than at FI Pines high tea. Totally get ehy you wouldn’t like it upstate.

For those who know the Hudson Valley, what towns do you visit? I've checked out and liked Kingston, New Paltz (less of a college town than I would have guessed), Phoenicia (had a weird vibe and spotty cell service), Woodstock (briefly), Saugerties, Beacon, Cold Spring (too crowded), Croton-Harmon.

I've only visited upstate NY a few times (west coaster here) and loved it. Once in fall where the leaves were absolutely glorious along the Hudson River.

Another time I was visiting Manhattan with a friend and he had another friend in a small upstate town. He was an artist and bought an old grange hall on 40 acres. The basement was storage, the second floor was his workshops, and the top floor was a magical open living space.The whole thing was open except for kitchen and bath. He had painted the kitchen floor in a large whimsical diamond pattern and the rustic furniture was laid out in a way to create living spaces like a huge dining and living area with two sleeping areas in two corners. I was in paradise.

It was November and hiked and picked baskets of winter apples. I was enchanted with the whole experience and will never forget it.

I LOVE the house at R20 but the Victorian sofas and Chatty Cathies have to go.

Sounds lovely. As a native New Yorker, I am starting to tire of the noise and crowd. I don't live in the thick of it but I wish I had a porch.

Cold Spring is a temporary hipster haven. Lots of bean eating, yoga mats and nasty old houses with bead curtains instead of interior doors

My late husbands family had a huge 1780s farmhouse in Grafton Ny and that thing was a money pit from hell. Yes,it was beautiful,but the upkeep was never ending. It was right up the road from the resevoir,and hubby and I would often go up there on weekends and swim and explore the woods and what not. One of my absolute favorite memories was he and I walking down that dirt road in the middle of winter to the resevoir,and all the snow and ice made it magical. When we got to the resevoir the moon was full and it was just so romantic we weree forced to make out a little,though I was freezing my florida born ass off.The architecture and the greenery cant be beat,but the cost of upkeep of those glorious old piles make sure only the rich can afford it. Not to mention taxes are ridiculous.

OP, spoken like a true Hell's Kitchen whore.

OP- I am actually sitting on my front porch in Chatham as I type, the weather is stunning, the train is rumbling thru town in the distance, a glass of white wine sits on my grandmothers picnic table. I am in heaven.Oh, and a native of NYC……...

I love the country - but definitely prefer the Berkshire’s or Litchfield County CT to upstate NY. Much prettier and not surrounded by as many run down shacks and “upstate NY” types. But there are some beautiful properties up there. However, I wouldn’t waste my time on the towns - like Hudson. Depressing and bleak - and defeats the whole point of getting out into the country. Why travel 2+ hours to live in a city. You want a few acres and privacy.

I agree R35. I bought a house in the county with many acres, a pond, etc. If you want to live in a shithole town/city, then just stay in NYC. Hudson is a dump and now that it's summer your chances of getting shot rise dramatically.

The Hudson Valley School was renowned for its bleak landscapes

[R27} I recommend checking out Stone Ridge; Rhinebeck (probably the most famous of the bunch); Red Hook; Millbrook (incredible gardens); Chatham and Old Chatham; Kinderhook (exquisite); Hurley (nothing much to do but a collection of fascinating stone houses from the Dutch period); Hyde Park (less picturesque but full of FDR and Vanderbilt era history); Bedford; Katonah (great art museums); Catskill (visit the Thomas Cole House & Museum); Germantown (for Otto's); Nyack and Piermont; Warwick (funky vibe, great old houses); Tivoli (surrounded by lovely countryside and public parks); and Bearsville (for the theater). Visit the Sixteen Mile Drive, Vassar College campus and the Lehman Loeb Art Museum, the Storm King Art Center and the Olana State Historic Site. But really it's the rolling hills and unexpected views and Catskill horizons and sense of the seasons that really makes the region amazing. The Hamptons are as flat as a board, full of braying shitheads and choked with traffic.

R37, hun, there is NOTHING bleak about that. You might want to take a night class in art appreciation.

Bless your heart, r39.

My husband’s friend lived n Chatham. It was pretty boring. They don’t seem to care much about zoning, they have lots of manufactured homes up there next door to a few fairly nice houses. His house was nice but he had a fairly high paid job. When he lost his job (it was eliminated), it took ages to sell the house at a loss.

Upstate is trying to attract tourism because there isn’t much else up there. They’re redoing train trestles into hiking trails and trying to do something with the Erie Canal., making it a “heritage corridor.”

[quote]The key word there is “visit” - to me, it’s nice to visit these upstate towns but I couldn’t imagine doing it every week, or living there.

