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

Wow, now that's funny. In my last post, I linked to Bethel Farms' Brand New Country Cottage, which in effect, is nothing more than an architect I fired (Irace Architecture), and Realtor who could never sell nothing for us, and a developer (Bethel Farms) who no matter how much guidance he gets always chooses the wrong direction at the T teaming up to try and compete dishonestly with us. But, what's funny about it is that I graciously linked to the cottage to help them out - although it might be said I meanly did it just to juxtaposition our homes with theirs. I'm a big meany like that. Well, anyway, to make a long story short, the link is now disabled - they took down the house from the link. That's got to be an embarrassing rebuke to Irace Architecture and the whole team over there. With Catskill Farms, I don't even like to use the same paint color in our homes, even after 60 homes, because I respect the desire of our customers to be original, to be in an original home. I think it reflects directly on our integrity as artists/designers - we value the integrity of our designs, they are not commodities that are to be sold off to the lowest bidder. Look, the thing is I don't want to sound mean, or spiteful, or anything like that. But Irace Architecture used to be our architect until I found out he was selling our award-winning plans to our competitors. And Bethel Farms, you know, I didn't care much about their non-existent or extremely lackluster sales until they attempted to steal our identity, confuse the marketplace, and borrow heavily from our marketing, our strategies, and our home designs. I mean, the owner of Bethel Farms actually leveraged his relationship with one of my associates in order to get inside info. We live in a very non-dynamic marketplace - this isn't NYC with competing condos that look exactly alike and have exactly the same amenities. Here you had this developer with unlimited funds just taking what he wanted from a small little successful company. To no avail, but still, it's the principle. They even named their stupid cottage "Country Cottage #1". Not the Charleston, the Bettoncourt, Not the TimberLine like all the other dumb suburban homes in dumb suburban developments. They even took our simple little technique of numbering our cottages and farmhouses. How Unoriginal. And the marketplace has spoken firmly in favor of originality.

The thing is, dog, (I've been watching too much Randy Jackson on American Idol), that it is real early in the morning. Not even 4:30, but I really was pretty pooped out last night after just a whirlwind of activity in 100 million directions last week and went to bed real early. Just a sampling of this past week's activities include kicking more ass on the DIY renovation than genghis khan at the battle of Chakirmaut, continuing to build 6 new houses, getting the planning and construction ready for 5 spring starts, spearheading a new marketing push, spearheading a new PR push, managing about 9 employees, 20 subcontractors, 3 businesses, 24 pieces of real estate. Not mentioning being the perfect dad, husband and dog master (just kidding but I do do (note the dog pun) my best). Not that I'm counting, or trying to rub it in those competitors who just can't quite get it done in this challenging real estate environment, but that's our 3rd sale this year, and leaves us with 4 homes under contract that will be closing in the next two months. Last yr we sold 14 homes, and it looks like we might be able to do that this year as well. And for an underfunded little niche boutique business like we were/are, that's a huge amount of homes.

Wow, 50's Ranch #2 is a masterpiece. I mean, you all know I'm pretty biased about these houses - that i think their size, pricing, value, design collaboration, land selection, land placement, etc... is just about as good as it gets- but this house just really has that one-two punch of great design and owner-risktaking that worked out about as well as it could. What I like about it as well was the fact that I was able to pull a good well-framed picture of the future owners - most times my portraits are so pathetic. What didn't hurt either for this post was just a perfect sunny friday morning for picture taking, with cool shadows and fun accents.

Like I had mentioned earlier, Tony and Laurie had been contacting us throughout their upstate getaway search - which lasted a few years. A long search is not that uncommon, since it's a big decision, becomes almost part of a family's lifestyle (looking for homes upstate on the weekends), and, in the end, is a pretty difficult decision because there are a lot of towns, and for the most part, the architecture is not incredibly appealing.

So, after going in that direction, and then this direction, and almost buying a place way upstate, they decided to come into our clan, and I think everyone is pretty confident it was the best decision the Owners could have made - especially when the combined talents of them and us produced this mid-century classic.

