WE HAVE VIDEOS OF OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES AND VIDEO TOURS AND PHOTO TOURS ON VIDEO OF OUR HOME! ONE VIDEO IS WORTH A MILLION WORDS!!!

Look for the videos here in the AMENITIES SECTION or simply visit our website at http://www.lakeillyriaestate.com

OUR HOME:

AN AMERICAN DREAM TIME CAPSULE! Step into this amazing home and experience not only the beauty of original architecture designed by a woman architect who became an architect before it was fashionable to be one! Filled with memorabilia of the perfect AMERICAN DREAM FAMILY, this home is NOT just an empty rental facility, but you feel like you are a guest in someone's home, and their photos, their books, art-work, and collections of a lifetime are there to share with you during your visit!

OUR HOT TUB OPEN ALL YEAR!

If you want an empty building with just the basics and plenty of room to spread out your own stuff, then please check out our beautiful architectural delight - home number 3871453 also on this website!

However, if you want a family experience, an experience of history, magic, memories and creativity; to be surrounded by 6000 books in my Dad's extensive literary library, including his own 22 original novels and books of poetry, my Mom's mini sculptures scattered around the home, my paintings and artwork in every room and CDs of my original music, then this house may be for you!

If you want to experience being a guest in the home of a truly remarkable family (mine), wherein two creative and ambitious individuals (Mom and Dad) came to this country with NOTHING, not a penny, having come from starvation, world war II total devastation and the massacre of generations of family... to come to America and build this Amazing Dream Estate, it is truly wonderful to see and experience the drive, the creativity and the inspiration of two broken hearts, yet driven to get the most out of life, to squeeze out every single drop of possibility out of living... and they did it!

This house still has some of our belongings in it. Our other house is doo-dad free and is now a photos-by-Iris (me) canvas gallery of nature photos I have taken while walking my dog.

But this house... this house is not only a building that is pretty and perched on a hill overlooking a lake that my mother dug up and filled up by herself... This house was a dream seeded in the mind of a 13 year old war orphan that was working in the copper mines in Sibera so many moons ago! My Mom built this lake by digging and stopping up a stream for a three years till it filled up. My Dad, named it Lake Illyria, from a very special place in one of Shakespeare's magical comedies where very special things happen.

Maybe while staying in the house you will pull a version of TWELFTH NIGHT and read about what my Daddy might have been dreaming of when he Christened this beautiful place to float on after this magical dreamy spot out of literature that he so loved. (My Dad was a Shakespearian and Conradian Scholar...)

Maybe we can remember his remarkable 91 years of life by reading this dreamy comedy while gazing at the lake and wondering about the name... hmmmm... Lake Illyria!

Maybe during your stay, you will be floating on the lake on a Kayak gazing at the stars or at a blue sunny sky with an array of crazy clouds drifting... and wondering about your own magical journey of living?

Our fabulous 6000 square foot architectural gem and one-of-a-kind unique and glorious private estate on 24 acres of wooded land neighbor to thousands of acres of state park natural preserves forest land just under the cliff of the famous mountain climbing hot-spot of the shawangunk mountains... Neighboring 21,160 acres State Park Minewaska and bordering 17,000 acres of Mohonk Preserves woodlands and 6400 acres of Mohonk's Nature Sanctuary, this fabulous estate is just minutes away (a bicycle ride!) from the some of he most beautiful parkland in the entire country.

Not only that, but we are minutes from the climbing cliffs and the peaks overlooking the entire beautiful wooded parkland that we are surrounded by!

There simply are no views to match the ever changing sunsets over the cliff, dinners on the terrace-porch overlooking the lake, night-caps on the romeo-juliette terrace off the master bedroom suite, master jacuzzi tub and sauna in the master bathroom and also an outdoor jacuzzi by the pool, also overlooking the mountain.

