Old Red Dog, LLC, Guardian Services

The Old Red Dog, LLC can locate, negotiate, facilitate and oversee the fulfillment of all your winter and away-time security management needs. We also can handle many of your springtime and seasonal maintenance chores with reputable local contractors, suppliers, service providers and tradesmen. Call me direct, Hank Meeske, principal, at 518-929-3410.

The Old Red Dog is a real estate management company with rental and investment properties in the upper Hudson Valley region. Our management team has many years of professional corporate, institutional and investment management experience; able to distinguish same day service from someday service. We offer services for both commercial investment properties and personal vacation and recreational homes. The company is named after my  old red dog. We offer the same level of sterling service as you would expect from a faithful guardian watchdog, providing year round oversight for your property, estate or vacation home just as if it were our own.

The Old Red Dog, LLC provides:

Commercial management and residential security checks for your property.

We offer emergency response as well as seeing to arranging and overseeing general building and property management and improvements. The ORD, LLC will supervise ongoing care for grounds, house, out buildings and general clean-up.

The ORD, LLC offers access and referral to our exclusive business data base of 1,000 contractors and general services

• Residential response to emergencies (storm, ice, water leaks, intrusion, fire, heat out)
• The owner’s agent for supervising building and property management in owner’s absence
• Supervision and care for grounds, house, outbuildings.
• Exclusive access to database of 1000 contractors and general property services.
• Design: Fox hunt country and colonial to contemporary interior decoration.
• Property maintenance; minor repairs to major projects and services.

Commercial Property Management

ORD is a management firm providing all necessary services for residential and commercial real estate: If you own commercial properties in the area we provide daily hands-on management services from vetting tenants to collecting rent, supervising property work and all day-to-day maintenance activities, as well as handling those problems calling for emergency action.

Personal Real Estate Monitoring

Your vacation home is intended to be a fun place, a restorative haven and a retreat; its very existence should not be a source of ongoing concern, gnawing anxiety or unwelcome surprises. Yet who is taking care while you are away? It is certainly well and good to have nanny cams, temperature and motion detectors and alarm systems, but electronic gimcracks have limitations. What happens in the event of utility failures, frozen and burst pipes, wind and water damage, a tree down across the road or outbuildings damaged, trespasser vandalism or other damage? The list of traumatic possibilities can seem endless; you need responsible, hands-on oversight – perhaps even if you already have resident help!

Concerning your home away from home the Old Red Dog will provide guardian watchdog services for your property. Whether you are away from your property for a vacation or for the season you may travel, or work, knowing the myriad concerns of ownership are being attended to in you absence whether you require a scheduled drive-by or walk-through inspection. We will be your local security alert representative as you might be in Paris, in Tahoe or in flight when there is an alarm situation because even with all the electronic surveillance available you still need someone to check out alarms on site.

If you seek serenity regarding your leisure or recreational sanctuary’s safety and preservation in your absence it should be entrusted to professional guardians. Why arrive for an anticipated vacation to discover problems when you can authorize the Old Red Dog to schedule inspection checks to watch over your property and contact you in event of an incident? The Old Red Dog can attend to any necessary on site problem solving, outsourcing any emergency maintenance and overseeing scheduled contracted work in hand.

You can count on the Old Red Dog to immediately respond whenever your property has experienced a notable natural event or criminal trespass and we will notify you by phone or e-mail. In cases of trespass, theft or vandalism we will be your agent contacting and dealing with the alarm systems companies and local authorities. With your authorization ORD will also call the appropriate craftsmen, arrange for estimates and negotiate prices, or directly employ and supervise all necessary workers, from our call list of hundreds of local contractors capable of providing for virtually every service need, as well as schedule and oversee any and all repairs or necessary remedial actions. Whatever your special needs in the way of property oversight and management the Old Red Dog, LLC is alert, ready and on call so you can avoid Friday Nightmares when you arrive for a weekend seeking rest and relaxation.

Absentee Owner, For Sale,  Property Management

The Old Red Dog, LLC is prepared to manage bank property between foreclosure and resale. Typically foreclosed premises are allocated to real estate agents. In a slow market these agents will typically visit a site only when they have a potential buyer. With the Old Red Dog on the job you are assured your investment will be inspected regularly. When property is visited regularly it is less likely to be subject to trespass and acts of vandalism. Frequent inspections also can spot damage from acts of nature, such as fallen trees, frozen pipes, and necessary remedial actions may be undertaken in a timely manner.

