It feels like March had 30 extra days, we can’t remember the last time we hugged our friends, and who knows which day of the week it is? It’s day 18495 of self-isolation, and each member of our team has been diving deep into our creative wells for ways to keep a routine, occupy ourselves, stay healthy, and stay connected to our coworkers and loved ones. While we are by no means an authority on what it takes to successfully pass the time during a global pandemic, our team has chosen to come together and share a few tidbits from our new ‘normal’, including ways we’re exercising at home, how we’re getting work done at the home office, and a few recipes and digital tools we’ve been (over)utilizing. 

Raj: 

Our Lead Agent, Raj, lives outside of Hudson on a beautiful farm with his wife, two adorable horses, and sweet kitty.

Being a super social animal, if you had asked me to imagine this scenario hypothetically I would have been terrified.  But most surprising to even myself, I have managed to create a significantly altered life for myself very quickly and really proud of it.

I am a creature of habit and one of those “7 days a week gym fiends” , so one of the first things I did was to create my weekly exercise routine at home, including a one-mile loop on our property with lots of mini hills.  Lillie, my better half, has put me on spring clean up duty while I’m on my run, and I am happy to report that most sticks and dead branches have now been removed! As I look for a change of scene for my daily walks, I will also be occasionally stopping in at Art Omi, where their architecture and sculpture park is still open (while still observing appropriate distances from others enjoying the space). 

Quickly adapting to my new routines has enabled me to feel like I have not missed a beat, while still incorporating interesting substitutes for my normal work activities.  I don’t think I have ever been busier with work, but the difference is now I get to see my horses from my desk.

Even though we are physically distant from each other, I truly have never felt more connected to my community.  It of course takes effort, but has proven to be so, so important. I have been in touch with my family in India, France and L.A. daily, friends (some of whom I have not been in touch with for years), and clients.  What’s amazing is how many of them actually then engage back in meaningful conversations. I actually think I am going to miss this part when we all go back to our normal lives. I have never been a big fan of technology because of how impersonal it can make communication, but in a time like this, it has truly been our savior in keeping us connected.  

However, as satisfied as I am with a change in routine, I will be even happier to have our lives back so we can go back to being the gregarious social creatures that we were always meant to be, without fear for the health of our loved ones and the worldwide community. 

Tia:

Tia is the Marketing Lead at the Lillie K. Team, and splits her time between the Hudson Valley in New York, and the Loire Valley in France, where she is located currently.

I’m very fortunate to be living in a rural location, with plenty of room to roam (and not run into anyone else), an abundance of fresh air, and wide expanses of garden begging to be worked on. These strange times have been a critical reminder of the importance our health plays in the quality of our lives, and everyone in our household has been prioritizing long walks with the dog, outdoor sports, and vigorous workout sessions (courtesy of PopSugar’s free videos), as well as increased consumption of foods rich in vitamin c and the occasional oat-milk turmeric latte. 

In addition to my increased focus on health, self-isolation has also brought out in me the desire to accomplish every cooking and baking recipe I’ve been bookmarking but avoiding for the past year. I’ve been sticking to recipes with small ingredient lists, like Bon Appetit’s ‘Surprisingly Easy, No Knead Foccaccia” (yes, it was surprisingly easy), and have been quite satisfied with the experiments. I’ve also been dropping off the leftovers (no-contact of course) on the doorsteps of our local community in order to keep community connections thriving in these strange times. 

Lastly, I’ve been taking advantage of the internet’s many free resources, including free classes on Skillshare and French lessons via Duolingo, catching up on some of my favorite podcasts (forever thankful for Debbie Millman and Design Matters), and powering through my 2020 book & magazine collection. 

If anything in this short but impactful period has taught me, is that I’m ever thankful for the resources I have access to, work that I have the privilege of completing from anywhere, and a wonderful global community that is able to connect via texts, WhatsApp, Zoom, Facetime, you name it! 

Parker:  

Parker is our team’s newest licensed real estate agent, and lives in a beautiful historic townhouse in Hudson, NY that she is in the process of renovating. You can follow Parker’s upstate journey here.

As a newly minted member of the Lillie K team and Select Sotheby’s International Realty, I have had quite a lot of homework!  Luckily for me, I am a highly trained digital media specialist, and all of our software training over the course of this last few weeks indoors has been intuitive while very exciting to learn.

Tatiana:

Tatiana is the Lillie K. Team’s admin in-charge and marketing assistant, based out of beautiful Saratoga Springs.

Besides working full-time from home, I have been able to enjoy many walks in nature, and daily breaks each day where I can disconnect from my computer/other electronics and social media to focus on myself and what makes me happy. I can’t express how helpful this has been. On a regular/normal working day you forget or don’t have the time to do that (at least I don’t always do!), and it’s proven to be so beneficial!!

In addition, I found myself cooking more (which I love), talking on the phone rather than texting with family and friends, reading, watching movies and relaxing.

I'm a very social person, who is involved a lot in the community and always doing something, so I’m going to be honest and say social distancing and the new “normal” has been a little challenging for me, but WE ARE going to get through this! Be safe everyone!

While we’ve all found different ways to use our extra time provided by self-isolation, these are the main and universal takeaways from our experiences over the past few weeks: 

1. Our industry is serviced and defined by technologies that make doing our job remotely and helping our clients not only possible, but also more than satisfactory! We have been using these tools for a while, and hope to continue expanding on them in an effort to provide increasingly accessible services. 

2. Our community is holding together stronger than ever, and as we enjoy our many privileges, we also are looking for ways to use our time and resources to help those less fortunate, and those hit hardest by this public health crisis. 

3. There has never been a time where it has been clearer how important our homes, the design of our rooms, the number of windows we have, the coziness of our living spaces, and our rural locations that give access to space and nature and natural resources are.