You know that this is a unique house. You have been looking for one of these for awhile now, and in the process you have discovered that a property like this one does not come along very often, nor are they as affordable as this one is. Right now there are 16 historic-caliber "stone house" properties on the market in Rockland and Orange counties, and this side-hall Dutch Colonial is by far the least expensive. Eight of them are priced over the half-million mark.

Construction completion date: 1792. George Washington was re-elected to the presidency that year. The stone home described here is known locally as the "Jacob Schultz House." The Schultz family settled in the early 1700s in Rhinebeck, grew a large family and son Isaac, a schoolteacher, eventually came to the west side of the Hudson River. He and his son Jacob were local entrepreneurs and set up a variety of businesses together and separately; a mill, a tavern, a dock, a ferry, and Jacob was the publisher of the New Windsor Gazette, which later was sold and became the Orange County Gazette.

Program note: All of these photos and many more can be see in the photographer's full-screen hi-def (Flash) or Hi-res (Apple) slideshow displays found at the other end of that link...

The home has been improved with a light touch over the years to accommodate modern conveniences, like a family room (that room surrounded by windows to the left of the house) a bathroom, a kitchen in the upper living area, central vacuum, and importantly central air conditioning. The house has two kitchens, as the "summer kitchen" located in the "basement" was improved with a floor, and built-out to a fully equipped kitchen. Regardless of the 'modernization,' this room is just too cool with it's retained old-kitchen features, and will be where lots of your time will be spent. Original features are mostly intact in the home, but this old kitchen takes you back to when dinner was prepared on an open hearth fireplace. There's a vibe here that matches exactly the 200 year old character that you see from the outside.

The summer kitchen comes with a rather nice pantry, shown in the photo, and also the laundry entrance is there on that wall as well - it's the door with the "welcome friends" duck hanging on it.

Outside of this kitchen is a rather large workshop, art studio or whatever you want to use ir for, including mud room. This is one of three separate locations within the structures on the property where a studio/workshop would easily fit. While you may want to go in the front door when you first come to see the house, this side entrance workshop is where you will be coming into the house after you move in.

The main floor of the home is the living area. Up the stairs from the lower kitchen you will come out on the hallway. To the right is the front room, where you will see that the original features are largely intact. Now, it is possible that some of these 'original' features were not in the house on opening day in 1792, but suffice it to say that the home does not at all look to be renovated into some more modern aberration of a historic house. The wide-board flooring, nine over nine wavy glass windows, built-in bookcases, wainscoting, molding and trim all look to have been in place for a very long time. The fireplaces have not been used for years, so their ability to function with heat and smoke would need to be a part of your inspection of the home.

You will note that the seller has large furniture everywhere in the home, including the front room and dining room - with still more space to spare for socializing with friends or family during festive events. This large furniture will help to give you some perspective to understand the size of the rooms you are looking at. In addition you will see that there are some large carousel horses throughout the home. Sorry, these are not included in the sale. At any price. However, selected pieces of antique furniture will be available for sale and negotiation separate from the of the property itself.

If you like to have large gatherings, there is plenty of room in the house for them. A large dining area, serviced by a second kitchen, (or butler's kitchen if you will), is adjacent to the dining room to the rear of the home. This is a complete service kitchen with counter, sink, oven/range, and refrigerator. A boat owner might call this a "galley" kitchen as there is only room enough for one person to work there, unless you like very cozy cooking arrangements - which some may prefer, actually... This kitchen is one of a handful modern additions made to the home.

Across the hall from the dining room is the next modern addition, the family room, which was added to the south side of the house. Surrounded by windows, some may call this a three season garden room, and if you would like you can use it that way, but you will be wasting part of the year as this is a four season room with baseboard heating and air conditioning. During the winter months that 270 degree view might be pretty nice during a snowstorm, with some strong coffee or tea and the newspaper or a big fat book. Your choice!

Three bedrooms are located above off of the landing on the second floor. At the center of the north side of the home is the master bedroom, continuing the home's theme with wide board flooring. This bedroom, at some point in it's history, has had a closet built into it (not seen in the photo, but to the left). The master bedroom has it's own entrance to the bathroom.

The second and third bedrooms, true to the form of a home built 200+ years ago do not have built-in closets. The use of an armoire for this purpose would be in keeping with a period-authentic bedroom configuration, and there is additional ample storage space in the hall closet. If you desire a walk-in closet, the third bedroom could very easily be used for this. Your additional bedroom will not need to be tied up for use as office space as there are two ready-for-use options available with this property that will not be found on other properties you may be considering.

The bathroom is configured as a spa master bath, with a jetted whirlpool-style tub and shower, and also comes with a bidet. Secondary access for this bathroom comes from the adjacent third bedroom at the end of the hall. Homes built during this era were often built with adjoining bedrooms instead of hall access for all. The master bath was once the center bedroom of this group of three rooms.

The home has a walkup attic, not finished, but quite suitable for additional storage.

The home comes with a three car garage, which could provide another great workshop or studio space in addition to obvious plenty of room for vehicles. The upstairs area has been finished into usable workshop or office space with a kitchen area and its own bathroom. This additional space is not included in the square footage reported for the home.

Should you need to commute into NYC, drive time is 70 minutes to the George Washington Bridge, but why bother when you can go 4 minutes down the road to the Salisbury Mills Metro North Train Station for the train into New Jersey and Manhattan? Major shopping is only 6 minutes away in Newburgh, with a mall, home improvement stores, a Barnes and Noble, and grocery stores, including Hannaford, Price Chopper, ShopRite, Walmart, Stop-and-Shop, and the widely acclaimed Adams Fairacre Farms. Other similar options can be found nearby in Vails Gate (7 min.), Monroe (20 minutes). You are surrounded by farms, so during the warmer months there will be roadside stands in many places and Farmer's Markets on selected days in the area villages. Many restaurants, bars, and theatres are found in these areas as well.

The home is priced at $320,000, a value that was conservatively determined by a due-diligence independent real estate appraisal by an Orange County appraiser. It's a unique home, one of a kind on the market right now, so don't wait for the price to drop...

If you are genuinely interested, make your offer now.

You've read this far, so it is very likely you are interested enough to want to get inside and see if all this can really be true. Well, it is - but you'll need to see THAT for yourself, now won't you? The sellers are represented by Shelly & David Sherfey, historic home sales specialists for the Greater Hudson Valley NY area:

Schedule a private showing for yourself today by calling them at 845-629-4878.