Top 25 Staging Tips
March 7, 2010
With the cable networks’ staging shows becoming ever more popular, it’s clear that many homeowners are looking to staging to help them sell their homes. The goal of staging is to emotionally connect a prospective buyer to the house – to make him or her want to move in. Part common sense and part art, it’s done by highlighting the best features of the house and removing distractions that may interfere with achieving that emotional connection.
Here are some basic staging tips, more common sense than art, that sellers should use to better present their homes.
- Remove front lawn debris, toys, trash cans, etc.
- Remove and replace dead shrubbery
- Paint or replace the front door; and replace its hardware
- Paint or replace the mailbox
- Replace the front porch light, door mat and house numbers
- Wash the windows, inside and outside
- Pack up contents of bookcases and knick-knack shelves
- Remove all personal photos; patch nail holes in walls
- Remove excess furniture to reduce clutter and improve traffic flow
- Clean out your closets
- Clean off the kitchen counter
- Remove all refrigerator magnets and notes
- Remove any pet blankets, dishes, litter boxes
- Empty all garbage cans and waste baskets daily
- Clean your house thoroughly including carpets and tops of door and window frames
- Buy new kitchen cabinet pulls
- Remove dust-collecting fake plants
- Replace old faucets; fix all leaks
- Repaint rooms a neutral color (beige, tan, cream, gray-green) — not bold or white.
- Replace bath linens and shower curtains
- Hide personal bath items in a drawer or cabinet
- Remove stuff from floors
- Remove heavy draperies; replace with budget bamboo, grass, shears or nothing
- Max the wattage of light bulbs and turn them on
- Ask a friend or neighbor to sniff for odors
We hope that these tips help, though for the art of staging and a thorough evaluation of the home, seek the advice of a professional stager.
Harriman Park in Winter: The Nickel Mine
February 10, 2010
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…
Harriman Park is most every downstate hiker’s favorite place for solitude and keeping in shape. I like winter best for hiking because there is no vegetation to block the views, fewer people out, no snakes, and – if there is enough snow for snowshoeing – I can walk just about anywhere because the snow covers rocks and fallen logs.
The path that diverges to the left in the photo above is a remnant of the Rockhouse Mtn trail, unmarked and rarely used (not a footprint on it). The path to the right is the Beech trail, a popular route for hikers that follows a 200-year old farm road. It’s not at all disturbing that most everyone takes the road more travelled; on the contrary, I find it gratifying that there are so many of these choices to be made in Harriman Park.
On this early February day my destination was the Nickel Mine, one of many mines in the Ramapo Mountains. With some effort it can be reached from the north in spring, summer and fall on an unmarked and very wet old bottom road, then by climbing up the old mine road – but not in winter because the access road for cars, Tiorati Brook Road, is closed for the season. So I approached the mine from the south, bushwhacking 2½ miles from the Beech trail, picking my way along the edge of a swamp, crossing a long-abandoned mill sluice, edging uphill, and then hiking along ancient paths to the trailless ridge of Grape Swamp Mtn and then to the open mine. This route is not just less travelled but completely unknown to the casual hiker on the Beech trail.
Nickel ore was indeed mined from the Nickel Mine, which was operated for 10 years (1875-1884) by the Rockland Nickel Company, though the rock looks like it contains iron.
One can walk into the pit, protected from the blustery north wind. There were no tracks here, of course, except for those of the animals that make Harriman their home, especially deer, rabbits, foxes and voles.
After a quick lunch in the mine, I returned by a different route, partly on the Beech trail, so I could pass the Civil War era Jones family cemetery. This part of Harriman Park was settled by farmers, who eked out a subsistence from the rocky soil. Running through the dense woods are countless long stone walls, no longer marking fields or pastures, but evidence of both the toil of the farmers and the return to nature of the cleared land.
While the return to nature appears complete, some exotic plants that were planted by the farm families near their homesteads have taken over sections of the understory, especially prickly stands of barberry. Here on the Jones farm stood, until a few years ago, a majestic (and non-native) Norway spruce, a landmark that every hiker looked for. Its trunk snapped in a storm. Just behind the spruce’s broken trunk hides the entrance to a root cellar, facing east to catch the light of the rising sun.
Like the Hudson Valley itself, Harriman Park is rich in history, anthropology and geology. And it cries out to the hiker to take a path less travelled.
