Major Movement on the Home Front!

Literally.

If all goes as planned (knock on wood) we are officially in contract to sell our little house at Fox Ridge and to buy the dilapidated farmhouse in Callicoon.

Remarkably, we received not one, but THREE offers on our house within the first week of listing it (within 3 days, to be exact!) which has to be some kind of record, right? After some back-and-forth, it looks like we're set to go, and now we just have to wait patiently while our paperwork comes together and their paperwork comes together, and then-- BA-DA-BING! We will (hopefully) be the proud owners of some major acreage in rural New York.

Crazy.

If you'd told that to either John or me 6 years ago, we both would have thought you were off your freakin' rocker. Not only because it would have seem implausible, but because it probably would have seemed undesirable too. Well-- the last six years have changed our tune, and we're pretty darn pumped about what the next couple of months might hold.

I'll keep you posted as things progress forward, but in the meantime, there are plenty of other projects to tackle. Most pressingly, we made fried lemon slices as an appetizer tonight, which were both delicious and TART. Check out the recipe below if you're interested in taking it for a spin...

Fried Lemon Slices with Aioli

lemons

1 lemon, organic and thin-skinned
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs

aioli
3 cloves garlic
1/2 -1 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup olive oil

Make the aioli: Peel the garlic cloves and mince. Gather the garlic into a little pile and pour the salt over it. With the flat of a sturdy knife blade, crush the salt into the garlic until you get a nice paste. Combine the paste in a bowl with the egg yolks. Whisk or beat the egg yolks together (you can also use a food processor), adding a few drops of olive oil at the start. Keep whisking and adding a little oil until it begins to thicken. While whisking/beating, pour half of the oil into the mixture in a slow and thin stream. Salt to taste.

Fry the lemons: (Process pictured above!) Slice the lemon into 1/8-inch thickness. Dip each slice into the egg, then coat in breadcrumbs. Place in hot oil (350°F) and fry for about a minute or until golden. Take care that there will be some splattering. Remove from oil and set on a rack to cool. Serve with aioli.

*Note: We made our aioli according to the original recipe, which also asked for an additional 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Upon completion, we all agreed that it was INSANELY lemony, particularly when paired with the fried lemon slices, and was totally unnecessary to include the additional lemon juice. 

*Other Note: We ambitiously doubled this recipe and sliced & fried up two lemons to serve three people as an appetizer. About half way through, we were all feeling a little gross and puckered, and really did not need the remaining slices. 



This is a delicious dish, but it should probably be consumed in moderation, both for your health and general wellbeing. Hindsight: 20-20.

Just in time for Passover!

My mother, aka English Martha Stewart, just sent me this recipe, which I think I'm going to attempt for Passover next week. I'm excited-- it sounds delicious, and is also leavened-flour-free! What's not to love? : )

Thanks Martha! We can always count on you for festive solutions to culinary conundrums!

Pistachio, Honey and Sea Salt Matzo:

Ingredients:

• 5 ounces chopped dark chocolate
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 sheets matzo
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted unsalted pistachios
• Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in honey. Spread evenly over matzo using a small offset spatula. Sprinkle with pistachios, then garnish with salty. Let set.

Serious Progress!

Alright folks-- we're really makin' some headway now!

I didn't mention this before, but last weekend I posted the camper/guest house on Craig's List, and just this morning I got someone to roll her away. It was a bit of a heartbreak to see the Ol' Covered Wagon go, but it was time to get some of the sh---t off of our lawn if we are serious about getting Fox Ridge sold. I have to admit, it was nice to see someone else excited about the camper-- the guy who bought her had grand plans for another renovation and many more trips around New England, which made it a little easier to say good bye. That trailer and I have been through a lot together-- as had John's family. Hopefully now it has moved onto better pastures and a brighter future...

Happy Trails Sir! 

Not only was that accomplished this morning, but I also went outside and discovered that our house is officially "For Sale". A sign has been posted, we're up on the website and we're making it happen! If you haven't already sent an email to everyone you know about us selling our house, you can now email them the link, so it will be even easier to find us!

Fingers crossed people!!

The Clock Is Ticking!

The Clock officially begins "ticking" next week and then we've got a mere 90 days to get Fox Ridge sold, or we run the risk of losing our next big project-- the decimated farm house up the river from our little cottage. We already have three couples booked to come and see the house this weekend, so that seems like a promising start, but don't get me wrong-- I'm already nervous!

According to an article that I tracked down online, a realistically priced house in a demanding market can sell within 10-21 days. There seems to be no factual basis for that number on the website, but hey! Let's be optimistic and embrace it regardless. 