And that's the thing the losers who try to copy us don't understand - our homes aren't static, they don't stay the same, we are always pushing the envelope of what is possible design-wise and construction-wise, we are always taking chances, moving one way, then another, then another. I had a guy telling me the other day that he's aware of several companies that are out there studying our stuff with a microscope - but, in the end, a microscope can't capture soul, or that feeling people get when they walk into our homes. Our homes emote a strong design personality- and that is something that is not easily mimicked.

What is overlooked as well in our originality is what our homeowners bring to the table. It seems like everyone we work with has great taste - some work in creative fields, others do not, but either way it seems like the customers who are attracted to us have a strong creative bent and a real creative itch they are dying to scratch.

Granted, it may be considered a bit over the top to scratch that itch by building a home, but hey, I'm not judging.

I mean there is so much debate about what constitutes value, especially in these turbulent times - but there is little debate among our new homeowners, who can easily see a well-built, well-designed, inexpensive to operate, upstate getaway is valued in many ways other than dollar and cents. What I love seeing as well - loving healthy competition and respecting it's ability to force us to continually raise the bar - is when one of our bad imitators (and believe me, they are all bad for some reason) buys the land, has the house designed, builds the house, tries to sell the house, lowers the price 10 times and then finally overpays a commission (if they ever sell it), is the realization that there is no money left for the developer/builder. From the outside, it appears Catskill Farms is raking it in (granted, we do make a nice living and try to compensate everyone reasonably) but once you try it, you realize how expensive it is - the nice piece of land, the curved driveway, the distance the house is from the road, the placement, the wood siding, the metal roof, the security system, the audio system, the very cool radiators, the fine kitchens, the tile, the backsplashes, the perfect lighting, the wide plank floors, the railings, the crowns, and details and details and details. Believe me, we exasperate our competition with our vertically integrated ultra efficient process. It's a military operation in it's efficiency.

Fireplaces, radiators, cantilevered countertops, wide plank floors - on time, on budget.

The key to what we do is two fold - one, I'm diversely talented with a good eye and a pretty good appetite for risk-taking, and two, it's our team. I mean, I have developed a team that is motivated, quality-conscious, forward-thinking, and always improving - we don't have a weak link in the chain. And, as opposed to say that going-nowhere-fast Bethel Farms project where everyone is just trying to milk the cow for as long as possible (check out their Cottage here - you have to wonder what Irace Architecture was smoking when he designed this one - unattractive from every vantage), our team of engineers, surveyors, excavators, painters, plumbers, electricians and dozens of other professionals have our best interest in mind, go the extra mile, understand the opportunity and position we occupy is based on a wide array of people doing their best work. It's not perfect work - but it's work done with a good attitude, with attention to detail, with respect for me and my customers.

I mean, you got to love it - 60 little unique homes scattered about in the woods, hardly there. It's such a modest proposition - build small well designed homes, stand behind your work, keep experimenting with architecture and materials. Keep the prices low.

Famous sliding barn door above.

Big window of one of the bedrooms.

And even our stairs to the basements look good. And some feedback - "Thank you, we couldn't agree more. It's amazing what can happen with the right combination of talents. Thank you for your vision and expertise." So, there you have it. It's 5:33am, I'm listening the BBC, the cats and dogs and baby and wife are sound asleep and it's just me and the creaking old house in Eldred, NY.

Above, my 1880's farmhouse we bought from a retired cabaret singer, then thoroughly renovated it and then totally added onto it. That's the thing about Sullivan County, - there's just a ton of under the radar cool people and places. I mean, we don't even have local news - I know more about what happens an hour away than what's happening here. Here's Richard's Barn House #2. Richard has had some great ideas on this house, my favorite being the exterior stain color. It's a big wide open lofty barn and will provide some great country entertaining I'm sure. That's 1x12 shiplap up on the ceiling, -sometimes we paint them, sometimes we whitewash them, sometimes we stain them.

I think the construction process is a bit arty and the whole post sheetrock polishing phase always looks good. Painting starts next week.

