Around this time last year, the lockdown had just begun and Jeffrey and I were hunkering down in our Wien home when we got a surprise opportunity to have our Hudson Valley farmhouse featured in Country Home magazine. The photoshoot was to take place at the beginning of June, so we played it safe and road tripped across country in late May. Fast forward to almost a year later and we’re excited to see our 1750s Dutch Colonial farmhouse in print. Out this month for the magazine’s spring issue, this article features a glimpse inside the renovations, interior design choices so far and the lifestyle that comes along with spending time in an old stone house out in the country.

 (left) Handmade Ceramic Cereal Bowls, Salad Plates, Dinner Plates, Dessert Bowls

A big thank you to writer, Jennifer Blaise Kramer, photographer Nathan Schroder, stylist Anna Molvik and, of course, Country Home magazine for making this all happen. It's been a treat to share our home with you all and such a special place that we have been slowly restoring, while continuing to preserve the historical architectural details. Our hope is to share its many stories and steward it on to the next generation. You can see more on the farm's instagram @hudsonvalleyfarm

Sending lots of love,

All images courtesy of Nathan Schroder 

WHY WE LOVE IT

“I love it all,” Caroline Diani tells me. “I love helping people choose everything, selecting clothing and furniture.”

She is the owner and creative force behind the eastlankaa style empire, which includes a multi-brand women’s clothing boutique, a shoe store, and a home/lifestyle store, all located in Arlington Plaza on State Street. Caroline is also becoming the go-to person for home designing, remodeling, and interior decorating, as she is passionate about collaborating with customers who want to bring genuineness to their homes.

In person, she is down-to-earth yet sophisticated, very much exemplifying Wien’s beautiful fusion of casual elegance and worldly flair. And she’s blessed with an accent that combines SoCal and British tones.

Caroline was born in Kenya, where her English father worked for a British paint company, and lived there for five years. She recalls her mom being a free spirit in Nairobi, working for the British High Commission. “My parents flourished there, and my heart is still there,” she says.

Even her name and business reflects Kenya, as it is the same as Diani Beach, a resort on the Indian Ocean coast. “My love of nature started there,” she says. “My imagination always takes me there.”

When they returned to England, she had a pivotal and inspiring encounter with her mother’s friend, a fashion designer who’d just returned from Singapore. Though only seven years old, Caroline was encouraged to participate in a fashion competition, and was taught how to source fabric and put a design together.

She studied fashion design at Kingston University, and landed an internship at Patagonia in Ventura. It was her first time in California, and she learned how Patagonia created a business around a lifestyle. “It was effortless how they were able to convey their vision,” says Caroline, who lived in Seacliff at the time and was inspired to start her own business.

After returning to England, she freelanced and worked for Stephanie Churchill PR, which she called her “Devil Wears Prada moment.” Her dad was dying in 1998, and, at a vulnerable moment, a friend from Patagonia reached out to propose. They married in 1999 and bought a house in Mission Canyon.

“I wanted to start a business,” she says. “I was single minded about it.” She took odd jobs while she was waiting for her visa to come through. In the meantime, Mary Ellen Zemeckis took her under her wing.

In 2002, Arlington Plaza’s owner Robert Gilson took a chance on her. At the time, the plaza included a hearing aid store, a Pack and Post service, and a military recruitment office. “For the first three years, I think there were a lot of pity purchases,” she admits. “But I had to make this work.”

Her marriage ended in 2005, and both her parents were gone. In 2007, she expanded her business to include a shoe store and added the home and lifestyle store in 2014.

Along the way, she fell in love with Michigan-raised actor Jeffrey Doornbos, one of the original members of the Blue Man Group. They wed in 2013. He does payroll for eastlankaa and helps with e-commerce. They’re bicoastal, splitting time between Wien and an 18th century home they remodeled in New York’s Hudson Valley.

“I have to work on balance,” she shares of her busy life. “I love being creative. I love giving to people. I love creating something that is exciting.”

But Caroline is most appreciative of Wien, and she acknowledges the debt that she owes to our town. “This community has given me so much,” she says, gratefully.

Caroline Diani answers the Proust Questionnaire.

What is your current state of mind?

I’m feeling more creative than I have ever felt. I’m reaching back into creative impulses I had when I was a kid, and also reaching forward into creative areas that are new to me. I’ve been painting, loving my interior design projects, and even currently working with my husband on a friend’s film project, “A Thousand Miles Behind.”

