Suite for you and many more for guests. Full taxes and financials available upon request to events@amsterdamcastle.com 
 
 Neighborhood Description 
 
 Amsterdam's south side is a charming, old-style neighborhood with sidewalks and friendly neighbors - they don't make 'em this way anymore. 
 
 … What I love about the home Unique, unique, unique! Only armory in NY converted to a residence! More Less 
 
 Do you dream of living in an castle? Do you wish for an indoor basketball arena or want to sleep in a turret? Now all this can come true. The Amsterdam Castle with everything you ever wished for and more. Combine military history with a stunning renovation into one the most magical and captivating homes in Upstate NY. Only 30 min. from Albany and Saratoga, this enchanting former armory is completely renovated, and is zoned comm/res. Celebrate holidays in the spectacular ballroom. Royal Master ||||| And yet, even at 2005 prices, it remains the Phemisters’ castle. 
 
 “We love living here,” Ms. Phemister said. “It’s just that it’s someone else’s turn to live in a castle.” 
 
 In many ways there is nothing different about the Phemisters’ experience from what has happened to millions of other middle-aged Americans who benefited from a generation of upwardly trending real estate prices only to wake one morning, and, in an awful moment of truth, realize that they had pushed their luck once too often. 
 
 But the fact that it is a castle, rather than, say, a high ranch, is a reminder of how big Americans allowed themselves to dream during the boom times and how long the consequences have lingered. 
 
 For the record, the castle is the Amsterdam Armory, built in 1894 by the state for military training, though no one around here calls it anything but the castle, nor would any real estate broker hoping for a 6 percent commission ever say, “A man’s home is his National Guard armory.” 
 
 From the beginning, the Phemisters understood that flipping a castle would require an elaborate plan. 
 
 She took a corporate job that would assure benefits and a guaranteed income (a vice president for Thomson Reuters). 
 
 Mr. Phemister, 55, has his own business — CD music distribution — which allows him to work out of the castle while anchoring life for their three children, now ages 12, 11 and 9. 
 
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 “Our whole life is a cost-benefit analysis,” said Ms. Phemister, who is 47. 
 
 On Mondays, she is often out of bed before 4 a.m. to drive the 30 minutes from here to Albany. Then she rides the train two and a half hours south to Pennsylvania Station, so she can be at her desk by 7:30. She spends three days in New York, renting rooms in people’s homes for $50 a night. Wednesdays, she is on the 4:40 p.m. back to Albany and for the rest of the week works from the castle. “I love that I can be up at 6 a.m., walking the dog around the castle and answering messages on my phone,” she said. 
 
 Mr. Phemister has 100,000 CDs taking up thousands of square feet of the castle basement. (It would not be fair to say “dungeon,” since there are lots of windows and the Phemisters do not torture anyone, except, given their long days, themselves). 
 
 It wasn’t just the real estate collapse that made castle life so exhausting. 
 
 As the music industry shifted from CDs to online downloads, Mr. Phemister’s business shrank by half. 
 
 To make up the income, they rented out the castle to TV crews (HGTV’s “You Live in What?”) and filmmakers. For the movie “American General,” a documentary about Benedict Arnold, the director used the castle’s 10,000-square-foot gymnasium to restage the Battles of Saratoga. 
 
 But that income was not dependable, so a few years ago they started a bed-and-breakfast, which, they say, brings in $60,000 a year. The only problem is that to maximize revenue, it is run entirely by Mr. and Mrs. Phemister, neither of whom truly needs another job. 
 
 Indeed, Mr. Phemister already has another job, coaching youth soccer. 
 
 So instead of the castle working for the Phemisters, the Phemisters are working for the castle. 
 
 Last year the castle was one of eight buildings — including the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport — to win an excellence award from the Preservation League of New York State. 
 
 There have been several potential buyers, including a man who was looking for a good place to store his taxidermy collection; a medieval re-enactment group; and a software executive interested in using it as a country retreat and data center. 
 
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 A man who owns a military museum and antiques store spent four days visiting but ultimately decided against it because his wife did not want to leave California. 
 
 When Ms. Phemister talks to people about the joys of castle life, they often roll their eyes and say, “Sure it’s great to live in a castle, but what about the heating bills?” Not as bad as they might be. By setting up a zone heating system, they were able to hold the 2012 utility bills — electric, gas, oil and water — to $13,076.25, though on the coldest winter days, everyone wears a hoodie and loads up on hot cocoa. 
 
 Taxes last year were $17,532.87, about half of what homeowners in the wealthiest suburbs of Westchester County pay for noncastle residences. 
 
 In the end, people can find a million reasons not to buy a castle: Some have complained that there is not enough parking, others would prefer a castle that is deep in the woods. The fact is, the only reason to buy a castle is that you have a terrible yearning to live in a castle. “It’s the supercool factor,” Ms. Phemister said. 
 
 The Phemister children are too young to remember Brooklyn, so castle life seems normal to them. They have friends over for dodge ball tournaments in the gym, sleepovers in the turrets, hide-and-seek in dimly lighted passageways. 
 
 They are known around town as the castle children, which is mostly — but not totally — a good thing. “Sometimes,” says Vivienne, who is in the sixth grade, “people just want to be my friend because I live in a castle.”
– You don't even need a cool million to purchase a 36,000-square-foot castle in Upstate New York. Just $895,000 will do. The New York Times today takes a look at this most unusual piece of real estate—and the unusual consequences of a common problem: homes that buyers intended to flip and, more than five years later, still find themselves stuck with. Susan and Manfred Phemister had done a few flips before buying the Albany-area castle (in truth it's the 119-year-old Amsterdam Armory, though it does have two turrets) for $800,000 in 2005. Their plan: Sink $400,000 into renovations and list it for $2 million in 2007. "Then we'd sell and make the extra million we’d need to buy a brownstone," says Susan. You can predict where the story goes from here: The home has been relisted a handful of times, with the price sinking ever lower. Now, just $24-a-square-foot will get you, per Sotheby's, a massive gymnasium, two kitchens, and staff quarters. The Times looks into how the Phemisters are managing in the meantime: A second downturn, in the music industry, hurt Manfred's CD music distribution business; to keep their income up they've rented the castle to TV and film crews and now operate a bed-and-breakfast out of it. That helped to pay the not-insignificant $13,076 utility bill last year. And for now, they'll keep paying it. "We love living here," says Susan. "It’s just that it’s someone else’s turn to live in a castle."