Remember that scene in “Sex and the City” when Carrie, who can’t manage a down payment to buy her apartment, asks for Miranda’s help to figure out where her money has gone? Carrie, good with words but not so good with numbers, figures she has 100 pairs of shoes that cost about $400 per pair—this was the 90s, so that price seems almost quaint today!—and she figures she’s spent $4,000 on shoes; Miranda points out that 400 x 100 is actually $40,000.
Sadly, even $40,000 isn’t enough for Carrie to make a downpayment on this circa 1792 farmhouse in Carmel, New York, that features a Bergdorf Goodman-caliber shoe closet lined in custom shelves accommodating 100 pairs of Manolos, Ferragamos, and, this being the countryside, Moncler hiking boots.
The rest of the property is also quite lovely, if less sutorial. According to legend, George Washington rode past the house in Revolutionary days. Though given that the house was built in 1792, quite a while after the Revolution, this may be more hopeful than factual. In any case, the lovely old colonial has been beautifully updated to preserve period features such as wide plank flooring and old beams and integrate modern luxuries like skylights and a bespoke shoe closet.
The floor plan has been recently reconfigured to open up the interior rooms, with a nice flow between the foyer, dining room, living room, and kitchen. The kitchen is particularly fetching, with a vaulted ceiling, a skylight, and a copper farmhouse sink. The glass conservatory overlooking the garden is perfect for the current houseplant craze, and there’s also a terracotta-floored mudroom with a coffee bar. Upstairs are five bedrooms, including the primary ensuite and the shoe closet. There are three bathrooms in total, set within almost 4,600 square feet.
The exterior is equally appealing, with 4.6 acres of land, not to mention a separate two-bedroom guesthouse. There are four rose gardens, a Zen garden, and a vegetable garden irrigated by a 700-gallon rainwater harvester. Nearby is a custom greenhouse made from salvaged antique glass window sashes. The pool is a playfully anachronistic midcentury freeform style and is next to a flagstone patio. There’s even a koi pond, and with all this flat land, a tennis court is possible.
Within a five-minute drive to the Metro-North railroad station, perfect for shoe-gathering jaunts to Bergdorf’s, the bucolic property is asking $1.295 million via Andrew Gates at Houlihan Lawrence.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence -
Image Credit: Courtesy Houlihan Lawrence