Sunny Duplex at the old boarding house

Charming big vintage apartment for up to five people in an old boarding house from 1900. It's a Greek Revival house on a country lane at the foot of the Berkshires. Master bedroom and full bath are downstairs, where there is also a lovely living room, fully stocked kitchen and mudroom with washer/dryer. 2nd bedroom and side room in the attic upstairs. Small front sitting porch, big side lawn and flowery backyard with grill and table. The Sunny Duplex has historic character, a chance to connect with nature, and convenient reach to the local sights. It's notable for excellent amenities, privacy for guests, and a good kitchen for cooking. Our location is in New York, right on the border of the Berkshires. You're just 20 minutes away from Tanglewood, Kripalu Yoga Center and Jiminy Peak Ski. We're a great hub, but please make sure that you approve of our location and love the great value it offers before you book. The base price is for two people, and we don't charge a cleaning fee, only a $10 fee to cover the care of our great linens. We also keep our costs trimmed by charging $15 for the preparation for every additional person (except for kids little enough to be in a crib). There is not much modern about the Sunny Duplex but you'll find countryside, comfort, great access, and a great deal of charm too. The entire apartment is yours, with two lockable exterior doors. There's a full, stocked kitchen with a farm table that can seat up to six. The sink is one of those enamel cabinet relics from the twenties, but thankfully there's a dishwasher. There's a big fridge, stove, microwave, and toaster; also a great coffee maker. You'll find a full complement of nice dishes, cutlery and cookware-- also fine coffee, teas and condiments for making a good meal, like oils, vinegars and spices. The apartment has a washer and a dryer in a mudroom off the kitchen, perfect for stashing coats, boots, skis, bathing suits or fishing poles as soon as you come in the door. Throw open the big windows throughout the place in the summertime or use the air conditioning throughout; watch the flames in the parlor stove in the kitchen as you warm up in the wintertime. The apartment is also heated with comfortable baseboard and in-wall heating units. The living room is lovely and sunny, with gorgeous hardwood flooring. Its front door opens off the front porch, and the door that leads to the kitchen is lockable for privacy. There's lots of comfortable seating, including a sofa that pulls out to queen-size bed. All of the windows in the house are equipped with cordless shades, so the living room makes a nice refuge for a good night's sleep too. The bathroom has a pedestal sink, tub/shower, big mirror and a built-in closet offering plenty of towels and a nice array of toiletries. There's a spacious bedroom overlooking the back yard. It has hardwood floors, queen-size bed, armchair, mirror, large closet, and chest of drawers. If your group needs more space, scramble up the full-sized stairs to the attic bedroom, which has sloping eaves and two twin beds. There's even a small extra room up there, good for some private reading, getting work done, or a quiet spot for a crib or air mattress. The apartment has good wifi. Guests usually tell us that they have very good cell phone coverage, except for T-Mobile/Consumer Cellular. Want to play some board games or peruse a novel or a book about the Shakers? You'll find those in the Sunny Duplex, too. We use quality bedding with high thread counts and wash them in Seventh Generation detergent. Our mattresses and pillows are encased with protective covers. We provide lots of choices in pillows, blankets and coverlets so that you'll find the cozy combination you like. The property manager for the apartment lives one house over, available to help should you need anything. The two apartments in the old Boarding House have distinct entrances and their own areas for both lawn and garden. Your own backyard has an outdoor dining table, comfortable for up to six. Our neighborhood used to be the center of town back when the old water mills down the street were in operation; now the modern town center with bank, post office and restaurants, is about 2 miles away. There are a handful of historic houses on our road. We live right across the way and can greet you, hand over your keys, and show you around when you arrive. You'll have front and back lockable doors and space for parking in your private driveway. We can also provide good local recommendations and are available in the event of any problem. The duplex at the old boarding house is a great retreat both in summer and winter, whether you are looking for a cozy break or search for culture and action. It's perfectly positioned for taking advantage of the Berkshires, including so much fine music, theater, food, art and natural beauty that you can't possibly do it all justice no matter how hard you try. Tanglewood is about 20 minutes away, and so is the Kripalu Yoga Center. There is a swift, lovely route to get to both of those from here, through pasture and forest, and ending with a wonderful view of the Stockbridge Bowl. In the winter, ski trails at Jiminy Peak or Bousquet are less than a half hour away, and Butternut is just a little farther. Hiking trails