During that first visit we assess the space and the current collection of furniture and also discuss and investigate the individual tastes and needs of our client. In this particular case, we used their current sofas (which they wanted to replace) as guinea pigs in our layout plan. The room we arrived to view looked completely changed when we left, even without any new items. Simply rearranging the furniture they had (bringing in a dining table from the kitchen and moving the sofas) we were able to get a sense of what furniture was needed and where it would go when it arrived.

The next step was to provide options for furniture to fill the rooms. By moving the dining table, we had now opened up a space for a kitchen sitting area and needed three sofas and four chairs plus lots of accessories to fill the space. Timing was perfect for everyone involved. With all our new merchandise slated to arrive soon, January and February is our time to clear house and there are a lot of amazing furniture deals to be had. Plus, storewide discounts on home accessories like lamps, rugs and pillows.

As you can see from our design proposals, we were able to find everything they needed right here in-stock and much of it was on Red Tag reduction. With delivery slated for next week, this family will be sitting pretty in their new living room before you know it.

Next step…add dimension and soul to the space by arranging art work and finding new and interesting items to add layers to the design. Check in later this month to see the “after” pics of their fabulous new living room and follow the Hammertown Design Team process.

Each of our three stores has dedicated and knowledgeable staff to help you choose just what you need for your space.

If you are interested in finding out more about our on-site design services, please email joan@hammertown to connect with one of our interior specialists. 

Take in the picturesque foliage of Autumn on the Hudson River, relax by a warm fire as the evenings cool off and enjoy all this wonderful home has to offer.

After living in Garrison, NY for the past 5 years, my family and I are returning to Northwest Connecticut, leaving behind a wonderful life on the Hudson River for a new one nestled in the Berkshire hills.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our years here and all that the region has to offer. As a commuter town, the location can’t be beat, allowing for a wonderful country lifestyle with quick access to NYC. The location is also a great weekend and summer destination allowing for city dwellers to have the perfect part-time getaway just an hour from Manhattan. The local sights abound, from historic Boscobel (www.boscobel.org) with it’s amazing Shakespeare festival (www.hvshakespeare.org) to Dia Beacon (www.diabeacon.org), Russel Wright’s, Manitoga (russelwrightcenter.org) , Cold Spring Village (coldspringliving.com) , The Garrison Arts Center (garrisonartcenter.org), Glynwood Institute (glynwood.org) , Stonecrop Gardens (stonecrop.org), Bear Mountain State park and so much more. We know we will be back to visit often.

All of us at Hammertown thoroughly enjoy making our houses into homes that reflect our own personal style along with a love for family and domestic life. The modern country style sensibility that we offer our clients is one that we too enjoy, especially the personal imprint that each one of us has to offer when we embark on creating our homes.

Our home in Garrison is certainly no exception and we have spent the last half a decade transforming this modest farmhouse into a stunning property with a gourmet kitchen (I am going to miss terribly), hand built stone walls, new pole barn, and family-friendly gardens and patio. We consider ourselves lucky to have been stewards of this lovely property and we look forward to passing it on and allowing someone new to “love where they live”.

In an effort to help the future owners find just the right furnishings to fill their new home , we are happy to offer a $5000 Hammertown Gift Certificate along with the house keys! Need I say more?

For more information on the property, please visit the MLS listing at: Home Listing

Or email our realtor, Eric Stark, directly at, stark.garrison@gmail.com. And don’t forget to tell him that Hammertown sent you!

Book Cover of our Proposal

Abby Westlake, a writer, and myself collaborated on an idea that had been percolating with me for years and now it has finally come to fruition.

I am so fortunate, through my work, to meet so many interesting and incredible people. Friendships evolve and over the years I have been a guest in so many beautiful homes.  As I thought about it, I wondered what is it about these places I respond to?  What are the things that inspire me to make Hammertown and my own home better designed places to work and live. I finally realized that what I respond to is the authenticity and interests of the people in their homes and the translation of that into where they live. Their loves, interests and passions are reflected in the way they live; they truly love where they live.  I love where I live.  I love where I work.  And, I love that Abby and I were able to plan a book around this simple but profound concept.

