Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

Here's a interpretative self portrait photograph Lisa composed a few years ago.

And here she is at the Homestead School, possibly Sullivan County's only private school - and on 85 acres with goats, sheep, gardens, barns and fields, this montesori's school has been around since the early 1970's and the owner's children are just readying themselves to take the helm.

They don't call her 'wrong way Lisa' for nothing. Here she is framed by the mediterean sea with Mt. Vesuvius all hazy and subtle (like a girl I met at Pravda in'98) in the background when we were visiting Capri last summer.

And now, all knocked up, posing with our elderly german shepard.

Really, it's quite pronounced. Sullivan County goes quiet after Labor Day - it doesn't go softly into that good night - it, overnight, becomes a very rural county without the weekend and vacation population that swells its roads, deli, groceries and bars. I mean, we are still only talking about maybe 1 or 2 cars waiting at a stop sign (very few stop lights), but that's one or 2 more than during the winter.

The farmer's markets in Callicoon, Narrowsburg and Barryville are thinning, and the good vendors still have a few good items left come 11 am, when just a week earlier, they would be sold out and making excuses as to why they consistently don't bring enough corn, cheese, apples, peaches or what have you.

Neat restuarant in Callicoon.

I like it slow - I can do without the summer 'crowds'. A rainy day inside the house, cold winters, snow storms, quiet sundays with the family and pets.

Sullivan County is a very seasonal destination. We don't have great ski slopes in our backyards or many of the other reasons people flock to winter destinations - so the only people who are up are homeowners, local or new yorkers alike. The summer is a bit different - with beautiful weather, lakes and ponds galores, the twisty delaware river hugs the entire south and west border of this large county. Hiking, climbing and a host of other summer activities attract a good crowd.

Well, great weather this summer. The spring and early summer started out a bit freakish with big violent rain and wind storms but then it settled into a nice, hot, varied summer with just enough rain to keep everything growing.

But I am a big fan of the other 3 seasons as well - and with my new fall wardrobe arriving in the mail the other day - I am ready to go, in style.

Can't hide the meaning of these colored leaves - Fall is on it's way.

Here's Lady Storm and Ruby - Ruby we rescued from Brooklyn, and Storm from White Lake.

And an old school pic of my friends Nancy and Brooke, before kids, marriages, or 2nd homes stole them away from me, I think we were somewhere up in Newport RI.

And just before the game of quarters started.

Well, just playing it cool today, just counting my lucky stars, and the days to the birth of our little boy, Luke.

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So, on Cottage 9 we had two guys who signed up real early and signed a contract and all that jazz but just before construction one of them professed a dying ember of emotion for the other so since they were breaking up, they didn't want the house. Because it was so early in the process (before construction started) and since I have no desire being part of a fight over assets, we gave them back their earnest money and began remarketing the house. In 2 hours it was sold (going into contract) at full price. Now that's pretty amazing.

Groovin' loose or heart to heart

We put in motion every single part

Funky sounds wall to wall

We're bumpin' booties, havin' us a ball, y'all

Shake your groove thing,

shake your groove thing, yeah, yeah

Show 'em how we do it now

Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, yeah, yeah

Show 'em how we do it now

We are really shakin' it now, probably building more houses than anyone else in the county (definitely more well-designed houses than anyone else). It's an amazing thing to say since 1, we are in an historic recession, and 2, we thought we were just a small little boutique business with a good taste. Well, what did we know? Obviously, not a whole hell of a lot. Or else having good taste is rare these days.

Here's Cottage #9 - the only house we have under construction that is not spoken for and reserved. In fact the first house in more than 14 months that we've been able to secretly construct so some deserving person or family could buy a nearly complete home. This house has been kept more secret than the Republican VP pick, and hopefully, more fully vetted and thought-out.

Cottage #9 is a lot of fun, since we have no constraints or limitations on our creative bents, and this house is really going to be perfect - 6 acres, 1300 sq ft, 2 huge bedrooms, fireplace, big ass deck, front covered porch, walk out frickin basement, security, whole house audio, and a dozen other things that make a house perfect. And yes the land is included for the offering price of $338k. And so are the 120 yr old stone walls, the perfect setting, the circular driveway, and brand new everything.

The whole house has been wired, plumbed and heated and we are just waiting for the windows and then off to the races.

