Let’s Move to an Old Church Upstate

Design editor Wendy Goodman takes you inside the city’s most exciting homes and design studios. [Design Hunting]( A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman Editor’s note: Starting today, Design Hunting will now be sent on a biweekly cadence. [Answered Prayers]( Brooklynites Cristiana Peña and Nick Porter had a dream to live in an old church upstate. The 1782 upstate church is now a Brooklyn couple’s home. Photo: Chris Mottalini Cristiana Peña works in historic preservation and always dreamed of finding a church to live in. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she and her partner, Nick Porter, were living together in her rental in a 1920s Tudor-revival building near Prospect Park and started to look for places out of town. “I was just honestly along for the ride for a while,” says Porter. “It was Cristiana’s idea to move. She quickly focused on churches, but I was just assuming it would never happen, but I kind of got onboard more and more as time went on.” They kept getting outbid until they realized they both could work remotely, which meant they could look farther away from the city. “So many times during the process,” Peña says, “Nick would tell me, ‘You know, we could just buy some random house from the 1980s tomorrow and be done with it.’” Then, in the summer of 2022, they found this 3,600-square-foot 1782 church in Granville. It had been vacant for a long time. It would take some work. The outside of the church, with the cottage the couple also now own. Photo: Chris Mottalini — Wendy Goodman [TAKE THE FULL TOUR]( Want more on design, real estate, and city life? [Subscribe now]( to save over 40% on unlimited access to Curbed and everything New York. This Week in Design 1. [Wendy Goodman’s Top-Ten Finds From WantedDesign Futuristic desks, snaky tube lights, and a turntable lamp by emerging designers.]( 2. [The Branded Towers of Miami No one will even build a luxury building in the city without a name brand attached to it.]( 3. [A Boerum Hill One-Bed With a Working Fireplace for $599,000 And a two-bed that makes a good case for life in Midwood.]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More on Curbed]( [Sign up to get The Listings Edit](, a weekly digest of the most worth-it apartments in New York. [GET THE NEWSLETTER]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe]( | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1701 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2024, All rights reserved