After formulating our concept, we were fortunate to connect with a wonderful literary agent, Farley Chase (who just happens to be the son of my best friend).   We pitched our concept to Farley.  He thought it was great idea and gave us some great advice, and then Abby and I began to make our plan. We met and started to get our ideas together and curate a list of homes to be in our book. And, Abby, being the incredible professional writer that she is, took this information and began to put these ideas in to the form of a book and our proposed Table of Contents.

After over a year of development, we began to have our pieces in place. We had over 20 homes picked for our project, the Table of Contents was complete, we took scouting shots, etc.  Luckily, also on our team was John Gruen, a professional photographer from Lakeville, CT.  He agreed to photograph the book and Wanda Furman, a professional stylist and the “interior stylist” for Hammertown and our clients, also came on board.  The last team member we needed was a book designer and boy, did we luck out.  Doug Turschen, a book designer for the best design books that are on the market, (Bunny Williams, Mathew Smyth, Barbra Streisland, Carolyn Roehm, and others) believed in our project, and came aboard to design our proposal.

In January of 2011 we were ready to send our proposal out. Farley reached out to editors at the best publishing houses. In the midst of the book business collapsing (Borders declared bankruptcy , independent stores all struggling) off our book went.  Perhaps it was a miracle or perhaps it was a testament to the passion, professionalism and authenticity that our whole team brought to the project but after a few weeks it happened:  Our top three wish-list publishers were all interested in our book! We were excited and yes, even surprised, beyond belief.  After some initial meetings and discussions, Farley had negotiating our book deal with Rizzoli (one of my most favorite design book publishers!)

So now, we’re inviting you to follow us on our “Love Where You Live” team’s  journey. Our photography and text has to be handed in next April.  We’ll be photographing 3 homes a month over the next several months.  We won’t be able to show you the photographs they’ll be using in the book but I’ve been and will continue to take “behind the scenes” photos so you can experience the process with us.

I just know the homes in our book will inspire you. You will see how all of these homes speak to us.  Each tells a story, a beautiful story, about the people that live there and “love where they live”.  Each reflects the unique bond each of us has with the place we live and ourselves.  It is that common thread, a passion so speak, that makes all these homes so interesting and special.

Love Where you Live–Coming to a bookstore near you in Spring 2013!

Here's our clients' house!

This past December, clients came to me and asked if I would be interested in helping them decorate and furnish the house they had just purchased in Nantucket and have it ready for them to move into in the Spring. It would be Phase I of making “this old house” into their new vacation home.

“We want you to do everything” they said.  “From beds and sheets to dishes and silverware -basically a turn-key operation…ready enough for us to visit.”

Both extremely busy professionals with a family and living in New York, these clients just didn’t have the time to do it themselves. Nantucket is not an easy nor a quick trip.  Yet, they still wanted to feel like they had a part in the development of its interior.  After all, it is THEIR home.  So, was I up for the challenge? You bet I was!

Before the magic begins!

Since they were long-time customers and loved Hammertown’s aesthetic and principles when it comes to design and decorating, I felt, even though I hadn’t laid eyes on the house, that Hammertown would be able to help them complete Phase I of what we would soon be calling “The Nantucket i-Phone Design Project”.

In my experience, I have always felt you have to walk into a home and “listen to it”.  It speaks to you first and then you answer by setting your design path.  In this case, all I had to start with were pictures of an empty clapboard home on the water in Nantucket.   And yet, knowing my clients as well as I did and seeing the simplicity and character of this weathered beach home – it spoke to me. I knew then, for sure, I’d be able to do it.

Master bedroom BEFORE

Our initial visit was at Hammertown Barn.  The owners had a definite point of view in this process, which was extremely helpful.  Their design ideas — what they liked and just as important, what they didn’t like–made the path much easier for me to follow.  I made suggestions for lamps, sofas, chairs, etc.  We would start with a basic design infrastructure.  We then agreed that further decisions would be made by me sending them pictures (with my trusty i-Phone) and they could decide, yea or nay, on my suggestions. If I felt really strongly about certain things, I would push for them. For example: In January, on a trip to Maine, I did some antiquing. I saw a wonderful old trunk with beautiful original blue paint. Although it was priced a little more than they wanted to spend, and the need for a “trunk” wasn’t clear to them, I pushed for it.