The lake is fully stocked with fish (large mouth bass) so you could easily pull a huge fish out of the lake and throw it on the barbecue, if you have the heart to do such a thing. I could never do it, but my tornado Mom sure could. Even now, to this day, she goes skinny dipping in the lake, runs to the hot tub soaks in therapeutic bubbles, and then she takes out a fishing rod (she might be dressed by then... but not always...) and casts her line into the lake, catches her dinner, drags it up to the kitchen, throws it into a skillet and sprinkles her secret spices and there you go. You could do that too, if you are so inclined... or maybe skip the skinny dipping because if you rent a 7 bedroom house, you are likely to have brought too many friends or family for such a thing...

So, there is swimming in the lake and a row-boat, and a dock and a neighborhood dude who brings kayaks and bycicles up to the house (for a small fee...) and he also guides nature snow shoe hikes in the winter, cross country skiing, and he is also a hiking guide and more... how cool is this?!?!?!?

We are neighboring both Lake Mohonk and lake Minnewaska. Our estate is smack in the middle of every type of outdoor sport and entertainment possible in this area. From horseback riding, to sail boating, to mountain climbing, art-fairs and music festivals in Woodstock only a few miles away, and so much more.

There are also horseback riding farms in the neighborhood starting as close as 1.6 miles from our home.

4.1 miles from the center of New Paltz with mini malls, shopping centers, small adorable artsy shops, the local college, movies, unique restaurants, the water-street market with cafes and antique shops... and everything else you could possibly need, this majestic and ultra private estate is also only 75 miles to midtown Manhattan and an easy skip hop and jump from north jersey as well.

This house is 100% smoke free and has always been so - good for those who enjoy really clean and fresh air. You who smoke... huff and puff... well, there is a spot for you too, about 50 feet away from the house...

This home is open, beautiful, light, bright and airy. Hand build stone fireplaces in the master bedroom, dining room and in both living rooms spice up evenings by the fireplaces. You know, my Mom and Dad dragged each and every stone that you see in those stone fireplaces from around the land to be able to build these magnificent hand-made stone fireplaces and main wall that you see the entire home gloriously hanging from. So when you sit by the fireplace deep in the winter and gaze into the flames... allow your eyes to wander and remember the footsteps and lugging of each and every stone by my Mom and Dad... what on earth got into them, who knows... why were they driven to build this beautiful stone wall in the middle of their home? Who puts THREE FIREPLACES in their home jutting out from this magnificent effort that they made personally by lugging all these stones into a pile for the mason to put together. Well, I certainly could never tell you what possessed them, but they did it and all the stones, each and everyone of them, was dragged onto our land by an ancestor, maybe an Indian, maybe a settler??? Well, when you come to visit our home... stare at this wall and know... that two young people in love, who had no one but one another, somehow decided to build this wall and these fireplaces that now stand on this mountain top overlooking this magical Lake Illyria, under the peaks of Mohonk and Minnewaska, just for YOU to now enjoy.

I don't think they knew this at the time they were dragging those stones around, maybe they thought it would be just for them... but my Mom knows it now... and my Dad... from where ever he floats... maybe his spirit still visits his library... maybe he knows it too... well... I know that I put this advertisement out to share this amazing beautiful stone wall with 3 glorious fireplaces, perched on our mountain, overlooking the lake that Mom built and Daddy named, and that all of us decorated and that I now bring to YOU to share the magic of our family, our love for creativity, our love for art, literature, music and nature, we now are sharing with YOU.

And I look back now at my Dad and his dreams, and my Mom who never thought her home would be enjoyed by so many... and I am happy to know... that they continue on, each and every day when people like you come and relax, have dinner overlooking the lake by the fireplace while listening to our choir of crickets... and I know... their dreams and efforts live on way beyond their own private lives. They live on through you and your enjoyment of the dreams that they brought to fruition!

Me and Mom welcome you to come and visit our truly unique and one-of-a-kind unique and unusual spots. I promise you, there is no other "house" like it anywhere! Our vacation rental is an EXPERIENCE.

Besides the basic swimming pool, hot tub, lake.., it can, if you let it, become a very interesting excursion into becoming a personal and private guest of our very special and one-of-a-kind family.

WELCOME!

Give me a call to say hello! Especially if you have read this far!?!? 201-836-6085 at my desk and 661-733-5843 on my cellular phone.

I look forward to inviting you to be a part of our extended guest-renter-family!

Regards,

Iri