About Us

It all started with furniture. Back in 1982 my grandparents asked my wife and I if we would like to inherit the furniture from their home. This furniture had been in my family in the late 18th and early 19th century. As a young boy I had always been the one who worked side by side with my father refinishing furniture. I loved working with my hands and during high school I would develop a small painting and home repair business. Since I had shown an appreciation for maintaining or fixing items my grandparents felt that I should inherit this furniture. I was honored and quickly agreed. But, one problem was of immediate concern. At present our family was living in a modest 1700 sq. foot home. This furniture surely would not fit in any individual room let alone an entire house full of large pieces.

So, I set forth a plan of developing my painting business into a total restoration business and found all the work in this area that one could handle. Without advertising, word of mouth spread of the total preparation and multiple coatings that our “painting business” was capable of performing. In the span of one year, I was hiring reliable students to help. Business was good. One year led to another and soon I had enough money to buy land and then build the house of my dreams. With 3200 sq. feet our family now had a great deal of space where some day we could relocate all this furniture. 1986 was the year of this massive and frequent 18 hours/day venture. But, by Christmas all the hand rubbed moldings and doors had been finished, the carpets were installed and yes, the interior was done. So, all five of us moved in.

Money was a problem. :o)

With three children growing and moving towards college we only had a few thousand dollars each year to landscape this entire property. Topsoil and gravel took the vast majority of any of our savings. Though I did have a plan, money was still a concern.

The plan was born in 1985

It was in the Spring of this year when a woman called me to paint her house. She was an older woman who was the chapter President of the New England Garden Association and long time President of the New Paltz Garden Club. While working for her and her husband I fell in love with her gardens and began to develop an appreciation of why certain species and shrubs did or didn’t belong. Why this and that also developed well in one area but failed miserably in others. While working for her I did something I rarely did in any high school or college class. I asked questions. In short…I became her student. For the next fifteen years I would work numerous times for her inside or outside her property. Over these years she recommended me to all the members of the garden club. Through these other jobs I would also “steal” ideas. Quickly I learned that photos don’t lie. So, I purchased a nice camera to take photos of the step processes of my restoration. And, from time to time I would also take numerous photos of their landscape. I enjoyed studying these landscape photos and began to envision how various specimens, trees and shrubs would fit in our bare landscape.

Total Landscapes

As part of this plan, my wife and I would take small trips to some of the most magnificent landscapes any where in the USA. The three locations that I was quite fond of were Winterthur and Longwood Gardens, and Cornell University. Winterthur and Longwood Gardens were the two Dupont estates in Delaware that simply were above any landscape I had ever witnessed. Endless photos of these two places were shot and my portfolio was growing. In the early 90’s my daughter attended Cornell University. Here was another wonderful opportunity to learn about the total landscape. When we visited her, I always had my camera handy. I would even find my way up to the top of the buildings and shoot photos out the windows to bring a total perspective of any overhead view of how they were developing the magnificent landscape. Cornell, along with being one of the premier schools in the world for landscape architecture… Had a fabulous library where books could be purchased or read. As my wife and daughter did their “tour” I would stay in this book store and read for hours. I bought some of the less expensive books that I had scanned and had felt contained the best investment for our on going plan.

One problem still existed. A great deal had been started. Each year more and more of our property was landscaped and cleared, and ground covers were being developed for a fledgling business venture, trees were trimmed/shaped and forest management was employed. But, other than a patio and a few stone walls to retain soil… Nothing else was completed. Yes, the plan was capable of coming together. All that was lacking to finish this landscape was time and funding.

Prayers are Answered

Fortune would occur with the technology led stock explosion of 1997 to 2000. I would virtually take all our savings and convert ten stocks with very little total net worth and invest all of these into one company. Call it what you wish, but, diversification was not what I chose and for the time period it worked quite well. It actually worked so well I “retired” from painting for four years. I hired four super strong and reliable students who had a real eye for perfection and taught each of them what I needed to continue developing this landscape. We worked long hours frequently hauling massive loads of stone from very old remnant quarries. Bluestone was my addiction and we would never bring home enough. I was very fortunate. They possessed an abundance of energy and loved the challenge of finding fabulous pieces to haul to my truck for the long trip back to New Paltz. I taught two of these students how to cut stone; a talent I had slowly mastered after five or so years and thousands of hours. Cutting stone and building walls was slow and difficult. But, if done with meticulous standards and using the proper tools would produce an artistic vision that was unique and very rewarding to view.

Ryan Pullman

One of the boys I employed and taught was Ryan Pullman. His father and mother had been high school students of mine back in the 80’s. His father was a meticulous and a massively built athlete. His mother was an artist. Ryan is the perfect blend of both his mother and father.

After the market crash of 2000, I returned to restoration. Now, helping with my restoration business, Ryan quickly developed all the hand skills to strip buildings of generations of paint. The restoration business boomed with his unique and tireless skills. But things recently changed…

Over the past four or five years, individuals who we had painted for have discovered my gardens. Three years ago the New Paltz Garden Club chose my landscape as a fund raiser. People from all over Ulster County walked through our landscape after paying a fee to the Garden Club. The comments I received while giving tours all day have yet to end. Word has spread of our capabilities and during the last two years, our time our restoration business was limited. Landscaping and development has pushed restoration to a near halt. Ohh, people still call for us to paint or restore their windows and houses. I actually had a call from a woman yesterday who lives in Yonkers and is restoring an old home. Our reputation led her to believe we were the ones to do her windows. She is willing to bring them up to New Paltz for us to do… But, I told her that I would show her what to do and that I don’t believe we would have the time to do them... unless she would wait for the dead of winter. Our passion for landscaping has simply pushed us out of the restoration business and into landscaping full time. Ryan and I are in the midst of developing a partnership and it is my hope that he will continue this business long after I have decided to finally sit down and relax.

In Conclusion

Ryan and I have actually been working together for nine years. We love what we do. We cannot perform anything in a cookie cutter fashion. Neither of us are willing to sacrifice quality for time. Ryan is so obsessed with his work that he will spend long hours and even days choosing every single piece of stone he uses. Long ago we learned never to buy someone else’s stone. We prefer to find what we will use and then pay for what our hands and eyes have chosen. Pallets at a landscaping center will never be our choice. Only if we can pull from them what we desire. We carefully seek out the top quality trees, shrubs and perennials. We have solid relationships with various nurseries and coupled with our own nursery business, we bring only the best quality to any project. In our business: Perfection is a must and time is never our primary consideration.

And… that’s the short story. :o)

Should you have any questions about what we can do for your landscape or would like to discuss ideas you have, please call. We do not take on any aspect of a business that we are not 100% confident that we can complete to perfection.

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