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

The Hudson Valley Business Journal does us a nice honor with an article about our business, its growth, and the plans for the future. Scroll to page 15.

The long winding driveway through the woods...

and the house inspired by a Pennsylvania farmhouse. I caught the new owner snooping around near sunset last night, after a day of visiting the tile, kitchen and appliance showrooms.

Cottage 23 rolling along. I love this house. If you have some extra time over the weekend, or looking to kill some time - I found two magazines articles to be worth the time. The first is in the New Yorker, and is a multiple page rehash of the financial meltdown a year ago - I think the title is "8 days", with a play by play among the big players. As someone who like financial history stories it really worked for me. In fact, when the meltdown began last year, I took refuge in a lot of books about the panics of 1877, 1907, and 1929. Interestingly enough, the patterns were similar enough to give me the confidence to act contrarian, and view the whole collapse as an opportunity to make some moves in strategic directions - albeit not without a lot of fear and doubt. It was - as I wrote many times as it was happening- a great time to buy stuff. A once in a lifetime opportunity, actually. It's frankly amazing we brought 7 houses to a closing in those harrowing months of complete financing unpredictability. I think it will be something I tell my grand kids. The 2nd had me laughing all morning - an article in New York magazine about the legalization of pot debate - the guy wrote a hilarious, stoned, overview of the micro and macro debate. all for now.

I used to suffer in silence while one deal out of 12 or 15 turned nasty - not really from what we do since we are pretty consistent, but from the myriad personalities we deal with and the fact that in the end, you can't go around throwing money at people who never will appreciate the effort anyways - not if you hope to stay in business for long. Every year or year and a half we get some customer that we can't win with - no matter what strategies we employ. No one here is saying we are anywheres near perfect, but we do exceed anything else the area offers. I started posting details of such encounters last year, because as I said from the beginning, this blog is about the reality of what we do, not some sugar-coated version how we would like it to be. The following voicemail message was left this morning after 10 emails from these particular customers yesterday concerning a bill for $90+/- for lawn mowing that occurred after they bought the house, but before I remembered to tell the lawn mowing guy to stop mowing it. "and believe me Charles if you push me far enough you will severely regret it. I am very very angry. I do not want to hear from you. I just want your muppetts to get the fucking work done that they're meant to be contracted for and seem fucking incapable of doing. Meanwhile you prance around acting like you know what the fuck you're doing and you don't seem to be able to do jackshit - you talk it all but when it comes down to it your guys can't even install a fucking dishwasher. It's pathetic Charles. I've been more than civil and played ball all the way along and all I do is get pissed around by you and your people. I'm getting very cheesed off - and I'm really pissed and really cheesed off. And don't ever email me or call me on the weekend you piece of shit." Now, what he is talking about was the fact that the dishwasher he ordered had a handle that stuck out, instead of being tucked under, so it prevented the one cabinet drawer from opening - so the dishwasher was successfully installed, he just couldn't open one of the cabinet drawers. And Frank, the guy we all love from Michael's appliance is a 'little mouse' who 'doesn't know shit'. 185 assorted dishwashers, ranges, fridges, washer and dryers successfully installed, but according this new homeowner (who has never spent a night at the house yet after 7 weeks), we are clueless. We may be. But -seriously, honestly - I don't think so. Like the article I read the other day in the NYTimes Small Business blog page - it's not easy to fire a client, but sometimes it's the only option you have - for the sake of the business.