“It can be used in numerous rooms and has a purpose…storage…a lamp could sit on top…besides, look at what a trunk or table would cost from a generic national chain” I said, ”spend a little bit more to get a sense of soul and history for your home. It will be important for the spirit of place…it belongs in your Nantucket home…trust me”

Looking pretty good! (There's that trunk!)

And they did.  I also got the “okay” on a beautiful pine table I found on that same trip that would eventually be used for a desk in one of the rooms. Little by little we accumulated things. I’d see something and snap a picture with my iPhone with the question “What do you think of this?” I’d wait for a response. “Love it!” or “I don’t think so” or “I trust your judgment” were some of the various responses.

Great old table found in Maine. Nice, simple desk lamp...ocean in the distance.

Since they wanted to be able to walk right into the house and start living there, we supplied linens, towels, pots and pans, small appliances, rugs, bedspreads… everything you could think of.  If we didn’t have it at Hammertown, I went shopping. I browsed antique stores for great finds.  I headed over to Johnson’s in Millerton where I found great dressers and tables for the guest rooms…perfect in charm for a beach house and very well-priced.

The beds were purchased at Riley’s in Millerton (a great local, family-owned business), who also coordinated the entire move.  After all, we’d been collecting a whole house worth of furniture and accessories that needed to be delivered by thoughtful and experienced movers.

Master bedroom...still need tables and lamps. This will be a room in progress. Need two (click to read more)

The Riley’s truck picked up everything at Hammertown Barn and met us on Nantucket island on a cold, rainy Monday morning in March. Rhonda, Danielle and I met them at the house. Everything we needed was in the truck and within a few hours, we were making this beautiful seaside house into a home… and we had so much fun doing it.

The pictures you see here show the process. As I said, this is Phase I…more has to be layered and added to give the home a spirit of place and that of its owners (appropriate art for the walls, books, etc.) We might switch some things around, like rugs or lamps that aren’t quite right, and we’ll give some more attention to those rooms that needed more than we could have foreseen without actually having been in the house before.

Me and my i-Phone...made for each other

After we were finished with everything, from arranging the furniture to setting up the beds (thanks Rileys!); from filling the kitchen with all the essentials to hanging the towels in the bathroom, we were ready to send the photos of what we had done–again via iPhone (and digital cameras). Our clients were absolutely thrilled!

When the owners are ready for more help–those finishing touches that will really tie everything together– I will be ready and confident with my iPhone in hand, because now I not only have a rapport and a bond with my clients, I have a relationship with this house. I think that’s what made it such a unique and rewarding experience for all of us.

Until then, I will anxiously await their comments after their first visit to their Nantucket beach house in April. I hope they will feel like they’ve “come home”.

[Check out the photos of our Nantucket design adventure in our gallery below.  Click to enlarge and for more descriptions]

Congratulations Dennis!

Click here to read an article in the Register Star about this impressive and important project.

This is, sadly, the last episode in an eight part series chronicling Bob & Jack as they brought an 18th Century farmhouse into the 21st Century.  As far as I’m concerned–they are the reigning Kings of DIY!  Make sure you check out their antique business at the Millerton Antique Center and on-line at doodletownfarm.com – Joan

[click images for descriptions & to enlarge]

Episode Eight:  Where There Was Mud

During the earlier episodes, I focused a lot on putting the old part of the house back together as much as possible. This “last” installment of Doodletown Farm’s renovation saga will focus on an equally important restoration project: putting the landscape and gardens back together to help settle the house back into its surroundings. After all, this poor old house has been through quite a lot.

I mentioned earlier that the established flower gardens, large ancient trees and rolling lawns were what had most attracted us to the property when we first saw it 7 years ago.

Beautifully varied, mature English-style flower beds with heirloom variety perennials had been planted by a series of previous owners going back about 50 years. The most beautiful of these perennial beds surrounded the back of the old house–unfortunately too close to avoid the impending bulldozers and back hoes.

So the spring before the demolition began, Jack began the herculean task ( yes, I helped) of digging up, sorting and dividing loads of daylilies, phlox, hollyhocks, bee balms, peonies, asters, coreopsis, irises (not to mention bushels of unidentified bulbs and tubers) and transplanting it all from the doomed beds to a large temporary holding bed out of harm’s way. There they stayed for one summer. And then another.

