Quantification
For frequent followers of this blog, they remember the needless pain and suffering regarding this Farmhouse.
Now it turns out this is the first resale of a Catskill Farms home that has been resold.
Amazingly, after the worst housing pricing decline in the history of the US with the exception of the Great Depression, this house appraised for more than the owners purchased it for 2 years ago. that's a pretty significant statistic, because while the new owner didn't pay the full appraisal price, the fact remains that this home held it's value with all sort of macro-economic odds against it.
And then my friend Dean went to reappraise his house that he bought in February 2009 (remember when the world was ending) and once again the appraisal landed above what he paid for it. Now, I'm not saying that means selling things in this environment is easy, but it does mean that our homeowners retain many advantages over the average American underwater homeowner - good appraisals mean the ability to refinance into lower rates, good appraisals mean the ability to sell when you need to, good appraisals are what it is all about, and with the extreme conservatism of the appraisal industry these days, getting a deal done - be a house sale or a refinancing - means our homes are passing some pretty serious stress tests.
Blather On....
So we finished up the DIY Blog Cabin show with a flourish. It will air on a day to be announced shortly... And we started roughing in the plumbing and heating at Nikki and Gary's Barn III...
And hosted the local building inspectors for our Certificate of Occupancy inspection at Cottage 28...
...where Tito the master painter was in the house doing his last minute touchups...
And the septic, and siding and sheetrock and front galley walkway at Ranch III...
And Curtis and Bryan working on the staircase as Cottage 29.
...And Ranch II basement buildout underway.
Loads of construction to blather on about, fer sure.
Great FeedBack
This comment was so good I thought I'd give it its very own thread to highlight this thoughtfully articulated opinion of our efforts - "wow you must be the smartest guy in the catskills. how can you even look at the locals . do you also import fake friends from the city so as you have people with your intellegence level to talk to. this blog is a joke with blather and self promotion that is way over done. pat yourself on the back some more why dont you. " About the 'smartest guy in the catskills', well, they said it, not me. And I would spend even more time patting my self on the back, but I'm pretty busy building and selling designing great getaways. HOT. That's the only word for the last few days.
Bears, Beer and Houses
Da bear, just up from our house. A farmhouse we just started up in Callicoon, NY - somewhere above Callicoon Center and North Branch, not too far from Jeffersonville, NY.
Cottage 28, finishing up. Should be complete some time next week and we hope to have the owners in by the first week of August.
Barn III.
Ranch III being insulated.
The EcoTech spray foam guys. All of our homes have spray foam - normally a $6k upgrade from any typical builder. Insulation is the building block of Green Building.
Cottage 29 looking sharp. 8 acres, 960 sq ft, lots of porch. $270k.
That's it. Enjoy the weekend. Badminton Anyone? I'm so tired of beating up on Lisa - it's sad, like the story my dad tells me of having to play dolls with his sister so they would play catch with him.