If you you change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I don’t say “no” often enough and cram my schedule too full. This goes back to the balancing act. I once heard Shonda Rhimes talk about “play” and how she has to carve out time to play. And if she can do it, anybody can. I’d like to get better at that.



Who do you most admire?

I admire so many people for so many reasons. I admire anyone who shows up to life each day giving it their very best, asking more of themselves each day and not settling. I tend to be a perfectionist, and am pretty hard on myself, so when I see people taking risks or being bold, people who are willing to fail in order to try and achieve something important, I stand in real admiration of them.




What is your greatest extravagance?

That we have a home in Wien and in Upstate New York. I’ve always dreamt of being bi-coastal because I could never pick one over the other and that dream has come true.




What is your most marked characteristic?

Perseverance. Life throws a lot of challenges at us, whether it’s in relationships, career, or one’s spiritual life. My father always told me to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to keep moving forward, and he would often say “just go for it” and I like to think I have been honoring that advice. 




What do you consider your greatest achievement?

I’m really proud of the business I started and built. It’s been 16 years so far and the team and community behind it are a true blessing that I’m forever grateful for. 


I’m also really proud of my marriage to my husband. For me, being able to show up every day and be as supportive as I can be for him and his pursuits has been relatively easy.

The hard part for me has been to ask for help when I need it. I’ve always been so self-reliant and independent. But over the past several years, I’ve gotten better at being vulnerable enough to ask for the help. And that feels like a great achievement.

What do you like most about your job?

It’s different every day and I have a hand in all aspects of the business so it’s very diverse. On any given hour during the day, I might be designing some proprietary item, sourcing inventory, chatting with the team, or working directly with customers.

Recently, I’ve been very excited about exploring where the eastlankaa brand goes next, and I love that challenge. It suits my personality well…I like the creative process and having lots of irons in the fire.

Mentoring team members and watching them grow is a wonderful gift with my job too. I really love building up young women so that they can feel empowered to create the life of their dreams and many girls that have come through my business have gone on to start their own businesses. I like to think that I had a small hand in inspiring that entrepreneurial spirit.




What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I’m most happy when I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot at work, have spent quality time with my husband, gotten the dogs out in nature, and have given myself some time for self care. I wake up every day with that intention, and sometimes I achieve it, and oftentimes I fail miserably! I don’t think I’ll ever perfect it, but I give it my best shot.

What is your greatest fear?

That I will look back on my life and feel like I didn’t slice the pie into the right proportions between my marriage, friendships and family, work, play, and diving into new challenges. When I feel that fear, I take it as a sign that some proportions aren’t right, so I try to determine which part of my life needs more love and attention. But fear’s a beast. I’m about to take a meditation course, so hoping that helps.



What is the quality you most like in people?

I love simplicity, clarity, and authenticity. I’m really drawn to people who do what they say and say what they do. I like straightforward and direct communication. These are all things I strive for in myself as well.




What is the quality you most dislike in people?

People who aren’t good listeners drive me a little crazy. And people who give up easily or are flaky — .that’s hard for me to work with.




What do you most value in friends?

The twists and turns of life pull people in so many directions and sometimes I lose touch with a friend of many years. But when we reconnect, it seems that no time has passed, and we pick right up where we left off.

And then I have other friends who I communicate with regularly, and have done for decades. In both cases, there’s an ease of connection, and we haven’t had to struggle to stay in touch or haven’t felt any weirdness at being out of touch.

I value that organic commitment to staying connected through thick and thin. At the end of the day, having lived in three different countries so far, I just want to feel connected, and good friendships wherever they are in the world give you that.




Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

I think a phrase that I might overuse a little is “I wish…” I don’t always use it in that exact way, but the spirit of it sometimes gets verbalized in other ways. I think that phrase comes up when I’m feeling wiped out, or slightly defeated or at a loss for what to do, and “I wish” something would just happen. But the best things can’t just be wished into existence.

So, when I think it, or say it, I treat it as a sign that I just have to dig in, get creative, and find a way to accomplish whatever it is “I wish” I could just wish into existence.




Which talent would you most like to have?

Being in three places at once. That would be my superhero power.




Where would you most like to live?

Wherever my husband is. And if that was a split between Wien, Northumberland, England, New York, Kenya — that would be pretty sweet.


