Roosting in a Cozy Chicken Coop (but Eggs Come From the Store)
The New York Times
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
Published: January 14, 2010
KINGSTON, N.Y. — Tripp Hanson, a former Broadway actor, had a rough year in 2007. He and his longtime partner
broke up, a close friend died, and he was starting a second career as an acupuncturist.
In the spring of 2008 Mr. Hanson visited friends in Woodstock, N.Y. One of them was a real estate agent. On a whim they
took a drive to look at houses. Mr. Hanson didn’t think he was ready to buy anything, but the idea of a simple place in a
natural setting felt “healing,” he said.
Miniature Golf, Farming and a Cottage for Two
The New York Times
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
Published: October 9, 2009
BEFORE Maria Reidelbach could find a second home for herself, she had to find a home for her dream project: a
miniature golf course with a down-on-the-farm theme.
In 2004 Ms. Reidelbach, 53, a co-author of “Miniature Golf” (Abbeville Press, 1987), a history of the game (bound in
artificial turf), traveled around the fertile Rondout Valley in Ulster County, N.Y., trying to interest farmers in letting her build
a course on their land, planted with fruit trees, vegetables and herbs.
She said she was interested in a course that would show people how food grows. “I wanted to make my own roadside
attraction, and mini-golf was what I knew best.”
Ms. Reidelbach, the granddaughter of farmers in western Pennsylvania, found a kindred spirit in Chris Kelder, who runs
Kelder’s Farm, a popular pick-your-own spot in Kerhonkson, N.Y. Homegrown Mini-Golf opened at the farm in 2006.
A Jazz Voice Finds a Mellower Range
The New York Times
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
Published: July 2, 2009
WHEN the jazz singer Sheila Jordan is in Manhattan, she has ready access to the musicians, clubs and urban energy
she has cherished since she moved there nearly 60 years ago to immerse herself in the music she loved.
But when it’s time for Ms. Jordan to learn new music or work on arrangements, she is too conscious of the neighbors
around her one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea, her primary residence. So she heads for her farmhouse on the outskirts
of Middleburgh, N.Y., 43 miles west of Albany, where she can sing any time of the day or night without worry.
A Cape Cod ‘Vessel’ for the Whole Crew
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
New York Times
Published: May 7, 2009
DAVID E. A. CARSON knows how transformative innovative architecture
In the Shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains
The New York Times
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
Published: January 29, 2009
WHEN Tim Reid drinks in the view from the deck of his second home in Amherst, Va., he often thinks of central Virginia’s
best-known resident, Thomas Jefferson.
“You get the sense that he saw pretty much the same thing we see today,” said Mr. Reid, who lives in Richmond, Va. “Hill
upon hill of undeveloped land.”
Indeed, Amherst, like Jefferson’s main residence in Monticello, an hour north in Charlottesville, lies in the eastern
shadow of a stretch of the Blue Ridge Mountains. That land today is protected from development as part of the George
Washington National Forest.
“We just fell in love with the view and the feel,” he said, “and everything that went with it.”
A Focus on Light and Thrift
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: November 20, 2008
THE design of Bill Armstrong’s cottage in Roxbury, Vt., is reminiscent of a child’s first rendering of a house: a rectangular
box with a triangle roof on top and a few windows.
Far more elaborate is the view from the inside of this second home. Sliding glass doors on two walls of the living room
look out over a sloping meadow, a pond, a forest and the dramatic peaks of the Northfield mountain range, about 25
miles southwest of Montpelier.
Our Place Just Above the Road
By Lisa A. Phillips
New York Times
Published: Friday, November 7, 2008
Byron Bell likes to describe himself as an architect who does his best work when there's a challenge.
At the Edge of the Berkshires, a Lively Hill Town
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: October 30, 2008
OLAF THORP spent the indelible summers of his youth at Lost Farm, his parents’ country house in Ashfield, a small
farming town in western Massachusetts. So when his father and his brothers decided to sell the place in 1988, he knew
he had to keep it in the family, even though its understructure was rotting, and repairing it would mean literally lifting the
house off the ground.
