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This Travel Writer Ordered Her Upstate House Prefabricated From Europe

Then, she and her husband filled it with their worldly collections.

Interiors
This Travel Writer Ordered Her Upstate House Prefabricated From Europe
Photo: Yolanda Edwards

“Back then it literally was like, ‘Well, what can we afford and what seems interesting?’” Yolanda Edwards says of her upstate prefab home—and a plight to which many of us can relate. The travel writer, creative director, and founder of Yolo Journal along with her husband, author and editor Matt Hranek itched for a New York City refuge about two decades ago—before their whereabouts weren't quite so transient. With a limited budget, they chose a plot of land in Sullivan County, New York, then essentially mail-ordered a house from Austria. Nestled in the middle of an idyllic pasture, the final result is a modern wood and glass home contrasted by its contents—a small selection of the world travelers’ collections. (Edwards and Hranek also maintain residences in Brooklyn, Italy, and France, though more often than not they are traveling somewhere even more obscure).

When the two magazine veterans purchased the 130 acres of land, that's all it was—land. For years, Edwards and Hranek lived out of an airstream—with no shower—when they were there. “For a whole two summers, we would basically go upstate and then swim in the pond and you just didn't have clean hair," she recounts. "And it was fun. It was elevated camping.” Eventually, their desperation for a true bathroom grew. They conceived a bath house, which then evolved into a cabin-style bedroom with a porch. There, they lived for another year.

Finally, the globe trotters channeled this resourceful spirit into a lasting structure. Luckily, Hranek developed a friendship with architect Oscar Kaufmann on assignment in Austria with Wallpaper*. Their initial dream house proved too expensive to build, but Kaufmann, a sort of prefab specialist, helped them to create something of a similar vein and then literally shipped it pre-fabricated to its final destination in upstate New York. “He sent us a little sketch,” recounts Edwards, “and it was exactly what was in our mind." Inspired by minimalist architects like Craig Ellwood and [Richard] Neutra, they created a house that is "essentially a shoebox, up on a foundation with glass windows on the front," she describes. "It's simple and restrained.”

The aesthetically inclined couple juxtaposed the modernist outside with a more eclectic approach to curation within. “From the outside, it looks like a spaceship in this field,” says Edwards. “It is more of a clinical space when you are looking from the outside, but then when you're in, you want it to feel reflective of all of the things you love.” The house is brimming with collections—antlers, porcupine quills, ceramics, and lots and lots of books. “It almost verges on hoarding.” But Edwards still keeps the assortment rather edited—the space is too small not to. For this reason, the house's design remains rather untouched. But “it's not just a crash pad,” Edwards argues. “It's a place we go and we actually cook meals and we put up the hammock and play badminton and go on walks,” she says. “We,” meaning herself, her husband, their daughter when she’s home from college, and their Jack Russell Terrier Prune. “When we're there,” concludes the jetsetter, “we really enjoy it.”

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