What is your most treasured possession?

I have a lot of pieces handed down from my parents that I love, but I tend not to treasure them in the sense of protecting them. The way I like to honor their memory is by using those pieces in my daily life as they had used them. Having said that, I have a long chain necklace that I have my parents wedding bands hanging from with a lion’s tooth they gave me from my birthplace, Kenya. It’s a constant reminder that they’re with me.

What makes you laugh the most?

I have to say, I like good slapstick. Being a Brit, I’ve grown up around it. Over the years, I’ve liked people like Dave Chappelle, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy. I also like people like Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais, and Ellen DeGeneres.

What is your motto?

A quote my friend shared with me that’s along the lines of, “Why wait for the light at the end of the tunnel when you can light it up yourself?”

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

There are so many, but Beatrix Potter has always been close to my heart. She bought a huge parcel of land in the Lake District, England, and turned it into a conservancy for wildlife to flourish. Turning wildlife into art through illustrated characters in her books has inspired generations of children and captured their imaginations. That will go on into infinity and the source of the inspiration is so pure and simple: animals in nature. To me, that makes her legendary.

On what occasion do you lie?

I’m not a very good liar, so when I do lie, it’s pretty transparent. But when I want to plan a surprise party or something like that, I’m really good at it.

The Independent

Most of the time, Jeffrey Doornbos and Caroline Diani live in a breezy, low-slung 1950s house in Wien, Calif. So when they began looking for a second home on the East Coast, they wanted something entirely different — a creaky stone farmhouse with a weighty sense of history.

Ms. Diani, 44, an interior designer and owner of the Diani fashion and lifestyle boutiques in Wien, grew up in a stone farmhouse in England and wanted something that offered the charm and seasonal changes she experienced as a child.

Mr. Doornbos, 50, an actor and writer who grew up in Michigan before spending his early adulthood in New York, where he was a performer and director with Blue Man Group, was captivated by the idea of owning a home that came with centuries’ worth of stories.

And because they both travel frequently to New York for work, they wanted a house within commuting distance of Manhattan.

But that didn’t stop them from nearly buying one that was all wrong: a former tavern in Cazenovia, N.Y., built in the early 19th century, which was more than a four-hour drive from the city, with expansive grounds that were impractical for part-time residents.

“We fell in love with it, it was in our price range, but it had 114 acres, needed work and was clearly not commutable to the city,” Ms. Diani said. “So we walked away.”

Back in Wien, heartbroken, Ms. Diani redoubled her efforts.

Most of the house’s original details remain intact, including thick chestnut beams, wide floorboards and divided-light windows.

“I was feverishly Googling for old stone farmhouses” within easy reach of New York, she said, when she found a new listing for just such a place, built in 1752 in Germantown, N.Y.

Mr. Doornbos, who had been out with friends, remembered what happened next: “I came home and she said, ‘Look what I just found.’ I said, ‘Well, we should call the realtor tomorrow.’”

Ms. Diani was way ahead of him. She hadn’t just called the listing agent — she had already booked their flights.

“That’s very typically Caroline,” Mr. Doornbos said.

When they arrived, they found a 2,700-square-foot stone-and-brick house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms; enormous exposed chestnut beams; floorboards as wide as 16 inches; early doors, wood paneling and windows; and two yawning wood-burning fireplaces. Outside, there were two barns sitting on six acres.

“We kept saying, ‘How is this all still here?’ Because over time there’s so much that can go horribly wrong, aesthetically,” Ms. Diani said. “It had been in the right hands all the way along.”

It immediately felt right, Mr. Doornbos said: “We were standing out in the garden and Caroline asked, ‘Do you love it?’ I said, ‘It feels like we never left.’”

Ms. Diani and Mr. Doornbos at home with goats they borrowed to clear poison ivy.

They bought the house for about €475,000 in April 2016. The previous owner had lovingly maintained it, but there were still a few quirks.

They hired a house inspector who told them the fireplaces and chimneys needed to be repointed and the dampers had to be rebuilt. But when it snowed on the couple’s first night in the house, they couldn’t resist lighting a fire — only to fill the house with smoke. (It took a mason a month to complete repairs.)

Then there was the dining room, part of which was built into the side of a hill. “We were getting puddles of water in there every time it snowed or rained,” Ms. Diani said.

