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

OK, it's been 15 minutes since I opened my blog for comments - where is everyone?!

I was really sweatin' it, wondering if anyone was ever going to leave a comment - and then, out of the blue, a comment, by anonymous. Thanks anonymous. You really saved me from a restless night of sleep. But now, I can't help but wonder who it is. Someone who drove by and saw the addition? Lurking out there now? Or were they commenting from the photos? Who knows? Maybe this comment thing wasn't the stroke of genius I first thought.

Mi Casa is undergoing a serious construction project. Yes I know we just moved in in August, so the paint hardly had to dry, and here we are, at it again, ripping and tearing. Thing is, a child may be a small creature, but all the toys, and bouncy seats and walkers and strollers take up expotentially more space than the child themselves. For instance, his stand up bouncy thing is literally 5' x 5', creating a huge base that doesn't tip over, I guess. Meanwhile, it takes up our entire dining room. So, it was an old house to begin with, and we fixed her up, but we decided to do a little more fixing up and here is Juan tearing out the old stone foundation in order to straighten her up once and for all. And then the beginning of the addition in the rear-ground.

The Addition and the Foundation, with a large boulder straddling each.

And a tree in the mix never hurt anything either.

Here's the frame of the addition glimmering in the April Sun.

And in the back, the addition sort of follows the 'grade' as it steps down. We are adding a bedroom, bath, and media room, hopefully overlooking a big ole pond that the local Cornell Co-op is engineering presently.

Fixing up the stone steps...

And there she is - all framed and sheathed, ready for the next phase.

Well, it's April, and the winter kept breathing frosty thoughts our way until most everyones' patience was worn thin, and then Spring springs in on a day like today. Looking forward to having a few dogs running around, and hosting weekly badmitten/cocktail/yard game parties.

And, till the next time, - later, gator.

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Here is a direct excerpt from Hugh Gran, who bought a house from us in September, 2007. It's the really nice white house down on Crawford Road - the one with the security boot on the car, just in case the car thief ring was in the neighborhood. "Jones Plumbing:800 566 3726/ 845 294 1010 Tell them Hugh Gran sent you and tell them Steve Carr had referred me. I am not contacting Catskill Farms (Chuck) about anything except major stuff like when our basement flooded; In other-words Major structural issues. As for his over sights or inappropriate installations I'd rather handle it and get the job done right." Now, here are two unemployed people with nothing better to do than make trouble. What a duo. Never a problem, heating system functioned fine, not a leak in the house, and hardly a caulk crack to be found - yet, to Hugh Gran, the problems are too numerous to mention. And yet not one email over 19 months mentioned any of the inappropriate installations and oversights that are so prevalent now. Oh, did I mention his house won a award for best design in the region in 2006. And Steve Carr, the ringleader, got fired from the only job he could land up here - as a carpenter - got fired within 3 weeks because he didn't know squat about squat. Now, I could have saved his employer a lot of time and aggravation - I knew he didn't know anything, with subtle examples like planting a huge gated garden directly on top of his septic. Now that's being green - fertilizing your own food. Very interesting. Like they say, idle hands are the devil's plaything. This approach my team has decided upon may seem a bit extreme to the innocent bystander, but when you live in a small town and someone goes for your jugular, then there is only one recourse - and that is to say enough. An award-winning builder who has been selling homes left and right through a real estate disaster versus the unemployed. Seems like a fair matchup. It's kind of like the little dog who barks and barks and barks and then eventually pisses off the big dog. I put a call into Hugh Gran to try to understand how he went from trespassing on the property of my two newest homes - I then gave him a guided tour - to writing these 'let's gang up' emails - of course, no return call.