...has been lived in, loved, and fully restored to the home you see here today. Numerous poorly conceived and cheaply executed renovations along with many layers of walls, paint and other coverings had to be undone and removed to expose the rugged and timeless bones the home possessed underneath it all.
And then it was all brought back to a new life, yet just like it was all those years ago. One can only imagine the response that the original builders would have were they to see the home today. It would be an emotional event, to be sure.
The relaxed country lifestyle & experiences you'll enjoy here would satisfy anyone and everyone: from a single person hosting a bed & breakfast to a large and boisterous household. The common area living spaces here are all warm, well lit, and proportioned generously at around 17 ft. square. Your guests will have the space and facilities they'll desire and will feel as though they belong here. And you may face great difficulty in getting them to leave once their visit has come to an end....
It wasn't built looking like this originally. Over the years long ago, different households lived here and as they grew, they grew the home with them, very much like many other homes of this age. Homes and materials were repurposed
and recycled again and again over time back then. This very restoration follows that thread with material reused and restored from elsewhere in the house, and also from another house in a distant location as the project unfolded.
A restoration architect?
You may wonder why a restoration architect is so important and costs so much, but as you go through this website and then come to see the house, you may begin to gain a new appreciation for one. Following the purchase of the home, a Restoration Architect was contracted for a full plan of restoration and extended consultations. For the past 30 years this plan has been the guide for work that has been done to both return the home to its earlier potential of glory and create a rich, appropriate, and comfortable modern living space for today.
Yes, it is listed in the Historic Register
If you are curious to search the Internet you will find that this house is
listed in the National Register of Historic Places as "The Dunning House." However, in locally recorded ownership history going continuously back to 1850 when the home is recorded as having been sold from "Young to Thomas Ellis," no ownership by the Dunnings is ever recorded. Local historians have always recognized the home as "The Ellis House," so where did Dunning enter the history? We believe 
that this is a mistake sourced to the historian who made the Register entry and we are working to have this record corrected. Stay tuned for up to the minute late breaking news...
We know that the house is older than 1850, but other than the name "Young" there is nothing officially recorded to reflect this. Two basements built at different times are certainly a good clue. One of the restoration contractors who worked on the home made one succinct observation regarding the home's possible origination, and you can read more of this in the accompanying page, "...and a little more about the home."
A very practical setting from long ago
The home sits atop a small knoll on the Ridgebury ridge. What is so cool about that? The original builders long ago knew that when a house sits on top of the hill the rainwater always runs away from the home, preserving the home and keeping the cellar as dry as possible. Not only that, but they also sited the home to make the best advantage of as much sunlight as they could over the seasons. They had to, because there were no heating systems in homes then. 
The home was thus oriented so that at Winter Solstice, when the days are shortest in the winter, the house directly faces the sun. You can look straight down the slate front walkway and see the sun sitting above. They made as much use as they could of what nature provided them. It was a necessity.
Ridgebury is one of eight hamlets in the town of Wawayanda (newcomers will hear this pronounced as Way-way-anda). The mailing address reflects the Slate Hill post office, but Slate Hill itself is another hamlet nearby in Wawayanda. To set the location of the home drive wise, the drive time to the George Washington Bridge in New York City is around 70 minutes..
Palladian influenced design
The home evolved over the years and became Palladian influenced in the early 19th century with a Neo-Classical Center Hall design. Palladian: an architectural style made popular through much of the world - including 17th and 18th century England and America - as identified in its symmetry and center hall construction style as in Jefferson's Monticello and Washington's White House.
A central gable with a half-round window, and decorative porch overlook the front of the property.
A large bay window looks out to the southwest, catching afternoon sunlight. The home is sided with cedar and pine clapboard (mostly cedar, and coated on both sides for reliability). The windows are two-over-two and are insulated using two-layer gas filled construction. That's a 50 year composite slate roof from Tamko, using their Lamarite Slate Composite Shingle system. It was installed in 2003, and that means the home's new buyers should have another 40 or more years to enjoy not having to replace a roof.
As the new owner, you'll enter the home via the keeping room
When you come for a showing of the home, you'll take the walkway around the rear of the home into the pre-Federal
period keeping room. The functional 'kitchen' of old was actually outside, where you walked in, with the finer
finishing processes of cooking taking place at the hearth and beehive oven you will see opposite the door as you enter. More on this later. That is a working fireplace and beehive oven, and
Thanksgiving turkeys have been cooked recently in that tin oven reflector you see there in front of the fireplace. Yes, bread has been baked in the oven too...
