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

The Big Big Barn in Narrowsburg is just finishing up Phase 1, the house and barn project.  With 17 acres and a lake, I expect Phase 2 to center around the grounds.

That's the house up above and the garage down below.

It took us about a year to put these babies up and considering everything that went into them, that's pretty speedy.

The 4 door garage with space upstairs turned out real nice.

Lots of deck, some covered, some screened, some elevated.

With 17 acres there was a lot of different places to put the house.

Here's the mudroom, with a bench, a roof panel backsplash, double closet, local stone, natural ceiling.

The hole house is about openness and light.  We used 3 residential garage doors that operate real smooth as the defining house accent.

Lots of stone on the inside and the outside.

This is a shot of the master bedroom, which is open to the rest of the house.

Stainless steel hanging orb..

And a swanky shower.  We used 3x6 subway tile with black grout in all 6 bathrooms.

From the bath, the barn.

Drawers from the vanity out cause we just did templated a concrete countertop, which turned out really good.

Here's the upstairs of the garage.

And a frontal on the garage doors.

Floor to ceiling subway tile.

And a phone pull string toilet.

2 good bedrooms on the first floor, each with a bath.

And a kitchen that sprawls in a few directions.

We went back and forth on the garage design  - glad we ended up where we did.

Master Bath toilet.

Exposed spiral ductwork.

Going down in the basement...

With polished concrete floors, a pool, wine room and media room.

In a way, it's harder to build a small home than a large one.  But we had a lot of fun here and really turned out an architecturally unique and modest homestead to be enjoyed for years to come, I'm sure.

Resting before kayaking...

And here is something that happens more often than it should - I lose shit, at least misplace shit.  Nothing worse than gearing up for a bike ride, getting the hot tight stretch pants on, the gloves, the helmet, the jersey - get the bike down from the racks and go to get the tire and the tire is nowhere to be found.  Cause twice now, once I put the bike on the roof rack of my car I forgot about the front tire.  last month I left it at the bike store after a tuneup and last week at one of my job sites after going for a little ride.

It's embarrassing to call people up and say 'hey, did you see my front wheel?'  Plus it's annoying to get all mentally amped for a 20miler on these hills 'round here only to have it fall to pieces CAUSE I LOST MY FRONT WHEEL.

Then I was down at my folks and like has happened at least 4 times I forgot my toiletry bag which is bad enough but half the time now I have in it lucas's dumb thomas the train toothpaste (he won't use anything else), or his dumb spiderman toothbrush, or his 75 baby spray on SPF suntan lotion - so then I'm dealing with his meltdown or not brushing his teeth or running all over creation trying to find thomas the train training toothpaste.

Though by Dad's wife did send it back accompanied by 4 Lancaster Cty whoopee pies.

And lucas is always leaving his shit laying around too, so not only do I have to keep my things together, I have to keep his things together, and his things are small (like his 9 superhero figures) and he gets around so we have to a frickin' inventory every time we go someplace.

But at least I have these 3 deer relaxing outside my office this morning.  All bucks with little furry horns.

Cute Kid, right?  I always love when people say 'what a cute and adorable kid' cause I'm just saying to myself 'that's half my doing!!'

Farm 20, modeled after Farm 11 is a big time winner on 25 acres in Barryville NY.

House and Barn.

We don't mess around.

And here's Lucas on the 2nd floor of the barn on a Sunday Morning before washing the car and before the nap and before the kayaking trip up the river that feeds the Mongaup Reservoir that feeds someone's electricity somewhere.  We made up a song which that went as follows - "Washing the car together, yeah, washing the car together, yeah, that's what we do, father and son, yeah, we're washing the car together".  Add in a few verses about superman and ironman and sing it in Hulk's voice and you got 15 minutes of kid entertainment easy.

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Flowers, even those boring ones we see everyday, have a kind of magic upon close examination.  True, maybe a more cliche-ish statement could not be made, but on a day of a funeral for a brother of a close associate, they just had a singular simplicity that strive for in our homebuilding.

Yes, it's true, I some somehow compared a flower to our homes, but that's why I'm good at what I do.  I'm shameless.  But, to be honest, actually it's not shamelessness that propels me most - it's more a sense of a mission to continue to build this business in order to provide respite for the weary urban toiler.

FYI, when I saw this sign I went in the other direction immediately, without hesitation.

Wow, tell me that doesn't look like a painting, or an illustration, or some computer-generated graphic - but no, someone actually gets to live in this house in a few months.

Since I've started this business 10 years ago with little more than a credit card which would have revoked my privileges long before if they had any inkling of the risks I was about to take, I have founded and grew a few businesses. One of the good ones - though super tough - is Ecotech Spray Foam Insulation.  Started at the height of the uber-panic, super-negative March 2009 with the really cool help of the First National Bank of Jeffersonville, we have grown this company ever since.

That's the thing about this journey - the twists, turns in the road, road less taken, risks endeavored, yields unyielded, stop signs ignored - it's been a wild road.  One of the oldest and most important is my relationship with my local bank, Jeff Bank  - I don't think there is a better example of a banking relationship that works, a banking relationship that has organically grown, a banking relationship that had the malleability, the flexibility, the access to the decision-makers, the small town big vision of relationship-building.  You want to talk relationships - then talk about me starting with a $100k loan when I needed $300k in 2003, and evolving that relationship into a $5m+ multiple business, recession-defying co-dependency that has been inarguably mutually beneficially.

It's a very small town do-good story but actually it's a national story of what works.  What works is relationships, credit-worthiness, risk-taking within historical parameters, just general old-fashioned conservative character analysis and bill paying history,

Here's the insulation.

Here's the sheetrock... (after the code enforcement inspection of course)...

And my son, through a grided-grated table at the bookstore.  That boy, for whatever reason be it nature or nurture, is just simply a powerful human being.

And the foundation of Farm 20 (F20G), who must be to be busy in the real life to keep up with his guest blog posts but it don't matter cause we will be showing what he's made of in this cool house creation of his and his newly wedded bride.

Here's the footings of the house.

Here's the foundation of the house...

Here's the frame of the house...  Lucas and I have this soothing house before he goes to bed where we do 'what I did today' where we recount each thing we did that day for his benefit before we say our prayers and go to sleep.  

and the cool garage with green house extension being readied for the concrete slab this morning, under a darkening sky and risks of thunder storms, never a good mix for a newly poured concrete floor.

And lovely Barn VI, just getting started but moving right along.

It didn't take long to move it right along with the tyvek and metal galvanized roof.

And Farm 19 is no Slacker, with perfect lines and dormer and porch and windows and what have you.

Oh boy it just goes to show you can't judge a book by it's cover cause this house, like an onion or even better like the firecracker wife in the Blind Side, just keeps revealing itself with each passing day.

and a look-a-like in Sullivan County with a different approach to colors...

And the Big Barn in Narrowsburg NY with the garage in the background.  a year of toil and wallah a masterpiece.

so that's about it.  Thanks for tagging along.