When David Drayer and Leslie Foti Drayer first eyed their 1824 Colonial in Woodstock, they thought they’d stumbled onto the rambling farmhouse of their dreams. First-time home buyers, the couple was living and working in the city but longing for the ample rooms, closets, kitchens, and expanded spaces—as well as the beauty—of the Hudson Valley. “The city was too expensive and too nuts,” explains Drayer. “We just wanted a cute country house.”
In 2015, they thought they’d found it. Their 3,100-square-foot, two-story home had two spacious bedrooms, separate living and dining rooms, a classic farmhouse kitchen, and a vaulted studio space outfitted as a separate apartment. The home’s mashup of traditional Colonial bones and Arts and Crafts details gave it a quirky, antique charm. Wide-plank floors stretched throughout the traditional post-and-beam-framed home punctuated with both Colonial and artist windows, original Dutch doors, brick fireplaces, and plenty of custom built-ins. Sitting on two-and-a-half acres along the Sawkill Creek, the setting was decidedly bucolic. “We loved it,” says Foti Drayer. “We thought we’d found a unique home that was turnkey.”
What they got instead was a crash course in Woodstock’s eclectic history, the realities of 200-year-old fixer-uppers, and a newfound appreciation for old houses and the people who love them. But they persevered, and, as they restored the house it transformed them. “Ten years later we’re still here,” says Foti Drayer. “We built our life here, had a child, found a great community, and we lived to tell the renovation tale.”
House Calls
At first, they were just looking for a weekend home. Both natives of Chautauqua County in Western New York, the couple met in high school, then attended Kent State together before moving to New York City, where Drayer became a creative director and Foti Drayer went into fashion. Their shared small-town roots had them longing for country life and they soon found themselves visiting the Hudson Valley on their days off. They loved the region’s combination of big city culture and rural lifestyle. “We really loved it up here and always dreamed of being here full time,” says Foti Drayer.
They decided to search for a weekend retreat, originally focusing on Phoenicia. “We thought Woodstock was a little cheesy,” Drayer explains. Despite this, their search eventually brought them to the Zena farmhouse and they immediately connected to the property. “We were really drawn to this house,” says Drayer. They had it inspected and then bought it, even though friends and family expressed some skepticism. “Everyone questioned what we were doing. We both worked so much and were traveling at the time,” says Foti Drayer. “Even my mother thought we were crazy, but this house felt like it was meant to be ours.”
Right after buying the home they realized what they were actually up against. “The foundation was sinking and we had to jack the house up,” remembers Drayer. “That took us into the basement where we discovered 200-year-old tree trunks holding up the first floor.” The furnace was also regularly catching fire, and, after trying to repair it, they had to replace it altogether. (They would eventually install mini-splits throughout the house.) Very soon after, they needed to replace the roof. “That’s when we realized how much work the home needed, and how neglected it actually was,” says Foti Drayer. “It needed extensive renovations—roof, furnace, insulation, structural work—you name it we’ve tackled it. ”
If These Walls Could Talk
Meanwhile, as they were delving into the guts of the home, they began uncovering its story and rich creative legacy. Built as a working farm, the home’s original, very dilapidated barn still sits in the backyard. They found evidence it was an inn for a time during the late 19th century.
As Woodstock transformed from a peaceful farming village into a haven for artists, the home transformed as well. After painter, lithographer, and mountaineer Bolton Brown helped found the Byrdcliffe Art Colony in 1902, he took up residence in the home, where he lived until his death in 1936. Soon after, abstract and impressionist painter Kurt Sluizer and his wife moved into the home after fleeing the Netherlands to escape the Holocaust. The home remained the artist’s refuge until the 1980s. Sometime during that period, the original farmhouse was expanded to include the vaulted artist studio with north-facing windows.
The home took a classic Woodstock turn from visual to musical art when, during the Y2K era, it was rented to a member of the hardcore reggae punk band the Bad Brains, who rehearsed in the studio. “We were watching a documentary about them and saw our house,” says Foti Drayer. “It was surreal.”
The house also offered up other artifacts of the past, including stamps and other treasures. “It’s like the house is sharing its history with us.” The couple realized they’d stumbled onto a home with important local and cultural history and took their roles as stewards seriously. “The home has been here for 200 years,” says Drayer. “It’s our job to make sure it’s here for another 200.”
Slow Renovating
Over the next decade the couple took a slow and considered approach to the home’s renovation, taking on each project one at a time and resisting the urge to rush. “We always thought about the house’s integrity while making it more comfortable,” says Foti Drayer. “We remained committed to preserving the home’s history and architectural details.”
With the help of a local contractor, they tore out years of paint and plaster throughout the first floor to uncover the original post-and-beam details. “People had been renovating on top of renovations on top of more renovations,” says Foti Drayer. “And everything in this house had to be custom made because nothing is standard.” To highlight the home’s character, the couple decided to restore the original ceiling beams and framing. They also kept the original Dutch doors for historical accuracy and refinished the wide-plank floorboards throughout the first floor.
In the living room, they tore out an internal wall capturing space from the home’s entrance hall and, after adding much-needed insulation, were careful to preserve the original plaster walls. They also wanted to preserve the antique Colonial windows. After repainting the window frames, they paired them with custom storm windows for insulation. Next came an update of the home’s central kitchen. They wanted to preserve the room’s architectural details while making it more practical for their daily needs. “We didn’t want it to feel like a generic farmhouse kitchen,” says Foti Drayer. “We wanted to modernize the space but keep the spirit of the house alive.” They decided to tear out the dated cabinetry and appliances, then added custom mint green bottom cabinets and open shelving above the counters. They chose custom white tiles for the kitchen backsplash.
They took a similar approach when they decided to transform an adjacent half bathroom to include the laundry, previously located in the basement. “We thought it was going to be an easy demo,” says Foti Drayer. “But the contractor realized the toilet was being held up by a two-by-four that had rotted. One day we would be going to the bathroom and just fall straight through the floor.” In addition to revamping the first-floor bathroom and laundry, the couple added a new family bathroom on the second floor with an added skylight and raised floor to accommodate the plumbing.
When Your House Remodels You
The experience of working on the house became a catalyst for Foti Drayer. “Going through the whole process and realizing what we’d actually unwittingly taken on was a kind of a-ha moment for me,” she says. She was inspired to leave fashion behind and get her real estate license, focusing on the community she’d grown to love. “I really found my passion as a realtor,” she says. “My journey began with that realization. Now I love helping others find their ideal homes, just as we did, and introducing them to the incredible community here. “
In 2020 the couple were able to move to the home full-time and started a family. Even with the work it entailed, they’ve grown to love the house more as time goes by and have no regrets. “I’ve never felt so at home in a place as I do here,” says Foti Drayer.
This article appears in January 2025.