The Center Hall: The tour of the home begins through the door to the left into the Greco-Roman Neo-Classical Center Hall, with a formal pilastered entryway from the front porch. A central archway on reeded pilasters commands attention from any direction. The doors leading to the
keeping room and at the end going to the second floor are original to the house, museum restored, and the other three are museum-grade reproductions. The
one-piece 13 layer canvas Colonial floorcloth was designed by the architect and commissioned from artists in Virginia who took three months from start to completion. The wood floor underneath is original equipment, fully restored. The wall covering is a design found at Gunston Hall, the Virginia home of George Mason
(Father of the Bill of Rights), and was re-produced one time only for this Ridgebury restoration by Waterhouse Wallhangings, a very well known historic wallpaper manufacturer in New York. When you see it you may imagine it was made from the original 230 year old wood-cuts.
a Hidden Secret
Do you like hidden secrets? Well the restoration crew has left one for us: Next to the front door, to the left on the photo, on the wall leading into the Victorian Parlor there is a 'secret' opening - a hinged panel - into the wall where you can see some of the layers of previous versions of the home! When you reach your arm up inside the wall to the right of the door you will find a cast iron pintel (a type of hinge) from an earlier front door that may have been a German - Dutch type door. And not to miss a restoration opportunity, the pintel inside the wall inspired the reproduction and installation of the Dutch door you first entered as you came in to the keeping room.
The daffodil yellow front room is the Federal Parlor: In the photo above it's the room on the right. The wide-board yellow pine floor in this room was in such poor shape that there was to be no restoration for it. Replacement
flooring of the same type and age of wood was sourced from a home in Massachusetts, and then restored and installed here. You'll note that the flooring throughout the house was installed using restoration grade processes and methods, right down to the cut clout nails. Even the newly manufactured wide board flooring from Carlisle Wide Plank Floors created for the kitchen and master bedroom were installed in this fashion.
Flooring never looked this good back in the day - certainly not in 'these parts.' The finishes commonly available then were not nearly as good for the wood. All of the wood floors in the home are finished naturally with Tung Oil, a finish that has been around since at least 400 BC finishing the floors and furniture of royals. It was imported from China (the Tung tree) for well-to-do homeowners, but perhaps not for the local Wawayanda Patent residents at that time...
The fireplace was enlarged using unused original-home bricks that were found below in the basement. It was built by a restoration mason and wood craftsman using methods and processes from the early 19th century. The 
wood surround is a hand carving. And yes, it is a working wood-burning fireplace.
The Roman Greco crown molding, baseboard and door trim throughout the first floor of the house is not entirely original to the home. What was usable (approx 60%) was restored where installed, and the balance had to be reproduced in-place by restoration wood craftsmen. The southwest facing bay window is original to the house. The sconces you see throughout the house are period correct reproductions. In the Federal Parlor the sconces are candle powered, with electricity available and wired to the fixture although presently not in use. Walls throughout the house are plaster covered.
Across the Center Hall is the Victorian Parlor. Breathtaking, you say? The wood in this room is both massive and impressive in it's full Greek Revival presentation 
of the trim work. Crown molding, window column and architrave, and baseboard offset the rich red oak flooring. Four massive two-over-two windows reaching to the 8' 4" ceiling allow the morning sun to stream through brightly. The wall fill, frieze and corner treatment wallcovering is a rich Persian Victorian design screen printed by Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers. You'll feel like you are inside a jewel box in this room, which is centered by a ceiling medallion holding a reproduction Victorian chandelier with amber fading to cream light shades.
An Office, or...? The room between the Victorian parlor and
kitchen is a room without a present purpose that is suitable to be used as an office, or sewing room, or library or... This is the /5th bedroom mentioned in the real estate listing. A buyer wishing to use the home as a Bed & Breakfast could use this room as their bedroom since there is a full bathroom
just around the corner off of the Kitchen.
Where the restoration ended...
We arrive in the Kitchen. You'll note that this room is not a restoration. Why, you ask? Homes didn't have indoor kitchens two hundred years ago. Nor did they have indoor bathrooms. There was no plumbing then and for rural homes like this one plumbing did not exist until pumps suitable for driving a plumbing system came about. Kitchens, more than anything else, were like butcher shops and were outside then--the location much better suited for the blood, feathers, and garden debris produced in the early stages of food prep. The food was brought in to the home relatively ready for the finishing process of hearth cooking at the fireplace. The keeping room was a place where finer processes like bread making were done at the big table. Bathrooms were, well, they were outhouses...
Now, if one wanted to, these exterior 'rooms' could probably be built period-perfect for far less than the restoration grade home interior you've been 
looking through thus far. The local Health and Building Departments may not approve of it though... so anyway, the kitchen and bathrooms will have features that hark back in time, like the flooring, trim, and fixture styling, but they are essentially modern rooms for modern life, as they should be. You wouldn't want it any other way, would you?.
A new kitchen
The kitchen is quite new, installed in 2008, and is large enough for several cooks to work comfortably at the same time. The hickory cabinetry in a shaker-bead board design provides ample storage for a full compliment of foods and tools. Granite countertops extend the entire length of the kitchen, with a breakfast bar and two windows overlooking the rear yard and orchard. All appliances are top-of-the-line stainless Jenn Air. The blue painted wainscoting was found buried deep inside the keeping room wall that was uncovered during the restoration and was re-produced here in both rooms.
The Keeping Room 
features a hand crafted reproduction rough wood sink station with a large copper-lined sink. Now, this may be more of an early 20th century piece, but it fits so nicely there in the corner, and it's plumbed with hot & cold water and wastewater drain. Under the exposed-beam ceiling it looks like it belongs right there...
