Cottage 39 - SOLD
It's funny that the screw job Henning Nordanger of Henning's Local gave me is a gift that keeps giving. Every time I eat out locally, every martini I enjoy, every party I plan, and every referral I give has the extra bounce of flavor knowing that those serious dollars could be going right into the pocket of Henning's Local - cause I'm loyal, and I'm also a huge supporter of quixotic local startups -nobody gets the challenges better than me. Sure, it may be a bit perverse, and maybe even a waste of my mental and spiritual time, but we all have character faults and one of mine is repeatedly shown to be my inclination to forgive slowly those who negatively trespass into my business ventures that employ a lot of people, contribute a lot to the community and support a lot of local jobs and businesses. I'm like a guard dog on the perimeter guarding against thoughtless, moronic acts of selfishness that impact my business and the real people who benefit from it. I would rank Henning Nordanger's act of pouching my top labor without so much as a warning or a conversation as one of the top acts of dispiriting betrayal I've experienced in my ten years of building homes upstate. And I think about it a lot. At the same time, I think it's strengthened my business because his act and the repercussions allowed me to eliminate some of the counter-productive flexibility I'm inclined towards and also forced me to figure out how to incentivize people I don't want to lose so dumbass maneuvers like Henning's are not tempting.
That said - we had had another closing just recently on a really cool house with lots of Catskill Farms significance. Here is Cottage 39, in Eldred New York, all dressed up and ready to go.
And the lucky young family who now have a new home and lifestyle to complement whatever they have going in the real world.
The reason this design has significance is because it is closely modeled after Cottage 1, our first small home, back in 2007. In fact, it wasn't just our first small home - it was the region's first well-built small home. At the height of the McMansion era - where local realtors laughed at the thought of a two bedroom 1300 sq ft home having a place in the marketplace. "Where will all the guests sleep?!!??," they howled.
Turns out, not everyone buys a couple of extra bedrooms and spends tens of thousands of dollars to accomodate twice a year guests who can easily stay down the street at one of our neat local bed and breakfasts.
Easy to maintain, inexpensive to furnish, low taxes, modest sales price, and general fitting their lifestyle like a great little black dress or that perfect leather glove worn in over years of use. And the fact that these folks are acclimated to less than over-sized spaces cause they live in the NYC metro area, the well-design, low cost homes were just a perfect additional to the upstate real estate landscape.
We just started Cottage 44.
Here's the living room, with the radiators, Jacobean stained floor, cable rails, salvaged rails and reclaimed stair posts, locally harvested stone, and a wood burning fireplace.
Different angle. This 1300 sq ft 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath on 5 acres has a security system, wide plank floors, a mudroom, tile baths, awesome kitchen, screened porch, covered front porch, big back deck and a man-shed - and that's just a cursory review of what's under the hood.
The old wood burning fireplace.
Great traditional kitchen with open shelves, farm sink and shaker cabinets.
Dining room with lots of light -
An instant classic photo. I think our homes really are accentuated over the holidays - even 'warmer' than typical, even more of a 'respite' than normal, even more of a 'victory lap' than typical for our accomplished fast set buyers from NYC area. Holidays are about Home, and our houses are inarguably Homes.
"What makes your houses so special?" "Cause they are 'homes', not just houses, that intangible, inarticulatable, subtle emotive feedback our homes give, especially with a wreath on the door and Christmas candles in the windows."
The mudroom area.
Out to the screened porch.
From the mudroom to the kitchen, powder room on the left, painted white wainscotting, radiator.
Going up the stairs.
2nd floor bath.
From the bath to the deck, back yard and man shed.
Bedroom 1. This Cottage has big bedrooms.
Bedroom 2 with duel double barn doors with strap hinges and black iron hardware.
The man-shed.
The front porch.
Sure, the decorations might be a little heavy on the lower part of the tree...
December 1st. Gonna be a busy month. Starting 4 homes, 3 renovations, going to Miami, going to the city, planning the company party, finishing up Glasco Cottage and Farm 20, and a whole host of other things going on including decorating our home for the holidays.
Farm 20 and the Glasco Cottage
Pics worth a thousand words.
Frustratingly, these pics are already long out of date. lot's of progress.
Floors acclimating.
Ground floor build out.
Future bath.
Bedroom.
Upstairs foyer.
Farm 20
With some vibrant colors.
Mudroom and closets.
Media room / den/study/ bedroom #4.
Kitchen, dining, living room.
Pojab. Pimped out japanese american bath.
Master bedroom
Car barn.
Green house off the end.
Farm 19 - SOLD
Like I was saying, we have a few closings this month - with another happening last Week. This was the first time we built this version of this beauty and it turned out perfect.
2 metro lawyers - one specializing in books, one focused on commercial real estate.
Regrettably, with the weather crappy I wasn't able to grab any final interior photos cause I guess the folks had a uhaul trailer with them at closing cause when I popped in the next morning, the place was partially furnished.
But, here's the narrative - 3 beds, one on the first floor, 2 full baths, 1600 sq ft, Narrowsburg, NY, 10 acres, under $400k.
Just a really great house, awesome floor plan, lots of perfect product and color selections - another for the Sold column.
Only real question as Lucas and get ready to head to southeast PA for the long holiday is which books on tape to listen to - I was listening to WAR about some soldiers in Afghanistan, which I think the movie Restrepo was based on, but that has too many swear words that Lucas now picks up on - so I'm town between a history of Genghis Khan or a history of the feud between Carnegie and Frick in the late 1800's after the infamous Homestead steel strike, named, Meet You in Hell.
Saugerties, Lucas and Hudson
What a gorgeous weekend we just had up and down the Hudson Valley and beyond. Lucas and I made the most of it, hitting Hunter, Saugerties and Hudson over the weekend before heading back through Woodstock and then Stone Ridge this morning.
That's me on the right, and that's actually a computer case not a fanny pack I'm carrying.
Here's a guy named Chad that it posted up in the tiny bathroom at Love Bites, a local hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Saugerties.
Here's Saugerties in the early morning hours. My apartment up there gets great morning light.
Lucas cooling it after a long day of exploring in his glow in the dark skeleton shirt.
Saugerties has a great local independent bookstore on the corner of Partition and Main. They got toys and books and every once in a while a yummy mummy.
In Hudson, I picked up on an inadvertent orange theme that we have going - between his sweater, the bricks, his pants and paint.
Airplanes hanging from a wire.
It was a big weekend for my typewriter collection, finding two good ones in Hudson and then Joan who does the books and more found one at her parent's home in the Rockaways (which was badly damaged). I've been collecting these bad boys since 1998, have about 30 of them. Kind of annoying that now typewriters are hip, since it drives up the prices (used to be no one wanted them) and makes them harder to find. My only rule is I can't buy them online - too easy. Have to scout them out, or have them given to me (hint, hint, Xmas ideas!!)
Just minding my own business when I came across this common country scene.