Hopefully if we dream it, we will be it! 

I'll keep you all posted after this weekend's showings. Fingers crossed people! 

Keeping myself occupied...

Trying to sell our house and buy the new/old farm house is driving me nuts. I am abysmally bad with waiting, patience, or generally not being in complete control of my life, and buying/selling a house is the perfect manifestation of being utterly out of control.  There is A LOT of waiting, planning, trying-to-do, but basically it feels like we're MANICALLY TREADING WATER.

In an effort to distract myself from the torture of waiting, I decided yesterday that a day of cooking and baking would do me good. (You'd think running an interior design business and raising a baby would be distracting enough, but nope! I need more... I am an anxiety-multi-tasker. I can give my full attention to working, babying, and still have plenty of brain left over for spazzing. What can I say? I'm a wonder...)

So first, I tackled a spring vegetable quiche, and then followed up with a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. The quiche was really inspired by my friend Samantha-- she had a hankering for something savory, so I whipped up the pie crusts and Sam took charge of the contents. She looked to the ever reliable Smitten Kitchen, and found a delicious recipe for a Quiche Lorriane, which we then abstracted to include goat cheese, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and wilted spinach. The recipe that Smitten Kitchen provided is essentially the least healthy quiche that has ever graced the earth (1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1 cup of full fat sour cream, 3 eggs!) however, it was also ridiculously delicious, so that made it all worth while. (Not according to your doctor...)

And then, because we weren't feeling chubby enough, I cobbled together a Strawberry Rhubarb pie, which is OFF THE HOOK! (Also found on the Smitten Kitchen website. That lady really knows what she's about...) 

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

1 recipe All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough or double-crust pie dough of your choice
3 1/2 cups (about 1 1/2 pounds, untrimmed) rhubarb, in 1/2-inch thick slices
3 1/2 cups (about 1 pound) strawberries, hulled and sliced if big, halved if tiny
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a well-floured counter, roll half of pie dough into a 12-inch circle and carefully transfer to a 9-inch pie plate. (I like to fold my gently into quarters, to transfer it more easily, then unfold it in the pie plate.)

Stir together rhubarb, strawberries, sugars, lemon, salt and tapioca in a large bowl. Mound filling inside bottom pie crust and dot with bits of unsalted butter. Roll second half of pie dough into an 11-inch circle and cut decorative slits in it.

Transfer it to center over the pie filling. Trim top and bottom pie dough so that their overhang beyond the pie plate lip is only 1/2-inch. Tuck rim of dough underneath itself and crimp it decoratively.

Transfer pie to a baking sheet and brush egg yolk mixture over dough. Bake for 20 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes, until the pie is golden and the juices bubble visibly.

Transfer pie to wire rack to cool. When full cool (several hours later) the juices gel.

Do ahead: Pie should keep for up to three days at room temperature but I have never, ever seen one last that long.

Exterior Shots of Fox Ridge...

Upon recommendation from my readers, I've decided to include some more information and photos about the land surrounding Fox Ridge (our little cottage upstate), in the hopes that it might tip the scales in our favor. The house is situated on 8.6 acres, adjacent to 860+ unoccupied acres... In addition to our charming cottage, there is also a modern 2-car garage (we've always called it "The Barn") on the property, overlooking a beautiful overgrown apple orchard, about 1/4 mile away from the house and the road.

The garage would be a perfect painting studio, workshop, or rehearsal space-- it's incredibly private, wonderfully situated with great views in every direction, and already has a well and water pump installed, so with very little effort (and money), one could convert it into a more full-time usable space or residence.

To give a sense of what the house is like right now, I'm also including a snapshot from a few weekends ago when we were up to our eyeballs in snow. Things are starting to clear up now, which is great because it suggests that Spring is on its way, but bad because it makes the country road leading up to our house look like the set from Deliverance.  : (

Hopefully, whoever comes to see our wonderful cottage will have the vision to recognize that Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter all look gorgeous in the country, but March is a b-i-t-c-h almost everywhere.

And yes, that is a baby deer munching on an apple, right outside our bedroom window. It's that cute in the country. Can you stand it??? 

Lastly, this is what google.maps shows if you google the location of our house... There aren't no houses, but as you can clearly see, the house-to-forest ratio is pretty fricking superb. 

Now that I've posted all of this-- ask yourself-- "Have you emailed EVERYONE YOU KNOW about our little house?" We've already got a bunch of showings lined up, but we want this baby SOLD, so if you know anyone, please send them our way. 

Once again, I can be reached via the blog, or emailed directly at: christina@11211design.com 

More details about beautiful Fox Ridge!

