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

Strikes again with his slightly askew observations and interest-piquing insights.

The Fashion Week Diet

Here are our hot homes from 2011.

Cottage 36 - 1400 sq ft (plus a finished basement)- Narrowsburg, NY - Under $450k

3 beds, 2 baths, 15 acres

Profession - Lawyers

Farmhouse 16 - 1500 sq ft (plus finished basement)- Narrowsburg, NY - Under $425k
3 beds, 1.5 baths, 8 acres
Profession - Beauty/Construction Management

Cottage 31 - 1300 sq ft - Narrowsburg, NY - Under $340k
2 beds, 2 baths, 7 acres
NYTimes writer/New Media (is that right Van?)

Cottage 34 - 1400 sq ft - Narrowsburg, NY - Under $400k
2 beds, 1.5 baths, 6 acres
Profession - Art

Micro Cottage 2  - 700 sq ft - Barryville, NY - Under $200k
1 bed, 1 bath, 7 acres
Profession - Art

Micro 3 - 790 sq ft - Barryville, NY - Under $225k
2 beds, 1 baths, 5 acres
Profession - Advertising

Barn IV - 1300 sq ft - Narrowsburg, NY - Under $350k
2 beds, 2 baths, 5 acres
Profession - Publishing

Cottage 33 - 1000 sq ft - Barryville, NY - Under $300k
2 beds, 1.5 baths, 7 acres
Profession - Finance

Farmhouse 15 - 2400 sq ft - Narrowsburg, NY - Under $500k
3 beds, 2.5 baths, 7 acres
Profession - Dr. of Chemistry

Farmhouse 11 - 1900 sq ft - Narrowsburg, NY - Under $475k
3 beds, 2.5 baths, 12 acres
Profession - Finance/IT (sorry guys no better pics)

Cottage 29 - 1000 sq ft - Barryville, NY - Under $250k
2 beds, 1.5 baths, 7 acres
Profession - Advertising

That's all folks.

So a couple of clients of mine who bought a cottage a few years back decided to pick up this old schoolhouse (and later incarnation as a gospel church) in Barryville, NY, and now we are renovating it into a 2 bedroom home (albeit with a lot of history).

When we found it it was this really great open big one-floor space.  We are poking a hole to the attic, building a staircase, and creating 2 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs.  There's a great old bell tower up there too.

From a construction perspective, this was a real dozey - add in 0 degree temps when we started and a foot of snow and that made it a little harder.  But we had a good plan, the right machines and the right guys on the job and we hurdled those complexities without too much drama, cost or delay.

I got another urgent message from Catskill Mountainkeeper about banning gas drilling and "The 4 Things You Can Do Now" (reminded me of Cosmo Magazine's '10 Ways to Make Your Man Happy in Bed') to help convince Cuomo to continue to prohibit the drilling for natural gas in NYS.

Attend this meeting, sign that petition, call that senator, etc...  And then it struck me - this huge grassroots movement didn't ask for the simplest action that should be the over-riding mantra of all these folks -

They didn't ask anyone to stop using gas.