In the spring of 2010 when all the plows and backhoes and contractors were gone, the garden restoration began. We had excavated quite a bit to position the new rear addition low enough so that the new roof-lines would not be higher than the original house in front but had not fully realized how much the excavation would alter the levels and contours between the house and the stream.

Re-grading of the rear lawn would now be needed to correct the four to nine foot drop that had not been there before. We had tons of great topsoil that we had scooped aside and saved (don’t throw anything out) during the foundation work and used it to make a long, sweeping, semi-circular terraced flowerbed that would cascade down toward the stream and the screened-in porch.

Here Jack re-transplanted (no, I didn’t help) all the perennials from the holding garden and added about 3000 spring bulbs just in case things didn’t survive the trauma of a second move. Kindly, many of our neighbors, seeing the vast expanse of spring mud we needed to cover and feeling pity, offered up many great perennials to the mix from the thinning out of their own wonderful gardens. When Jack gives a tour he tells you the name of the flowers. I call them “Abby”, “Malcolm”, “Marsha”,“Carol”, “Sophie” or “B”.

Despite the heat this summer, I’m happy to report that most things have now re-established themselves. Jack dreams that Vita Sackville-West or Vanessa Bell would perhaps be right at home with the “wild and full character” of our perennial jungle. I tend to think more of all the gardeners they had at Sissinghurst and Charleston Farm that we don’t have here.

Once the lawns and flowerbeds were done we turned to the muddy courtyard that was created between the house and the new workshop. This presented a challenge because the courtyard gets full sun almost all day. Lots of experimenting was done but we found that if we planted along the sides of the buildings we could guarantee at least some shade during the early and later hours. We altered the soil mix here adding more compost and sand and planted a range of spring bulbs, mixed among zone hardy heirloom climbing roses, climbing hydrangea, heat-tough herbs and drought hardy perennials like Russian sage. We planted coneflowers, catmint, monardas, black eyed Susans along with other more experimental additions such as clumps of a fantastic old heirloom English red crocosmia. So far, (every finger crossed) things seem to love it there.

We decided to put in pea gravel walks. Pea gravel is the official stone of Columbia County. Well, not really but thanks to some geological goings on millions of years ago, gravel is one of our town’s biggest natural resource. So it seemed like the right thing to do. One path would be our daily “commute” from the house to the workshop; two others would lead out to the back gardens from the house and augment the symmetrical layout of the courtyard. In the center of the space, we dug a shallow pool, lined it with left over stone from the workshop and piped in water.

In the middle of this pool we put a large, old Celtic carved and weathered stone capital Jack had found years ago and had been hauling around for God knows how long.

A lot of drilling, banging and hidden tubes transformed it into a gurgling fountain in the center of the courtyard. With time it will be covered with moss. We hope. One of my favorite things about the shallow pool is that it is home to an ever multiplying colony of emerald green frogs. They drive our Springer Spaniel crazy who doesn’t know quite what to make of them but thankfully leaves them alone.

The final outdoor project (who am I kidding?) was the terrace under the new arbor off the kitchen. We debated packed pea gravel but ruled it out as too messy. Bluestone slate was too dressy. We looked at all the warm yellows and browns and rusty grays in the local stone of the workshop and decided to use a similar stone mix for the terrace paving.

No, the hewn surfaces of the irregular blocks will never be absolutely, positively 100% flat but we could live with the organic unevenness of it. Besides, after a cocktail or two would any guest even notice? Or better yet, if they did notice we could blame it on their cocktail or two.

It will probably be next summer before the grape vines, wisteria and trumpet vine converge to cover the arbor but once that happens I will defy anyone to guess that this whole place was a big mud hole 12 months earlier.

This is the last of the episodes covering the adventure of finding the property to finishing the renovation. Thank you for reading along over these past months and the kind comments that have come our way.

We hope to be back on hammertown.com from time to time when interesting events happen here at Doodletown Farm. And if the last seven years are any indication, they will. They will.

Bob & Jack

[click images below for descriptions & to enlarge]

In this series:

Part I: Design Master Confronts Design Disaster
Part II: Who’s Camilla?

Did I say the wall was coming down?

Well, a few months later, I was starting to have my doubts. This was, after all, a pretty big deal for me. It meant taking the kind of risks I simply am not used to taking. You know, the bigger kind.