Stage North
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
New York Times
Published: August 1, 2008
SANDE SHURIN, an acting coach and director, has spent her life seeking out what she calls magic zones, places and
states of mind where creativity flows effortlessly. The first time she drove through the mountainous corridor between
Woodstock and Phoenicia, N.Y., in 1989, she realized she’d found another one.
Rooms With a Viewfinder
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: June 6, 2008
WHEN Catherine Chalmers was preparing to film her video “Safari,” which documents the journey of a cockroach
through a mini-tropical landscape, she turned to animal breeders to buy her exotic cast of creatures, which included a
poison dart frog and a pygmy chameleon. Even the cockroach came from a lab. But there was something missing, she
felt — she wanted more bright color.
A Mountain Town Where Mineral Waters Flow
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: February 15, 2008
WHEN Zoe Burger first started spending weekends in Berkeley Springs, she was curious about the legendary healing
powers of the warm mineral waters the region is named for. So she headed to Berkeley Springs State Park in the center
of town, where public bathhouses offer a good soak for $20.
Where the Music Surrounds Him
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: November 23, 2007
IT had been a whirlwind couple of weeks for the trombonist Roswell Rudd: a performance in Berlin, a recording session
in Brussels and, just hours after he got off the plane in New York, a master class and concert in western Massachusetts.
At the end of it all last month, he retreated to his second home in Kerhonkson, N.Y., at the southern edge of the Catskills.
“This is where I feel sheltered, protected,” he said. “It was so good to come inside, have a hot bowl of soup, get in bed. I
can hear the birds, the wind in the trees. The stars are easily visible. It feels safe.”
THE VIEW | FROM NEWTOWN
Once Thriving, Post Office Seeks New Life
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: October 28, 2007
THE wooden steps leading up to the Hawleyville Post Office are rickety and splintering. The pink paint is peeling. The
inside is not much bigger than your average A.T.M. lobby.
But the patrons, who hail from the western Connecticut towns of Newtown, Bethel and Brookfield, adore their old jalopy of
a post office, for the community spirit and warm customer service they find inside. And ever since the Postal Service
began reconsidering the post office’s future, they’ve been deeply worried.
read the entire article here
The Principle of 2nd Home, 2nd Vote
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: June 22, 2007
MOST people who buy a second home are seeking refuge, a place to recharge their psychic batteries, to leave the
worries and trivia of their jobs and hometowns behind. The last thing on their minds, generally, is to get sucked into the
whirlpool of local politics.
HAVENS | KINGSTON, N.Y.
A Historic River City Is Losing Its Backwater Reputation
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: April 20, 2007
APHRODITE CLAMAR-COHEN used to spend weekends at a home on seven wooded acres in the Catskills in
Bearsville, N.Y. She loved to get away from Manhattan, but she didn’t like the isolation of country life. She was used to
walking places and seeing people, and she wanted the same lifestyle on the weekends.
The Quest for the Perfect Birth
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: April 25, 2004
ON a recent Saturday morning at Yoga Haven in Tuckahoe, 15 pregnant women settled onto rubber mats and greeted
one another with questions about how they were feeling and when their babies were due. Then the instructor, Reyna
Gonzalez, guided them through a prenatal yoga routine.
''Breathe into the baby,'' Ms. Gonzalez coached. ''Note how the baby responds.''
In Cramped and Illegal Quarters
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: December 21, 2003
FOR two years, Gilda Gentle and her five children lived in a basement apartment in Yonkers. At $690 a month, the
apartment was one of the few places she could afford, so she put up with an unusual situation: nearly every day, tenants
from the three floors above her knocked on her door, asking if they could get inside to flip a switch in the fuse box or to
pour water into the steam boiler, both accessible only from her apartment.
Mom and Dad! I'm Back Home
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: February 8, 2004
WHEN Darsha Leslie, 44, left Fort Wayne, Ind., last year to move back to Westchester County, she had to give up her
$440-a-month two-bedroom apartment.
In White Plains, her hometown, she found that a one-bedroom apartment for herself and her two teenage children would
cost $1,200, almost three times as much, an unaffordable prospect on her $28,000-a-year salary. So she moved her
family into her mother's one-bedroom apartment on Harmon Street.