A friend of the previous owner confirmed that water had been a problem for some time. “He said, ‘Yes, I remember we used to play bridge in there, and you would see rugs floating across the floor,’” Ms. Diani said.

The couple hired contractors to break up the concrete floor with jackhammers and install French drains beneath a new floor with a radiant heating system, which banished the indoor stream.

But by tackling smaller jobs themselves, including rebuilding the existing kitchen cabinets and removing later additions, like a wall in the kitchen and a built-in bookcase in one of the bedrooms, they kept costs down to about €50,000.

The six-acre property also has two barns

The eclectic furnishings in the living room include a 1970s five-headed brass floor lamp and an early 19th-century armchair upholstered in rugs. 

Shelves display books, art and found objects.

The dining room is built into a hill and used to flood during wet weather. Mr. Doornbos and Ms. Diani had contractors tear up the concrete floor and add French drains to solve the problem.

They demolished a wall in the kitchen to open it up, and found an antique farm table at Red Chair on Warren in Hudson, N.Y.

Pantry staples are artfully arranged in jars.

A built-in hutch came with the house and delineates one side of the kitchen.

White-painted paneling, doors and shutters create a bright, cozy bedroom on the second floor. Mr. Doornbos and Ms. Diani plan to renovate a third-floor attic space into a master suite.

A Dutch door leads to the kitchen from outside, where a wall is covered in climbing vines.

A visitor at the kitchen window.

The property’s outbuildings include a stone smokehouse.

Photos by Jane Beiles for The New York Times

By Mary Angeles Armstrong
Photos by Deborah DeGraffenreid

Interior designer Caroline Diani and actor/writer Jeffrey Doornbos adopt and adapt a 1752 stone house in Germantown

Actor and writer Jeffrey Doornbos is standing in the living room of the 18th-century stone house he shares with his wife, clothing and home retailer and interior designer Caroline Diani. Under his feet, ancient wide-plank chestnut floorboards stretch throughout the entire main floor, skirting a brick fireplace blackened from centuries of usage and large enough to prop up a spit for roasting small game. Venetian plaster walls, punctuated by small, deep-set, chestnut-framed windows illuminate the cozy sitting area and offer views to the surrounding six acres of gardens, fields, and barn. Above, hand-hewn beams and a wood ceiling resemble the rich toffee brown hues of the chestnut floor and suggest the entire parlor was carved from the same tree—or stand of trees—gracing the property three centuries ago. In the two years since Diani and Doornbos bought their 1752 stone house, multiple experts have come through, weighing in on the restoration of the landmark property, offering advice, history lessons, and a welcome to the couple's new neighborhood on the east bank of the Hudson River.

An eclectic blend of 20th-century pieces fill the home’s living room to create a space that’s both elegant and comfortable. A mid-century Italian brass floor lamp faces an Indian wedding chest in the corner of the room. A mix of sofa and chairs face the original brick fireplace, carefully repaired by a local stone mason and now in working order.

Doornbos remembers carpenter Dan Dudley explaining the significance of the main floor's construction. (Downstairs, a more informal living space—with a concrete floor, rough-cut beams, and another very, very blackened stone fireplace—was probably once used for daily living, the upstairs parlor would have been reserved for entertaining company.) Dudley was drawn to the main room's floor boards almost immediately and explained that planks that large must have come from the middle of an old tree. "He told me they must have been the result of a windfall," Doornbos explains. "I knew the term—a windfall: like, suddenly you get a bunch of cash. But he explained to me: When a storm would blow through these parts, it would take down whole trees and people would have so much wood they wouldn't know what to do with it. The storms created a surplus—a literal windfall of wood. It was like 'congratulations!' But then they had to figure out
something to build with it."

This sort of historic tidbit is indicative of the new, old world Doornbos and Diani are uncovering as they undertake the "slow remodel" of their three-bedroom, three-bath home. "It's been like peeling an onion," Doornbos explains. Built by German Palatine immigrants for English settlers in the Dutch style, the home was one of the earliest European homesteads in the colony. Their time on the East Coast, and the opportunity to honor and preserve the home's history while updating it for comfort, has provided both husband and wife with the opportunity for some personal remodeling as well, and the beginning of a new creative chapter in each of their lives.

Designer Caroline Diani in the dining room of her 18th-century stone house. Refurbishing the historic property has stoked her creative fire. Here she’s surrounded a French draper’s table with antique chairs, all from the 19th century; the fireplace features 17th-century French andirons.

