You may view a short photo album on Google Drive with images of house interior and surrounding
land here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1l6uYdfQdeyYk-19B6FEIqCchOGMzBdfH
Over 93 acres of beautiful land on the Rensselaer plateau, an ecologically significant area in the Capital Region of upstate New York that comprises the state’s fifth-largest forested region, with very few roads dividing it. Due to its elevation, the Plateau's ecology more closely resembles the Adirondacks to the north than that of the Hudson Valley forests. The Plateau is home to a number of charismatic and threatened species, including fishers, bobcats, black bear, moose, porcupine, hermit thrush, and black-throated blue warbler. A
local not-for-profit organization called the Rensselaer Plateau Alliance works to conserve and study the Plateau's ecology:
https://www.rensselaerplateau.org/forestsforever
East of the house site is a three-acre meadow with a gentle southeast-facing slope. A variety of useful perennials have already been planted into and around hugelkultur-style beds and vernal pools within the meadow, including fruit and nut
trees and shrubs (chestnuts, pear, peach, elderberry, currants, saskatoon, hazelnut, sea buckthorn)
perennial vegetables, and a bordering hedgerow. Most trees and shrubs are five to six years old and some have just started to yield. Many hard-to-find perennial vegetables are established - Babington’s Leeks, profusion sorrel (never blooms and is harvestable all growing season), Allium nuttans, mitsuba, Aralia elata, ramps, baerlauch (Allium ursinum), rare German varieties of corn salad, and more.
The forest garden has extremely varied plantings of
medicinal herbs - an herbalist would be able to walk into an herbal apothecary of plants from blue vervain,
wood betony, and calamus in and around the vernal pools, to echinacea, Lady's Mantle, and Marshmallow lining paths and dotted in among the perennial vegetables.
After inoculation two years ago, King Stropharia
mushrooms have naturalized in the garden, and dozens of shiitake logs are established.
To the southwest of the house is an open east-facing hillside planted with young chestnut, saskatoon, Rosa rugosa, currants, and perennial vegetables.
A gentle south-facing slope just outside the house is currently uncultivated but promises to be an excellent zone for an annual vegetable garden.
Soil in the open areas is mostly sandy, the drainage being helpful given the frequency of rain (around 48" of precipitation a year, evenly spread to about 4" per month).
Water features are abundant: a medium-sized
pond behind the house is fed by a spring from the uphill forest and drains into a wooded wetland. The wetland in turn drains into the Bonesteel Creek, which runs just inside the eastern border of the property and is lovely for refreshing dips in the summer. The inner forest contains various rivulets, seeps, and other wetlands. In spite of the moisture, biting flies are kept in check by the biodiversity of insectivorous birds,
bats, amphibians, dragonflies, etc. The spring is very much alive with frogsong.
Complete privacy with line of sight blocked 360 degrees around the home - you have the enviable combination of quiet, private country life while the Capital Region is just a 20 to 30-minute drive away. There is a fine balance of urban and rural amenities. The Barberville Falls hiking trail is just a five-minute drive down the road (and swimming is possible in the large pool below the waterfall), and Laughing Earth organic farm (which sells directly to consumers) is only ten minutes away. As the Capital Region is a transit hub, NYC is about three hours by train or bus, Philadelphia four hours by the same, Boston 3h45m by bus, and Albany International Airport is just 30 minutes away by car.
Approximately 75% of the 94 acres is forested, mostly oak/maple/hemlock-dominant but with patches of red pine-dominant types as well. Many large, excellent timber trees could be harvested. A forest ecologist identified some areas of the interior as "approaching old-growth characteristics". Sellers have personally sighted numerous forest species like fishers, black bear, porcupine, bobcats, coyotes, Pileated Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron, and more.
Both
deer and wild turkey are abundant and can frequently be spotted within line-of-sight to the house. There are two large areas of wild blueberries as well as old
apple trees (which would benefit from pruning) on the land. Regarding wild mushrooms, chanterelles, black trumpets, Reishi, and chaga have been regularly found, among others.
The home
A portion of the house is around 200 years old while the majority was added on later. The house is structurally sound but rough around the edges - buyers may wish to make modifications. All heat is from a reburning-designed
wood stove that can easily heat the home, which has double-paned windows and aircrete insulation. The
wood stove is the only heat source at present.
All water comes from a well on site and has recently been tested as safe and clean - with our recently installed water filter, it is delicious to drink straight from the tap. Water is heated with a combination of the
wood stove and propane-on-demand.
The kitchen features granite countertops and a deep-set, three-compartment commercial sink and a six-burner commercial stove.
The two-car garage has been used by sellers as an imperfect storage shed but is in poor condition with the roof in disrepair - buyers will likely wish to tear it down and construct a wholly new structure on the foundation.
Sellers have been using
compost toilet/humanure during their stay - the property has a septic tank that is not currently hooked up to a toilet indoors.
Because of the aforementioned features, we are looking for buyers to submit a cash offer or to seek after a construction loan.
A professional appraisal report is available upon request.
We love this land and are only selling due to unexpected family commitments. We would dearly like it to go to someone who is interested in maintaining, enjoying, and expanding the garden here.
The home stood empty during this last winter and though we regularly stopped by to light fires and keep the space warm, there was a leak under the kitchen sink and the flooring around the sink was lightly water damaged.
We purchased the land in 2015 for $230,000 but unfortunately made some design decisions which renders the home value lower despite improvements (
humanure system rather than septic, reducing the square footage to create vaulted ceilings with an herb drying area above the living room, and replacing a rickety old staircase with a sturdy ladder to the second floor).
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/363-Blue-Factory-Rd-Averill-Park-NY-12018/32259571_zpid/
You get to
profit from our hard work and unprofitable renovations. We are listing the property at $190,000.
We are ready to offer tours presently. If the property is not sold to permaculturists by the third week of September, we will be listing the property on the open market with a realtor.
Please reply via e-mail if you or someone you know may be interested, and we can arrange to speak further.
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