and conservancies are everywhere. In the springtime, it's great to see all the leafy woods and so many gardens emerge. It's locavore and farmer's market heaven in the summertime and fall. A treat hidden nearby is Queechy Lake, with lifeguard and sandy shore, one of the cleanest and most delicious lakes in New York state. There's also a nice local park in town, with two nice tennis courts. Check out our online guidebook for a full listing of the places we love most around here for visit or a meal. There are seven fine art museums, eight theater companies, three Shaker villages and two orchestral venues within an hour's radius. We're a good jumping-off point for visiting the Berkshire towns-- it takes about 20 minutes to get to Lenox, Pittsfield and West Stockbridge in Massachusetts, for example. You're also only about twenty minutes from several other historic towns and villages of New York, such as Old Chatham, Canaan, and Spencertown. This is a pretty rural area, so a car is key. We're on a country road with heritage cows grazing up the hill, but Albany, the capital of New York state, is just a half-hour away. We are 3 hours due north of New York City by car, 2 1/2 hours west of Boston, and less than an hour south of Bennington, Vermont. The Albany International Airport is an easy trip at 40 minutes away and the Amtrak station about 35 minutes. Guests tell us that car rental at either the airport or the train station works out well. Please make sure that our location works for you before you book; our only source of unhappy reviews is when guests base themselves too far from a destination-- such as a graduation in Albany or a wedding in Great Barrington-- and then don't enjoy going back and forth. Don't hesitate to write to us to find out if we're well placed for what you need and we promise to give you good advice. Another bit of truth is that you may hear some noise in the Sunny Duplex, as it shares walls with the other apartment in the old house. There may be footfalls or voices if the people next door are loud. Guests report that it's not bothersome but it's not always perfectly quiet either. Other than that, the experience in the Sunny Duplex is very private. Getting into the apartment requires four steps up to the kitchen entrance by the driveway, or eight steps up to the front porch. Although the master bedroom is downstairs, stairs lead up to the twin beds in the attic bedroom and the adjacent extra room. There is a door at the bottom of the steps. They are gated at the top for safety, because access to the attic rooms is from either side of the staircase. The maximum headroom in the attic bedroom is six foot six and the room has sloping eaves. Access to the twin beds is gained comfortably from the tallest part of the room. But when you enter the room from the top of the stairs, pay attention to not hitting your head. There's two narrow "eyebrow" windows in the attic bedroom which open out a few inches, and one full-size window in the other attic room. There's space in the long driveway next to the kitchen entrance for two or even three cars. One car has to park behind the other. You should note that New Lebanon, at the top of Columbia County, New York, is a pretty funky town, not a Norman Rockwell town. Many people drive right through it to go north for antiquing or skiing, to take the scenic pass into Massachusetts or to pick up the nearby NY thruway. Our town is so small that there's only one stoplight, and that's a blinking one. There's no night life to speak of, no sidewalks, and we lack a big grocery store. The upside is that our location right next to the Berkshires is what makes the Duplex at the old boarding house such a good value, and so good for exploring. You can get easily to almost all the places you'd like to see-- more easily, we find, than from some of the Berkshire towns themselves. And whatever New Lebanon lacks in picket fences, it offers in glorious hillside viewscapes. The town has a remarkable allotment of Shaker history. Visit the Shaker museum with its variety of Shaker buildings, or take the self-guided walk by the massive ruin of the Great Stone Barn at Mount Lebanon. This place was recognized by the World Monuments Fund as one of the 100 most significant endangered sites in the world, and it's right here in town. Lebanon Springs, on the other side of town, was utterly famous in the nineteenth century for its warm water spa. It was frequented by the luminaries of the time, such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and the Marquis de Lafayette. The warm spring still courses down the hillside, but in obscurity now. There is plenty to enjoy in New Lebanon. Stop at Blueberry Hill Market Cafe for coffee and something delicious for breakfast or lunch. Try M&M's for a late dinner of burgers, wings, and some craft beer, or reserve at Mario's for a fancy meal. Trek along the beaver dams at Hand Hollow Conservation Area. Go to the antique auction at Meissner's on most Saturdays at 4, where we've found astonishing values. You'll find a lot of information about local options in our online Guidebook. Our location turns out to be an excellent base for the range of travel and exploration in this area, or just for staying put and enjoying a rural escape, as so many of our airbnb guests have told us.