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

Tomorrow is my 40th birthday, and today we closed on two houses - Cottage 24 and Cottage 20. Used to be that I used to sweat every single second between the offer on a house and the actual closing - I mean when you are only getting paid once or twice a year, closings are important.

But now, with closings every 3 weeks or so, its sort of becoming old hat - you figure between the land I buy and the land and homes I sell, I've been part of at least 100 closings.

But don't let me fool you - a closing is a big deal - a culmination of design a home from scratch, picking a piece of land, putting the right house on the right piece of land at the right place on that land, getting the damn thing built without too many delays or problems, navigating the weather, the planning boards, the subcontractors, the land, the financing, the banks, finding a buyer, and actually closing on the home - transferring it from me to them. It's pretty glorious.

So, happy birthday to me. The big 40 - I kind of like it, I definitely wouldn't trade what I know now for a few more years of youth, that's for sure. Knowledge and experience is worth it's weight in Gold, in terms of running a business at least. Lisa was going to take me away to our favorite New England Inn in New Hampshire to celebrate Lincoln's b-day, my b-day and Valentines day (and without Lucas), but alas, with my mom stuck in Lancaster under 3' of snow, we had to cancel. Now I'm stuck in Eldred with the ole ball (lisa) and chain (lucas). Oh well, no one said it was going to be easy.

Jake, my 6 month old Chocolate lab, and I like to take walks, and since he's a pretty good boy for being a puppy and a lab, he gets to walk through the woods without a leash. So far, so good, meaning he hasn't run off yet. I walking on some land around my house (couple of hundred acres) and came across these retro hunting stands.

Can't say they look too sturdy, and I wonder if that's a 'stop work order' from the local building department posted on the front?

Ever green juniper.

And the big blue sky as I exited the woods. Good brisk walk on a Sunday morning with my dog in the middle of the woods. Now that's living pretty large.

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It's Saturday night again, what seems to be my most frequent go-to blogging night. My dog just farted in his sleep - it's a real doozie - I'm watching Band of Brothers (all 14 hrs) for about the 12th time. Lisa bought me the box set a few years back. Steve Jobs, in a Times interview said last week - “A defining quality of Apple has been design restraint,” says Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster and consultant in Silicon Valley.

Great products, according to Mr. Jobs, are triumphs of “taste.” And taste, he explains, is a byproduct of study, observation and being steeped in the culture of the past and present, of “trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then bring those things into what you are doing.”

I agree, and have been saying something similar, although less articulated, for years.

Here's Laurie, Tony and Eva (hope I got the spelling right) checking out there mid-century pad earlier today. Started their house back in November, and finishing it up in late February. Mid-Century Ranch #2, following in the illustrious and hard to fill shoes of Erin and Greg. It's a funky little abode with lots of personality and big views. They chose a 3 light front door from a wide selections and offerings.

2 hrs outside the city sits a small little getaway with all the space and functionality and style and carefree potential anyone could really need.

Today, Saturday, James and I had 3 final walkthrus with the soon to be owners of the Cottages on Lake Ridge, outside of Narrowsburg, up above the old and drained Lucky Lake. James pointed out that these houses came in 4 weeks AHEAD of schedule, even though we are in the heat of winter, when things are triply difficult.

Cottage 24 has been one of our favorite designs and we have built iterations of it on several occasions - Cottage 2, Cottage 6, Cottage 18, Cottage 22 - and each time we keep coming up with ways to keep it real, keep it unique, because of all of the necessary ingredients critical to the integrity of our process - uniqueness of each individual home is paramount, integral, to the integrity of our efforts. Mark, below, came up with his family from Queens, -his partner was skiing out west somewhere (must be nice!)- his final walk-thru also was scheduled and everything was pretty much finished and we hope to close on this home this coming Friday.

They got themselves one of our famous Dutch doors, that split in two.

And Susan, friend of Gayle at Cottage 15, friend of Bryce and Thom at Cottage 17. She selected the little brown cabin cottage on top of the hill. All my photos of the little cabin are back at the office, while here I sit in my sunken living room jousting off a flatulent and sleeping dog.

She went for the 9 light 2 panel front door, painted red. Lisa always hates when I take pictures where I show up in the glass, reflected.

For the first time in maybe my life, I got some sort of stomach bug that knocked me on my ass for a few days - literally didn't go to work, which I think may definitely be a first. And considering we are short handed in the office and loaded with a half dozen buildings going up, it was no time to be horizontal. But all's good that ends well, and feeling better here on Saturday, found a new leash for Jake who keeps chewing through his leashes. It's not super easy finding a leash up here in the sticks, and when I finally found a shop in Narrowsburg that sold one, they didn't take credit cards so that sent me searching for an ATM. 3 more houses nearly finished, and I'll be posting numerous photos in the next week or so.

It's hard to believe - but our last remaining house was reserved today by Steve, a gentleman who makes his living building fine picture frames. Good for us. Good for him. You got to love a happy ending. 7 houses under construction - 7 houses under contract.