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

Winter's hard, and winter is even harder when building is your past-time, since cold, ice, freezing, snow, winds and short days do everything to defeat even the most hardy and energetic. Here's Lucas, working on his eating. Soon he will be helping me boss around my subcontractors - I can already hear it, "Don't make me get my Dad!" - sending fear through all that hear it (at least in my imaginings.)

And Cottage 21, which is taking shape nicely. 1300 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, and the last house we have left for sale.

The foam spray insulation we love so much and are trying to incorporate into every home. The building process does not make huge strides forward for the most part, but this insulation is a true advance, and, while pricy, definitely has its merits.

And the Mid-Century Retro Ranch, under the clear blue sky. Keeps getting better with every new detail completed. Within a week we will be painting, within a month this house will be nearly complete. A glorious 950 sq ft.

On the inside we used the exterior siding, stained Tuscon Gold. Really makes the house interesting from many different design vantages. That's Erin - checkin' it out - pretty amazed it will be hers in a few weeks.

The house and views.

And her steel cable railing on the back deck with the big views.

And the Plumber Rich, who is installing the gas boiler this week.

And his helpmate in the basement -

Here's Pete Kestler back in the game - well drilling is his name. "Water when you want it" his logo says. So his big rig is all set up to drill straight down into the earth looking and sounding for water. We hit it after 380 feet - and a pretty good flow at that.

What I like about this picture is how it demonstrates the size of the home - not very big. Which is exactly the way we like it. Cottage 18 rolling right along. 960 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, stream and 5+ acres. That's Pete and Steve, the well drillers. Pete, the owner, builds his own airplanes and flies them around the area.

Well, that's that. I'm feeling a lot of writer's block ever since Lisa cut off my nightly cocktail, hence my irregular posting. Or maybe I'm just recovering from a long winter that required all our attention every morning noon and night.

Hello Springtime.

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Julia and Marty bought the Rock House, where Lisa and I lived for 4+ years. 650 sq ft, 1 room, 4.5 acres. Here's a plug for them, and her husband's book.

"It's Julia here from the Rock House. That is slammin' that you got that new award. Congrats! AND that you are selling all of those killer little houses. I love the new little red house. Am dying of jealousy that that is not my house, EXCEPT of course, for the consolation that I have the original Rock House, that started the whole thing, and posesses the Rock House Magic. Still, that little red house is something cool. Also really dig the little white house with the red door. Did anyone buy that one yet? And the new yellow ranch house is AMAZING, of course my all time favorite is that modern number that sold last year. The one that seemed like it was in the middle of a forest. That one was unbelievable. You are on a roll, my friend, and it is great to see someone doing well during this weird time. Marty and I are both employed, thank God, and I am quitting my job on Saturday, hooray! He has a hilarious book that came out last year. You can still get it on Amazon.com, and it was a big hit in Germany. (Thanks Krauts!). It's called "Asshole" by Martin Kihn, and it's really funny. Marty wrote it the summer we were at the Rock House. It's about a guy who thinks he's too nice and tries to be a jerk to get ahead. I just thought I'd mention it as you are also a writer. We didn't come out to the Rock House hardly at all this year, cause I had to work weekends, but that is changing! We plan to be there a lot in the spring and summer. Hooray! Anyway, since we didn't get out to Sullivan County hardly at all, the way I get my fix is to go to your blog, look at the new houses. Glad to see your beautiful homes are doing great, I'm not surprised at all. Hopefully we'll run into you this summer. Best to Lisa and the baby pictures look great.

We've been honored by the local community with awards and plaques for a few of our homes, we have had thousands of people write to us with compliments and questions, our local newspapers have showed great kindness by covering our progress over the past few years, and mostly, our homeowners honor us over and over by buying our homes - even more so in this climate where the decision to spend money does not come without real consideration. But, I got to say - to be awarded the designer and builder of the Hudson Valley's best home under 2500 sq ft. is an honor we won't forget soon. Here's the link the Times Herald Record included in their business section - http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090304/BIZ/903040336 The thing is, like I said before, the Hudson Valley Builders Association is an association that covers all of Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Putnam, Greene, Columbia, etc..., well, you get the picture. The fact that this large organization, possibly the largest in upstate NY, plucked an 810 sq ft, 1 bedroom cottage from Yulan NY, says something really real about the introspection happening all across the design and construction landscape. This award to a small home is almost like a pennance for the years of over-building, bigger is better - a nod to a new way where need and want aren't not so divergent and distant aspirations. Being a bit media jaded after seeing all sorts of PR triumphs over reality over the past few years (remember "Welcome to the Sullivan Riveria" front page back in 2006), Catskill Farms stood through earnestness of effort. To be honest, it's embarrasing to be a champion of 'earnestness' when snarkiness and sarcasm is more easily applauded, but what can you do when that is the core of your character, like it or not? Remember, we are a martini into this. A real funny customer wrote me a note the other day about a few things that needed to be taken care of around their house and they think the mentioning of the 'cinnamin coated frosted pop tarts' will push them to the top of our 'to do list'. How right they are!!! For some reason, I've changed, and I have never in my life been a "!" person, never relying on the exclamation point to get a point across but lately I can't write a note, email, reprimand, thank you or observation without using the damn "!". I can't figure it out - either I've gotten lazy and now only cursing and exclamation can get my point across, or else my point is so newly urgent that I can no longer rely on happenstance and chance, two old and reliable friends. OK, so I am one Martini into this post, and Lisa my wife and Amy her friend are in the kitchen whipping up dinner. A rising tide floats more boats, and at the same time you really see who is swimming naked when the tide goes out. Listen, there is no one who has failed to reach the heights of our goals more often than we, but probably just as true is no one has set those sights more unrealistically high. Regardless of the dire world situation and that the whole world is ending and happy days will never be here again and we should all prepare for the 'end of days', we had a banner year and built some tremendously awesome house (I can't write the word 'awesome' without thinking about my morally doubtful highschool cheerleading outfit - "AWESOME ' - spelling it out with high kicks and loud cheers. So, everyone is surprised that an economy expanded over the last decade through artificially loose credit will snap back eventually into a reasonable shape. Oh well, live and learn. Here are our 2008 and 2009 houses. I am a big fan of year end retrospectives with great music and perfect edits, but all I can offer is a quick snapshot. Cottage 6 - Sold to David, entertainment.

Farmhouse 9, sold to Christine, writer.

Cottage 7, sold to Pablo the shipping magnate and Ana the banker.

Cottage 8, the award winner, sold to Leah and Rob, clothing and style designers.

Cottage 15, sold to Gayle, hedge fund sweat shop indentured servant.

Cottage 9, purchased by Nick, the IBM researcher.

Cottage 14, with new owners Jeanne and Deb, with unnamed but impressive philantrophic and investment CVs.

Cottage 13, the new home of Dean, creative director of unnamed retailer.

And Farm 10 - with Albert the musician and Agyness his partner, calling this hilltop adobe their home away from home, their respite from the urban machine.

Well, there you have it - our Tour de Eldred, our madame butterfly, our 'Yes We Can.'

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Say good bye to beautiful Farm 10. The game was on after Albert and I hiked up a big hill to a home site not yet located, and sat in the woods and heard the sounds of what happens when we were not around, the same sounds as yesterday, the day before, the year before and the century before.8 months later it's his to have and to hold.

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