Construction Diary: How a New York Chef and Her Brother Built a Hudson Valley Dream Home

Although she’s from Westchester in upstate New York, chef Monica Malarczyk never traveled to Saugerties, just an hour and a half drive north, as she was growing up. When she first visited a friend with a weekend home there, she was smitten. “I fell in love with the peace, the nature, and the tranquility,” says Monica—and she ultimately decided to build a new family home in Saugerties from the ground up with the help of her brother, builder Peter Malarczyk. “It’s a different world from Westchester, so coming up here felt like a retreat, which is what I wanted.”

Working with Brooklyn-based architect Ravi Raj, who had recently completed several homes in the Hudson Valley, Monica set out to create a minimalist, clean-lined home that would still feel warm, welcoming, and contextual. “The site overlooks the confluence of Esopus Creek with the Hudson River, but also faces the street to the south,” Raj says of the property. “We had to balance these things, and find something that fit within the area’s historic district, so we borrowed this large, pitched-roof design that embraces rather than shies away from that history.”