There have been numerous requests for more photos and a detailed floor plan, so with no further ado-- you will find them all below!

       

You have to admit, it's a pretty darn cute house. Perfect for a New York City couple, searching for a low-maintenance respite just two hours outside of the city. In fact, if we were in our right minds, we would stay here and bask in the ease of our lovely little house. Sadly, John and I are certifiable, and have decided that the only thing more complicated than having a seven-month old is renovating a run-down farmhouse with one in tow. Are we up for the challenge? Only time will tell.

Cross your fingers for us.

People after our own heart...

Just saw this article in the NY Times today, and it felt particularly relevant, given our next (hopeful) undertaking...

As one of the interviewees said in the article,

“Either you’re the kind of person who’ll do something like this, or you’re not,” Mr. Sorenson said. “There are better ways to spend your time, and it’s not the way to make money.”

“I’ve done this over and over,” he added. “I have the plan, the time and a great team, so the project’s bulletproof. I know how to do it. When I’m done, this place will be killer.” 

Albeit, WE are the team, we have almost NO TIME, and it's a CRAZY FRIGGIN' PLAN, but I think I'm going to consider our venture bullet proof too. It has a nice ring to it!

The check is in the mail!

I'm not kidding!

We put our signed contracts in the mail today, so as soon as they're received and processed, we are officially in contract to buy a completely f-ed-up farm house (for the next 90 days).

YIKES! YIKES! YIKES!

Needless to say, we're really excited, utterly terrified, and very emotional about the thought of selling our cottage at Fox Ridge. However-- as a wise man recently told me-- progress is all about putting one foot in front of the other.

So here we go! One step at a time! 

In case you haven't already, don't forget to tell everyone you know about our little house. If we don't get this beauty sold in less than 90 days, our dream house goes back on the market! Pass it along! 

Here's the link again: http://afterdinnerdesign.blogspot.com/2013/03/big-news-maybe.html

And here's the link to the Craig's List ad: http://catskills.craigslist.org/reo/3644500405.html

It should be listed on the MLS website by Monday-- as soon as it goes up, I'll pass that link along too.

We need your help!! 

The Dream House (aka. Money Pit) In Person!

It seems that the new house is far more intriguing to people than how on earth we're going to sell Fox Ridge in less than 90 days, so I'm attaching a couple of links for you to peruse... These are three (very amateur) movies John and I made, giving a quick tour of the new house, along with some anecdotes about our plans and visions...

Haunted House? We're hoping the answer is "No!"

Fingers crossed, we'll actually get to see these dreams become a reality!

Check it out here:

(Intro) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJF6yXNVDw4

(The main tour) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KObBaG4yiwo

(The rest of the tour) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoRqQPWQxGA 

As John's brother Peter helpfully pointed out, these videos could really stand some editing (thanks Peter) so please be patient and watch them with love (and not internet pessimism) in your heart...

The clock's ticking! Have you mass-emailed anyone today? 
You better get started! 

What does dictionary.com know?

It felt oddly appropriate that I woke up this morning to this "word-of-the-day" grinning up from my email in-box. Is the internet trying to tell me something? Bring it on! Mad cap or not-- we're determined to find a way to get this house swap accomplished!

If you haven't already, please send this link to all of your friends, neighbors, co-workers, mail men, family members, and soccer team! Anyone not on that list? Send it to them too! Surely someone wants to buy a beautifully renovated, sweet little vacation home for not a huge amount of money, close to New York City. There are more than 8,000,000 of us!

I know SOMEBODY WANTS THIS WONDERFUL HOUSE! : ) 

Big news... Maybe?

John and I have been percolating our next big project, and we're far enough along, that I've decided to announce some of the details, and more specifically, to ask my readers for their help. (YES! I NEED YOUR HELP PEOPLE, SO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION!)

John and I recently realized a couple of things:

1. We love having friends up at our house upstate.
2. More and more of our friends are couples, some with kids, and things are getting a little snug in our cottage.
3. Babies seem to prompt a constant stream of visitors, who also want to squeeze into our house.
4. We need a bigger house.
5. We can't afford a bigger house that isn't totally messed up.
6. We are, in fact, ready for a new project.
7. We should buy a totally messed up bigger house and fix it!

And like that, what do you know, we fell in love with this unbelievably rundown farmhouse in a town 35 minutes north of Sparrowbush!

