Catskill, N.Y. | $699,000
A newly built cedar-sided house, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, on a 5.07-acre wooded lot
This kit house from the Backcountry Hut Company, in Vancouver, British Columbia, was finished by local craft workers. It is about eight miles southwest of Catskill, a village on the Hudson River in Greene County associated with the painter Thomas Cole. (His home there is now a national historic site.) The property is about 11 miles southeast of Kaaterskill Falls, a waterfall that has been the subject of many Hudson River School artists, and 15 miles southeast of the ski slopes at Hunter Mountain. The drive to Upper Manhattan is about two hours.
Size: 983 square feet
Price per square foot: $711
Indoors: You enter the house through a cedar-clad porch that is built into an open end of the structure and rises 25 feet to the roof. Double doors are set into a wall of glass of equal height; they lead into a great room with slate flooring, a kitchen in the middle and seating and dining areas on either side.
The kitchen has a five-burner gas stove and Sub-Zero refrigerator, black hexagonal wall tile and black cabinetry with countertops milled from lumber from the site. (The same wood is used on the treads of the staircase on the opposite wall; the island is cherry.) Built-in storage cabinets are finished in cedar laid in a zigzag pattern, and the beams are tongue-and-groove cedar.
Beyond the kitchen is a bathroom with a soaking tub, a floating vanity and walls trimmed in penny-round tile. A washer and dryer are stacked outside the door.
Both bedrooms are on the upper level and have wood floors, vaulted ceilings with Velux skylights and a wall of glass. One also contains a bathroom with slate flooring, a pedestal sink and a glass-enclosed shower lined in penny-round tile.
Outdoor space: The house has a metal roof and metal siding that require minimal maintenance. It is sited in the middle of its five-acre lot, and the driveway curves as it approaches, obscuring any view of the building from the road. The property includes a small outbuilding with electricity, hot and cold water and a half bathroom. There is also an outdoor kitchen with a grill, refrigerator and sink, and a firepit.
Taxes: About $6,000 to $7,000 (estimated; house has not been assessed)
Contact: Richard Vizzini or Sheena Lepez, Keller Williams Hudson Valley North, 845-389-7879; thewolfofwoodstock.com
Newport, R.I. | $695,000
A condo with two bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms in an 1852 stone mansion, on a three-acre lot
This unit is in Lansmere, a converted single-family estate whose last private owners were Norman Ogden Whitehouse, a member of the Russian Field Missions of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace during the Russian Revolution, and Princess Tamara Bagration of Mukhrani, who was descended from Georgian royalty. It is half a block from Bellevue Avenue, or what is informally known as mansion row, and less than a mile west of the Cliff Walk, the three-plus-mile-long elevated path overlooking the ocean. The shops on Thames Street in the center of town start about a mile north.
Size: 1,790 square feet
Price per square foot: $388
Indoors: The apartment is on the second and third floors of the building and is reached by a staircase ascending from an elegant front hall with inlaid wood flooring and decorative molding. A few more steps upon entering the unit take you up to a living and dining room with an 11-foot ceiling; linen-colored walls with mushroom-colored trim; refinished floorboards; a marble decorative fireplace; and midcentury-style chandeliers (one has globes on branches and the other appears to involve Lucite). The windows at the far end of the room have pocket shutters and look out at a 150-year-old beech tree on the property.
Off the dining area is a galley kitchen that was updated about a decade ago with green cabinets, granite countertops, ceramic mosaic wall tile and black appliances. The lower level also has a half bathroom near the entrance and a laundry area.
The second floor, reached from a staircase off the living room, includes two carpeted bedrooms. One is part of a suite with a decade-old bathroom with bright red walls, a walk-in shower and a marble-topped vanity. (There is a linen closet, too.) The other bedroom has access to an updated yellow bathroom with an identical vanity and a combined tub and shower.
Outdoor space: Adirondack chairs and a table are set out on the grounds for residents to share. The unit comes with two designated parking spaces in a nearby lot and a storage cage in the basement.
Taxes: $3,614 (based on a tax assessment of $351,600)
Contact: Libby Kirwin, Libby Kirwin Real Estate, 401-864-5458; realtor.com
Bloomington, Ind. | $695,000
A 1942 limestone house with a 1960s addition, four bedrooms and three bathrooms, on a 0.61-acre lot
This house is in the Vinegar Hill Historic District near the Indiana University campus, surrounded by noteworthy properties like the little brick Tudor Revival house where the sex researcher Alfred C. Kinsey lived; the Colonial Revival house that belonged to Henry Radford Hope, an art historian who established the university’s school of fine arts; and the Ernest Flagg-designed French Provincial-style home of the founder of the university’s school of music.
This home has its own distinctions, having belonged to its original owners — the Indiana state geologist and his family — for 70 years. More than two decades into their tenure, they added a section and reoriented the front. The current owners created an open-plan living and dining area and upgraded the kitchen and bathrooms.
Size: 2,091 square feet
Price per square foot: $332
Indoors: The addition, with its locally quarried limestone and eight Doric columns supporting the roof, makes the building look like a ranch house with neo-Classical influences. The front porch arcade has a concrete floor. An indoor-outdoor fireplace is revealed when a metal wall panel is raised.
The main entrance opens to a great room with polished limestone floors, restored casement windows and built-in shelving. The indoor face of the fireplace is set into the rough limestone chimney.
The new kitchen has white cabinets built by Amish woodworkers, with limestone counters (except for the granite on the island). A cushioned, windowed bench contains storage. Moroccan-style pendant lights hang from the ceiling, and the backsplash is textured white tile.
The main floor includes a master suite and two subsidiary bedrooms that share a bathroom. All of these rooms have bamboo floors. A walk-in California closet is part of the master suite, and the new black-and-white bathroom includes a shower and a vanity with a single basin and double faucets. The guest bathroom offers a Deco-style bathtub with a shower head tucked into a niche lined with shiny black subway tile.
An additional bedroom is on the daylighted lower level, along with a renovated bathroom with a large shower faced in penny-round tile.
Outdoor space: A door in the great room leads out to a deck that steps down to the backyard. A one-car garage is under the house and can be reached from inside.
Taxes: $5,082
Contact: Jeff Franklin, F.C. Tucker Company, 812-330-7515; talktotucker.com
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Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
