{"id":73,"date":"2016-10-17T20:16:20","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T00:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disrupt2create.com\/upstaterdemo\/?p=73"},"modified":"2017-03-02T10:35:32","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T15:35:32","slug":"stitched-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upstater.com\/stitched-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Stitched Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story begins with one lost glove.<\/h4>\n

Kat O\u2019Sullivan had just returned to her Brooklyn apartment when she got a message from a customer. \u201cI\u2019ve lost a hand warmer, can you make me another?\u201d Every coat, dress, and set of \u201chand warmer\u201d gloves O\u2019Sullivan creates for her popular Katwise Etsy shop<\/a> is singular. She combs thrift stores throughout the Northeast to find the wool and other natural-fiber sweaters she then upcycles into her one-of-a-kind pieces. \u201cI can never, ever, make another glove,\u201d she recalls, \u201cbut I had just gotten back from the thrift store with that exact sweater.\u201d It was a rare sweater and an even rarer coincidence. O\u2019Sullivan wrote back, \u201cYeah, I guess I could make you that glove.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019d never met the customer, Pamela Camara, but after re-creating a match and preparing to mail it, she noticed the return address: High Falls, New York. \u201cWhen you are sitting in industrial wasteland Brooklyn\u201d\u2014where O\u2019Sullivan was living with Mason Brown, her partner in travel and creative living\u2014\u201cHigh Falls sounds like a pretty name.\u201d So O\u2019Sullivan decided to ask: \u201cWhat\u2019s High Falls like?\u201d Camara\u2019s answer came immediately: \u201cIt\u2019s great! What are you doing this weekend?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"_dsc4851-1\"A Pair of Vagabonds<\/h4>\n

Tired of \u201cbeing kicked around and kicked down\u201d by the city, O\u2019Sullivan and Brown were already considering relocation. A vagabond at heart, O\u2019Sullivan had spent 15 years exploring the world and making crafts, living in a multicolored van and a school bus everywhere from California to the East Village. (Both vehicles, now parked in their driveway, complement their rainbow-colored house.) Equally well traveled, Brown has a degree in Middle Eastern studies, speaks fluent Arabic, and lived in Jordan before becoming a musician in New York. The two were looking for a place that could not only honor their spirit of wanderlust but also allow them to \u201cput down roots and create.\u201d<\/p>\n

That one lost glove, and the invitation that followed, opened a world for the couple. The next weekend, O\u2019Sullivan walked into the former Egg\u2019s Nest restaurant<\/a> in High Falls (decorated colorfully with bric-a-brac) and realized \u201c .\u201d Brown loved the area as well. \u201cWe had no idea,\u201d he says, \u201cwhat a great place this side of the Hudson was.\u201d Camara, a local African dance teacher, became the couple\u2019s unofficial godmother, introducing them to the community they grew to love. (Since then, Camara and O\u2019Sullivan have even traveled through Africa together and discovered they\u2019re distant cousins.)<\/p>\n

The Mongolian List<\/h4>\n

During one of their mutual adventures\u2014a trip through Mongolia involving many delays\u2014the couple began writing a list detailing their dream house. In 2010 they found the perfect fixer-upper to upcycle: a patchwork house in Rosendale sitting on 16 acres, bordering the rail trail and state-owned forest. In business and life, O\u2019Sullivan often meditates on the material things that cross her path\u2014\u201cwhere they\u2019ve been and whose hands have touched them.\u201d Owned by one family for 60 years, the house was rich with memories and spirit. This appealed, and the couple felt a connection to the seller, Faye Schwager. \u201cIf she hadn\u2019t been here I don\u2019t know if we would have bought it,\u201d says O\u2019Sullivan. \u201cWe feel like we had the house passed to us.\u201d The couple relished the opportunity to make the home new again. It was, however, going to need some work.<\/p>\n