The thing is, if you're young, you probably aren't flocking to the Catskills. But you don't have to be that old these days because you can still find deals out there. Every year we went to Sullivan County, the ugliest County, between White Lake and Eldred. It was kinda ramshackle then and still is but I kind of learned about nature up there. Dairy farming is a hard living. You can find good homes at reasonable prices. and the freshwater lakes are refreshing in the summertime. These days, I'm a professional houseguest. I like to visit too. One day, maybe.

One hears a lot of upper middle class Manhattanites bragging about “their country home” it’s obnoxious. Almost as obnoxious as saying “going to the Berkshires” instead of just saying “I’ll be back Monday.”

The beach sucks. Especially in NY. It's always so crowded. And with lots of trashy people that you are trying to avoid by leaving the city

beach = cancer and SUPERAIDS

Superaids? Sounds bad.

Well put, R22. I feel just like you except in the opposite direction. I enjoy visiting the beach, but the gorgeous nature and peace and quiet of the country are where I would want to have a second home.

One of the joys of living in the East is the sheer beauty of our countryside in spring, summer and fall (winter, too, if you don’t mind snow). The rolling, wooded hills, the fertile farm valleys, everything a deep, lush green in July and August and ablaze with color in October … this is what makes the often disagreeable climate worth it. I don't know how people can stand the barren brownness of the West, but [italic] à chacun son goût [/italic].

What is the appeal of a country home in upstate NY

Experiencing all four seasons, for as long as they last.

R43, Sullivan County is burdened with a lot of old Catskill resorts that are now abandoned and fallen into disrepair. They'd be amazing to tour, but as far as I know all are posted and guarded and inaccessible except to intrepid urban explorers. They should really set up tours of these abandoned places like the Nevele Grand and Grossinger's. It would be a great tourist attraction.

For some reason - maybe the resorts? - Sullivan County seems to have attracted a lot of city people living in very marginal circumstances in the small towns. Between that and the ultra-orthodox population, Sullivan County towns are pretty depressing. Lovely countryside, though.

They could have been community centers, detention/refugee centers, artist colonies. It's revolting how fast those resorts were left to decay.

r48 Interior New England and upstate New York ARE beautiful. Lots of vistas, nice greenery, etc. However, super buggy, with many kinds of biting insects- mosquitoes, deer flies, black flies, no see ums, ticks galore, etc. While I agree that the lowlands of the southwest and interior west are brown and arid in late summer, the western mountains and foothills are heavily forested AND because of the dry summers and lack of humidity, they don't have much in the way of bugs at all. NYC is a sweltering place in summer, and if I still lived there, I could see the attraction of going somewhere green, shady and somewhat cooler in the summer. But anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains is going to be humid in summer. That's a given.

This is why windows and porches have screens. The hot humid night air in the Hudson Valley, combined with the intense, dripping vegetation in any scrap of forest, is really a trip.

What's the appeal? ME!

The appeal for me is the fresh country air, no horns honking everyone is generally polite. However, when it comes to the winters, it’s no joke up there lake effect snow yada yada

The cottages are terribly small

Kingston is where LuAnn lives in her little circular bungalow. Rhinebeck is where Romana grew up, it is more upscale and interesting than Kingston by a mile. Another reason for LuAnn to hate Ramona. I hate that I know this. Sonja is from upstate NY too, but thankfully I can't remember where.

I don’t think it’s barren. There are millions of people up there.

Rhinebeck is far more upscale than Kingston but not more interesting. Kingston has genuine, if small, artists, music, bar and restaurant scenes. And hot poor people to fuck, too.

[R59] It depends on what you're looking for. Kingston has great Dutch historic sites and hosts a biannual Revolutionary War reenactment that literally takes over the whole town. Rhinebeck is full of charming Gingerbread Gothic cottages and I love the Sinterklauss festival. Both have excellent dining options. Kingston has more music, Rhinebeck has Upstate Films. Kingston is the gateway to the Catskills, Rhinebeck the estate country.

You can't compare Kingston (a mid sized town of 25,000 people) to the hamlet of Rhinebeck (population 7,000)

Kingston has city-type urban problems; Rhinebeck is an upscale rural hamlet.

[QUOTE] Between that and the ultra-orthodox population, Sullivan County towns are pretty depressing.

Stealth antisemitic thread!!! FF! BLOCK!!! Muriel!!!

Most of these places look like they come with their own poltergeist.

Yeah, there’s a ghost on the second floor he doesn’t bother anybody just the busy body type without a body.

Hmmm...poltergeist in the country home or FI Pines housemate’s Tina-addled trick du jour stealing your body wallet? I’ll choose supernatural over super-narcissist

Kingston is the gay capital of the Hudson Valley. Only God knows how that happened.

I've only been to Ithica and Rhinebeck.

Are those considered "upstate"?

What is the appeal of a country home in upstate NY?

I think it's a wonderful place to buy a little round house where you can secretly drink Vodka and snort Coke...