Today, the Daily Freeman sports an interview with Fred and Natasha Ruckel, two second-homeowners who built a cabin near Woodstock while cameras from the DIY network rolled. "Dream House," a reality show about their two-year home-building saga, premieres this weekend.
Much of the Freeman's story is about run-ins the Ruckels had with a neighbor in Sullivan County, their original building location. The neighbor, who is described as "nuts," a "known maniac," and "crazy," eventually scared the couple into fleeing to Ulster County to start over after a series of encounters led to a physical assault and a restraining order.
Some of the neighbor's antics were pretty bizarre, the Ruckels told the Freeman:
“We were sort of traumatized. So we left and drove back to the city. When we came back, he had painted all the trees on our property blue and had barricaded our utility poles.”
Guess it will make good television.
