Mid-Century Retro Ranch V
James, our project manager on the left, and Eamonn/son, the soon-to-be owners of Farm 11, posing for a Saturday afternoon snapshot.
Two snazzy gentlemen, but nothing compared to our newly completed and for sale little modern number (sorry guys, no appeal or recourse available). It's our 5th Retro Ranch. It's on 5.5 acres, borders 1200 acres of public land and for all intent and purposes just an extension of this property, and is selling for $220k. One bedroom, one bath, and a whole lot Je ne se qua, if you know what I mean (and for those frequent readers, this french digression is a first).
It's a good one - in the photo above you can see the reflection of the rustic red roof, coloring the house. And the car port. And the shot from the rear, capturing the stone pillars and stone chimney.
Lots of light.
Great shot of the car port, which could easily be converted into a screened patio, or even a 2nd bedroom down the line. I like it just fine as a throw back carport.
Our modern front doors, with a splash of red. I love a splash of red where i can.
Wide open living, dining and kitchen, with a hot red fan, chalkboard door, polished concrete with radiant heat, stained wood ceiling and lots of light.
Woodburning fireplace nook.
Down the hall, where we brought the exterior siding into the interior -
A hot bathroom with black and white and an apple green and some modern fixtures and vanity.
The one and only bedroom.
We have 8 houses finishing up between last week and November, and we are getting ready to get started on another 4. "Ain't no mountain high enough..." Au revoir!
Micro Cottage 4 Has Left the Building - Sold
Here's part of the Barryville Chamber of Commerce at the ribbon cutting of Bryce and Thom's new store named, appropriately enough, REGION. They carry local one-of-kind type useful items like a beer making kit, bluestone cutting stone, pickled stuff and lot of other good and unique stuff. I think Bryce was a pretty fancy luxury retailer before he built a house with us, caught the fever and now is up here more or less full-time. Congrats.
Micro Cottage 4 is all finished up and turned over the Heather and her son. Big times planned for this small home that lives real large.
It's really one of those 'good things come in small packages' types of things - cedar shake siding, screened porch, 2 cool screen doors, wood burning fireplace, stone chimney chase, back patio, 2 bedroom, etc...
I'm sure there will be many a grand entrances through this door.
And the sunlight striking the house melodiously. (trying to be over the top, fyi.)
Nice clean design and aesthetic.
I think we started this house in April or so.
And a pic from our trip to Yosemite the other month. I think this was on top of El Capitan.
Nice work Heather. it's one of those dreamy little houses I think will bring you lots of joy and memories (christ, who put something in my drink this morning? I need to go yell at someone or write an uncalled-for mean email and snap out of it!)
Yankee Lake House Nears Completion
We do a lot of new construction, but we also do a fair amount of renovations and construction for hire. Old farmsteads, old lake houses, or like we did last year for the Blog Cabin TV show, we reinvented a house that wasn't super old. Here, Scott and Erica took a badly pieced together over the years lake house, stripped it to the bones, added here, tucked there, and 4 months later a brand new house in every sense of the word. Brand new bones, brand new mechanicals and plumbing, brand new electric, windows, insulation, baths, etc...
I mean we tore that thing apart and it was one of those homes that everything we discovered was not up to par and had to be reinforced, sistered, strengthened, etc... Very challenging.
So we took a pretty lousy floor plan, and took very lousy views of the lake and just reinvented the house entirely. And it turned out great.
Below are some photos prior to getting started.
And then a sampling of the new style, the new bath, -
Vs. the old hallway (great pic of what we were dealing with. This was the lake view side for Chris-sakes).
All in all, not bad for 4 months of work, through a very tricky house and a very tricky couple of months of weather - magnified by the cold wind whipping off the lake.
August Rush
Just so you know - I'm diving head first into this stock market. Those who bought in in the panic of 2008 are still way up even with the recent declines. We have a lot of great clients and they do a wide range of pretty great things, including spending a lot of money locally and in a very impactful way, helping drive the economy of our local towns. Some businesses 'get it' and try to cater and attract these residents, and other businesses just miss the ball entirely. Barryville NY is becoming a hip little spot with some great new stores (adding to some great existing stores). I love micro-economics - where one venture feeds another venture and inspires another venture that feeds the other venture that eventually becomes self-perpetuating and self-generating. Our good friends and clients Bryce and Thom (Cottage 17) have opened a little store in a rehabbed corner building in Barryville, selling regional products (hence its name, REGION). And then they stock stuff from around the area including homemade goods from Jeanne (Cottage 14), who also supplies the local tavern of choice (Baker's Tap Room) with Cakes.
What's nice about our clients when they open a business or launch a venture, they typically do it very well, with the right look and feel, pricing, product, etc...
And I was over at Benoist's house the other day having a cocktail and conversing with some of his friends from up the road in Eldred. We built his house back in 2005.
And now for the stuff under production - Not messing around in Saugerties with Cottage 37. We are striking a very exciting deal with Village Green Real Estate, which is owned by Coldwell Banker, which is partnered with Corcoran. Hopefully we can put together a dynamic marketing team that we never were able to do over here in Sullivan where everyone wanted our money but no one wanted to invest in serious marketing.
I would bet I spend more per month than most sullivan county real estate firms spend per year. Farm 17 going up. You know we build fast when the houses go up faster than I can blog about them.
I had Lucas over in the area over the weekend, and showed him around the job sites. He likes big tractors.
And Farm 11 really seeing some serious action - siding, fireplace, interior wall coverings, interior floors, etc....
It's like a ballet its so well orchestrated.
This 1950 sq ft 4 bedroom home on 12 acres is pretty much the cat's meow.
And Cottage 36 - which Matthew wants to call Cabin 1, but I'm just not starting over and if he wants Cabin 1 he'll need to over to Chapin Estate and pay another $200k. (Just joking MM - we can informally call it anything you want, just don't call me late for dinner).
Siding, fireplace, septic, well, interior finishes...
We invest more than $400k a month into these little towns, supporting a wide range of small businesses, allowing many of them to really not just survive but actually prosper. We have been an economic catalyst for 9 years.
New use of salvaged wood above the fireplace - I think it looks pretty sharp. The TV gets mounted as well.
And Mid Century 5 is just about finished, with stone pillars at the carport.
This dandy is for sale for $210k.
And Micro-Cottage 4, getting ready to sale in a week.
All for now. Got to go see how much less Lucas' college fund has in it.
