Cottage 28 has left the building - SOLD
Oh my Cottages, let me count the ways - Cottage 25 Sold in February. Cottage 20 Sold in February. Ranch II Sold in February. Micro 3 Sold in April. Barn II Sold in March. Farm 12 Sold in May. and Now Cottage 28, sold in August. Also, have contracts on Barn III and Ranch IV, and most perfectly, perhaps another 3 signed commitments this week. Cottage 28 started on April 5 - and was completed in Mid-July. 3 months from raw land to polished perfection. Even the Haters can't take that type of seriousness of purpose away from us.
Denzil and Carolyn came to us one Saturday with a warning - they told right out that if they like what we are doing, they have a bad habit of just doing it, having purchased real estate before. So, they liked what we were doing, and now they are just cooling it on the front porch, just a few short months later.
And this house is great - I love the hayish yellow, the bucks county ledgestone, the front metal porch, the stone on the foundation, the on-demand water heater, the slicked out glass shower.
As with all our homes at this point, we deliver them finished beyond any gray area. Clean, appliances working, grass growing, full tank of propane.
This Cottage has a walk-out, so the basement can be finished off for some nice space. Not that you need a walk-out to finish off the basement, it just adds a nice element to it.
It's amazing how many inspectors and bosses I have - the building inspector, the septic inspector, the homeowner inspector (or sometimes most problematic, historically, the homeowner's Dad), the nosy neighbor inspector, etc... We toe the line for sure, doing a daily garbage check not just on the site, but the roads leading up to the houses as well.
We've had great building weather for the last few months. Hot, dry, production-oriented weather.
Good pic of a finished house. Chalkboard doors, fireplace, cable rail, kitchen island.
Wine rack in the island. Now that's a nice touch.
Hand-hewn posts.
Funky backsplash and sliding barndoor, with radiator back in the corner in front of some wainscotting. I think I mentioned this before, but one of our homeowners thinks we are jerks because we keep getting better, and she resents the fact that we are innovative and her home doesn't have all the cool tweaks that the homes 4 years later have. I mean, that's an absurd proposition, by any measure.
This Cottage in the woods is 1260 sq ft, lives on 5+ acres, has 1.5 baths, full basement, separate dining room that leads directly to the deck, 2 bedrooms, cool driveway approach. I know I've said it 100 times, but this whole open basement idea of Courtney and Bronson's has totally reinvented our little homes by keeping the flow going. Then with some rock treatment at the bottom - now you got something. It adds a bunch to our cost of the home, but so does the prewired audio, the security system, the low heat alarm, the stone chimney chases, the wood siding, the wrap-around porches. It's value, done efficiently, and offered at the best cost we can. An amazingly boring proposition that works.
Glad to report that Bakers Tap Room outside of Yulan seems to be staying busy. Not easy for restaurants to survive up here.
The dining room with it's high white washed ceiling and stained wide plank floors.
The five panel doors with black hardware. Going up the stairs. One thing we try to do, regardless of the size of the home, is to keep a little space, a little elbow room, at the top of the stairs. Even at the expense of little space lost in the bedrooms - it's just such a nice thing to have, instead of a cramped little hallway.
And granddaddy shower, with the half-wall, and glass shower walls, and Denise's special tile border.
Cool sink.
Powder room.
And some simple kitchen shelves to finish it all off.
24 months into the Great Recession and Catskill Farms continues to rock the house, providing these perfect little getaways that work. Our quality at this point and time has reach a state of near perfect quality control, and the challenge will be to remain this attention-to-detail, get-it-done-right-the-first-time company that we have grown to be.
Many Hats I Wear
So 7:30am was a meeting with Al the tree guy to go over some tree cutting, tree topping needs I have to cut open a view for Lot 11, on LakeRidge Road. This guy climbed a 60' skinny tree to rescue our kitten in the time it took me to drive home from the office, which is two miles max. Ruby the cat that was rescued as a kitten from a trap in Brooklyn spent more than 24 hours up that tree. Then over the the Mitchell Farmhouse, renamed as of this moment the Callicoon Farmhouse, to meet with the security system guys, the HVAC guys, the plumbers, the electricians and our carpenters. The building inspector popped in for a review as well. Then over to DIY Blog Cabin house, to meet up with the building inspector for one final CO walk-thru, which we passed without issue. Then over to the Bethel building department to drop off my Certificate of Occupancy affidavit in order to receive that all important CO document. Then to office to meet with the outside salesperson from Superior Lumber in Neversink who is pricing a 'new skin' for our office building. Then took a call from Jason who is installed 60 ornamental grasses at the office in the next few days. Then met with my architect to discuss Shack #2, and a miniature version of Benoist's house for Ase. Now off to inspect the final trim work at Cottage 29, then a newspaper interview revolving around DIY project and then that's it, I guess. Lots of places for things to get really screwed up when you move everyday in so many directions. Chaos management - take it too far and it's sure to cost you money, and not far enough and you sure to miss some serious opportunities.
