Before & After: A Family Writes a New Chapter for One of the Oldest Homes in the Hudson Valley
The late-1600s residence was "liveable," but a couple made it theirs with a kitchen for entertaining, spacious en suites, and custom delft tile.
The late-1600s residence was "liveable," but a couple made it theirs with a kitchen for entertaining, spacious en suites, and custom delft tile.
Another move within the Hudson Valley wasn’t exactly part of their pandemic plans. Blake McKay and Jordana Rothman had been settled in a charming brick ranch-style home that Jordana had purchased when she was single, but with their family growing, they found themselves needing more space. As they weighed a potential move to the West Coast, fate intervened: while looking at homes in their area, they fell in love with a waterfront home in nearby Coxsackie.
"We had a refrigerator box in our garage covered in a pro-con list," Jordana recalls, which included things like staying near friends and family. Finding the property, a 17th-century Dutch colonial with four acres that backed up to the Hudson River, though, felt like kismet. "It did, and it still does," Blake says. "The process of finding, seeing, renovating, and living in the house has not been without challenges, of course, but at every turn, it has felt, deep down, like ours."
Before: Exterior
Blake McKay and Jordana Rothman bought one of the oldest homes in the Hudson Valley—records say it dates to the late 1600s—to turn into their family home.
Courtesty of Blake McKay and Jordana Rothman
After: Exterior
Even though the residence wasn’t under any kind of preservation jurisdiction, the couple decided to maintain the facade, instead focusing on updating the interiors.
Courtesy of Gabrielle Marcoux
The home had been well cared for by its previous owners, a family who moved in during the 1960s and raised their children there. It had remained largely untouched since the passing of the family matriarch, Blake and Jordana learned. Although it was in "beautiful, livable condition," it needed changes to meet the couple’s needs, including reworking the second story to accommodate two en suites, a kitchen better designed for entertaining, and essential updates like new flooring, insulation, and built-in storage. Before closing on the house in November 2021, Blake and Jordana started talks with Gabrielle Marcoux, a Brooklyn architect, to go over their must-haves while honoring the home’s extensive history.
Before: Kitchen
A 1960s addition contains the kitchen, which still had patterned laminate flooring from that era when the couple bought the home.
Courtesy of Gabrielle Marcoux
See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: A Family Writes a New Chapter for One of the Oldest Homes in the Hudson Valley
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