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

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Like I mentioned a few days ago, we had a really great weekend of weather, with small really great snowball and snowman snow. I mean the stuff just hung together. You didn't even have to know how to professional roll a snow ball or snow man - this stuff just made you look good. I also discovered my son Lucas is not a big fan of my new full face ski mask - really freaks him out, which makes for an interesting question of why I continue to do it to him. Toughen him up I guess. The no-flash pic above and flashed pic below are pretty appealing, in my opinion.

Courtney and Bronson from Cottage 22 over on Tuthill Road -the first buyers over there when they signed up last early summer - came over for some eggnog, snacks that Lisa made. Real good snacks actually (I'd write hor doerves but I don't know how to spell it and don't feel like figuring it out) - it's enlivening to see Lisa still pulling culinary tricks out of sleeve after 7 years. We all headed down to Barryville for the tree lighting and bonfire.

Here's Lisa, Lucas and our neigbor Theresa. Lisa is happy to be back from here 2 months in Russia, where all she got was that crummy hat.

My diverse talents demonstrated with some cool pics and exposure here.

OMG - that's right. Gavin's in the house - from Bella Drive fame.

And here is the picture of the Christmas tree lighting - avant garde like.

And, this photo, taken the next day is to memorialize this heavy plant on wobbly stand situation that I have proposed on several occasions was dangerous - only to be met with derision and insults.

So, when Lucas gets crushed by a potted plant falling wildly - I will definitely say 'I told you so' as well as post pictures of Lucas in the hospital with his leg in traction and white head bandages.

It's not often we have a house for sale, and it's definitely unusual for it to be this far along. But at the speed we are racing these days - firing on all cylinders - the houses are nearly finished by the time they get started. Cottage 24 is cool. It's on 8 acres, outside of Narrowsburg, up above Lucky Lake - 1250 sq ft of fine country living. We just got an offer on it over the weekend - but since we don't discount our homes, and since we don't have anything else for sale, we wished them good luck and continued designing this pretty fab house. Over the weekend I decided on the paint and tile, and tomorrow the kitchen. My opportunity to design solo is pretty limited these days since mostly the homes are spoken for early on. So it's been fun - it's what I used to do all the time when no one wanted our homes and I would develop the land, design the house, build the house, decorate the house, furnish the house and miserably wait for a buyer. But those days seem to be pretty much over, and with all the good reasons to buy at the moment, we should see a pretty consistent trickling of customers over 2010.

Sage green beveled siding with a wrap around porch, simple front entry with standing seam metal roof.

Big stone chimney chase. That door and window are looking out from the living room.

Here the guys are installing our plank ceilings over the foam insulation.

And here's a snap of our salvaged siding and beam work which we bought down the road from a reclaimer of like materials. This house took on a manly barny feel with these materials, and our challenge as it went in that direction was to keep it restrained - we didn't want some testosterone log and beam, Chapin Estate-like, heavy, "I take design so serious" direction.

There's Randolpho, racing around, installing his stonework - locally harvested bluestone.

Yes, that's a chalkboard door in the back. So we got 5 houses under contract, and this house not spoken for and we are just breaking ground tomorrow on the next house not spoken for. And, a very successful closing on Friday at Cottage 23, to be posted about later. For anyone up over the weekend - wow - pretty impressive. A perfect snow day on Saturday, and a clear clear sky on Sunday, with snow hanging heavily off of the limbs. The snow was probably the best snow ball and snow man snow I've ever seen.

First things first. We got a lot of homes going on at the moment at all different phases of construction. Couple of things they got in common is great design, great land, great pricing, great value, great floor plans and a great vibe inside and out. Sure it's a recession, and sure no one is supposed to be working, and no one is definitely building homes, and no one is getting financing, but some how 'no one' is really pounding our door down and waiting respectfully in line for their turn to own a piece of heaven. Reminds me of the Edie Brickell song "Nothing", that has the clever turn of phrase where nothing is personified as something. Up above is the picture of the Tiffany's blue Cottage 23 which is closing on Friday, which will be our last closing of a fan-f%$^!ing-tastic year of sales. Seriously - what company kicked this fricking Great Recession in the rear, faced down the dirty stinky breath of overdone pessimism and too much media, and hit it right over the fence in deep left center field. I hate to be obvious - but the answer is ... Catskill Farms. I joke, but it's no small piece of achievement - I mean, this was a world-wide correction, and this little company of our just kept chugging along. It's kinda amazing and a few times James and I just looked at each other in amazement as the calls kept coming in, the houses kept closing, and we kept on cautiously rolling the dice into the eye of the storm. Here's Cottage 24, our last home we have for sale, currently - up on Lucky Lake outside of Narrowsburg, NY - and I think it's possible that it may be spoken for shortly since we have a couple coming up for their 2nd visit this weekend - and how I know it's somewhat serious and doable, is the fact that they have been looking for quite awhile - so they are an educated consumer - the exact type we like. The more our customers know, the more they value what we are doing. 1250 sq ft, and so many new details I'm just going to hold back describing them until I snap a few photos this weekend. It's on almost 8 acres and will sell for $335k.

