When Amanda Bupp finally found her dream weekend retreat, it had a hole in the floor to the ground below, no heating system, and an animal had been calling the 1065-square-foot cabin home. Basically, it was a fixer-upper dream, and the end of a yearlong search for a place that Bupp could escape her fashion industry job in nearby NYC.
Luckily, Bupp had been looking for a "project" to take on. She landed in the upstate New York town of Phoenicia, a small hamlet in the Catskill region of New York State, where she found the home along with a shuttered motel that she and a group of friends later turned into a stunning 20-room hotel called The Graham & Co.
"I was hunting for a weekend getaway for about a year before I came upon this one. I checked diligently every day for new opportunities and jumped on this when I saw it," Bupp told HuffPost Home about how she happened upon her 1950s hunting cabin turned weekend getaway. "I was looking for something to update, a project. It was a little scary at first sight but the potential was definitely there," she said.
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Eight months later, dingy paneled walls gave way to an airy, Scandinavian-inspired interior and Bupp's vision (and knack for renovating homes) was clear. (No surprises there, given what she accomplished over at The Graham.)
Her proudest moment -- the floors -- was a DIY of sorts, Bupp explained. "They were randomly found at a salvage place near by and actually came from the rooftop deck of the Soho House in Manhattan. They could never be replicated," she said. "If I ever sell the house, they are coming with me!"
That isn't to say the undertaking was easy. There were, after all, carpenter ants, insulation issues and water channels coming down from the mountain. Also, she could not be on site during the week to monitor progress.
Like with many home renovation projects, there were some particularly interesting discoveries beyond the home's walls. "The crawl space that was there before we ripped it down was filled with old Christmas decorations and random things," Bupp said. "The further back you got from the opening, the older the items."
In the end, the biggest prize was the home itself, Bupp added. "It is exactly the space I want to spend my weekends. An open, cozy floorplan that's perfect for winters and a wrap-around deck in the back for summer BBQs. I love to cook, so I spend lots of time in the kitchen. It's great that it is open to the rest of the space in the house -- perfect for entertaining."
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