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

Ranch VI owners are friends of Ranch V owners, and like many of our latest clients, are coming from a demographic a bit younger than we are. I mean, I used to be that young - early to mid-30's - but I'm not anymore. It's comforting to know that I'm still cool, able to design and build and brand homes that have cross-generational appeal. Ranch VI is a bigger, badder version of Ranch V. Ranch V is 700 sq ft, 1 bedroom, 1 bath, no basement. Ranch VI takes the idea to the next level, without going crazy with the cost. We added a basement, finished some of it, left plenty of storage space, and just tweaked the first floor enough to make it perfect for these new owners.

Above is the cool ranch with ultra-cool, mid-70's, Berkeley style ranch house. I'm audio reading Steve Jobs' biography at the moment, and they talk about the Ranch houses out there. I'm also reading Keith Richards' autobiography, Life. Just finished a biography on J. Edgar Hoover written in the early 70's when such writings were still frowned upon, and then the audio book The Big Short (I'm a big Michael Lewis fan), and before that a tome on WWII. I read the New Yorker cover to cover most weeks, scan New York Magazine, read Crains and scan another half dozen magazines. Also, there's a cool blog the NYTimes does on the Civil War, daily, since it is the 150 yr anniversary, called DisUnion - it's been going on for more than a year.

Ranch VI is fun and for the select bunch who go this route, the homes have a lot of design appeal. Modern country ranch, small, on a big piece of land in the woods. It's a nice package (that's what she said).

Just finished the insulation, and from there the sheetrock. Next the wall-coverings and then the trim. And before too long the paint, kitchens, tile and wallah, even the new homeowners.

Here's the big storage space for the mechanicals, bicycles, kayaks, etc...

This basement space is coming in real handy with a media area, and then a bedroom and a bath.

And the big views out in to the Tusten hillside forest outside of Narrowsburg, NY. We see that happen quite often - one of our homes inspire someone to buy, and while it may not be that home specifically, the concept, aesthetic and process gets them off the bench and into the game - which in today's market, is a serious accomplishment.

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(below is an exchange between a new client in Woodstock and James, and is just to show the process a little better. every home owner has their priorities, and their concerns)

Hey James,

First, thanks so much for your quick responses and patience as we go through all of this. Also, I apologize for the brain dump in this email, but not sure how else to do it as things pop up in our heads.

So based on your feedback, we've landed on the palette reflected in the modified Google SketchUp attached to this email. It's basically a darker version of Dean's cottage with the "rusty look" metal roof we're after. Specifically, it's Cordovan Brown siding, the rusty look metal roof, and white windows and trim. Still thinking of the front door. Is there a particular brand or budget range we should be looking at?

Here are some more general questions/thoughts that have come up as we've been thinking and dreaming...

1. Fireplace...Since we are not getting the double fire place, would it be possible to move the firebox into the exterior chimney and have the fire place more flush with the interior wall, so as to reclaim some of the floor space in the living room?

2. Would it be possible to get a floor outlet in the middle of the living room in front of the fireplace? We imagine setting up a couple of comfy chairs facing the fireplace with a lamp on a table between them.

3. Would it be possible to make the window in the front dormer a little smaller, so that the frame doesn't go all the way to the edges of the dormer?

4. Would it be possible to have the stairs come off the front of the porch instead of off to the side (like they are in cottage 36). Would it make sense with the house's orientation?

5. Looking ahead, we like the idea of the stained wood ceilings on the porch and throughout the interior as well. Like this pic from your website:

6. How much of an additional expense would it be to have the interior stone of the fireplace go all the way to ceiling?

7. I think we'd prefer french doors going from kitchen to back deck, as opposed to sliding.

Thanks James!

Tiny house Article - Funny, we didn't find much success in homes once we dived below 750 sq ft, but I guess, at least according the the media, the concept is alive and well.

Monday was a real whopper - one of those trite displays that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, in a spectacular and wild fashion. I know I'm painting a picture of our projects in Stone Ridge, Saugerties, Woodstock and Bearsville as seamless and perfectly executed, and for the most part, they go very well, are managed lightly but with laser precision. But being far from home, when things start to spiral the wrong way, oh lordy can they really deteriorate rapidly. So, at 7:45am I discover much to my chagrin that the 3 man crew sent from Eldred to Stone Ridge (1.5hr drive) failed to take a generator, and since the power is still not on, that means they drove 1.5 hrs (or 4.5 man hours) and now they can't work. Since Stone Ridge isn't really in the middle of anywhere, there is no local equipment rental shop around each corner - in fact, there is not equipment rental shop anywhere. I especially loved the fact that everyone was trying to solve this problem without me knowing it. The fact that the electric still was not on, and we are 65% finished with Cottage 38, well, that's a whole different challenge when you are building in new areas - new inspectors, new neighbors, new electric companies, etc.... With new areas and new building inspectors I always handle the inspections myself, since a lot of times the conversation and the attitude goes a long way. Nothing worse than having a project side-tracked by a fussy inspector and a amateur person from my team escorting the inspector around the house. I've built 100+ homes, so have done at least 400 inspections, personally - I know how to do it so everyone walks away satisfied. So, at 8:30, while I'm on my way to the inspection 1.5hrs away, I get a call from the same guy, Brian, saying the 'pressure gauges' on the plumbing pipes have been removed prematurely, meaning my plumbing and insulation and fireplace inspections are not going to happen, since there was some miscommunication, or actually lack of communication. So, can't work due to no electric and a fussy inspector is going to be pissed since I'm wasting his time since we called for an inspector, and then weren't ready. Because it's far away, putting this broken egg back together would take a lot of time and effort and coordination and money. Since I'm a guy into efficiency, really drives me nuts. I even called my plumber to hussle up there, 1.5 hrs away on a moments notice, to get the pressure back on the pipes (not a easy thing to do). (we put pressure on the pipes, with both ends closed, in order to prove there are no leaks in the piping, before we close up all the walls(. Then it started to turn. The typically ball-breaking (or very thorough, depending on what side of the coin you like) was accomodating, impressed with our progress and quality and showed some flexibility. My excavator who lives 30 minutes away just happened to be in the area, with a generator, that we could use for the day. And as I was leaving, the electric utility - Central Hudson - arrived to do the final hook up and give us some juice. A whirlwind of a morning from total collapse to total triumph. And the reason why I relate all this is because that's really an analogy for our business journey as a whole - if you don't stick with it, you never know how close you came to turning the corner and succeeding.