''She gets the bedroom,'' Ms. Leslie said. ''We are all in the living room. It's rough.''
Chronicling a Village's Past, Brickyard by Brickyard
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: February 15, 2004
HAVERSTRAW, overlooking Westchester from the Rockland County side of the Hudson, was once known as the brick-
making capital of the world. By the turn of the 20th century, as many as 42 brickyards operated in the area, churning out
millions of bricks a year from the abundant local supply of Hudson River clay.
Despite Aid, Home Buying Proves Elusive
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: February 15, 2004
NATHANIEL GOLDBERG, 63, and his wife, Adrianna Goldberg, 36, began their search to buy a home with what they
thought would be a big financial boost: a $25,000 down payment, an assistance grant from Community Housing
Innovations, a nonprofit housing services agency based in White Plains and Patchogue.
Three months later, the Goldbergs, who rent a two-bedroom apartment in Cortlandt Manor for $1,100 a month, still
couldn't find a place they could afford.
When You Need a Rental Car, Fast
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: November 23, 2003
ZIPCAR, the rental car club that provides funky cars like Volkswagen Golfs and Mini Coopers by the hour, has arrived in
Westchester County.
More are Grabbing a Piece of Real Estate Pie
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: November 30, 2003
LIKE any number of people in the corporate world, Peter Olsen of Cortlandt Manor had a soaring career that hit a patch
of turbulence two years ago. He was forced into early retirement from his job as a vice president at Deutsche Bank in
Manhattan after the company bought Bankers Trust. He tried consulting, but work dried up after the terrorist attack on the
World Trade Center. So Mr. Olsen decided to turn his gaze from the misfortunes of the city he had worked in for more
than 20 years to the booming housing market in his own backyard.
After Abuse, a New Crisis
By LISA A. PHILLIPS
The New York Times
Published: November 2, 2003
WHEN Maria Melendez decided to leave her abusive husband, she thought of nothing but getting herself and her two
children to safety at a domestic violence shelter. But then, months later, she faced a prospect that was nearly as
frightening: finding a place to live in a county where housing prices have skyrocketed.
''It was awful,'' she said. ''I felt like I'd made the biggest mistake. I felt like I should have just stayed and tolerated the
abuse.''
Time Out New York Kids
First Resorts
By Lisa A. Phillips
Time Out New York Kids
Issue 26: Nov 19–Dec 31, 2007
Plan for activities both on and off the mountain so your winter getaway doesn’t go downhill.
Ski vacations can be tricky when you have children who may not be ready to spend long days—or any time at all, for that
matter—on the slopes. To stave off a meltdown (which would, after all, be bad for the snow), choose a mountain like
Belleayre in the Catskills or the Berkshires’ Jiminy Peak. They both offer not only great skiing but also child care, kids’
lessons and enticing side adventures.
Orange Crush
By Lisa A. Phillips
Time Out New York Kids
Issue 24 : Oct 1–31, 2007
Boost your trick-or-treater’s seasonal spirit—as well as your own—at one of these nearby gourd
gardens.
As Linus knows only too well, pumpkin patches don’t always yield something Great. On October weekends, suburban
pick-your-own farms tend to be crowded and noisy, with diesel fumes from tour buses ruining any hope of fresh country
air. But you needn’t, er, squash your child’s dreams just yet: We found three appealing alternatives to the typical harvest
hell, all within two hours of the city.
The Manny Myth
By Lisa A. Phillips
Time Out New York Kids
Issue 24 : Oct 1–31, 2007
They may have a newly sexed-up image and media ubiquity, but male caregivers are still pretty
rare.
Tibetan nannies are so last year. So what’s the latest caregiving craze? Recent media accounts contend that everyone in
NYC and its surrounding areas wants a “manny” (that’s a male caregiver, if you’ve been under a rock since the
publication of Holly Peterson’s best-selling novel The Manny). But is this really a movement? And if so, why didn’t it start,
say, during the heyday of Scott Baio’s Charles in Charge?
