The Just-Right House: Beth Hill's House for One in Hurley (2024)

In January of 2020 when Beth Hill decided to return to her hometown of Kingston, her path collided with recent history. Over her varied career as a teacher and fundraiser for UNICEF, she'd lived in New York City, Vietnam, and, most recently, on Maui—but always found herself pulled back to her Hudson Valley roots. "I've always been drawn to Ulster County," she says. "It's a safety net for me. I missed my family and I missed the change of seasons. I thought I'd come back and buy a house."

Her timing could not have been, well, more timely. "I returned just before the pandemic hit," she says. "As I was searching, the market skyrocketed because people saw the charm of the area and began moving here." She surveyed a few ranch houses with swollen price tags. "Too expensive," she says. "They would have been a hundred thousand less the year before." She visited a few ramblers. "Too big," she explains. "I've had houses with rooms I never used before. I didn't want to pay for the heat or the maintenance." She also saw a few fixer-uppers. "Way too much work," she says. "I didn't want to deal with plumbing from the 1950s."

Hill likes to lead a life open to possibilities. "I tend to be open to changes and shifts," she explains. "That way, I can take the opportunities as they come." She remembered a project she'd done as a college student at Cornell, where she majored in product and interior design, with a bit of architecture thrown in. "One of our assignments was to design a house in the woods," she says. "I just loved it and told a friend I'd love to design my own house someday." She forgot about the idea as life took her in different directions, but, surveying the landscape of super-sized homes and underwhelming design choices, her college fancy returned with a vengeance. She thought to herself: 'Why not? I could keep the design small, I could add what was important to me, and it would be a fun challenge.' She believed she could do it. 'Yes,' she thought. 'I'll try it.'

Not Too Big

Hill took her design inspiration from architect Sarah Susanka's 1998 classic, The Not So Big House. Based on the fundamental question of how people can live richly in intentionally utilized spaces, Susanka's books and the design movement they inspired center around the idea of building homes tailored to specific lifestyle requirements, rather than mindlessly amassing square footage. Through careful craftsmanship, site integration, and versatile design techniques, Susanka advocates building homes that emphasize character, quality, and personalized comfort.

Paging through the book, Hill came across the chapter "A Home for One." "I loved the Japanese feel of the design, and all the wood reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright," she says. Even though the home was small, the well-conceived floor plan made it feel expansive. "It had a large living room where everything happens," says Hill. "I'd lived in studios and liked the idea of doing everything in one room." There was a small, utilitarian kitchen adjacent to the living area and a private bedroom and bathroom at the opposite end of the house. Also, the design included a screened porch. "And I love screened-in porches," says Hill.

Not Too Complicated

What's more, the plan was ingeniously simple. "There was one solid back wall with mechanicals and plumbing and everything was geared toward that," she says. Hill dusted off her college drafting skills and sat down to sketch out her own version on graph paper. "I made it to scale and started with a 20-by-40 rectangle," says Hill. "That's 800 square feet plus the screened-in porch." After working out the design on paper, she hired engineer and architect Khattar Elmassalemah in Saugerties to finalize her drawings. Then she found Dave Wilt of DSW Contracting in Kerhonkson and showed him the plan. "He's a renaissance guy who can do everything," says Hill. "I showed him my initial hand-drawn plans and he said, "Yeah, that will work. I'd like to build that."

Not Too Far

Meanwhile, Hill began looking for a lot to build on. She found multiple four to six acre parcels. "Too large," she says. "I didn't want to pay taxes on land I wasn't using." She found multiple properties farther afield. "Too remote," she says. "I didn't want to be out in the boonies. I wanted it to be convenient to grocery stores and other shops." Finally, Hill found a .62 acre lot in the town of Hurley. Close to Kingston, but shielded from the street by a natural rock outcropping and surrounded by trees, the lot felt private even though it was surrounded by neighbors. It was the right combination of tucked away in the woods and affordable. Hill bought it and readjusted her home sketch to fit the lot.

Modern, But Not Too Modern

Hill wanted the exterior of the home to fit into "the fabric and feel of Hurley," she explains. "I wanted a modern spin on a traditional house." Hill saw a neighbor's Mid-Century Modern home and thought it was cool. "I showed it to Dave and he was very lukewarm on the idea," she says.

After pricing it out, she realized it was too expensive and not oriented to the landscape at all. "So I set that plan aside." A friend suggested a small country cottage, which she liked, but the style wasn't specific enough to Hurley. "The home is only a short distance from Hurley's historic Main Street of 17th- and 18th-century stone houses," she says. "I really wanted my new little house to respect that traditional architecture." Then Hill thought of her own history in the area. "This is Hurley, where there are a lot of traditional Cape houses," she says. "I liked that, because I grew up in a Colonial Revival house in Kingston and the designs felt connected."

Just Right

Soon after finalizing the design, Wilt and Hill broke ground on the project. Throughout the process Hill stayed true to her vision of incorporating only what she loved and discarding the rest. To maximize natural light, she oriented the home to face south, with the solid wall inspired by "A Home for One" running parallel to the lot's northern edge. She then flipped her original design and put her bedroom in the home's southeast corner, incorporating both south- and east-facing windows, then sited the open-concept living area at the home's western end. "How light works is very important to me," she says. "I like sunlight in the bedroom in the morning and, in the afternoon when I'm in the kitchen and living room, I like seeing the sun set. "

To create a spacious living room, and capture more afternoon and evening light, Hill added vaulted ceilings and a simple transom window at the apex of the west-facing wall. "I love the orange sky and I get the light that comes in at the end of the day," she says.

To keep the interior visually serene but amplify the feeling of space, Hill chose a white color scheme for the walls, ceilings, and appliances, and added blond wood flooring throughout. "The most important thing I wanted in the design was a sense of calm," she says. Copper accents and a copper and gold chevron pattern incorporated into the kitchen design visually divides the space from the living room while adding a playful patterned element. The vaulted living room has enough space for a dining area, an office, and a lounge—Hill hopes to eventually add a fireplace to the design. Outside, Hill's screened-in porch is ideal for lounging during summer afternoons.

Through careful planning and the right selection of features, finishes, and appliances, Hill's home was finished within her budget in July of 2023. Although, the project was a gamble, and nerve-wracking at times, she's pleased with the results. "You can look at things on a piece of paper, but you never really know how things will turn out or feel," she says. "I wondered, am I going to really like living here?" But Hill's creation feels expansive. "I love the quiet, calm feel of the house, and the way the sun streams into it," she says. "I love it. It's just enough house for me."