THE
KINGS'
CAMP
Camp \'kamp\ n : 1. (Usage in North Eastern USA) A vacation home, typically in the mountains
It all started in 1991 as a plan for a vacation home (or what is locally referred to as a camp.) Since Dave enjoys home construction, but knew from experience that he works at a slow pace, he decided that a reasonable compromise would be to contract out the construction of the framing, exterior finishing, and rough plumbing and electrical, leaving the interior finishing to himself. Thus, when he and Mary arrived for their first weekend, what awaited them inside was nothing but open walls with stubs of plumbing and wiring poking out here and there.
Soon a rough bathroom was in place, followed by some lighting and a rudimentary kitchen. Little by little, weekend by weekend, summer by summer, more was completed until finally, after 5 years of effort (and much support from a very tolerant wife), the result was a small but comfortable home of 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a great room providing the kitchen, living, and dining room, and a large front porch.
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Here you can see Dave enjoying the fruits of his labors. |
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| Porch detail |
In the summer, the porch is the social center of the camp. Since the front door of the house is opened in the morning and stays open for the day, the porch door becomes the front door.
The porch is large enough for a hammock, and there is nothing, but nothing more delightful then reading in the hammock on a lazy rainy afternoon, listening to the music of rain dripping from the porch roof.
The camp also contains a number of stained glass windows crafted by Dave, examples of which can be seen at the top of this page and to the left.
Over the years, Mary and Dave fell in love with the Adirondacks, and in 2003 they sold their Poughkeepsie home and moved full time to the camp.