And the stone wall I was braggin about, seen from the house's rear.

And now some pics of houses in motion -

Dean's Cottage 13, just a wooded lot 3 weeks ago, just a foundation 2 weeks ago, now nearly a beautiful cottage on 6 acres, tucked nearly perfectly in the trees, rocks and ledges.

And the last cottage in our small project named Highland Farms.

Here is Cottage 14, Deb and Jeanne's house, on 5+ acres, outside of Yulan, NY. Foundation in, lumbered delivered, retaining wall of huge stones selected and placed pretty perfectly, and we are off to the races on yet another pretty perfect home.

I mean seriously - 1350 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, fireplace, 2 porches, wide plank floors, picking out colors and stones and faucets, and vanities and kitchens and colors and stains. 4 months from lonely piece of wooded land to sleeping in the bedroom and bringing your laundry up from the city for some clothes washing in peace.

Lumber load delivered, ready for the framers tomorrow.

And then up to the top of the hill, on 10 acres, sits Farmhouse 10. This house, modeled after Farm 9, which was modeled after Farm 8, has been really a favorite - so much so that I had to turn someone down the other day who wanted a similar design.

Foundation in, lumber ready, sun setting. On your marks, get set, GO.

And then lovely Cottage 15, just taking it's first baby steps. First come concrete, then comes frame, then come the roof in a baby carraige. This house has it all, except waste, redundancy, and boring spaces like a 'bonus room' 'grand foyer' and all those suburban nonsense terms.

Now, if you want to do a little test, track back a few blog posts and you will see how quickly we really do move - how we really do 'shake our groove thing'. It was just 2 weeks ago that none of these foundations even existed, and now, within 10 days, all of them will be framed and roofed in.

I mean, no wonder people hate me - that's a lot bullwhippin', slave-drivin', no nonsense, no excuses, no bullshit, take no prisoners approach to building homes. How else do you build 40 country homes in 4 years in the middle of nowhere with no selection or depth in vendors/subcontractors/suppliers, and introduce over 100 adults to country living at its best?

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3 yrs ago, the week Katrina hit, Lisa and I were in Poland, via Berlin for my friend Boogie's wedding. Boogie was a friend I met my first year in business when I picked them up hitchhiking, -he and his friends previously blogged about. I mean, it's pretty amazing, this free market system, - I start a business, hire boogie and his friends, they work hard 7 days a week, 15 hours a day (still less than me) and leave the country at the end of the summer with a pocket full of cash that goes a long way in Poland - enables a marraige proposal to a girl named 'delicious', the purchase of a small apartment, and a real jump start on life. Here's Boog, Delicious and Lisa at a cafe in Lodz, Poland.

Same with Juan - my right hand man who has been with me since the very beginning - 7 years. During his stint with us, he has mastered the english language, supported his family at home in Guatamala, invested his american money in building an apartment complex in his home city. All the result of my gamble and perservence. Edwin got his green card and his family is coming over, spent 3 years nurturing 2 country carpenter and turned them from dishonest hill country carpenters to responsible young men (who in the end screwed me - can't change a tiger's spots), and a very large number of subcontractors and supply houses have benefitted from the boat I float - remarkably, until 7 months ago, the boat was leaky, large, lumbering, and for the most part, a very tenuous proposition. Oh, how many times have I been screwed, cheated, taken advantage of, fixed other people's mistakes during this business building experience - let me count the ways. Well, maybe not. Let's just say focusing on the big picture is not the easiest task when confronted with a weekly barrage of bullshit coming from all direction. But, as Lisa has often remarked, it was that ability to look past the country spite and sometimes lackluster performance in order to keep my eye on the ball - the ball being paying my bills, and developing/designing/building & selling perfect country houses. Here I am in a consignment shop overlooking a square of Berlin.

Train trip from Warsaw to Lodz, very hungover after a big night out in Warsaw which included some accidental eastern european strip joints, which let me make clear, are different from the ones in Reno.

Golden Gate bridge and Chuck the builder in the fore.

And Lovely Lisa in our suite in Berlin.

We promised boogie we woul be there for his wedding, and lo and behold, we were - come hell, high water, and no money.

We did, however, fly first class, since there are some frequent flyer advantages to buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of lighting, lumber, doorknobs and flooring.

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