And there's the man - Norm with his skid steer (as opposed to skid marks). He owns a lot of machines, if you ask me, and he moved them up to our DIY project today in order to move some snow and extract some bad trees for the cameras tomorrow.

Mud season is here. Temperatures are climbing into the high 30's during the day and the 4' of snow we had last week is going to create a serious mess real soon. I have this sunken media room at my farmhouse and I have two projects that are just beating me down bad. The first is my pond, out back. I mean, I have the perfetct spot where water gathers in a big sort of marshy area before heading down a stream and into a lake. It's a perfect spot for a pond, with fresh water running in and running out. I have this big idea to couple a perfectly groomed badminton court, pond side topless bathing, celebrity referees and fresh martinis every friday, but after 2 years of trying to put this pond thing together, nothing, nada, not a swimmable spot in the marsh. Now, you got to remember, I get things done for a living so this falling flat on my face pond failure is a bit alarming. I'm not the guy off the street calling a pond guy from the yellow pages - I know a lot of people. And the 2nd bane of my existence long term project is to create a seamless high tech media room where the tv, computer, flip phone, digital camera all work seamlessly together in a some commercial-like experience - well, I'm no media-head, I'm not so great with tools, and my latest attempts to complete this project ended in a new tv upgrade that resulted in a tv purchase of less sophistication, a duel cable adapter of the wrong gender, and a computer monitor cord to connect my laptop to my tv - and for some totally incomprehensible reason, both the tv and the computer needed the same end of the cord. Didn't make any sense. Any way you look at it, I'm keeping my day job of moving mountains, navigating insane stuff, and getting it done while trying to accomplish what I thought was going to be some pretty easy jobs. It's kind of like I tell Lisa - I should always have least one construction project going for my own home at all times so I never lose that empathy for indecision, crazy behavior and self-doubt. Nothing brings it out in people like a good old fashioned construction project.

Blog Cabin Intro Video This should be great for the area. Lots of positive free press. There's this guy named Jack Thomasson, I mentioned a few times over the past 9 months, who pops into town more and more frequently. Having done house projects for the past 15 years for HGTV, various national magazines and now DIY, he's a combo house planner, talent scout, location scout, project manager. Not saying he recruited us as only the 35th builder he's ever selected from across the US, but someone else could say that. He would know better than me since I hardly leave Eldred these days, but he claims that Catskill Farms is one of more dynamic home design and build companies in existence presently, anywhere in the US. And he would know considering not much grass grows under his feet - he's always moving around the country - building this, scouting that. His latest project - HGTV's Dream Home in New Mexico - is presently airing and will be given away soon. It's validating for sure - and since it's not like I live in a place where many of the daily professional challenges can be shared with like professionals (since few exist), he's great to have around and bounce things off of. Well, This real sad looking photo is from Friday night at Erin and Gregs - over at 50's Ranch #1. For some reason I may be the worst portrait taker ever - still lifes are one thing, put a person in the photo and everything goes haywire.

Anyway, Erin popped up last January, and having never spent anytime looking at or for real estate, decided right then and there to buy 50's Ranch, even though it was only framed up with very little definition.

Gin Martinis, snacks, our baby somewhere doing something worrisome.

What's amazing about our clients is their general taste level - our clients have good taste. Not necessarily expensive tastes cause lord knows money don't buy taste - but just a general soundness to their aesthetic. Colors, contrast and whimsy.

Girl talk in the kitchen over drinks and sippy cups.

Guy stuff by the fire. Lucas kept running around sticking his fingers in the candles and playing by the fire.

And Jake, Lucas, the vacuum cleaner and sunlight on a Sunny Sunday Morning.

So, it's one thing to take pictures of empty good looking houses after we finish them - it's quite another to revisit a year later after everyone settles in and defines it a little more specifically. Maybe I'll start a "Martinis with your builder" program, where people can invite me over, feed me alcohol, good snacks and good conversation, and then we can snap some post pics of the house with them all saying great things like "What a guy!", "Frankly, genius!!", "Best decision I've made in my life!!!"

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