Front door will be changed out for a duel action dutch door shortly, but with all the in and out, it's better to compromise some aesthetic for some functionality. And here, below, is Ranch 2. Great colors, cool look and feel, big views in most directions and spoken for. Tony and Laurie should be in this home in February +/-.

And Cottage 20 ain't too shabby either. The siding just went up and I saw it this morning and loved it. I mean loved it. That's one of the great things about collaberating with so many diverse talented professionals - they bring something to the table and we bring something to the table and the mix is always unique, trying to capture the elusive essence of design, history, style, flow and restraint. Susan chose a dark stain, and it's a big decision because it turns the house towards a cottage cabin, standing proud on top of the hill. Stone being applied at the left, siding on the right. Great lines. This 960 sq ft cottage on 6 acres is also spoken for. She should be closing in February or so.

And here is the beginning of Richard's barn house over on Tuthill Road. Richard found us via the NY Post article that highlighted our homes, and now here we are - under construction and under contract.

And here are some quick snaps of our new barn garage going up at our offices - a pantie red with white trim 5-bay garage! Good for truck storage, tractor storage, full court basketball, street hockey or drag races. It's going to be huge.

And ol' Daniel's house on Tuthill Road - a micro baby - all 800 sq ft of lovin', set sort of on a cliff, on a real nice piece of land. This Micro should be real macro in it's good-lookinness.

So, there is all the construction - actually, it's not nearly all of it - we started building farmhouse #12 (just the driveway so far) and every week we have a handful of warranty and punchlist items to address. As it happens every so often, I get publicly accosted every now again. Once it was with some women at Town Hall who felt a public airing of their grievances was the most high class approach to communication, another time it was with the loser owner of Fred Du Shed in Callicoon (which finally closed it's doors after offering good products but a torturous approach to main street coalition building) and now it was with Mike Strohmeier, the owner of a small (real small) real estate brokerage firm in Barryville NY. Here I was getting coffee at the River Mart, a cool store selling fresh stuff, be it produce, baked goods or antiques. But Mike cornered me at the coffee area where I loiter a couple of times a day and tells me loudly (picture a guy in full camouflage) that I 'have some set of balls on me' and then continues to berate me for ripping everyone off in town, and beware, because what comes around goes around, including the doozy "Everyone knows you go around ripping everyone off - and I'm going to say it to your face." Then, with froth foaming, he kept saying 'your blog, your blog, your blog' like it was some sort of beating heart pounding ominously under the floor boards, Edgar Allen Poe like. It's true the blog does get a little outrageous on occasion, but hey, it's my blog, and I'll be outrageous if I want to be - much better than being bland, boring, trite and common-place. I simply looked at him - with the camo, anger, and rudeness, - and agreed completely with his thought that you reap what you sow. Now, being a pretty level headed fellow who many times a week finds myself backtracking and rethinking my approach to a problem or issue in order to get past it, was wondering on my drive away what he meant when he said I 'rip every one off in town' - first, I was wondering who I employ or use that works in town, and since the answer is 'not many people' I immediately got to wondering who these victims were. My homeowners? My employees and subcontractors? The local deli because I ask for an extra pickle or put too much sugar in my coffee? The local gas station where I won't buy gas because they are always 10% higher than everyone else? Now, it's important to realize ol' Mike was saying this in the most expensive convenience store in Sullivan County, whose sandwiches cost more than in Manhattan - so value is definitely subjective, since they are quite busy and so are we. Then I wondered some more - we employ 12 people, we keep another 25 companies busy on a more or less full time basis, we pay a town of real estate taxes, a ton of money to local suppliers of tile, wood, stone, roofing, plumbing, etc.... - in fact, we've grown so fast we are many companies' largest customer -which is amazing consider where we started. So, I don't think we go around 'ripping people off', in fact up here in the sticks it's nearly impossible to go around 'ripping off your vendors and team' because anyone who does anything up here nows how hard it is to put together and keep a good team - so you definitely don't around screwing them - you actually cater to them, reward them and encourage them. I think half the time these rebukes - public, private, or anonymous - are just because they are not sitting at the table with what I consider to be the best team in the region - and a lot of round of cuts have been made to get here. I actually hope, in the end, we all reap what we sow - get what's coming to us- because I think I'll fair just fine.