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ancient porcelain door knobs
Monday, December 14 2009
It was a warmer, sunnier day, and the snow made a half-hearted effort at melting. Gretchen went with Ray and Nancy out on a second visit to the house on Basin Road. This time its owner, an old-timer who has been living there for nearly fifty years, gave them the tour. They loved it. It's full of precious details: ancient porcelain door knobs, crazy mouldings, and s parts of houses salvaged from downtown West Hurley before it was flooded to make the Ashokan Reservoir. There were some problems, such as a sagging floor and a sagging ceiling, but when these were reported to me, I told Ray and Nancy that these didn't seem like such a big deal. Sistering is an easy way to fix a sagging floor or ceiling, and it doesn't always involve the removal of surface materials.
Beyond the house itself, Ray was enchanted by the presence on the property of an outbuilding suitable for use as a studio. And the garage, though swaybacked, is sound, and could make for a great storage building. Ray and Nancy have been living in the same Brooklyn apartment since the mid-90s, and it would be great for them to move a bunch of their accumulated shit Upstate.
But as much as they love the place, and as great as it would be to have them living so close, I can't let myself be fooled into thinking they'll actually buy the place. They're slow to act and tend to be crippled by inability to take major steps forward.
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