I, like many of my peers, have been spoiled by the relative instant gratification found in the digital world. I’ve read that one of the things that make the Internet so intoxicating is the fact that at any given moment, one feels as though anything is possible. The hyperlinked reality of the web allows our curiosity to run wild, and we’re able to explore all aspects of our world without apparent risk or consequence (except time wasted).

Well, as a web designer, I’m doubly spoiled. I not only explore the web, I create it. It’s where I work. In this realm, I can try one technique to get a desired outcome, and if it doesn’t work, try another. No harm, no foul (except for time wasted!).

As a result, for better or worse, trial and error is how I learn.

The Wall that stood between me and my future.

But back in real world, as I sat in my kitchen with the Wall looming over my back, looking over the designs to transform my physical space ­­– this 1790 Greek-Revival Colonial Home that stands adjacent to Hammertown, THE lifestyle store of the Hudson Valley – trial and error didn’t seem like such a good idea.

And that kind of gummed my decision making process.

And, the wood stove was backordered.

And, it was February.

Another winter, same drafty house.

I finally confronted my indecision one night as I sat alone in my kitchen, contemplating the innumerable possibilities, paralyzed.

In a fit of frustrated rage, I went to my tool closet, grabbed my utility knife, and stepped up to the wall. Refusing to just go away on its own, I stabbed it at about heart level. I hacked away at it for the next 15 minutes or so. I guess the more appropriate verb would be scratched. A utility knife may be great for scoring drywall, but it’s a little delicate for demolition.

What was left of the wall after my fit of rage (simulation)

The rage extinguished, I sat down at the kitchen table with my 1.5 square feet of dislodged drywall. I made my mark. The physical realm had been breeched.

Step 1: take first step (stab the wall).

Step 2: finish step 1 (take it down).

So, in the morning, I put my utility knife away and called Derek.

My buddy Rory (of Amazing Real Live Food Co. fame) had recommended Derek when I first started the project, so I dug up his number (his company is Scheer Quality Craftsmanship, 914-475-8949) and told him the situation. He and Joe were there the next day and took care of it in no time.

What I liked most about Derek from the start, was what a straight shooter he is. Over the course of this project (he also did a great job refinishing the floors), I’ve seen him take on simple and more complex challenges with the same aplomb and willingness to be honest about his thoughts. The little things do matter, and Derek pays attention to them. He never left the work site unswept, nor did he neglect to point out his own flaws, even if no one noticed but him.

In having Derek come in and take out the wall in less than a day, I was able to keep up with my own work, and NOT able to drag out the demolition process longer than necessary. There was forward motion, finally! And it was relatively painless.

The wall after Derek was through with it.

So, thanks Derek. I needed that.

We left the framing in place for the time being, until the support structure could be established. But we had, for the first time, a glimpse at what this space looked like without the wall. Camilla said her drawings, even the perspectives, were to scale, but I guess I didn’t really believe the room would look and feel as big as the drawings depicted. But it did… amazing.

I was re-energized.

I told my mom, “I think we can finish by May.”

“No way.”

Working with Derek made it clear that if I wanted to keep moving forward, I had to break fully from my DIY cyber-sense of reality where I could somehow make this happen on my own. I had to suck it up and pick a pro to help me through all of this.

Derek recommended I give Jason Steed a call. I knew Jason from way way back (8th grade in fact, when we played high school tennis together), but somehow hadn’t thought to call him earlier. So I did and he came over to check out the space.

I told him my plan and my sense of what needed to happen next (support structure for the wall) based on what the other contractors I’d met with had said. He looked at the wall framing that remained with a curious eye. He proceeded to get a chair so he could look at the framing of the floor above. A hole was already cut in the ceiling for the other contractors to look through.

He asked, “Can I pull out a little more of this drywall?” as he was pulling out a little more drywall.

“You’re all set, you don’t need any support structure. It’s already there.”

So, I decided to work with Jason.

Jason looked at the wall and saw that it was not above the apparent location of the support beam in the floor and ceiling. Further inquiry revealed that the wall that was there was not load-bearing, it was simply a partition. Therefore, no additional support was necessary.

So, let me backup for a second.

My tenure as Mr. Hammertown began in 2004. For the last 6 years, I, along with a rotating band of my best friends, have been the primary residents of the stoic Greek Revival at Hammertown.

