At first, David Krause and Ayan Chatterjee planned to rent. “Ayan wanted chickens, but I didn’t, explains Krause. “There are companies that will rent the birds and coops for six months, which seemed like a good compromise.”
The couple had moved into their Colonial-style farmhouse in 2019, originally intending it to be a weekend escape. At the beginning of 2020, they were still getting a feel for country life when Krause heard rumblings of the coming pandemic. “I’d been working with manufacturers in China who were telling me how serious Covid-19 was,” says Krause. Early that winter they decided to make the two-story farmhouse their full-time home, letting go of their city apartment and decamping to the Catskills.
Still, Krause resisted. “I didn’t even want a dog,” admits the designer and one of the founders of the skincare line Alder New York. But Chatterjee, a producer at MSNBC, remained fowl-curious. It seemed their rambling 1850 home was calling out for some kind of husbandry. Once the center of a 90-acre chinchilla farm, the farmhouse with ornate flourishes and a wraparound porch sat on a two-acre hill overlooking the Greene County hamlet of Freehold. There was plenty of room for a coop, as well as gardens where Krause could grow ingredients to develop new skin care products.
Krause’s final relenting was really a form of acceptance. “I realized that we’d be staying upstate for more than a few months,” he says. However, when they went to rent chickens there was already a three-year waiting list. “So I agreed to get two birds,” he says. “It was a way to accept the change in our lives and also, I tricked him a bit,” says Krause of Chatterjee, who was still taking the lockdown a bit more casually.
After one winter protecting their tiny flock from raptors, they decided to get a rooster. “Then we realized there are chickens that lay different-color eggs,” says Chatterjee. Those two chickens became three and then quickly became four. Now, 27 chickens, three coops, two vegetable gardens, and one dog (an Italian Greyhound named Levi) later, the couple has completely embraced country life. “It’s called chicken math,” explains Krause. “You start with two but they just keep multiplying. With chickens, two plus two equals 40.”
Scratch Pad
Although it needed extensive renovation, Krause and Chatterjee were smitten with their 2,300-square-foot farmhouse from the start. “It was basically a big square box covered with aluminum siding and topped by a leaky roof,” says Krause. “But I loved its stateliness.” The home’s exterior oozed period charm with decorative shutters and a carved roof soffit. Scrolled corbels edged the porch roof and the carved center door was flanked by rows of double-hung, paned windows.
The four-bedroom, two-bath interior also showed plenty of promise. Downstairs, a sitting room flowed easily through a central entrance hall into a formal dining room and then into a giant farmhouse kitchen. There was even a three-season porch in back. Upstairs, the four bedrooms enjoyed abundant views of the Catskills. “The interior flow felt so modern for being so old,” says Krause. “It also had so many original features, like moldings and wood floors—that’s history that can’t be replicated.”
Re-Nesting
The couple approached the extensive remodeling project with reverence for the home’s history. “We wanted to make it comfortable but not really change the aesthetic,” says Krause. While the home officially dates from 1850, the couple believes it could be older. “From our research we think it was built by the Hoose family slightly before 1850, which is when the records started,” says Chatterjee.
They began by removing the aluminum siding to reveal older wood siding, and beneath that the original hardscrabble exterior. “Underneath the wood, the original exterior was just stones and rocks, kind of mushed together and then carved into the shape of blocks to make it look like a big stone house,” says Krause. “It was trying to be grand but was really a humble farmhouse.”
Working with local contractor Bob Briski, they decided to repair and replace the aging wood siding, then revamped the original shutters and porch. “It took years of work and was extremely collaborative. Bob became like family to us,” says Krause. “If it wasn’t for Bob, I don’t think we would have made it—he became our ‘upstate dad.’”
Under Briski’s guidance, they added a new standing seam metal roof, then painted the exterior a combination of white and gray to reflect the sun’s rays in the summer and keep the home’s interior cool. While reviving the roof, Briski suggested they upgrade the three-season porch into a year-round room. They went for it—insulating the room and adding a wood-burning stove.
Rustic Contemporary
Inside, the couple balanced preserving the home’s historic details with the need to update the spaces for modern life. They had no hesitation, however, with gutting the farmhouse kitchen to create an ample, serene space that mixes clean contemporary styling with antique touches. “I don’t like it when someone has an old house and they try to make an old kitchen to match,” says Krause. “The design isn’t fooling anyone into thinking that it’s the original kitchen.”
After removing a dropped ceiling, they discovered wood beams still lined with bark in places and decided to leave them exposed in the kitchen’s final design. After adding a suite of stainless steel appliances and a range hood along the home’s back wall, they installed gray quartzite counters and a backsplash. A hotel concierge desk gleaned from an antique warehouse in Hudson serves as a giant kitchen island in the middle of the room and a panel front refrigerator blends with the wood cabinetry. Krause added oil paintings along the counter edges to give the design an eclectic, elegant twist.
Downstairs, the couple transformed an outdated laundry into a contemporary bathroom where comfort intermingles with style. “It felt like such a waste of space,” says Chatterjee of the kitchen adjacent room. “There was only a small bathroom upstairs, so we decided to create one giant bathroom.” They added a double shower with glass doors along the back wall and then finished the entire space floor to ceiling with subway tiles. Radiant heat keeps the room toasty and black fixtures enhance the clean, minimalist aesthetic.
Beauty Standards for Chickens
As their renovation—and the pandemic lockdown—progressed, Krause and Chatterjee were learning to love their avian companions. “Every morning we’d take the chickens out of their coops and watch while they would range free on the lawn,” says Chatterjee. “They all have personalities—there’s the brave one, the skittish one, and the one who always bullies the others. It’s very meditative to watch.” They began to see the world through their birds’ eyes. “People are a lot like chickens, I’ve learned,” says Krause.
The couple added to the flock with a mix of hatted and bearded breeds. After a while, Krause began to notice the dominance of the hatted chickens. They were pulling out the beards of the bearded chickens. “And the bearded chickens just let them,” says Krause. “The flock created a whole beauty standard around the dominant breed. “At first, the addition of a few all-black mystical Cemeni Indonesian chickens, which are believed to communicate with the dead, added some mystery to the brood. “Although, I don’t think chickens would be great communicators,” says Krause on further observation.
Inspired by his time upstate, Krause’s business has been growing just like his flock. Expanding on his skincare line, Krause plans to open his latest venture, Welsummer, as a storefront in the area this year. “It will offer antique and vintage furniture, fresh cut flowers, plants, and other home goods,” he says. “We’ve really fallen in love with living up here, and we really, really fell in love with chickens.” However, 29 chickens, three coops, two vegetable gardens, and one dog is enough. “I draw the line at goats.”
