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Stone Ridge NY - 1900 sq ft, 3 beds, 2 baths.

Pretty serious stuff around here - with Farm 23, Cottage 43 and Mid Century 6 all closing in the next 5 days, god willing.

This mean prehistoric snapping turtle crawled out of my pond - he'd take your toe right off.

And speaking of ponds, I took my first dip in my pond that I built 2 years ago.  Right off the big rock into 14' of water.   Cold and I smelt like a pond for awhile.

That's me on the right, James my project manager on the left, and Bronson "Big Guy' Bigelow in the center.  We just finished converting a 150 yr old schoolhouse into a 2 room inn for him and his wife to run in their idle hours.

Here's Tito, our painter, illuminated in a churchly sunlit glow.

And Farm 23, which sells on Friday.

And Lucas checking out the new digs inside.

I was in the city on Monday night and boy was it fucking nasty out - windy and rainy and just spooky nasty.

But the upgrade didn't hurt my feelings.

Bill Would Sweeten Loans for Energy-Efficient Homes - NYTimes

Good article (clickable) about forward looking ways to enhance the performance of the housing stock - they say like a third of all energy is consumed producing heating and cooling for homes, so any advance in conserving energy in that front actually has a direct impact reducing the country's energy footprint.  Homes by default are literally double the efficiency they were 6 yrs ago before the green movement, but they could easily double again with the uniform adoption of enhanced insulation, and then measuring the post-construction performance of a home.  Spray Foam insulation literally measures 4 times more effective than fiberglass batt insulation, and twice as effective as NY State Energy Star - it's serious stuff.

Catskill Farms has been using spray foam insulation as a standard since 2008.  We actually won't work with clients who balk at the expense  because it's such a no-brainer, and the payback in comfort and costs is immediate.  Using fiberglass insulation is like using a typewriter instead of a computer, carbon paper instead of a copier, leaded instead of unleaded gas, Polaroid over digital photography - everytime I see that crap fiberglass insulation being used everywhere in a home, I know that homeowner either made a bad decision, or wasn't educated by their builder and/or architect.

In 2009, my cohort James and I started a spray foam company, www.ecotechsprayfoam.com so we could afford to give all of our clients in the Hudson Valley the benefit of this product - 4 yrs later we have sprayed over $2million dollars of basements, attics, crawlspaces, retrofits and new homes.

Once the laws and building codes measure energy efficiency in a home correctly - measuring it's real performance, not in artificial factory conditions - once that political fight is won, homes will become dramatically more efficient.

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