The house had been pretty much unoccupied since my parents moved to Ancramdale in 1999, becoming an impromptu purgatory for unused displays, awkwardly-sized antiques, merchandise that just would not sell no matter the price and a surprisingly large backlog of slipcovers from Joan’s grayish-brownish period.

Although my sister, who got the design gene, gave me a solid push in the right direction (clearing out space for an office, bedroom and den when I moved in), if anyone could make the place less presentable than it already was, it would be me.

You see, I fancy myself a scrappy do-it-yourself recycler, preferring to work with what’s available, be creative and figure things out, not just buy things. Well, I had been applying this principle for years, but primarily, in the virtual realm. While I work with design online on a daily basis, in the real world, when it came to creating a home, the only thing that carried over was the not buying things. Otherwise, I was pretty much a thoughtless slob.

So, rather than clear out retail rejects and leftovers from my wonder years, dust continued to gather, paint kept peeling, faucets kept leaking and, in a very real sense, ghosts walked the halls of this grand old house. It’s no wonder my mom rarely stopped in to say hello.

My office/library as it started. The initial idea: put a door where my paper-pile cabinet is.

Some things, however, could simply not be ignored. In 2006, we faced the fact that the house envelope was in serious need of repair. We rebuilt the porches (which seemed to be melting somehow) and painted the exterior. I made some inroads into repurposing the interior, but lofty ideas, coupled with my part-time residence and lack of vision, translated into modest efforts, never gaining enough momentum to stop the flow of transient inventory. I did make myself an office, but as you can see by the picture…that didn’t go too well. I made it so dark and gloomy, my girlfriend avoided me when I was in there (now she tells me).

My idea was to put a doorway from the nook into the library on the other side of the wall.

The kitchen was comprised of a cooking area and a nook.

So, it was with this poor track record and narrow scope of thinking  that I began to ponder putting in a wood stove. It fit my Spartan ideal and would make my girlfriend happy (i.e. warm). To allow for proper circulation, a doorway was needed between the kitchen and the library.

I alerted Joan to my plan. Since what I was considering required actual construction (not just moving some furniture around), the stakes had changed and for the first time in some time, my mom realized that she still loved this old house and wasn’t about to let her design-challenged son run roughshod over it.

“Gregg, whatever you do, this has to be done right.”

“Well, actually Mom, I was planning on doing it wrong.” (I was being sarcastic, but, looking back, there’s some truth there.)

So, we got off to a rough start. But, to her credit, Joan collected herself, considered the situation and said, “Why don’t we talk to Camilla?”

“Who’s Camilla?”

Camilla Mathlien (was relatively new to Hammertown. She had brought some of her clients to the store, so Joan picked up that she was a designer and feng shui expert (Her company is CKM Space, check out her website, we just finished the first draft today). Something about Camilla must have impressed Joan because, without seeing any of her work, she referred Camilla to a couple of long-standing Hammertown customers who were very particular, quite tasteful, but having a hard time coming to an agreement about a space they were working on.

Well, Camilla nailed it. And in the process, Joan got to see how she worked. What impressed Joan the most was the way in which she was able to work collaboratively with this couple and reconcile their distinct tastes and ideas.  One look at her drawings made it clear why she was so effective. By bringing abstract ideas and concepts together and translating them into realistic, yet artful renderings, Camilla’s method allows you to see how your ideas actually play out in reality. Her drawings help to rule out the more fanciful ideas that simply don’t work, but more importantly, her drawings have life. Her drawings add inspiration and vision rather than limit it.

So, back to our story…

Based on years of experience trying (and failing) to get this Taurus to see things her way, my Virgo mom, in all her wisdom, recognized the need for a translator.

Camilla came for her first visit to the main house last November. She approached the space very intuitively and listened to Joan and I offer our thoughts. I kept it simple (“I want a door…maybe a double-wide.”), while Joan spoke more abstractly about integrating the space, and, you know, other designy stuff.

After taking it all in, the first thing Camilla said was, “do you need this wall?”

With that, what began as my humble effort to make my house cozier for my girlfriend turned into my first ever design adventure. After a lifetime of making do with what was around, forces lined up for me to explore my own vision and design something right.