Photos by Jerry White of The Staging Prince. This article, like many posted here, highlights recreational activities for Hudson Valley residents. We invite you to sign up for our free monthly newsletter for Hudson Valley homeowners.
Castle of the Month: Bannerman’s Castle
February 6, 2010
Bannerman’s Castle
Sitting on a small island called Pollepel in the Hudson River between Cold Spring and Beacon, across from Storm King Mountain, are the impressive ruins of a castle, one of the very few ever built in the US.
The complex of buildings was constructed as an arsenal between 1900, when the island was purchased by military surplus dealer Frank Bannerman, and 1918, when Bannerman died. Bannerman had purchased most of the Army surplus materiel from the Spanish-American War, including tons of ammunition, and he needed a safe place to store it. In the eastern facade of its imposing superstructure (the Tower), Bannerman cast the legend: Bannerman’s Island Arsenal. A smaller castle was built on the western shore of the island as a residence.
In 1920, 200 tons of munitions exploded in one of the large buildings, causing significant damage to the complex. The island was essentially abandoned after 1950 with the sinking in a storm of the ferryboat Pollepel that had served the island. The island and its buildings were bought by New York State in 1967, and tours were conducted in 1968. The following year the roof and floors of the castle were destroyed in a fire, and no further visits were permitted until they were resumed recently by The Bannerman Castle Trust.
During Christmas week of 2009, a large section of the north and east Tower walls collapsed, and the Trust is seeking donations to stabilize the structure before it is totally lost.
A kayak is the ideal way to approach the castle over stonework obstacles in the shallows of the island. But the castle poses serious risks to visitors: the island boasts generous growths of poison ivy, and the structure itself is demonstrably insecure. Nevertheless, Bannerman’s has been a popular destination for kayakers. The European-type castle is fascinating, and, with due care (and some luck), the island can be a good spot to break for lunch.
Photo by Jerry White of The Staging Prince.
Sell Your Castle in Weeks not Months
The Story of Benmarl Vineyards
January 30, 2010
This continues our series highlighting activities for residents of New York’s rich and fascinating Hudson Valley, along with a measure of its history.
The Hudson River from Benmarl Vineyards
In the last 30 years we have become a country of wine consumers and are drinking increasing amounts of wine grown in our own native soils. This acceptance of our own wines has come about through the efforts of a few American winelovers who were determined to demonstrate that fine winemaking, both as an art and as a business was well within the capability of our nation’s climate, soils, and talents. Many stories can be told of the difficulties and rewards experienced by these dedicated people.
One such story concerns the Miller family, which began appropriately on a vineyard in the Hudson River valley, perhaps the oldest wine district in the United States. Wine has been made from the grapes of this region since the 17th century when the French Huguenots grew vines and made wine in nearby New Paltz.
Among the young farmers attracted to this burgeoning industry in the early 1800’s Andrew Jackson Caywood bought and planted a handsome piece of land high above the river in a Hudson region grape-growing community dating from 1772. When it incorporated as the Village of Marlborough in 1788, a cluster of grapes carved in its seal commemorated its major crop. Mr. Caywood became an outstanding viticulturist and leading authority in the development of new grape varieties.
When the Miller family, led by well-known artist-illustrator Mark Miller, bought the Caywood property in 1957 and re-named it Benmarl (meaning slate hill), it had outlived all its early contemporaries to become America’s oldest professional vineyard. The Millers rebuilt its steep terraces, replanting them with excellent European wine grapes, hybrid and vinifera, carrying on Caywood’s private experimentation at a time when New York’s wine industry was at a low ebb and long before New York State officially began experimental wine study.
To help them support their work, in the early 1970’s the Millers created the Societe des Vignerons, inviting friends interested in perpetuating the Valley’s viticultural traditions to become “vicarious vignerons” by taking on the annual support of two or more of Benmarl’s experimental grapevines and receiving in return their produce in the form of wine.
The Societe caught the imagination of serious wine lovers, and its work in the vineyard inspired many regional farmers to plant better wine vines. In just a few years the Societe saw its crusade to bring about a renaissance of our country’s first vineyard region evolve into a veritable fountain of astonishingly fine wine enhanced by a regional character which sets it apart from any others in the world. Benmarl’s Societe grew from a few friends to many hundreds all over the United States.
