Historic homes open doors to tour

Couple joins event with restoration project

Robyn and Rusty van Rossman dont yet have a formal name for the 136-year-old historic home theyre restoring on Fifth Avenue in Albanys Hackleman Historic District.

They do, however, have their own monikers for some of their projects to date.

Theres the Spiral of Idiocy in the backyard, for instance: a brick planter whose graceful curves initially threatened to get out of hand. Visitors can get there by treading the Path of Stupidity, giant flagstones the couple hauled into place, with great effort, by themselves. The Doorway to Death at the rear of the home currently leads to a steep drop until the couple can put in a deck.

Then theres the house itself, which will be part of Albanys 37th annual Tour of Historic Homes, running 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 26. Sometimes, the two say, they feel it should fall into a similar category.

Robyn remembers the day she and Rusty learned the owner had accepted the lowball offer theyd casually thrown out.

We looked at each other and said, Now what do we do? she said with a wry laugh.

That was in 2006. The couple have since ripped out carpets, refinished floors, pulled down walls, removed windows and done many other odd jobs to reduce what was once three separate apartments to a livable space for two empty-nesters.

They have more work to do yet, which visitors will be able to see as they make the tour. Its a project house, Rusty explained, which means other do-it-yourselfers can see it really is possible to live and work in a home thats still under restoration.

Its painful, he said, but it gets done.

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Historic homes open doors to tour