Fire Away

"Well, you're the real tough cookie With the long history Of breaking little hearts, Like the one in me That's O.K., lets see how you do it Put up your dukes, lets get down to it! Hit Me With Your Best Shot! Fire Away!" Pat Benatar sums up this world tumult pretty succinctly. Stock markets around the world looking a little scary, suburban housing prices being pummelled daily, headline comparisions with the Great Depression, and we can't keep up with all the calls requesting info for our homes. In fact, for someone who spends quite a bit a money on advertising it's distressing to get these daily inquiries into our homes and not have the time to get back to them - since this is the most important facet of our business. We got no land, we got no homes for sale, - what can I say. What's exciting about these waiting list is the fact that it gives us a little breathing room, and allows me to hire some talent, invest not only in land and architecture, but also some people who can help us grow a little, experiment a lot, and continue to enhance the architecture of Sullivan County. At the moment we have a few new designs under development and we are buying a few complimentry pieces of land. I mean, I have been bragging up the fact that our waiting list is growing in an inverse relationship to the economy - the uglier it gets, the better we are doing. Although totally true, it was also like I felt that if I kept repeating it it would continue to be true. And then I realized - I SELL COTTAGES WITH 5 ACRES FOR LESS THAN $325K. It's a no brainer - We got a lot of rain the last two days, I mean a lot of rain. Hard rain. Big drops. Definitely the type of rain that makes us look foolish pretty quick if we get caught unprepared or with our pants down. Here's the stream at Cottage 7 flowing pretty good around the moss, ferns, rocks, and grasses.

And then the pond across the street from our project outside Eldred - this pond fed waterfall then leads to a brook that runs behind our houses, - Cottage 5, Farm 9 and C0ttage 6. Amazingly, we are now planning Cottage 16.

Here are some more Cottage 7 details. Stained french doors, radiator, wide plank floors and a wainscotting powder room with a window looking out into the woods.

And their fireplace - large logs, large stone, and large living.

Kitchen is pretty unique, with a custom pantry with beadboard sides and an antique screen door, open shelves and an apron farm sink.

And a romantic profile of this stately little cottage in Yulan NY, just a couple of miles from the Delaware River.

And some old school barn doors with strap hinges and gate lever.

I was shopping in Woodstock and Stone Ridge the other day looking to expand our business and the same fact is true over there as is true over here - the architecture over there is just as underwhelming as the architecture over here.

God Bless all the badly design houses out there - it really makes our life easier than it should be.

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