Deal Time - Sullivan County Real Estate
As far as I'm concerned, this whole 'the world is ending, everyone is losing their homes and jobs' thing going round is working out pretty perfect for Catskill Farms. Today, Rob and Leah signed up for a plumped up mini-house, and Cheri showed definitive interest in Cottage 3. That's on top of Pablo and Ana sending back the sales contracts for Cottage 7, and Gavin moving towards the closing table for his new home at Highland Farms. February and March are going to be interesting months. We are selling 5 finished homes, signing contracts for 3 homes to be started in the spring, buying an awesome huge open bus garage cum my new office/headquarters, buying 14 more acres (3 building lots), and moving towards contract on 50 acres with an old farmhouse I am purchasing. It's a great time to buy anything if you got the money and confidence. Appliances, cars, homes, furnishings. Lots of stores and dealerships are offering great incentives since sales are suffering. And once again, mortgage rates are low, low, low. And for the most part, mortgage rates are almost as important as the price of a home. If a household is in the position to take advantage of the slowdown in the economy, it's a once or twice in a lifetime opportunity to buy, buy, buy. Keep the bad news coming, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, make the news as bad as possible. Seems to be an inverse relationship between bad news and our sales activity.
A Builder's Life - Catskills Real Estate
Being a small business, sometimes life is less than the romantic ideal I paint it. For example, our front porch filled with boxes of toilets, vanities, sinks, barn door tracks, lighting, tile and other assorted items waiting to go into Farmhouse #9 in Barryville NY.
Or, the broken window resulting from Edwin the carpenter getting a little carried away unloading the 14" hemlock shelving we are installing in the pantry of Farm 9.
The full coverage for broken glass came in pretty handy for this doozy. Pretty cold riding around till it got fixed. I could have opted for the duct tape and cardboard temp fix, but that would have entailed finding cardboard, a scissors and duct tape, and frankly, I'm not that handy to begin with.
Good Morning in the Catskills
Morning time in the Catskills, with the Moon going away and the sun risin'.
Sunrise over the Toronto Reservoir at Chapin Estate.
Cottage 6- Below the Line - Barryville, NY
Since the Owner of Cottage 6 makes his living on the big screen, I thought it was apt to use a movie analogy for this post. In movies, 'below the line' are all the people behind the scenes, like camera men, grips, sound, production, etc... "Above the line" are those more visible such as the actors and the directors, etc... These photos could be considered 'below the line', since they are the unsexy elements that happen before the finishes that everyone sees. But as with many things, what happens behind the scenes is as important if not more than what occurs in plain view.
The Owner of Cottage 6 wanted a stained glass window for an area inside the house that looks out onto the back yard and receives a bunch of mid-afternoon sunlight. So, as I mentioned, we drove to Scranton PA, home Old Good Things (a massive salvage yard) to scan our options. The Owner selected the above old school stained glass mosaic of King David to define his march up the staircase.
This photo highlights what will be the steam room/shower combo in the upstairs bath. Flip a switch (or, since we have passed the '90's), push a button, sit back on the tile bench, and steam away.
Here's Lisa, a new addition to our team, surveying the stain glass with a wary eye. She is standing in the basement/ground floor room that will someday be a very hot media room, with surround sound and other fast amenties (like electric and cable).
The Owner opted in for a fair amount of exterior stonework, and what you see here is the first step of stoning the chimney. First you set up the scaffolding, than apply wire mesh, then apply a 'scratch' coat of mortar, then the stone, when it arrives. We are stoning the fireplace, and the entire exterior foundation.
On Friday we have our 'rough-in' inspection, meaning the building inspector comes round and inspects our wiring, our framing, and our plumbing. The electric also gets inspected by an independent electrical inspector, and with the plumbing, we cap off the plumbing and heating pipes on both ends, and apply 10 lbs of air pressure, and then leave it sit for a few days in order to detect any potential leaks. If the pressure stays static, we are good to go, which is the way we like it.
