Original subtitles

When we come here--

it's just a cliche-- but our shoulders go down

and everything just sort of slows down.

Your mind gets quiet.

The beauty just kind of takes over and then makes you stop

and look at your surroundings.

And because we live in New York City,

it's an amazing place to get away and regroup.

So for us, it's become just a haven.

The cabin design is a cantilevered cabin that's

built on piers into the hill.

And I think the first thing you notice when you come in

is just stay the windows.

Each of our rooms has a theme.

We go up to the loft to listen to music.

So we have a turntable and we have records.

So we decided to put the turntable in the loft

and that became our music space.

And our bedroom, we call it the gallery.

We have some important pieces.

Murray's brother, Matt, he was an amazing artist.

So we have some of his pieces there.

So we just thought, oh, this is kind

of a little mini tiny little gallery.

So that's where we have most of our hanging art.

Our bathroom just became a [inaudible] theme.

My father's hat that he wore on his land.

So that was important just to have there.

Having the opportunity to have land and as a powerful thing.

For me, it reminded me of my father's ranch

in Mexico that he built, because he

wanted a space that was quiet.

Living in Los Angeles, the sprawl, et cetera,

I think that's when I got it.

You know, it just reminded me of my father's vision

to find a place where you can get away, and think

about things, and just collect your thoughts,

and kind of take a deep breath.

We have a nice deck that we spend many hours relaxing,

enjoying, laughing with friends, laughing together, reading

the paper, a lot of reading, and a lot of staring,

a lot of staring out into the tree,

and not really doing anything, which

is just amazing in itself.

We are in Western Massachusetts.

So we're right over the New York border.

So driving from Manhattan, it's an easy commute for us, two

and a half hours door to door.

The best of every world you could imagine

is found in the Berkshires.

For us, that's the best of both worlds.

It's culture, it's arts, and it's beauty and nature.

You know, I lived in San Francisco

and I started camping in the Sierras.

And Marion Doge, my camping outings.

And so we discovered this place and it was almost

love at first sight for us.

It just felt right.

We felt at home immediately.

So we just kept coming back.

So we purchased raw land, which

was right adjacent to the state forest where we camped.

We wanted to get to know the land,

the sunrise, the sunset, where we wanted the cabin to be.

So the first step was just really getting

the infrastructure set and then just getting

to know the land before we decided

where we would put the cabin and where we would settle here.

We had an incredible team, starting from our realtor

who introduced us to our contractor and the architect

that we used.

We didn't know that there was so much ledge.

It's hard to build on.

So just figuring out how to work with all the ledge

and the engineering involved.

I mean, that was another very big learning process for us.

Given that our land is steep and we have 4.9 acres, so it goes

up, we have a vision that we could have different spots

on the land where we would have maybe a seating

area or maybe a lookout.

Really what it is, it's almost like a screened

in patio porch for us.

This [inaudible] property, I think the beauty of it

is we will have projects for a lifetime,

which is amazing to me.

So our usual routine was work all week in New York City

and then come up to the cabin on the weekends.

So when the pandemic hit, and New York City, at the time,

was the epicenter of the pandemic,

and it was extremely stressful, and we realized that we,

obviously, we had the cabin that we could come to.

It became something other than a weekend

fun place or a weekend retreat.

And we got to know the house.

I mean, a little bit like kicking the tires a bit.

It's a place that I think we worked really

hard to get here in a way.

But on top of that, we've made it look nice,

and we've made it comfortable, and efficient.

But we never thought it would be a place

that would keep us safe.

We never thought that to that level that nature and a place

can give you that, which is really powerful.