Notes from the host
Starbuck Cottage
Tucked away on private lane and bordering hundreds of acres of preserved land, this tastefully renovated 1840 farmhouse offers a perfect country escape with all the best Columbia County has to offer. This 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom home sleeps up to 6 people (yet works just as well for one or two people), is loaded with character, and features original pine floors and trim, new bathrooms with dinner-plate-sized shower heads and marble floors, and a kitchen featuring Viking/Sub Zero/Bosch appliances, with designer furnishings/decor and high-speed internet.
The interior of the home is modern, understated and unexpectedly luxurious. This is our weekend home and we renovated it to have a quiet escape for ourselves, outfitting it with finishes, furniture and objects that we enjoy. We are opening it up for rent after having shared it with friends and family and hope to find others who love it as much as we do. The kitchen is outfitted with everything you would ever need for a chef to cook a meal, including Jura and Ascaso espresso machines, Calphalon/Staub pots and pans, good wine glasses/dishes/flatware/bar accoutrements, etc.
The ground floor has 9’ ceilings and contains a large Living Room with a decorative fireplace (not for use) and TV, dining room, a 3-season screened-in porch (storm windows for the winter months), a large mudroom with LG washer and dryer, country kitchen and dinette, foyer, one bedroom, a full bathroom, and a 700-square foot bluestone terrace with teak furniture outside. Three additional bedrooms and two recently renovated bathrooms occupy the second floor.
While well-behaved children and pets are welcome, this is not a party house. It’s the ideal place to escape to the country with a screened in porch, a good bathtub and light-filled rooms with high quality mattresses, too many coffee table books and designer furniture. There are also premium mattresses, high quality linens and towels and every type of pillow option imaginable.
Location:
Located on a tree-lined, quiet country road, just east of the Taconic, it’s a 20-minute drive to Hudson (Amtrak stop) and 30-minutes to Great Barrington, in the hills of NW Hillsdale, and a five-minute drive to the famed Hawthorne Valley Farm Store. It’s a 2 hour drive to NYC and 2h 15 min drive to Boston. The house is nestled above a small stream with a separate garage space from the main driveway, allowing for tons of natural light, open fields and privacy. We have one neighbor with hundreds of acres of property, so the home is reached at the end of a private road.
Kitchen: Sub Zero refrigerator, Viking Range, Bosch dishwasher, high quality pans and dishware, along with every cooking device, type of serve ware and appliance you could imagine, i.e. a citrus juicer, blenders, Dualit toaster, custom pizza stone for the oven, etc. For example, we are coffee fanatics, so we have a Chemix pour over, a French press, an Ascaso espresso machine, a Jura coffee/espresso machine, a Japanese kettle and iced coffee maker -- we like options! It’s these details that make staying at the home an enjoyable experience.
Mudroom: slate floors with an LG Washer and Dryer, sink and a great space to store everything, along with anything you could want for the property: snow shoes, candles, bug spray, board games, Rowenta iron, raclette machine, air fryer, etc.
Terrace: Recently built a 700 square foot blue stone terrace with Barlow Tyrie teak furniture (table and living space) and gas Weber grill. We also have a great charcoal grill if you prefer to cook with that. We just added a Yukon SoloStove fire place for the terrace that's really easy to use and does not leave you smelling of smoke. During the spring and summer, we spend most of our time on the screened-in porch that has three sun exposures and is fully weather protected (it’s enclosed with storm windows for Fall/Winter).
4 Bedrooms:
1. Primary Bedroom: King-size bed with master bathroom (2 people) – upstairs.
Incredible mattress, good linens and lots of pillow options.
2. Guest Bedroom 1: queen-size bed (2 people) – upstairs. Same mattress as primary bedroom.
3. Guest Bedroom 2: XL Twin Donald Judd-style bed (1 person) – upstairs. Great mattress, Parachute linens
4. Guest Bedroom/Office 3: currently used as an office with a CB2 daybed (ideal 1 person, but turns into a queen bed that can sleep 2 people comfortably with the featherbed, if need be, sleeping up to 7 people for the home, but we really prefer 6 people max, and do not recommend a couple sleeping in that room; it’s not as nice an experience as the others) - ground floor
3 Bathrooms:
1. Master Bathroom: freestanding soaking tub; huge shower with dinner plate-sized rainfall shower head, standard shower head and jets for the wall; marble floors, shiplap walls, glass dividers, heat lamp and freestanding sink, Restoration Hardware fittings.
2. 2nd Floor Hall guest bath. Recently renovated, huge shower with dinner plate-sized rainfall shower and standard shower heads, vintage sink and nice chrome RH hardware.
3. Ground floor full bathroom is more standard, but the shower gets excellent water pressure (Speakman showerhead).
Technology:
We have high speed fiber optic internet (500 Mbps) and a cell phone extender, which allows us to watch Netflix, make cellular phone calls and take Zoom/video conference calls for work purposes with ease. 55” LG LED TV, Bose Bluetooth speaker, charging stations, etc., are on site.
Miscellaneous:
• We have an incredible caretaker who cleans the home and manages anything associated with it, should you need anything during the stay, including snow removal and lawn care.
• We have individual a/c units for the main rooms and bedrooms for the summer months.
• The fireplace finicky and easily back drafts into the living room, which can easily fill with smoke, so we are not allowing it for use during the stay; we are rebuilding that in the spring. If you would like a fire, we have a SoloStove on the terrace that works perfectly for outdoor fires.
• We ask you to be mindful of water usage.
We have only recently started renting the space, since we will not be able to spend as much time there as we would like. Please message me if you have any questions or would like to see additional photos. This is a really special home and is perfectly located with great attractions in every direction.