On their first night as homeowners, the couple literally dug in. Armed with tools and a bottle of champagne, they began to tear up the linoleum floors, quickly realizing there were actually seven layers of it under their feet. It was a harbinger of what was to come. \u201cWe didn\u2019t quite realize how much we were going to have to do,\u201d Brown admits. Dating from 1840, the house was \u201caddition after addition after addition.\u201d Too much love and weather had left it in disrepair. Eventually, almost everything\u2014from the septic tank to the well, from floors to the five layers of roof\u2014had to be painstakingly dissected and then either rebuilt or totally replaced.<\/p>\n

Luckily, friends from the city and their new neighbors were on hand to help. The almost total teardown also yielded some treasures: Letters from the 1850s, newspapers from New Zealand, and accounts of the Foreman-Ali \u201cRumble in the Jungle\u201d lay within the walls. And they were able to incorporate much of their original Mongolian wish list into the design. (Aquarium wall? Check. Circus tent? Check. Fireplaces? Library? Hammocks? Check, check, check.)<\/p>\n

\"_dsc4913-1_1\"\"_dsc4675-1\"Made Especially for You, by Katwise<\/h4>\n

As with much great art, the couple claim the home is still a work in progress. However, the eye-catching exterior now slows passing bicyclists and inspires tourists to regularly stop and take pictures. The ornate, rainbow-painted walls harmonize with the bright gardens and flowering trees. Gingerbread trim, along with windows and doors from Zaborski Emporium<\/a> architectural salvage in Kingston, complement the stone walkways and patio O\u2019Sullivan built by hand. A summer of brush clearing uncovered a large pond where the couple occasionally swim.<\/p>\n

Throughout the interior, wood floors face off with tin ceilings. Each room is carefully designed to honor the artwork and artifacts the couple have collected over the years. Many pieces, including Brown\u2019s childhood rocking chair, are covered with O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s patchwork designs\u2014her version of the Midas touch.<\/p>\n

In the kitchen, a turquoise toaster spread \u201clike an infection.\u201d Now countertops, a 1957 GE Liberator stove, and the home\u2019s original farmhouse sink are painted the same hue. A sunny breakfast nook, still etched with the heights of the Schwager children, overlooks the pond. Brown, currently a graphic and Web designer, has a study complete with his grandfather\u2019s working phonograph and a collection of globes. A wooden bookcase, handmade by a neighbor, hides a secret-compartment liquor cabinet. (That\u2019s another check on the Mongolian wish list.) O\u2019Sullivan keeps the wainscoted, arched ballroom empty. It doubles as photo studio and occasional clearing area for her business.<\/p>\n

Rediscovered Treasures<\/h4>\n

Upstairs, the almost bare white-and-gray bedroom with built-in four-poster bed contrasts with the rest of the house. An adjoining sewing room and attic were repurposed as O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s workspace by raising collar ties and adding skylights. Her collection of needlepoint art lines the walls. \u201cI think about how many millions of hours people put into making these things. They\u2019re often in a bin for two dollars. I just need to save them.\u201d O\u2019Sullivan feels the same way about the quilts she finds and, of course, the sweaters, which often have tags saying \u201cMade especially for you by Grandma.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI treasure them,\u201d she says. \u201cAnytime I get something hand knit I think about how someone spent all winter working on it. It feels like a privilege I have now\u2014a responsibility\u2014to take it and make something nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those handmade treasures, discarded but not forgotten, are now organized by color into piles on the bright, lake-blue attic floor, awaiting transformation. It\u2019s a visual reminiscent of the photos tourists so often take of their house. Amidst the scraps of hard work and memories, O\u2019Sullivan models her latest creation, a bolero jacket of jade green and hunter wool. Strewn on the floor beneath her feet: the scraps of that project, soon to become new gloves.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story begins with one lost glove. Kat O\u2019Sullivan had just returned to her Brooklyn apartment when she got a message from a customer. \u201cI\u2019ve lost a hand warmer, can you make me another?\u201d Every coat, dress, and set of \u201chand warmer\u201d gloves O\u2019Sullivan creates for her popular Katwise Etsy shop is singular. 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