In 1994 I bought a share in the property just after I’d finished grad school and started my first teaching job at Bergen Community College. It had an old horse barn (they said a horse was actually buried under the floor) and, with lots of help from friends, I turned it into a studio. We tore out the stalls, stapled up insulation, covered the framing with sheetrock, constructed a plywood floor, added a few windows, hung overhead lighting, spackled and painted the walls, and installed a propane heater. The studio was perfect (see picture below, c. 2003), well lit and warm, and I worked there for nearly ten years, originally dividing my time between Stonington and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But nothing lasts forever, and in 2004 I sold my share. The current owner recently put the property on the market for $299,000–a pretty reasonable price.
