In a shaft of butter-colored sunlight, which falls on the rear deck of their historic Tivoli home, Susan Wolfson and Gary Blum look as though they've gone back in time.  It's late afternoon and the sun is preparing to make a dramatic exit across their westward view.  Green arms of massive maples and oaks reach in from the side.  Beyond them, black walnuts and a catulpa tree are beginning to shed.  Just below the horizon are the changing colors of the Catskill Mountains.

Wolfson and Blum discovered this tiny Dutchess County village during a weekend visit from New York City.  Someone recommended they drive here for dinner.  They did, and have been permanent village fixtures for the last eight years.  Today Wolfson owns Paper Additions, a stationary shop on Main Street, and knows everyone she sees by name.  "People know things about me before even I know about it," Wolfson says, only half-joking.

Originally from Dallas, Wolfson worked for many years as a publisher in the city.  Blum, a graphic designer, keeps a small apartment in the city, where he continues to work three days a week.  The couple were married two years ago in a ceremony held in the meadow they can see from their deck.  While they have both slowed their lifestyles since moving upstate, Wolfson says Tivoli, and their lives here, are far from typical.

"Tivoli is a little like the East Village, or an eastern version of [the television series] 'Northern Exposure,'" she says, describing it as a tight community with an eclectic mix of people, independent bookstores, bead and crafts shops, and an artists' co-op.  Blum agrees, adding, "Here, there are intellectuals, building contractors, Bard [College] students, weekenders - and everyone gets along."

Long known as "The Scott House," the couple's refurbished East Lake Victorian home was built in 1890 by Tivoli native and teacher Henry Scott, whose family owned it for three generations.  Surrounded by a white picket fence, the home is a tall, white Victorian house built in the style of Charles Eastlake, whose design was extremely popular here in the late 1800s, Wolfson says.  In 1905, the Scotts added a kitchen, a small screened-in porch, and an upstairs servants' wing to the back of the house.

Wolfson says she had wanted to live in a farmhouse with simple lines, but couldn't pass up such a classic.  Other prospective buyers were discouraged by the amount of ugly wallpaper and odd floor plan.  "Most people didn't want to deal with it," she says, "but for me it was a challenge."  Throughout the 2,400-square-foot house, the couple pulled up ancient carpeting and wallpaper, most of which carried the same large flower motif.  Says Wolfson, "We immediately calmed down the décor with more monotone colors.  I wanted more simplicity than the Victorian style offers, and in order to simplify I had to de-emphasize the heavy-handedness of the style."

The cherry-wood kitchen at sunset.

One can still twist the home's original doorbell, which sounds like an old-fashioned telephone and has to be wound up from inside to keep working.  This novelty is part of the original, stripped oak double doors leading to the entryway.  The original woodwork and hardware have been preserved throughout much of the first floor.  The staircase off the entryway showcases original stained-glass windows and leads to the second floor.

Also still standing, in the formal living room, is an ornate black marble fireplace, which never actually burned logs.  Wolfson says it was originally connected to the furnace; they have since converted it into a gas fireplace.  Standing on each side of the hearth are two white leather, armless chairs with large black buttons in the modern style of the early 1960s.  Long, Victorian windows with generous panes make room for the gentle westerly light.  A small connecting den is graced by a quaint wooden table, which Blum found in the East Hampton dump.  Also salvaged from a dump was their current dining room table, complete with leaves, which Blum refinished.  They found much of their other furniture at auctions and yard sales.