Farm 16 Sold
It's been another year of a lot of sales here at Catskill Farms. By the look of it, every 3 weeks we were at the closing table giving away another little masterpiece to some family to grow into over the years - build treehouses, hike the property, discover the area, cook great meals, have extended family and friends up, play some Monopoly, teach the kids how to fish. Farm 16, inspired by the low-country Cottage 28, is a winner on all fronts. The 8 acre lake rights piece of land is groovy, the small pine trees shielding the house from any sort of privacy compromise, the green trees and yellow house, yellow sun and blue lake all sort of come together at multiple times during the day to create a little magic.
We added a bedroom on the 2nd floor, and on this particular house, we once again finished off the basement, adding a few rooms and a bath. Like I mentioned the other day, Joe the owner is a construction project manager in the city, so I knew we had to be on our toes to keep this guy happy. The term 'finished' in construction is used loosely for sure, but our jobs are really super dog dared finished, with barely a stone out of place. It's one of those things we do that makes us who we are - we finish up, clean up and give our clients a good starting point of living large.
A clean interior is so easily marred with unrestraint, but we rarely see it in our homes. Clean, sharp, simple and straight-forward. Classy might be the word I'm looking for - old school 'class' where girls didn't curse and guys pulled out the chairs for their dates. Neither wore jeans.
The salvaged posts on the stairs and the cable rail has become a popular feature in our homes.
Baby gates too -
Like most of homes, when someone likes what we have done previously and have zeroed in on a plan or house, then we can change it around, tweak it, flip it, invert it, mirror it - what have you, to make it work for that specific family or homeowner. couple of shelves never hurt anyone for sure.
A pretty functional and open kitchen, with a sliding barn door hiding the powder room and small coat rack.
I've been overusing my latest one-liner - "Our homes are so finished when we are done even the clock on the microwave and stove is set to the correct time!"
The old 4 light cross buck door never lets me down aesthetically.
The dining room...
And the 3 baths are hot and varied. Good picture of our 4 panel shaker doors, a nice glass shower with a rain shower and a stone floor.
Wainscoting keeps them honest and grounded...
I like the one beadboard wall look. And this is a pretty nice vanity in my opinion. i think Joe and his wife did a great job of keeping the house tuned throughout - it's easy to go off tune from one room to the next, but actually that's not true - it's pretty amazing how tasteful our clients are - although, i guess it's not totally unexpected since I guess half the reason they build with us is because 'we get it'. and we do, for sure.
The bedrooms are fine-sized.
And some serious basement space for when the in-laws from Ireland land for an extended stay.
Well, that was a big year for us again in this Great Recession. Pretty good stuff with the real mystery of how we are keeping it going like we are is anyone's guess. I suppose if you don't get lazy, and you keep close to your customers changing priorities, and you don't get too greedy, - well, then maybe you have half a chance in an economic environment like this one.