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

Well, we started this blog about the same time we started our Highland Farms project in Eldred, NY, sometime last October. 5 or 6 months later we have pretty much hit our goals of early spring sales for Mauricio's Cottage 5, Steve and Christine's Farm 9 and David's Cottage 6. Can't say it was all roses - shitty weather, ice storms, war with my ex-excavator Hank Andryshak of HSA Homes and HSA Excavation out of Goshen NY over his corner cutting, attempts at shoddy work and bad attitude, 3 building inspectors, a change in the town supervisor, a meltdown in the credit markets - but we made it. Actually we didn't just make it, we really made it and we hit the spring running with a full plate of excited future customers lined up, good cash flow, and a solid business infrastructure.

And I even had time to take care of a little personal business - Lisa's 5 months pregnant. I've been saying for years there needs to be more Petersheims in this world. Well, I'm doing my part, if a bit belatedly.

I know I've blogged these pics before, but here is sweet Farm 9 and manly Cottage 6 in all their glory.

Tonight I go to the planning board for the first review of my new project just up the road. We hope to open up 7 big new home sites.

Once we get these built we will have built a total of 22 new homes in the Town of Highland New York. That's a lot for this po-dunk town.

I'll be in big trouble for this blog post because I gave my word to never post pictures of Lisa without her approval.

Old Stormy, who we adopted a few weeks back, is feeling right at home. It's pretty funny because now when anyone comes to visit us we immediately need to pronounce three disclaimers - one, that the big log house we live in and rent is 'not really our style', that 'we aren't really gated community types', and now 'we don't usually chain our dogs up under porches.' It's a lot to communicate to new guests.

Here are some pics of Lisa getting storm ready for a big walk. Lisa has probably taken this dog on more walks over the past 3 weeks than the rest of his life combined (my cat just stepped on my keyboard !!#%$&).

Stormy is quite patient as Lisa figures out the harness. I can predict the trouble I'm in, mostly centered around her outfit - cozy pants, white sneakers, leprachan jacket and Jackie O shades.

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In a development I never expected, we are ceasing our marketing and saying no to any new clients. With Dean signing up for a new cottage, and Albert signing up for a farmhouse on 10 acres, we now have a 6 house waiting list, not including the 3 houses currently under construction. Accepting any more clients would only result in disappointing current ones, and that is without a doubt a bad business decision. The perfect element to this activity is that some families are ready, willing and able, others want to start in the summer and other want to wait till the fall - so it should work out perfectly.

Considering we are a finely tuned machine at the moment, and have access to more good labor than ever before (thank you slow economy), we are motoring right along.


Here is Cottage 7 with the roof on, windows in, house wrap being installed on the exterior, and the interior is completely framed, plumbed, heating lines run, and plumbing finished. This morning we passed our 'rough-in' inspection with flying colors and now we plan the fireplace and insulation installation. Turning the corner of this home in just 5 weeks.

Cottage 7 will look familiar to some of you since it is inspired by Cottage 1, which in turn was inspired by a little house on Rt 55 between Eldred and Bethel. We like to keep things very unique for our homeowners, but at the same time don't see a problem reusing a great design. As long as all the elements vary, the houses will remain unique to each individual homeowner.

Cottage 1 had a standing seam metal roof and cedar shake, Cottage 7 has 1x10 beveled siding and a black architectural shingles roof. The siding is being painted moonlight white, and a dutch door is decorating the front door. Cottage 7 changed some walls around and moved the dining room to the rear of the house, eliminated the full bath on the first floor and decided to add a bath and a partially finished walkout basement.

People love these cottages. It's a lot of bang for the buck.

Here is Cottage 8, a mini house, with about 800 sq ft of above grade living space broken into a fireplace room, kitchen/dining room, sitting room, a cathedral ceiling, and a closed in sleeping loft. It's a really great use space.

To allow a little extra room, we are completely finishing the basement area, with walk-out doors, lots of windows, a bathroom and a sleeping room. In the end, Rob and Leah took the money they saved by buying smaller, and allocated that budget to stonework, cathedral ceilings, finished basement, etc...

It's going to be a fantastic house. Cozy, perfect and inexpensive to maintain.

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So most of you know that my good dog Bella passed on here about a year ago, actually the exact same day I closed on Cottage 1, which was sort of a push pull emotional situation. Our good friend Gib McKean, a local real estate legend, was talking the other day at breakfast about this dog. The dog's owner got sick about 6 months ago, spent 5 months in a nursing home, and then passed away recently. So a few of this man's friends, Gib being one of them, were looking after the dog as best they could, stopping by to feed it, water it, etc... but the dog definitely wasn't living large, tied to his dog box all winter, without much affection being tendered his way.

Any way, Lisa and I took him home, without his dog box which was too big for 3 guys to move - plus, I'm not sure Chapin Estate would have been too excited with me driving into the project with some big old dog house hanging over the sides of my pickup, hay and roof shingles flying off the back.

So old Stormy now gets walked twice a day by Lisa and sometimes Lisa and Amy, and even though she is 11 years old, I could easily mistake her for being absolutely no older than 9.

The best part of the story is the owner who passed on owned 4 german shepards over the past 40 years, and he named them all Storm. Kinda like my grandpapa who always had these mini-dogs around and they were all named Pal. Should be a pretty glorious denouement to her dog's life, living at Chapin under the deck, getting lots of lovin from Lisa, and getting to experience first hand the insanity of the kitten we adopted from Brooklyn.