Two acres of tall trees, and you will walk every bit of it before you ever go inside. The house sits well back from the road with grass spreading out on all sides, mown clean right up to where the woods begin. Wind moves through the treetops, leaves drift down around you, and the air smells like a fresh cut lawn. By the time you reach the front step you have picked your spot under the big tree out back.
Step inside and it is ready for you, bright and freshly finished from the front door to the last bedroom. The living room is where the evenings end up. A wide brick fireplace, painted charcoal, fills one wall, and once the fire is crackling nobody is in a hurry to get up. Another log goes on, somebody pulls a blanket over, and the talk runs later than anyone planned. Mornings move to the kitchen, where the table sits by a window full of leaves.
The surprise starts at the staircase off the living room, which climbs to an unfinished second floor, one open stretch of 20 by 29 feet and a second room of 14 by 15, with a window at each end. Together that is around 800 square feet, most of the size of the floor below. Keep it for storage, or finish it someday and grow the house without building an addition.
Back downstairs, the side door opens onto the deck and the yard takes over. It rolls out under the high branches to the edge of the woods, and on a breezy afternoon the leaves overhead keep up a soft rush you can hear from the deck. Put the garden wherever the sun lands best. Carry two chairs under the big limbs and stay until the light goes. A short walk away, the detached garage stands on its own, 24 by 24 feet with windows and a side door, big enough for the car and for the projects that have been waiting their turn.
When you do leave, Goshen Central High School is just around the corner and Main Street is about 5 minutes away. The village becomes a habit fast. Fridays from mid-May into October, the farmers market sets up on the Government Center lawn. A regular weeknight dinner is Franzel or Delancey’s, Limoncello is for celebrating, and Glenmere Mansion is for the nights worth dressing up for.
Every March the Mid-Hudson St. Patrick’s Parade fills the village streets, and the Fourth of July weekend brings the Great American Weekend along with harness racing at the Goshen Historic Track, a National Historic Landmark. Route 17 opens up the rest of the Hudson Valley, Campbell Hall station is about 10 minutes up Route 207, Stewart Airport is about 25, and Manhattan is 60 miles east.
Every drive home ends back under those trees. Shade like that takes a lifetime to grow. Here it is already overhead, and the house beneath it is freshly finished and ready for its next 50 years.
Some evening soon you will walk out to the big tree after dinner, turn around, and see your own windows glowing at the far end of the grass.