A Typical Friday
You know, we are just sitting around minding our own business and winding down a busy week when two movie stars clients pop in to say hello. They walked over from Crawford Road with their dog, Ollie. David was an early customer -snapping up Cottage 6 - and turned Gavin and Albert onto us as well.
But topping that was the purchase of our new 3500 Dumptruck/plow truck with the Catskill Farms insignia, shadowed by the 5-Bay barn we built last year. Don't know if we can ride this wave of good luck forever, but we definitely used to deflationary pressures of the Great Recession to position ourselves for the next uptick, and it should keep the 'competition' in the distance.
As always, we made a lot of progress last week - working our behinds off on several fronts. Cottage 29, Cottage 28, Ranch III, Mitchell Farmhouse, shop alterations, Barn III and starting clearing and driveway installation on a few new building lots.
Here's some shots of the 960 sq ft living large cottage 29. It has 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths and nearly 8 acres. It's a money shot away from both Barryville and Eldred, about 1:45 from the Upper West Side. It's currently for sale, listed at $270,000.
Pretty cool getaway, with some neat flow and openness.
My nephew Josh was up for the week, testing the waters of this thing called work. He's 15 and off to the left of the pic below.
Gary and Nikki, the future owners of Barn III, are coming up to check out the serious progress at Barn III. Cedar shake siding turns this Barn into something pretty fancy - add on the screened-in back porch and the dog run we plan and building and whoa, ride 'em cowboy.
Spray foam insulation, and big open spaces. Like I've mentioned before, our homes are the greenest out there - I would pit their performance side by side with any home being built out there. Gentlemen, start your engines. Our organic-based soy spray foam is standard in our homes and ranks us among the few builders who consider such upgrades standard. The sheetrock phase has begun.
Barn III has two bedrooms and a full bath downstairs, and a bath and awesomely huge upstairs loft space.
Cottage 28 is all wrapped up. We started this home on April 5, finished it up mostly by mid-July, which is my finger counting is working this morning, that adds up to 3 months. Since Denzil and Carolyn are 'in the business' in NYC, they were pretty complimentary about our speed, thoroughness, communication, and administration. As Mr. Mitchell, whose been building in Washington DC for a few decades, said a few weeks back - development, design & construction really is a 'communication business'.
Frankly, I love this house. It's the perfect little house on the perfect piece of land. Great Color. Great lines.
1300 sq ft of highbrow modesty.
And Ranch III is rocking the house - just about turning that corner to the home stretch. I haven't been able to get many super great shots because it has been moving so fast, but after next week and the stained concrete project (yes, you heard that right) - it's picture perfect ready.
And our DIY TV project has wrapped up and will be Airing on August 19 - it's a 2 hr special covering the entire renovation.
Super hot house. I'd live there in a second. And the Mitchell farmhouse on 20 acres - big by our standard measurements, but about standard for America's sq ft yardstick. We are flying on this one -
I think why we do ok over the last 2 years is because the proof, as they way, is in the puddin'. And the puddin' is being mixed and made on a daily basis, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. A lot of things get in our way - but nothing stops us, or for that matter, nothing really even slows us down. Barn Fest at the Ramsey Farm in Lew Beach tonight.
Sundays
Bit of leisurely fun by the pond we just built and eagerly waiting to fill up. At the moment, it's a bit muddy since it's been raining a lot lately, after really not raining much at all. I have competing priorities - no rain for less problems on the construction sites, and more rain so the grass and pond fare better.
Lucas loves the mud.
And he loves rocks - lifting rocks, throwing rocks, dropping rocks.
My bro came up with his 4 kids and new dog, which is a mix between a black lab and one of those long stretching dogs - dashhound or something. Funny looking byu
