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

I know, I know - this fantastic one of a kind piece of architecture (our 60th fantastic one of a kind piece of art) doesn't interest the lifestyle editors and the real estate editors at the NY Times, but what can you do. For us, it's just another day, another cool house, another new homeowner getting their upstate getaway groove on. Another house sale. Our 4th this year, and the first of 4 that will be coming home here in the next 5 weeks.

Richard the homeowner found us after the big NY Post article about our company and one of our homeowners - which is a testament to the power of the press. It was a pretty good article and we were designing and dreaming about the potential of this barn house, the 2nd of the series.

We started construction on the house back in November, just before the winter hit. A lot of times sometime soon after Halloween it gets a little dicey since the weather can change real fast, and the last thing you want to do is get caught with your pants down, an exposed foundation partially complete, with the footers exposed to frost heaves. But subdivision took some time with this request and that request by the local town. But we hired the right people and got 'er done, just in the nick of time. We then proceed to start 4 homes, and like I said above, we will be closing on them one at a time here for the next 5 weeks.

I love the color of this house - and, below, you can see the genius. What a great morning to be snapping some shots with the WAL (wide angle lens, duh).

This one bedroom loft like barn has a lot of neat Catskill Farms features - a couple of sliding barn doors, one downstairs for the pantry and the other upstairs in order to open up the bedroom to below. Great yellow again. Richard really nailed the yellow.

I mean, when we sell a house, it's tight - it's finished - it's turnkey.

The thing about this barn house is it's got great lines, and pretty terrific symmetry. Reminds me a girl I used to know on Martha's Vineyard where I spent a few summers farming in my barefeet during college.

And the bedroom.

Vantage from up top. This house has gotten a lot of rave reviews from people who write me emails and sneak after us peeking in windows and taking afternoon tours of our homes on Sundays.

Chalkboard door, and sliding barn door, all in 0ne shot.

Simple bathroom below with subway tile, wainscotting, 5 panel door and hand made cross buck door with large black iron strap hinges.

This small little awning windows were a great design choice by the owner. They really worked in this space, and provide a lot of privacy and a lot of light.

Basement are big and clean and most times our buyers from the city (more or less all of our buyers) are awed by the basement space.

And everyone loves their washer and dryers.

Heck of a house. Heck of winter getting it done. Heck of an effort by the whole team from Catskill Farms to bring another one home on time, and on budget. Pretty amazing that we are always singing the same old tune - great house, great designs, great value, on budget, on time. Like Randy Jackson would say - 'great song choice, dog. you really nailed it.'

Well, the very first people who looked at the land, pre-house decided to take the getaway plunge. It's almost like magic - I wave a wand and we sell a house.

Considering we are also pretty close to nailing down a deal on Ranch #3, that would prove to be a pretty remarkable spring start.

Old Norm, working Saturdays - in this photo, just finishing up the construction of the septic. We all work Saturdays - it's just another day to get shit down for us.

Rainy today, which is fine with Me. We needed it, and I kind of like rainy Sundays.

Cottage 28 with the big sky. Framing lumber in the ready. Below, Cottage 24 with the final grading just complete and the hay mulching shading the grass that will be growing shortly. Green grass, sagey green house, and soon to be green trees.

Norm working hard getting the land regraded. Lots of times after winter there is lots of work to do on each piece of land and house that we sold over the winter, when the 'final grade' was impossible. Norm's one of the good guys - we have bad guys work for us as well - this guy Ken who did some siding jobs for us before getting kicked off the job has been calling the DIY network for some reason or another, using that same old 'public humiliation' ploy I've been subjected to many times over the years. So this guy Ken does a shitty job, his tyvek actually blows off the house, he sends me an outrageous bill which does not jive with the work he's done, and then when I don't pay, he spends his idle time (which is more or less all his time) calling up the network to tell his story. Sorry Ken - seen that movie many times before. Although, I guess a confrontation would be great television. I can't even count all the ways I've been threatened over the years -

Modern Ranch #2, sitting high on the hill, perched, cantilevered, balanced on the side of the hill.

And Cottage 20 - wide lens, little house, big sky.

Cottage 24 from down the hill.

And the driveway to our new house.

So, I'm watching American Idol and it's a terrible series of 'inspirational songs' being song slowly and badly. Thank god for the fast forward and dvr.

Wow, what a perfect spring for construction. Usually it's all muddy and messy and soggy and hard to navigate but not this year - this year is sunny and dry and slightly breezy and mid 50's. So dramatically different from last year where it started to rain in May and didn't stop all summer. It rained every day. It reminded me of 2003, when I was building my first home and it rained everyday, making every effort triply difficult. The thing about Catskill Farms and it's catskill real estate efforts is that we build quick - I mean real quick - no messin' around quick. 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, with an army of skilled talent. I purchased this piece of land in February, and we started construction - putting in the foundation - on April 5. Check out the progress below - Excavation and Foundation - Week of April 5th.

Week of April 12 - Foundation complete, foundation waterproofed, perimeter drain installed, and house backfilled.

Week of April 19 - the framing begins. Day 1

Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

This house is being built on 'spec', meaning no buyer lined up at time of construction. The price is $335,000, and will be ready by August or so. And today Denzil and Carolyn come up to check it out for the 2nd time.