Long ago, the keeping room was where all the activity in the house took place. The fireplace was always going and it was the warmest room in the house. This keeping room dates to pre-Federal architecture times and the fireplace and bee-hive oven are original equipment. With the exposed hand hewn beam ceiling contrasting against the wide board oak floor below, this room can set you back in time. It may just be the favorite room in the house, today.... What do you think?
Upstairs are four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and the laundry, all worthy of high marks for quality. Are you surprised by that? The restoration up here continues the theme of returning to the home's beginnings. The simple square board
door trim was kept and used throughout the upper floor, which in an earlier time was not done with the fancy woodwork found in the lower floors. White pine flooring was in use, and was restored. For the rooms that were changed for bathrooms or enlarged, as in the master bedroom, new wide board white pine flooring from Carlisle Wide Board Floors was installed, again 
using the same cut clout nail installation found everywhere else in the house.
New bathrooms!
Elegant Baths: Right up at the top of the stairs on the right are two bathrooms and the laundry. On the far right, is a full-bath, with a large shower and a claw foot bathtub. A half-round window looks out over the rear yard and orchard. In the middle is a half bath through which is the entry to the Laundry to the left. Both bathrooms feature exposed hand hewn beams in their ceilings along with elegant fixtures, hardware and appointments. Second warning...your guests may not want to leave this!
The second bedroom, originally the 'master bedroom,' has what looks like a fireplace. It is, sort of, but you wouldn't want to build a full-flame fire here, though. This fireplace
functions more like a heat reflector. A bucket of hot coals would be brought into the room and placed there to heat the room. Not that you would actually need that today, with the two zone forced air heating system in the house. This bedroom shares a very large walk-in closet with the third bedroom.
The landing at the top of the stairs is a rather large room of it's own. Plenty of room for a table and sitting chairs as you'll see in the photos. Visitors won't be bumping into each other passing by on their way out in the morning.
Master Bedroom - the largest room in the house...
The Master Bedroom: Are you looking for a large master bedroom? This one is
a genuine standout. It's huge - width, depth
and height; 11 ft ceilings with two exposed hand-hewn beams. Then you have three very large walk-in closets, enough for just about everybody
in the house all at once. Household members who are accustomed to commandeering all of the closet space will not be able to do so here - your sweetie can have one too!
Please be aware, this room will swallow oversize furniture - you could have a bedroom and living room arrangement together if you'd like. The master bath comes with a shower big enough for three, and a claw foot soaking tub for when you just want to soak away the day's stress. As in all bathrooms in the house this one is fixtured and appointed with elegance.
Outside you'll have an apple orchard, planted 30 years ago: Macintosh, Empire, Red and Yellow Delicious. Enjoy an outdoor barbeque with friends looking out over the orchard and pond below, listening to the geese call out as they fly overhead, and watch the sunset behind the ridge in the distance. There's a great life waiting here, just waiting for a new generation to come in and carry the heritage torch off into the future.
Yes, it's as old as it looks, and yet it's as new as tomorrow. That is what a restoration is all about, don't you think?
This is a home for a certain individual who is searching for an authentic and very special place to be, from an era when 
homes were built deliberately, slowly; one with old world construction qualities not found in ordinary modern homes or even in older homes claiming to be 'restored.' It's been here for well over 200 years, over a significant period of time. New construction homes widely available today are not likely to be standing proudly or even at all in another 200 years.
This home existed under duress for quite a number of years and fortunately survived through it. Now, faithfully restored to it's beginnings following a restoration architect's plans, it's been brought back to life. And look at it now...
That architect, after a rather speechless recent visit to review the finished masterpiece, and having not been in the house for a very long time, offered that "this home is now a museum of American architectural styles." It was clear that he was quite pleased with the completed results and was moved by the degree of adherence to his original plan. Later, in a letter to the owner he remarked that "this home is an amazing place....like a piece of theatre."
Is this the home you're looking for?
You've read it all, but you've not seen it all and it's time now to schedule your showing appointment. Before you do, though, if the price tag of $690,000 is more than you can part with it is probably best that you continue looking. There are renovated older homes on the market right now with only elemental rather than total restoration. Of course none will come with the depth and breadth of restoration qualities you've read about here and desire. And that is what sets this home apart from all the others.
Call your agent today to schedule a private showing. The seller is represented by Associate Broker David Sherfey & Keller Williams Realty - Goshen - and can be reached at 845-629-4878.
LOCATION: Should you need to commute to New York City, the drive time to the George is around 70 minutes. The nearby Metro North Station in Middletown, for the Port Jervis Line, is 15 minutes away.
Multiple grocery stores can be found in nearby Chester, Warwick and Middletown. And during the growing months you'll find some of the best farm markets and farm stands in the area. Soon's Orchard is just down the road. This is rural living, to be sure, but by no means is it isolated. We are serviced here by some fine restaurants, tucked into the surrounding hamlets. Your favorite national chain restaurant can be found just 20 minutes away.