Personalized Services

Your concerns are our cares and the Old Red Dog is ready to offer a wide range of customized and personalized services including:

Home Modifications

In addition to overseeing the maintenance of existing facilities the ORD is prepared to the design, plan and install guest accommodations, gaze beaus, tennis courts, swimming pools, fencing, stables and indoor riding facilities. The Old Red Dog can also draw up plans, contract architects and deal with local zoning and historic regulations concerning modifications, renovations, additions and restorations. We can directly undertake or outsource many routine repainting and seasonal freshening for you house, outbuildings, fences and other property features.

Home Search

If you or friends and associates are in the real estate market we can assist in home searches: www.RHBlackburn.com and GreatPeriodHouses.com

The Old Red Dog Home and Interior Design Services

We offer contemporary hunt country and colonial home design services. Many people have wonderful possessions in houses that fail to present them in the best possible light. Let the Old Red Dog work with you to help pinpoint those design priorities that mark the boundaries between authentic period styles and your family’s present real life needs. Let us help you focus on your expectations and highlight your cherished collectibles. Your lifestyle requires in a functional contemporary setting for cherished period pieces. Why? While they look wonderful we could not endure living in a truly authentic period interior: heating, lighting and sanitation facilities were abominable! Nor would you be prepared to forgo modern conveniences and amenities essential to your professional and personal needs. Let the Old Red Dog work with you to create the perfect country residence specifically suited to your personal life style that reflects the diverse heritage of the Valley. We offer a range of informed design options for you to draw upon and together we can create a perfect rural residence that will reflect your fondest desires as well as meet you current lifestyle demands. Eighteenth century aesthetics encompassed a surprisingly international, even a global diversity, in possessions and art; it was an informed and elite taste that eschewed clutter and showcased a few finely crafted examples of master craftsmen’s workmanship; and, while the nineteenth century encompassed an amazing increase in material goods it is possible to enjoy the best while avoiding Victorian clutter and the cloying plethora of kitsch.

Many decorators want to overload your home with county clichés and the detractions of countless quaint bobkes because clutter is easy, covers mistakes and is very profitable. We will assist in locating just the right pictures, materials and objects from around the world and co-ordinate their placement so your home not only contains a rich vocabulary of styles but presents it in the most advantageous manner. Hank Meeske grew up in Dutchess County, participated in the country life style, hunted with Rombout, Chatham and Millbrook in the 1960s, and in the 1970s with the Los Altos Hunt. In the 1980s he owned and ran Meeske & Meeske at 107 Green Street, in Manhattan’s SOHO district, offering design services and selling an eclectic mix of early American, contemporary, modern classic, oriental and custom design furniture and spent years buying and refurbishing property, houses and furnishings and refinishing antiques. Now he offers the same informed and sophisticate county design taste to individuals in the mid-Hudson Valley region.

Many decorators offer wonderful effects. The Old Red Dog’s design consultant work is based on an in depth understanding of the history and an empathy for the heritage of the region. Harrison F. Meeske wrote The Dutch and Their Houses in the Hudson Valley (1999 / 2000, Purple Mountain Press) which reviewed the early social and cultural history of the Dutch in New York. The book describes the Dutch colonial vernacular houses, how they were constructed and the ramifications of the designs on the culture and lifestyle of the people. He wrote Vernacular to Spectacular (2006, Purple Mountain Press) which investigates how between 1700 and 1830 changes in form from early vernacular to later classic Georgian forms arrived in the Hudson Valley, bring new ideas from Britain, the Continent and beyond that influenced the culture and lifestyle we recognize as “colonial” and early American. In addition, he contributed to Dutch Colonial Houses in America (2007, Rizzoli) by Geoffrey Gross and Roderic Blackburn, and he has spoken to many groups from professional architects to history enthusiasts. In fall 2009 Weeding Women, a history of early kitchen gardens, is scheduled to be published by Purple Mountain Press.

Projects

In addition to design consultant work the Old Red Dog, LLC can provide a range of services from our in-house workers to a wide range of regional crafts people to meet your needs from simply handy to master specialists. If you already have a number of contractors working on various aspects of your home the Old Red Dog can co-ordinate and oversee in your stead to help avoid those dreaded Friday Surprises that result when you are not on hand twenty-four seven.

Contact Us

To arrange for a personal and confidential consultation