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

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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What used to be my picket fence in my front yard.

And bel0w, the Snow Fro.

We're working today. We work everyday.

My damn dog Jake just got caught totally chewing up my cool Carhartt hat with brim. This really burns me up.

Jake loves this mid-century chair, and while it was emotionally painful, I let him have his way with it, and he preceded to use it as a big chew toy/comfy bed combo, which is fine since you got pick your priorities with a young dog.

Just ask Lucas, whose toys have been thoroughly mauled, chewed, destroyed and distorted by the chewing abilities of Jake. And Lisa has a real sad slipper that was chewed pretty good too - and since she is pretty picky about her slippers, I don't see them being replaced anytime soon.

Jake is growing pretty fast. He's going to be big and his feet have always been over sized (you know what they say about big feet!).

It's snowing again. After a pretty weak winter of snow we have been hit 3 times now in the last 2 weeks with some pretty significant snow falls. The reality of it is the less snow you get, the more extreme each storm is. I remember back in 2002 or 2003 when one of the winters brought a snow storm a week - so by the end of the winter, 6-8" was considered a dusting - that's how accustomed we became to its regularity. But with a storm just two days ago with 14" of thick wet heavy snow, this snowurricane promises more of the same - lots of work plowing, losing electric, losing time on the jobs, etc... I'm in the office alone today - a month ago I cancelled work after the hype of a snow storm that left us with about 3" - and after Lisa accused me of getting soft ("You What? You closed the office?! Wow, times have changed!), I was hardboiled against being duped again, but the other day it took some of our guys 3 hours to get home, I figure since it is snowing now, this morning, and they are calling for increased snow all day, I figure we can sit this rumored 20" out. I'm currently organizing my desk to Pandora radio, dialed into songs like Radiohead.

Like I mentioned last week, between the weather, we managed to finish up a few houses and get them sold. The closing that happened on the same day as Cottage 24 was for Susan at Cottage 20. Susan had considered building with us for some time, then one day she called us up and said she was ready and we had just so happened to start a neat little version of Cottage 23. Super sweet, on a hill with views, with neighbors with houses from Catskill Farms.

Like I mentioned several times, Susan is friends with other customers of ours and as it appears of most of our customers, had great taste and was a real treat to work with. Clean simple straight-forward aesthetic.

This Mini-Cottage comes in just under 960 sq ft, with two bedrooms and a full bath with big views and a half bath with big views as well. And the back deck cantilevers out over the hill. ,Fireplace, wide plank floors, covered porches, open floor plan, functioning good looking kitchen. Thing about small houses is that they don't have any wasted space. Every bit of the house is used -

This vantage is from the stairs landing going to the upstairs, over-viewing most of the first floor. 5 panel interior doors, little mudroom with bluestone floor coming in the front door.

Rads to keep you warm, and 'quick pass' windows for deck eating.

The staircase going down into the basement, lined with stone.

Bathtub frames the window that looks out over the hills. 6' tub, 2' deep, with white subway tile.

Secret little passageway into a little storage area in the bathroom.

Blue room, with perfectly matched blue light and sliding crossbuck barn door.

Catskill Farms is kicking it, with another closing set for Monday for Mid-Century Ranch #2. We are starting the DIY project Monday and that should take care of the NY Times ignoring us for much lesser stories for the past 4 years (stories of upstate designers, developers, builders - 7 out of 8 who were out of business before the print was dry on the article, and half the other stories filled with nonsense facts and exaggerated claims of vibrancy), currently building Farm 12, Barn 2, Micro 3, and Cottage 25, and planning to get started on 5 new houses in the Spring (get ready Norm (he's our excavator who keeps us moving)). Snow day in the Catskill. Not a bad thing at all.