Winter is Coming. As I write this entry it is a cool, rainy Sunday afternoon on Labor Day Weekend. Kids are back in school, the leaves are beginning to turn, and it’s already dark before 8 o’clock each night. Although autumn doesn’t begin officially for another two weeks, those of us in the Northeast are all too aware that the first frost may be just around the corner. So while you’re enjoying your last trip out on the boat and that last ice cream cone of the season, now is a great time to start thinking about what you need to take care of around your property before the snow begins to fly.…

The past decade’s home renovations have largely focused on the public parts of the house and, notwithstanding the primary bath, the upstairs remained largely untouched. It has been on our to-do list for a while now, but, atypically, I have been the one who was reluctant to get started because I knew it would mean living with several months of chaos and mess and I didn’t want to face it. Finally Bill convinced me that there would never be a better time than a pandemic winter to tackle a major indoor project and I conceded. All three of the upstairs bedrooms got new flooring and paint, but for our bedroom we went a…

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Farmhouse on the Pond! We’re so glad you’re here. Nestled at the top of a windswept hill in Upstate New York, beneath a canopy of ancient oak trees, our 19th century farmhouse sits on 4+ acres of land that was once part of a large, working farm. When I purchased the house in 2010, it had been in the possession of the previous owners for 40 years, and bore the scars of those decades: an open concept floor plan, dated wallpaper, orange-stained oak cabinets, wall to wall carpet, peach-colored everything, and a truly “unique” first floor bathroom. I have spent the past decade renovating it from top to bottom,…