26 Mandy Lane

Description

The ridge enters the room before you do, and the architecture made sure of it. From every room and every deck, the view is what you live with, because the home sits where the horizon opens widest and every window, every railing, and every step off the back door is aimed at it. The valley falls open in front of you, the ridge rolls along the sky, and the treetops drop just below the deck line. Beyond the entry, the cathedral ceiling rises the way only a custom-built home does, anchored by a whitewashed brick fireplace that climbs two full stories to the peak. A loft railing crosses the air overhead and pulls the upper floor into the same room, so the eye keeps moving from one level to the next. Morning light arrives in long planes and moves across the room through the day, and the space shifts through a dozen tones you never get tired of watching. The quiet matches the view. The sun sets in front of you rather than behind, there is no road you can hear, and there is no porch light through the trees. At night, the woods are the only soundtrack. The kitchen is where mornings start and evenings finish, with coffee at the peninsula while someone else is still upstairs and a long counter that lets two people work without bumping into each other. Dark horizontal-grain wood cabinetry feels more European than suburban, and the dining table sits right beside it under a sputnik chandelier, the slider open, music moving in from the deck and out again on the breeze. Whoever is cooking is still part of the conversation. Outside, layered cedar decking steps down the slope of the lot in a series of outdoor rooms, each with its own quality of light, including a covered patio under exposed beams, a grilling level, a sun deck, and a bistro corner under an umbrella. Cable railing throughout keeps the view unbroken, and you drift between them through the afternoon, settling wherever the light has settled. Below the decks, the pool rests in a private pocket framed by topiary and trees, the salt water turning a deep blue when the light catches it, the kind of pool you swim in before breakfast in July and forget to come back inside until lunch. Past it, a regulation tennis court sits twenty steps from the back door, with no one waiting for the next slot. The walk-out lower level is where Saturdays expand, with marble tile that doesn't care if you walk in soaking wet, a long sectional positioned for the screen, and a room beside it with space for a pool table, a workout setup, a music corner, or whatever else you want it to be. Sliders return you to the water in two paces, and afternoons fold into evenings without anyone moving. In the evening the home shifts again as the setting sun paints the brick chimney first and then the loft above it, the decks hold the warmth of the afternoon longer than they should, and you light a fire when the air cools. The trees absorb whatever sound the road might have made elsewhere, and whatever you carried home is already gone. Brotherhood Winery, the oldest continuously operating winery in America, sits fifteen minutes down 208, with Schunnemunk's ridge trails at the eastern edge of town, Storm King Art Center, the Newburgh waterfront, the orchards and farm stands, and the Moodna Viaduct catching October light all within easy reach. The Hudson Valley calendar fills itself once you live here. The commute is what makes the rest of this honest, with I-84 five minutes away, I-87 ten, Salisbury Mills on the Port Jervis Line about ten, and Stewart International fifteen. Manhattan sits roughly sixty miles south, about an hour and fifteen by car, close enough to keep a city career and far enough that the property keeps your weekends. You will not be measuring this one against the other listings you've recently viewed. You will already know it does not belong on that list.