June 17, 2005

This story of the inn and the art workshops would not be complete without going into detail about the Old Church. When we arrived here from California, the rumors started flying.

The one that surfaced most often was that we had Bought The Church. The church was an old Methodist church that someone had bought to create a wine bar. However in the C&Cs was a restriction that said you could not have another religion practice there and that there was to be no drinking on the premises. Well, that sort of left the owner in a lurch and for the next umpteem years, he had tried to sell it, over and over again.

He tried to sell it to the previous owners of the Greenville Arms and Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. However, he had wanted too much. About $150K. Plus, the church needed about another $200K at least.

No matter how we battled this rumor, no matter how much money we spent on fixing up the inn, it kept coming up. Here’s an example conversation:

“So, I heard you bought the inn,” one Greenville Residence.

“No, we didn’t,” we reply.

“Deal fell through? Too bad.”

“No. We never intended to buy the church.”

“Too bad. Better luck next time.”

And so on.

The owner of the Westerner said the same thing. And I told him that no, we hadn’t bought the church, instead, we bought the Westerner. That kind of set him back. (Actually, that’s what I wish I had said. Rather, I said we had bought Bryant’s, the shopping plaza that has Bryant’s/Grand Union.) Anyway, I tried to get Rod Skidmore and some others to go to the Westerner and ask the owner if it were true that Kim and I had bought his store.

Well, that’s my first installment about Dmitri. I have to go make bread so you’ll have to wait to see where this is actually going.