On Location | Hillsdale, N.Y.: A Homestead for House Stalkers
By their own admission, Ms. Carroll, 34, a graphic designer and an owner of the Content Design Store in nearby Hudson, and Mr. Rasch, 36, a partner with a Berkshires-based builder-developer firm, are house obsessed. “We basically drive around and look at houses,” Mr. Rasch said. “We’re definitely house stalkers.”
The couple, who met in Manhattan but grew up in this region along the New York-Massachusetts border, spent two years house-hunting without any luck before switching to land stalking. Soon they found a five-acre property in a farm valley for which they paid $65,000. It was partly in a flood plain and included a collapsed farmhouse they had to remove, but crucially, the land offered the southwestern exposure ideal for the solar-heating system they envisioned.
Designed by Adam Rolston, an architect whose work Ms. Carroll said she discovered while out snowshoeing one day, their house is basically a 90-foot-long rectangle box, wrapped in cedar wood and standing-seam metal, with a bathroom and bedroom on each end and an open kitchen and living area as the anchor. “It’s a very simple layout,” she said, sitting at an equally simple dining table made of English elm. “Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, the kitchen in the middle.”
Mr. Rasch added, thinking like a builder: “You could even modularize it. It was three months to frame the house and six months to finish it.”
Partly to save money, partly for the enjoyment of it, the couple acted as their own general contractors. The stainless steel kitchen countertop was sourced from a company in Buffalo that makes commercial kitchens, and the walnut cupboards and butcher block came from a cabinetmaker friend. The soapstone in the bathrooms was bought from other friends who run a local quarry. In total, the house cost around $400,000 to build.
No corners were cut with the windows and sliding doors, which stretch across the living area and open onto a deck, with views of the lower field. If the couple wanted indoor-outdoor living and a passive-solar system, that required expensive insulated glass. But the windows allow light to permeate the space, alleviating the long winters and ultimately saving on utility costs. The heating bill is rarely more than $75 a month, including electricity, Ms. Carroll said. And all that light allowed her to indulge her love of houseplants. She has scattered begonias, a fern, a jade plant, even a Norfolk pine tree among the carefully selected midcentury-inspired décor, which includes an original Le Corbusier chaise, an Anglepoise lamp and an antique globe.
Ms. Carroll is less adept at outdoor gardening, she said: “Our first summer here we had a huge vegetable garden. It totally got out of control and by the end we just mowed it. It was a little overambitious.” Asked if as rookies they similarly ran amok during the building process, the couple said they made a good team. “It was something we both felt really lucky to be doing,” Ms. Carroll said. “And we do have similar taste, which is nice.”
As Mr. Rasch put it, “I understand the process part and Jade knows aesthetics.” Indeed, they have been thinking lately about buying a piece of property nearby. So would they sell this place and build another house on the land? Mr. Rasch nodded. “We’re ready to do it again.”