Construction Diary: A Brooklyn Couple Revive an ’80s Time Capsule in the Catskills

A subdued palette allows the pair’s collection of vintage furniture—and the tree-filled surroundings—to sing.

Jan 6, 2023 - 20:00

Construction Diary: A Brooklyn Couple Revive an ’80s Time Capsule in the Catskills

A subdued palette allows the pair’s collection of vintage furniture—and the tree-filled surroundings—to sing.

Oak flooring runs throughout the home, creating a subdued backdrop for the aged furniture. "It really lets everything around it stand out,

Like many couples, Spencer Bergen and Jack Alessio Pretto bid Brooklyn adieu at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, and they started living together for the first time in Spencer’s upstate getaway in Andes, New York. Thinking they would be away for a week, Spencer, a TV producer for an entertainment news show, and Alessio, an art director in fashion, packed only their backpacks. They ended up staying in the western Catskills for six months.

All that time together, however, got them thinking. With Spencer’s experience fixing up old houses and Alessio’s background in retail store design, they could create a place that was all their own. They sold the house in Andes in October and spent the next nine months searching for the right opportunity. They would find it in an ’80s ranch-style house in nearby Roxbury. Renovating it over a four-month sprint, Spencer and Alessio were able to get it ready by Memorial Day 2022. They recount the experience below.

For their first big project together, Spencer and Alessio sought a property in the western Catskills that felt secluded while still being close to town. Their home on Raeder Road in Roxbury, New York, had good bones, was within budget, and—most importantly—benefited from incredible views. Spencer was adamant about expanding the deck, and they chose Benjamin Moore’s Midnight Oil for the exterior. — For their first big project together, Spencer and Alessio sought a property in the western Catskills that would feel secluded while still being close to town. This home on Raeder Road in Roxbury, New York, had good bones, was within budget, and—most importantly—benefited from incredible views. Spencer was adamant about expanding the deck, and they chose Benjamin Moore’s Midnight Oil for the exterior.
Jack Alessio Pretto and Spencer Bergen

On the Hunt for Home

Spencer: I love the Western Catskills. It’s a really special community, so I wanted to stay in that area.

Alessio: Spencer’s thing is, when you’re in the countryside, you want to be in the middle of nowhere. There were maybe 10 houses on this two-mile dirt road, and you really felt like no one would pass by. It was just all birch trees and pines around us.

Spencer: The view was what sold it. I like to call it a makeshift tree house because you’re on a pretty steep hill, so it’s just treetops all around you. You get amazing fall color; in the summer it’s lush and green. You’re removed enough from the town that it’s quiet, all while being a seven-minute drive from the small-town life down there.

The guy living there previously was a full-timer, so he kept the place up, but he just did not do anything fancy. (His TV stand was a milk crate.) So it was a perfect find, in a sense, because he repainted it and kept the systems from rotting but had left the design untouched since the ’80s. It presented this great opportunity for us to update it, and I felt relatively safe about the scary monsters that could be hiding within a project like this.