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

It was only 2 weeks ago that we brought sweet Cottage 21 home to roost, and now the much-sought after Barryville Cottage was passed on to new homeowners this morning. Congratulations Richard and Nancy - from the forests of Ecuadar to the Mountains of the Catskills.

One of my best country living stories involve these new owners - so we were tooling around inside the house, taking a look and creating punch list of things we agreed to do for them - we were in the basement, and something moved, and it looked like running water but it was really a small snake and while this would have ruined the deal for everyone else, Richard ran over and picked it up and started looking and tickling its belly, and then Nancy with as much enthusiasm rushed over to check it out. That was definitely a first - the snake closed the deal. Usually I use my handsome son Lucas (I know, I know - I can hear everyone now ' 'takes after his Dad') or back before she died, my old dog Bella was real good at closing deals. Some customers have accused me of without fail having a cute deer family run across the lawn right at crucial deal making stages. Real foggy this morning - making for some great shots. This house is circa 1925 - and it's really the type of house that inspires the entire business. Great country architecture - the fact that this house was in great shape, was a real bonus.

We added the stone, painted the walls, cleaned real good, redid the floors, replaced the countertop, added a lot of spray foam insulation in the attic and basement.

It's a simple house, but very functional. Cared for diligently by the previous owners, who owned the house for 27 years.

Upstairs, - more of the same - new paint, raised the ceilings, added our famous white painted planks on the ceilings.

A backsplash and tile countertop. New sink and faucet.

This bathroom renovation was done by the original folks who owned the home - while some of their designs around the house didn't turn out perfectly, they nailed the bathroom.

Picture of the pond - Richard is planning to invent a microbe.

And a picture from the rear of the property.

Simple house. Simple Catskill Farms Story - Buy a house - Live Happily Ever After.

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The internet's an amazing place. We get 9000 visitors a month to our website and 100 day (3000 a month) to our blog. Of the website visitors, perhaps 75% of them are unique visitors, meaning visiting for the first time (in web parlance). So - 6750 new people are finding out about Catskill Farms every month of every year (or 324,000 persons have discovered us since the website launch in 2003). It's no wonder we are able to make a sale every once in awhile. For all of you frequent stopper-byers, thank you. And for those who are new to the concept that 'yes, you can buy a country house that works' and 'yes, you can buy a country house that gives pleasure not pain' - Welcome.

Another Day - Another Closing. What more needs to be said? Today we said goodbye to sweet lil' Cottage 21, the last of the 3 spec homes we started back in November 2008, at the absolute height of the panic and real estate decline. We sold Modern Cottage in May, Cottage 18 in June, and now Cottage 21 in August. This house is sweet - with 2 beds, 2 full baths, open living room space, built out basement, security, audio, wide planks floors, wood burning fireplace, pond view and 6 private acres, I ask - what more could a family want? This one took awhile to bring to a successful conclusion, but we can wait it out these days- even just a year ago, I would have flipped if a closing took this long, since we needed the cash.

The sleeping loft up above looks down onto the living room and fireplace.

Radiator, wide spindles, handhewn beams, galvanized metal sconce, exterior stained green cedar siding.

View of the pond across the street.

And the final profile pic on a morning before a storm.

A masterpiece, by all definitions - a house we are incredibly excited to have designed, built and sold for Norah and Jeffrey.

A polite, respectful, considerate business owner would not sneak up on his right hand guy during a meeting with the future owners of Cottage 22 and snap a high res picture, but obviously, since I took this picture, I'm not that guy. Here is Courtney and Bronson, standing in their future bedroom on a rare bright sunny day. Even this Sunday morning - dark, dreary and depressing. No rafting, no kayaking, no practicing my golf swing. Boooring.

Read a good article in the New Yorker the other day. It was a backward looking analysis of how so many smart people got it all wrong over the past couple of years, and the gist of the story was about overconfidence, and how people come to be overconfident, and how studies show that this then leads to a belief that one can control events that they actually have no control over. Luckily, like I have mentioned earlier - we never suffered from overconfidence - I was always sure a business-ending disaster was just around the corner, even after 40 homes. What drove our success was 'fear' - we feared all the time. Feared our lack of cash, lack of labor resources, - feared our competitors, our enemies, and half the time our customers. This type of fear keeps one alert, careful, diligent. And it seems to have paid off.

I think Bronson's an attorney and Courtney works in public relations, and their dog just sort of doesn't contribute much and mooches off the breadwinners. This weekend's meeting was really just a review to make sure all the orders and decisions we received were interpreted and executed correctly, and off we march into the final 4 weeks of construction. The house is pretty well finished, and we are heading into the floor sanding, kitchen installation, tile phase.

About 1000 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, fireplace, wraparound porch, 1 1/2 baths, wide plank floors, handhewn beams, cable rail - all in about 12 weeks. From raw land to raw leisure.

Looking down the steps at the hand hewn beams.

Here's the downstairs, painted, with james in the background.

Chimney stone is compete, siding is complete, decks and porches are complete except for the railings.

Really cute little cottage with strong architectural lines.

And back to my house with Ruby lounging around in our dining area.

And my son, nephew and niece in our new tub in the addition we just finished.

Marcus, the guy on the left, and I were taking Lucas for a walk in the stroller last evening and made up a game called 'Runaway Baby' where we would very carefully let the stroller roll down the hill unheld by us (we were right there behind it, running with it). Let's just say that game won't be being played much in the future after a little accident that left Lucas with some small scratches, Marcus in tears, and me in big trouble.

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