Page 20 - Westchester Magazine - January 2011

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Talk of the County
5TOP KristinvanOgtrop The editor, author, and mom shares her
favorite parenting websites.
Managing Editor of Real Simple magazine and author of Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms of the Half-Insane Working Mom, Southern Westchester’s Kristin van Ogtrop, the mother of three sons, juggles presentations and car pools with equal aplomb. Here, she shares her favorite parenting websites.
1. Babble.com
Kristin van Ogtrop recommends Babble as a source for practical information from a wide variety of experts, offered up with a welcome dose of humor. (One of its more memorable pieces? How to Entertain Your Child While Lying Down.) “With three kids who span a pretty wide age range, I can go directly to either the toddler channel or the kid channel and find more than I’d ever have time to read.”
2. Ohdeedoh.com
A Lasting
Lap of Luxury
A look at the top three home sales of 2010
While a tenuous economy continued to suppress home sales in Westchester last year, the highest end of the luxury housing market remained steady. Here’s a brief look at the county’s top three brokered sales of 2010 re- corded by the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service (MLS), all located in the town of Bedford:
“No matter what your budget, you’ll find inspiring ideas and gorgeous photographs from the houses and apartments of parents who are probably more chic than you are,” says van Ogtrop of this website devoted to great design for parents. “You can always dream. I do when I visit this site.”
with a fireplace and two-story sleeping porch.
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44 Broad Brook Rd, Bedford Hills
Broad Brook Realty, LLC, purchased this stone mansion on 20 acres, originally listed for $14.5 million with Doris Seidlitz of Houlihan Lawrence, in late January. The six- bedroom, 6,900-square-foot house includes a media room, wine cellar, updated kitchen, a master bedroom suite, and a study complete
3. Mommytracked.com
“This site is filled with wonderful voices from a variety of moms who do not hesitate to be completely honest, even if that will result in certain embarrassment.” Content covers the gamut and includes brief, useful articles on everything from holiday shopping and babysitters to practical career advice.
Barry Gosin, CEO of global real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank, bought this property—known locally as Rockledge Farm—in April. The farm features a five- bedroom, 10,000-square- foot French château on 26 acres of trees and orchards, offering great views of the surrounding area. Away from
4. Lovethatmax.blogspot.com
Written by her friend, Ellen Seidman, about her son, Max, who has cerebral palsy, this blog, says van Ogtrop, is “a wise and warm resource for any parent of a child with special needs—and for those of us who are lucky to have completely ‘normal’ children, if there is such a thing.” One thing she particularly appreciates about Lovethatmax? “It forces you to stop for a minute and appreciate those people you gave birth to, something which we all could do a bit more often.”
5. Lets-panic.com
Likening this site to the satirical Onion newspaper but for the parents of babies, van Ogtrop recommends lets-panic.com because “it pokes its finger in the eye of all that earnest ‘What To Expect-ism’ that is rampant among pregnant women and new mothers.” And feature stories “with headlines like ‘You Can Keep Your Innocent Baby From Taking After That No-Goodnik He/She Will Call Father,’” she adds, “will remind you that, yes, you did once have a sense of humor.”
// Laurie Yarnell
the main house, there is also a three-bedroom guesthouse, a three-bedroom staff cottage, a pool and pool house, a tennis court, a full basketball court, and some fishing ponds. The farm was originally listed for $10.5 million with Muffin Dowdle of Ginnel Real Estate.
617 Croton Lake Rd, Bedford Corners
646 Harris Rd, Bedford Hills
This 11,000-square-foot English brick country house was purchased by Richard Zinman, a top-ranked invest- ment banker with Credit Suisse, in late March 2010. Originally listed at $8.25 mil- lion with Muffin Dowdle of Ginnel Real Estate, the prop- erty features some unique
touches, including a pond, a waterfall, antique herringbone floors, a cinema, an English pub room, a 4,000-bottle wine cellar, and a pool house with a rooftop dining terrace.
// Joe Cesarano
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$7.8 million
$9.4 million
$9.5 million