Marching Onward
This time of year in the country, for people in my line of work, you start to get that gnawing notion of anxiety, knowing the winter and all the logistical struggles that come with it, are coming closer with each dying day. the morning light is markedly later, and jackets are starting to come out. Here's the handsome devil himself, below. And Lucas is pretty cute too. He likes running around my offices with all the trucks and guys and action.
While we didn't have the catastrophic flooding like the northern Catskill thank god, the waters were still super high, with the Delaware really moving along like some sort of Snake River rapids.
A ton of construction happening lately, in preparation for a bunch of closings. Barn 4 next week, Cottage 36 soon thereafter, Farm 11 in mid October, Farm 16 in Mid November, Farm 17 in January. Looks like we are doing a new deal for Barn 5 with Bill and Veronica and possibly, fingers crossed, hope to god, we might have a deal formulating for Cottage 37 in Saugerties. I mean, if that wouldn't prove the saying that 'I'm the man', not sure what would. Barn IV with Norm's machines cleaning it up, planting the grass, etc...
Cottage 36, water and heat will be on today, which is really the signal for that last 1/4 mile home stretch.
Sweeettt. this is a real winner cause we worked hard to earn this family's business.
Farm 11 went from 'getting there' to 'nearly done' over the past 2 weeks. Moving so fast this recent picture is already outdated.
and farm 16, which is just about ready to get our full and undiverted attention - Trim's done, floor is in, now it's time to spend some time finishing up the trim, getting her painted, and finishing her up.
All in all, we're killin' it in terms of productivity and getting shit done.
9-11
One of the fortunate things about living in a rural area is that we are not unavoidably bombarded with media - sure you can find your NYTimes and your Wall Street Journal and whatever else you want, but it's not like everywhere you turn are 1,000 titles screaming the latest echo chamber news event.
I plan on quietly marking the decennial anniversary with my son Lucas the Bethel Harvest Fest and maybe some kayaking on a pond somewhere.
It's been 10 years since I relocated to Sullivan County, and we have provided 100 homes, to 100 families, so the idea of respite and escape can be more fully appreciated by those with harried urban lives.
Pictures from Ground Zero - pre-noon - September 12th.
Firemen lost, listed in the dust of a window pane.
Folder, listing, "Directions to Country Clubs".
A small billboard stating 'Choose Success'.
An Ann Sacks store in the World Financial Center.
A lunch area in the World Financial Center.
Exactly how they left it in the moments of disaster, in the World Financial Center building.
From the site.
Upstate Flooding, New Homes, Press and Lucas' 1st Day of Pre-school
Old Lucas - today is day number one of the rest of this life. Responsibilities, obligations, duties. Life's never stopping train of added loads. He didn't much care for the idea this morning - though he was looking sharp, nonetheless, in his sleeveless sweater. Lisa made me swear I wouldn't put this one picture of his pre-school struggle up on the blog, but that's asking a lot of a flawed person like myself.
He is here the day before, testing out the pack that is like a bit too big for him. I told his mom that his pack was too big and let her see for herself that the damn thing kept knocking him off balance, but, like always, to very little avail. Off he went, loaded down and happy.
The floods upstate didn't hit Sullivan County too directly, but it did hit us upstate in the Saugerties area. Trees down, electric down, bridges out - and I traveled a bit more north into Greene County, and it didn't take long to run into closed roads and alternative routes. It's bad, really bad, and since upstate really isn't that super vibrant economically to begin with, it's a real setback. I stopped by Catskill, New York to check it out - boats over turned, and the parking lot across from the school completely torn up. Not good.
We had a few more press placements from our NYC PR team. An Interview with Upstater, an online upstate-centric blog (although 'blog' may assume 'online', ain't) - And a quick mention with New York Family - Also doing some interview with some press concerning 9-11. The Associated Press mentioned our story and efforts in an article last month, and I drove into the City yesterday to do a radio interview with Radio France, their public radio station. While I was upstate (actually, why I was upstate) I decided to check out the homes we are building. Here's Farm 17 all wrapped up, windows in. Now the electric, plumbing, heating, security, audio and air conditioning is in, and we will be looking for an inspection soon. One of the small but real impacts of the hurricane's destruction is the fact that the hookup of our new underground electric to these homes, which we finished just prior to the storm, will be last on the 'to do' list of the electric utility, meaning we will be waiting a long time for juice.
House placement is an art, and if you screw it up, well - you really can't ever recover fully. We are pretty good at it, and nailed it on this one for sure.
Cottage 37, a real looker, and for sale, is moving along at about the same speed. For efficiency sake, because they are a bit far away for us, we have sort of joined them at the hip.
It's been raining now for 3 days and it's getting a bit tiresome. Hasn't really impacted our construction schedules yet, but definitely motivates a sort of gloomy and perplexed pale on everything and everybody. Some nice person wrote me an email this morning alerting me, in the most kindest way, that I needed a blog post, since the last one was growing 'stale'. I hadn't even thought of it - but she was right, it had been over a week which is long time indeed.
Mid-Century Retro Ranch V
James, our project manager on the left, and Eamonn/son, the soon-to-be owners of Farm 11, posing for a Saturday afternoon snapshot.
Two snazzy gentlemen, but nothing compared to our newly completed and for sale little modern number (sorry guys, no appeal or recourse available). It's our 5th Retro Ranch. It's on 5.5 acres, borders 1200 acres of public land and for all intent and purposes just an extension of this property, and is selling for $220k. One bedroom, one bath, and a whole lot Je ne se qua, if you know what I mean (and for those frequent readers, this french digression is a first).
It's a good one - in the photo above you can see the reflection of the rustic red roof, coloring the house. And the car port. And the shot from the rear, capturing the stone pillars and stone chimney.
Lots of light.
Great shot of the car port, which could easily be converted into a screened patio, or even a 2nd bedroom down the line. I like it just fine as a throw back carport.
Our modern front doors, with a splash of red. I love a splash of red where i can.
Wide open living, dining and kitchen, with a hot red fan, chalkboard door, polished concrete with radiant heat, stained wood ceiling and lots of light.
Woodburning fireplace nook.
Down the hall, where we brought the exterior siding into the interior -
A hot bathroom with black and white and an apple green and some modern fixtures and vanity.
The one and only bedroom.
We have 8 houses finishing up between last week and November, and we are getting ready to get started on another 4. "Ain't no mountain high enough..." Au revoir!