It's possible the sequence of events went a little more like:

1. We had friends with a baby up to the house. It was tight, but wonderful, and we briefly talked about getting a home improvement loan to expand our house. This seemed like a crazy, but interesting idea, and then we didn't really talk about it further...
2. The following weekend, we drove up to Callicoon, NY, to visit the untapped reserve of antique stores there. I was on the hunt for a bookshelf for Julian's room, which has basically no storage, and an ever growing collection of toys, diapers, and clothes.
3. The antique store I had in mind was closed (drat!) so we decided to wander around town and grab some lunch. While walking down the Main Street, we peeked in the window of a real estate agency, and got sucked into an intriguing listing... Lots of land; an antiquated farmhouse that was so derelict, it looked haunted; and best yet-- a long driveway! We innocently went into the agency to inquire...
4. What do you know-- the agent was available to take us, right then and there.
5. We followed this enchantress to this "magical castle" (beauty is in the eye of the beholder, remember!) like a pair of lemmings, and what do you know, it was our dream home. Actually. Literally. John kept walking around, sighing big sighs, taking long looks out the windows, and muttering things like, "I want to retire here."
6. After much discussion, it was determined that this house was a total money pit, and WE WANTED IT! After further discussion, we put in an offer, and it was ACCEPTED! (Yay! Yikes! Yay!) YIKES!
7. Of course, it obviously doesn't make sense to have two country houses, so now the race is on-- we've been given 90 days by the seller of the farmhouse to get our house sold, or the farm goes back on the market. YIKES!

Which leads me to how I need your help...

I'm hoping that everyone reading my blog will think long and hard about whether they know anyone who might want a lovingly restored two bedroom cottage, located less than two hours outside of New York City.

THE STATS:

Listed at: $149,000.00

Located: 15 minutes outside of Port Jervis, 30 minutes to the quaint (touristy) town of Milford, PA. Easy access to train and bus lines, running from NYC to Port Jervis.  

Land: 8.5 beautiful wooded acres, at the end of a dead end country road. 1,000 unoccupied acres are right next door-- there is rumor that the vacant land is being deeded to the town of Port Jervis for a woodland nature preserve.

The House: Two bedroom, one full bath, formal dining room, large living room, spacious kitchen, three-season porch with screens and storm windows, semi-finished basement w/ many updates. Many recent renovations include- a new roof, a newly installed bathroom floor, new bathroom fixtures, new water heater, sump pump, well pump, and fancy new basement windows... Professionally installed wood-burning stove with new chimney pipe installed in the winter of 2011.

Also: There's a huge two-car garage with a loft above that could make an awesome studio, rehearsal space, or guest house, and there's already a well and pump near the garage if you wanted to get it plumbed for residential use.

Now a slide show of the house to remind you just how wonderful it really is...

It should be noted, we're selling this little house with a heavy heart. It is a place brimming with sentimental memories for us-- we held our wedding reception on the lawn, planted our wedding gifts (trees from friends and family) in the garden, introduced our son to summer and winter in this house... John and I really discovered a whole new side of ourselves renovating this house, and it will always be my first love (residentially speaking...) However, I'm also trying to embrace the idea that change is good, and that progress is even better, and now John and I are ready to begin the next chapter of our lives-- and start the next big adventure together! We have high hopes that we'll be able to find someone to buy our house who will love it with their whole hearts, the way we have for the last five years. If you happen to know just such a person, please send along the link to our blog, to our real estate listing, or even just give them my email address (christina@11211design.com)... And tell them we're very motivated to sell-- so if they're interested-- make an offer!

The count down begins on Tuesday, when the paperwork will be officially signed and the 90-day clock starts.

Here are the links you might want to send along to friends & family ( or ideally, to every single person you know or have ever emailed):

And here's the link to the NY Times article from July 2009: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/garden/02catskills.html?_r=0

Here's the Apartment Therapy link from 2009: 

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/catskills-cottage-on-a-budget-89022

Here's the Craig's List ad:
http://catskills.craigslist.org/reo/3644500405.html

I'm not kidding folks! Pass this thing along! Send it friends who might not even be interested, in case they have friends who might be! We've only got 90 days, starting next week, so THE RACE IS ON! 

Major Baby-Promo...

For those of you who are reading After-Dinner Design for interior design tips or delicious recipes, please forgive the following baby-mania-slide-show. At the request of many, I'm putting up some recent photos of our favorite astronaut, Julian Ignatius...

He's astronomically awesome !!! 

Serious hat...

Action eater...

Serious frog... 

Unbelievable baby action sequence...

Thank you the iPhone, for capturing Jules thousands of times a day. 

And thank you, everyone else, for tolerating this blatant baby-show-off posting. But seriously, he's pretty cute, isn't he? Yeeeeppp.

I should be ashamed... : )