Benmarl’s wines were well received. In fact, there was perhaps no other American vineyard, during those early years, which received more attention from those who write about, think about, and enjoy good wine than this tiny vineyard in the Hudson Valley. Benmarl wines were featured at prominent New York restaurants, including Windows on the World, the Four Seasons and the Quilted Giraffe.
TIME Magazine, in a full-color feature, described Benmarl and its Eastern farm winery counterparts as “a new breed of winemakers, whose wines of fine quality and elegance are shaking California’s throne.” New York Times wine columnist Frank Prial became interested in Benmarl and its Societe when it sought his help in publicizing the need for legislative reform to encourage farm wineries in New York, and he described its wines as “remarkable examples of what dedication can produce.” Author and wine authority Alexis Lichine wrote in his Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits that “Benmarl promises to be among the finest vineyards in the nation”.
New York Governor Hugh Carey (a member of Benmarl’s Societe) signed the Farm Winery Act in 1976, permitting New York’s grape farmers to produce and sell wines directly to the public. As Mark Miller’s reward for helping to put the New York fine wine industry on the map, Benmarl was awarded NY State Farm Winery license #1. Benmarl was the inspiration, and Mark Miller the acknowledged parent, of the farm winery industry with its new wineries in New York State and throughout America.
Benmarl was gratified to have one of its wines voted the “Best US Red Wine” by the judges at the prestigious 2000 Atlanta Wine Summit International Competition.
The Miller family sold Benmarl to another wineloving family, the Spaccarellis, in 2006. They are replanting the old vineyards to make them more productive, renovating and restoring the old winery buildings, expanding the line of Benmarl’s fine wines, and winning more gold medals. You might wish to spend an afternoon at their Marlboro winery, now called Benmarl Winery at Slate Hill, 5 miles north of Newburgh in southern Ulster County, to taste for yourself what are certainly among the finest wines that New York offers. You won’t be disappointed with either the wines or the views over the river from “America’s Oldest Vineyard”. For directions, see their website, www.benmarl.com. Photos by Arlene Gould.
Castle of the Month: Schoenburg
January 16, 2010
A majestic medieval castle sitting high on a hilltop overlooking the Rhine, sacked and burned by the French under Louis XIV, neglected and deteriorating for two centuries, then rescued and restored by a rich American with a special interest in the romance of castles. A movie story?
Maybe. Across the Rhine from the famed Lorelei Rock (below, where a Rhine maiden lured sailors to their destruction in the swift currents of the river) lies the medieval town of Oberwesel, dominated by its fortified castle, “auf Schoenburg”, one of the most imposing on the Rhine. Built from the 10th to 13th centuries on the site of a Roman fortress built by Julius Caesar, Schoenburg boasts a massive shield wall (seen in the photo above) and two large keeps.
Already controlling much of the territory west of the Rhine, in 1688 Louis XIV’s army captured all the Palatinate and middle Rhineland towns from Koblenz to Heidelberg, precipitating the War of the Grand Alliance. In the following year’s retreat from the League of Augsburg, the French army undertook a scorched-earth policy, which resulted in the destruction of many Palatinate towns, villages and castles, including Schoenburg, whose interior was gutted, while the war precipitated a massive emigration of Palatinate Germans to America (the “Pennsylvania Dutch”).
Despite the intentions of some wealthy patrons to restore the castle after 1825, little was done, and it continued to deteriorate. The picturesque town of Oberwesel attracted tourists in the 19th century, including one Thomas Jackson Oakley Rhinelander, a young member of a prominent New York family of real estate tycoons, whose Huguenot ancestors had lived in the area until the revocation by Louis XIV of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, when some members fled to New York.
In 1883 the 25-year-old Rhinelander purchased the castle and over the next 30 years invested some $800,000 in its restoration. For many years Rhinelander spent two months a year living in his castle, until his death in 1946. The town of Oberwesel bought it from his son in 1950, and from 1957 it has housed a first-class hotel and restaurant, with fantastic views of the Rhine from its rooms, ramparts and terraces.
What is special about Schloss Schoenburg for the Staging Prince? It was the first castle in which I spent a night (as a tourist). After a cruise up the river from Remagen, my wife and I spent a romantic night at Schoenburg in 1968. The hotel garners rave reviews from visitors for its 22 charming guest rooms and and its excellent food and wines and has become a particular favorite of Americans.
Castle photos by Jerry White of The Staging Prince.
Sell Your Castle in Weeks not Months