The fact is, I thought about taking down the wall years ago. I thought of how it would make the house more of a communal space; how it would support my dream of Hammertown as a gathering place to share ideas, art, food, stories and space with my friends and neighbors; how the house at Hammertown could feel alive, productive and beautiful again.

Doing it right, it turns out, meant more than making the door the right proportion and the molding historically accurate. Doing it right meant breaking through old habits and limited expectations. Doing it right meant the wall was coming down.

Less than a week later, Camilla dropped off the first set of drawings. We were blown away.

Well, I’m Gregg. I’ve been working with her for about 25 years now. At first, it was, admittedly, somewhat imaginary (me, 12 years old, staring down cars as they drove by, willing them to stop and shop). But a year or so later, her early investment in Apple technology (1982: Apple IIe, $2,500) paid off, and I was able to pull together her first mailing list on Filemaker II. Ever since, whether at home or abroad, I’ve been point on all things technology-driven.

One of the funny consequences of being the son of a design hero? I don’t know a thing about home design. When I took down the wall in the Main House,* my education began.

Our story takes place inside the 1800 Greek-Revival at Hammertown in Pine Plains

For the next 5 weeks, as we prepare for our 25^th Year Anniversary here at Hammertown, I will share with you our experience creating a new space within the old, introduce you to the local pros who helped to make it happen and tell the story of a mother and son, who happen to be friends and collaborators, as they work through their issues, one ridiculous color choice at a time.

This marks beginning of a new chapter here at Hammertown and we invite you to take part both in the storytelling here on our blog and the story making that continues on September 5^th in a special place we like to call Hammertown’s Home. Stay tuned, ask questions and tell your friends.

Next week: The first impasse…call in Camilla!

Photographs of Hammertown’s Main House from over the years.

*Well, it wasn’t actually me, but I’ll get into that next week.

This is Episode #7 in an eight part series chronicling Bob & Jack as they attempt to bring an 18th Century farmhouse into the 21st Century.  There is only 1 more installment left and I’m already going through Bob & Jack withdrawal.  Make sure you check out their antique business at the Millerton Antique Center and on-line at doodletownfarm.com – Joan

Installment Seven: Accommodating the Present & Planning for the Future

You may remember that we added a small wing to the uphill/front side of the house to match the old sheep barn that had been attached to the left side of the house in the mid 19th C.  It serves primarily to block the large new addition in the back from view when you looked at the house from the road. To people driving along the road we wanted the house to look more or less as it did 150 years ago.

On the inside, the role of the new wing was very different. My mother is in a wheel chair these days and the wing is designed to convert from a gallery to a bedroom during her visits. The adjacent bath tucked under the circular staircase is designed to be wheel chair friendly. The shower can be rolled into and all the controls are set at wheelchair height. It ‘s the perfect solution for her visits but will probably function as a master suite in our dotage.

The Stone Workshop

I said earlier that Jack and I retired to Ancram. That’s not quite true. We simply changed what we do. And instead of working 5 days a week we now work seven. To say that we’re now in the antique business puts too fine a point on it. After all those years as curator, Jack has a great eye. He scours the countryside for flea markets and estate sales. We also buy the contents of houses from time to time when people just want to be rid of things. What intrigues us are pieces that are fascinating in how they were made, why they were made or simply how they wound up here in the Hudson Valley. It could be a painting, a chair or an old sign. It could be 150 years old or 50. Rare, valuable finds–and they still happen– are sent to auction. More affordable but no less interesting items go into our shop at the Millerton Antique Center or on our website doodletownfarm.com.

Occasionally an item might need a small repair or some cleaning up before it can be resold. Until the renovation, all of that work was done inside the house. Every possible surface became a worksite. No more. Part of our renovation plans included an 18th C style workshop where our “work” could be done. We wanted it to be a separate structure but close enough to the house so that our winter commutes wouldn’t be too daunting.

We wanted it to look as if it had always been there. We took lots of pictures of stone structures here and across the river for inspiration.

Most of the stone came off the property. Most of the beams and lumber were recycled from the house. Old bricks from a chimney we had to take down is now part of the workshop floor. By the time we got to the workshop our funds were running low, so we did a great deal of the interior work ourselves. Atop the workshop is a cupola that houses an old school bell that Jack had been saving. Don’t ask why.

These days it is more likely to call friends to cocktails than to classes.  If you hear it peeling, stop by. Martinis will be chilling.