Procrastinet

Livingston Manor

filed under: Idle Chatter

I could probably file this under "The Weekly WANT-IT," since our trip last weekend sprung from my recent (okay, year-long) obsession with the idea of vacation property. Undaunted by our utter lack of funds or the hyper-inflated cost of real estate within three hours of NYC ($199k for a shack on one acre? Really?), Lisa and I have been nattering on happily about having "a place upstate," someday.

Of course, to her "someday" means "when it makes sense," and to me "someday" means "when I can find something even barely habitable on Craigslist for under $30k, preferably this weekend."

Last weekend, that quest took us to Livingston Manor, New York, to see a "500 sq. ft. 1BR cabin with sleep loft." This was, the ad said, situation on an in-town lot of "less than an acre," feautred a "rocking chair front porch," a lawn with an apple tree, and had been totally gut renovated by its architect owner who was for some reason totally unable to find a picture that looked more recent than 1977.

Still, it was a nice weekend for a drive, so we kidnapped our friend K8 and took off for Livingston Manor.

We found it easily and just started laughing. First of all, I commend the seller on his creative use of "less than an acre," given that the above picture shows the entirety of the property. So yes, it is less than an acre, in much the same way that my bathmat is less than an acre. And to come up with 500 sq. ft. I suspect he counted not only the 3' high loft and the unfinished basement, but possibly a couple of the walls.

Luckily, Livingston Manor itself has an adorable Main Street:

It also has an adorable sandwich/coffee shop called Peez Leweez, which also seemed to be the only game in town in the off season. We went in and found a sparsely populated, nicely decorated place with a menu of interesting sounding sandwiches. The back wall looked out on the Little Beaverkill Creek, which was beautiful:

And then I saw the sandwich of my dreams. Pot roast salad. Yes, pot roast salad. With pickles, mayo, and horseradish, on a pressed sourdough bread.

Oh my god I think I'm in love. The side is a crisp and fresh cucumber salad, and the "pink mayo" as Lisa called it turned out to be a tiny extra side treat of frozen ambrosia.

More pictures of our mini-roadtrip are available here.

Posted by rjt at November 16, 2007 04:29 PM