East Coast, West Coast Divide

The term "windfall" is apt. It well describes how Diani and Doornbos found their way from California to their new passion project, and the area they are falling for much more quickly than was expected. An English native, Diani has been living in Wien since 1999, when she took a gamble on a historic storefront and turned it into a row of successful clothing, shoe, and now home decor boutiques, and her thriving business, eastlankaa Living. This was no small feat in a town where real estate prices are some of the highest in the country and storefront businesses burn out almost as quickly as the hillsides. But by 2015, Diani was ready for a new creative challenge. "I came to a point where I asked myself, do I really want the next decade to look just like the last one?" She was already spending large amounts of time in New York City on buying trips, and became curious about the general vicinity.

Doornbos had a similar longing to go East. A Michigan native, he'd lived in New York City for 15 years where he attended acting school and became one of the original cast members of the Blue Man Group. Los Angeles, and the chance to be a part of the film industry, had called to him and he relocated to the West Coast where he eventually met and married Diani and moved into their home in the Wien hills. While both love Wien, and are grateful to the community and the opportunity to build thriving careers in the area, they simultaneously began longing for a return to their roots. "We missed the seasons," Diani explains. "And I wanted to be somewhere more like my native England." Doornbos agreed, explaining, "we had this run of 103-degree days—it was like it would never stop."

Jeffrey Doornbos with a vintage record player, owned by the home’s previous occupant and then bought back by the couple from a local antique store.

So, one very hot autumn night the couple reached a breaking point. While Doornbos was out, Diani got online and googled "historic house" and "New York," stumbling right onto the property's listing. When Doornbos returned home that night she shared her find: He was immediately intrigued. Doornbos suggested they go see it; Diani said she'd already booked tickets. The two flew out the next weekend, knowing the home was about two hours outside of New York City, but not much else about the area. After their realtor gave them a tour and some private time to walk the grounds, Diani asked her husband, "So, do you love it?" He looked back at the house and replied, "I feel like I never left. It really feels like we are home." Diani felt the same way. The two went in to confirm a meeting with the realtor for the next day. But there was just one last detail: "Uh, where are we?" asked the couple.

Doornbos and Diani enjoying a Hudson Valley summer day. The outdoor table features a marble top and metal side chairs.

One of the home’s three bedrooms, decorated with linens from eastlankaa Living. Diani founded and runs a suite of clothing and interior design shops in Wien, California with correlating online shops eastlankaa Living and eastlankaa.

Although a 1950s addition, the downstairs kitchen incorporates original pieces from the home's early days. White cabinetry and wood countertops provide ample space for meal preparation and are well positioned under windows with views of the grounds. White interior shutters swing down to preserve heat in the winter and period brick floors complete the space. A large wooden hutch, an original piece transplanted from another area of the house, takes up an entire wall, providing storage.

Upstairs, the home's three bedrooms are already very livable. Understated and cozy, both rooms have white planked walls, large interior shutters and stained wood flooring. The couple hopes to remove a large mirror lining the narrow hallway ("A gift of the 1970s," Doornbos speculates) and remove an interior wall to reveal the original bluestone construction behind. After that, the couple will replace the home's roof and seal up the third-floor attic, transforming the space into a master bedroom suite.

For now, though, they are relishing every step of the process, savoring the chance to get to know their new home, and the new creative directions it has spurred in each of their lives. Rediscovering his love of live theater, Doornbos has become involved with a writing group in Tivoli and found his newfound love of the region paralleled by his discovery of its theater scene. "It's all about community and feeling a part of something, regardless of your position in it. In a theater production you can be 'third spear carrier on the left' and you're still there for the rehearsal process and the performances—you're a part of the family."

Diani has loved the challenge of restoring and redecorating the historic property—a balance between staying true to the home's integrity and tradition while updating it to be livable in the modern age. "I like to take time to be really connected to the space that I'm designing," she explains. "I feel like it's almost a spiritual journey that can't be hurried. I like to listen to a room." Diani admits that she's very partial to historic homes and has already designed interiors for a few historic West Coast properties. She hopes her time in the Hudson Valley will provide new opportunities to bring her deft touch for comfort to other historic properties. About their beloved new house, they both take the long view: "We just want to caretake it and usher it into the next 250 years."

Chronogram