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

Last week we had a lot of rain in Barryville NY, and since I always have duel interests in such matters, the weather is always a blessing and a curse. For instance, the rain helped fill our backyard pond which has been under-filled all summer due to the dryness. On the other hand, Norm the excavator, Dean the framer, and the guys doing work here on the siding at the shop totally got shafted by 3 straight days of rain. This morning I was snapping some shots of the family over coffee and our big 100 lb lab charged me.

So Heather and Bryan, 2 art professionals from that city 2 hrs away, signed up a few weeks ago for a slightly enlarged Cottage 23. I showed them around once or twice for a couple of hours but it only took a few minutes inside the magical house of David and Pedro to bring them aboard. All Aboard the Shoe Choo - Lucas our son who turns two next weekend is entering the train phase, and he loves lining up shoes and pretending they are trains so I coined the Shoe Choo. Lisa thought it pretty clever.

Above photo is the original adaptation of a cottage in Pennsylvania, that Cottage 34 is being inspired by. Below are Bryan and Heather in the office with their dog.

And then a week or two ago Chris and her family walked into Farm 12, knew it spoke directly to them, tweaked it to better fit their country house aspirations, and decided to speed up their plans from a spring start to a 'let's get started now' start. I always say, why do tomorrow what can be done today? Hello Farm 15 on almost 8 acres.

And Marcus and Courtney's mountaintop spread is speeding right along. What an amazing few days of sun and chilly air since the rain.

3000+/- sq ft of large country living.

And then Sarah and Jeff wrote me an email on Friday asking to come and check out the Micro-Cottage 2 that is for sale.

And at approximately 12pm today, they said they will take it.

So old Cottage 33 is rapidly going up, with a big time site meeting with Gianni and Kelly over the weekend before they went off to our tile lady (Thanks Denise!) and our kitchen guy (Thanks Howard!) for some major design meetings.

James walking them through the projector and big screen we are installing.

And who can forget about Van and Eric at Cool Ass Cottage 31. Not sure how much progress was made on the framing of the house with all the rain, but lord knows Dean the framer won't let too many things stand in the way of progress.

Ok, so maybe the New York Times today, once again, for 5 years running, snubs the most exciting proposition in the Catskills, but it must be disconcerting to them that our customers seem to make up their own minds about such things. And to the art purveyors from Soho, the Google Executive, to the newspaper writer (sorry, Van, not sure exactly what you do besides travel to cool places a lot), to the wealth management pros, to the MOMA curator, to the Dr. of Chemistry, This Buds for you. 5 homes in the hopper, busy for another winter. I'm constantly amazed at the intelligence of our buyers, who want something cool, something quick, something stylin' and something that works.

One day the ferns are green and lush and playful and provide an exciting canopy for entire sections of forest floor, and the next they are a dying ember of their former selves. I'm no fernocologist, but Ferns actually seem to be the most dramatic hint of the change of seasons, everything from the trees to the grass take a little more time.

Barn III just began a few short months ago, and here this past Friday we sold 'er off to Gary and Nikki and kids and dogs and extended family and friends. Our barn series incorporates a lot barn ideas and accents without being too barny - just a hint of barn in the shape, a shade of barn in the loft look and feel of the interior, a nod to the barn in the hand hewn beams across the ceiling.

I was so busy last week that I didn't get a chance to get in and snap my 40 great finished house photos so I had to sneak in yesterday, post-closing, with my master key and snap a few shots. Definitely probably going to get 'in trouble' from the new owners, who still seem to be smarting over a sneak shot photo a few weeks ago.

Anyway, so very simple, so very tasteful, so many small little decisions of restraint and taste that add up to something extraordinary. Nice corner fireplace below.

Hot red kitchen leading out to the big screened in porch which doubles as a kid pen.

Screened in porch made of locally harvested timbers, posts and rafters.

So, another day in the Catskills, where living comes easy and we drink for free. Oh yea, to answer your question Gary ( the new barn owner), you have two choices for liqueur shopping. At 'the corner' in Eldred, or by the Barryville Sports Bar down in Barryville, on the Barryville/Yulan Road.

USA Today picked up a story from Builder Magazine, so here you go.Catskill Farms kickin' it, big time, recession-free style.

Cottage 33, a presold 960 sq ft mini-cottage. We have started 3 new homes in the last 8 days. Hey, why not, it's just the biggest gosh darn economic depression most of us have ever seen. I'm convinced that I need to start a support group for small business owners. Maybe I'm genetically pre-inclined to wear a skirt in such matters, but I swear the constant challenges thrown our way are difficult to manage. Whether it be our design team, our development team, our construction team or our organic spray foam team, it's like a day in day out battle against forward-like progress. Worse, I have found, is to surround yourself with competent, or worse yet, uber-competent people, since then the forward progress becomes accelerated, and the decisions and signatures and directional maneuvers become a daily cascade and bombardment of progress opportunities. When lacking staff, or retaining incompetence, forward making progress is limited by their talents, but all of a sudden putting some real good fits into the right places and the business can zoom ahead, and plans that were on the chalkboard all of a sudden become doable and actionable, and then all of a sudden the rubber hits the pavements and you are wondering whether all the daydreaming is actually a good real life opportunity but it's too late because the deposit check is sent and cashed, the application completed, the contest entered - and then truly in a surprising moment, you wonder if incompetence didn't keep you from moving too quickly in tempting but dubious directions, keeping danger at bay through lack of time and inertia. Then down the road is our next 723 sq ft micro cottage. We aimed for a 400 sq ft shack but it ran up against the local zoning floor of 720 sq ft, so instead of 'fighting the man' (most who probably live in 500 sq ft trailers), I just stayed above the minimum. One thing I've learned to accept is to avoid locked and closed doors - find one that's open - there's plenty of them - don't try to pick a lock. Move to the open door. I guess that' the same as saying 'pick your battles carefully.'

And here's an unsold beauty - Cottage 29, just finishing up. It's sweeeeeeeeeet.

Henning and Edwin, two great guys and carpenters, taking a quick lunch before returning to the final details of a perfect sweet cute cuddly little cottage.

And our top-notch cleaning crew. This is a pretty good example of our efforts - we clean our homes not once, not twice, but three times before we hand the home off to the clients. The first clean is just before we start the final push, just to get everything to the next level, the next clean is right before the painter is coming in for his next to last touch-up phase so he doesn't have to deal with dust and stuff, and the final clean happens the day of closing. if nothing else demonstrates our goal of excellence, this does.

Barn III will be closing next Friday - Certificate of Occupancy in hand and the bank said Clear to Close.

Great house - wide open living spaces, lots of elbow room. We started this house back in July or so and Nikki and Gary (Nikki put the kybaush on any new surprise blog pictures) signed up soon after. They are on the way up this morning to do a final walk-thru, and then high-tail it back to the city for Gary's 40th. And next week this time this baby will be all theirs.