Broomstick Barn

Southfield Store

When we went looking for land, we had a destination in mind. For years, we had been spending our weekends in Litchfield, Connecticut. Every Friday, we’d pack up the car in New York and drive a couple of hours north to an unparalleled piece of property just outside of town. To be exact, we rented a house on a 1,200 acre estate that was ours for the rambling. The only trouble was that we didn’t own it. For a long time, that didn’t matter to us. The owners were hardly ever there, and we had free run of one of the most spectacular places to live in New England. For various reasons, replicating this experience on our own was impossible. But two things were imperative as we began our search — enough land to spread out on and enough culture to keep us going on the weekends.

So here’s a sampler of what you’ll find within striking distance of our new home. The Southfield Store for meeting up with neighbors and a bite. Cafe Adam for fine and friendly dining. Butternut Mountain for a kitschy take on downhill skiing. Bear Mountain for leaving the rest of the world behind. The magical gardens at Ashintully. The Appalachian Trail for x-county traipsing. Tanglewood for classical day dreams. Club Helsinki for folk and blues. Yale Music School for summer lazing. The Stockbridge Bowl for sailing. The Route 7 Grill for smoking hot food. The porch of the Red Lion Inn for G&Ts in August. And that’s just for starters…

My husband and I never wanted a big house. In fact, our whole plan had been to build something that would give us the weekend space we dreamed of while allowing us to keep our apartment in New York. Initially, we were a little depressed at having to walk away from our architect’s two-house vision for our property. But after we saw their revised plans, we realized not only that small really is better — but that small can always get bigger.

The front of the house is designed to take in a long view of forest and distant mountains through a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows.  On each side of the house, there will be a deck — one for me and my husband, and the other for our guests.  In between, there is a long stretch of great room and kitchen to walk through before you get to to the Master Bedroom and office. And upstairs, two lofty bedrooms and full bath for guests.  All this in less than 2,500 square feet of space.  Simply perfect!

House model

My husband and I work in advertising — so like architects, we work with clients who give us a brief and a budget. Having already provided our architects with a brief and a budget for our house, we were both really looking forward to being on the other side of the table for once.

We arranged to meet with the architects at my husband’s office in New York. When they arrived, they set a large box down on the table. My husband and I waited expectantly. The wife began their presentation by saying that our project was the firm’s favorite. My husband squeezed my hand, smiling. “So what’s in the box?” he asked. “Your house,” they answered.

And with that, the architects removed the lid from the box and lifted out a three-dimensional model of our house — or houses I should say. We were awe struck. “Wow,” I said. “I’m amazed.” The architects beamed. “It’s great,” said my husband. We were looking at a large house and a small house — both with long sloping roofs and lots of glass. The large house was connected to the smaller house by a wooden deck. The design was not dissimilar to that of the Glide House — except that it was taller with a loft in the back. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that we’d decided to have an architect design our house, we had to find one. First, we went through the roster of architects we knew personally. One was an old boyfriend. One was the head of an architectural school down south. While either would have done a stellar job for us, we decided to follow the old adage to never do business with friends. Next, we asked our realtor who put us in touch with a local who sounded too traditional for what we wanted. Finally, we resorted to the internet.

For several weeks, we scoured the online portfolios of architects in the Berkshires. Most of them seemed to be into designing McMansions masquerading as New England Salt Boxes. What we wanted was something that would fit in with the local architecture without being too conformist. After we’d narrowed down our options, my husband made a few calls. And after a couple of discussions, we settled on a husband-and-wife team from Williamstown, Massachusetts. Read the rest of this entry »

Prefab housing is all the rage right now. And Rocio Romero is right up there with the best of them. Before making a serious move in the prefab direction, my husband and I explored many other comparable options — including Wee House out of Minnesota (too hard to truck into our site), Dwell House (way over our budget), and Glide House (not hardy enough for the hard Massachusetts winters). Read the rest of this entry »