Construction at my House
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.
Hugh Gran, Farmhouse #8, Followup
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.
The Staff,The Cottage and The Incident in Port Jervis
Well, because I have been so shamefully tardy in my blogging, I am just now posting some photos I took last week, or the week before. Who can keep track? Actually, it's kind of amazing if these photos were taken two weeks ago because the unfinished state of the progress is wholly different presently, with the walls painted and floors stained. As posted previously, this home is 960 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, 2 porches, fireplaces, wide plank floors - the works. Speaking of 'the works', there was an incident in Port Jervis on Friday. So I had to go to Middletown for one reason or another, and any time I head into civilization via Monticello, Liberty or Port Jervis, I always confront a fast food hankering, that is hard to ignore. Where we live in Eldred there ain't any such food, and I don't even really like it, but anytime I head to these aforementioned towns, I battle internally. So, long story short, I am lured into the McDonalds in Port Jervis, and it is frickin quinessential low-end America with lots of loud overweight families hanging out at he soda machine and ketchup dispenser (I'm partial to outlets that offer ketchup dispensers, and not those damn packets). I mean, it was chaos, but I was determined to enjoy my fast food moment with my Friday times. When I hear, "Chuck? Chuck, is that you?" And so who do you know is satisfying their guilty pleasure as well, but Jeanne and Deb from Cottage 14 fame. Well, embarrassed at our mutual contempt for rational meal decisions, we spent a minute or two explaining and making excuses for why we are actually in this low end McDonalds, then discussing why the fries seem to be underfilled (is it a directive from corporate?), and so on. So we were caught, our sophisticated and refined palettes and food consciousness tossed into the air of reality, where a quarter pounder meal combo, supersized, has its place on Easter Weekend.
In this small house we put a big window, ... looking out into the woods. Also, in our last two houses we started playing around with cable hand rail systems, and it is turning out pretty cool - sort of a further exploration of modern vintage.
It's components are hand-hewn wood posts with steel cable.
It's a good look, and even better once the floors and walls are colored.
The front porch ceiling has some nice curves and lines.
And the stream that runs through the property, just off the back deck.
And another shot of the front, before the second coat of Cabot's barn red semi solid stain is applied to the novelty siding, and before the standing seam galvanized metal roof is installed on the front porch.
And our friend Chris and Allison traveled up from Richmond VA with their boys to spend a few days. We are putting an addition onto the house, and this is the final foundation pour truck.
Lastly, this is my office, with James and Anouk posing for the camera - Anouk in fore, James in back. Red lamps, sliding barn doors, red blueprint filing cabinets, and some mid-century chairs make up a pretty cool office design. We've come long way from our underfunded beginnings, and I can't but kind of modestly agree with Jeanne and Deb, who said 'we're the only game in town'. I think it's true, and it didn't come easy.
But in the end, the original inspiration that many families would prefer a cool new house that works rather than a cool old house that doesn't, and a committment to keep getting better, and a dedication to continually experiment and push the envelope - well, it's all combined to create a business that keeps on keeping on.
Happy Easter. It's a sunny day up here in the Catskills, with a few birds presently chirping away.
Southern SoJourn
Lisa and my bookkeeper Deborah both independently commented that my last post was BIZARRE - ending a nice rock star thread with unlinked and disconnected thoughts on taking abuse. Well, I guess it was a bit odd but I beg a little latitude because I have been UNINSPIRED recently - I don't think I'm really uninspired since it is Spring and I'm always inspired by the end of the brown season and the greeting of the green season. And it was pretty stressful to have day after day pass with no blog inspiration knowing the multitudes just out there waiting for some morsel of genius. I just think after 10 months of kickin it big time, developing/designing/selling 10 homes in 9 months (14 in 13 months), I just think I'm a bit exhausted and need a little physical and mental downtime. Take for instance my inspiration to start my last post about the rock star with the following - We started dancing And love put us into a groove As soon as we started to move The music played While our bodies Displayed through the dance We started dancing And love put us into a groove As soon as we started to move The music played While our bodies Displayed through the dance He tried pretending A dance is just a dance But I see He's dancing his way back to me He's dancing his way back to me ... but I ended up with nothing. Oh well, hopefully, I can regroup and kick start the imagination, exaggeration, and bravado before too long. But, in the interim, here are some pics to make me seem family-oriented, well-travelled, leisurely, and, mostly, truely white bread. Me, looking well-groomed, in our bay front room in Fair Hope. The first two nights we were there, big big storms with massive lightening and thunder blew in off the gulf bay.
Here's me and my son and lots of white linen.
And my good host Jason, striking a pose before Sunday brunch. He's pretty good looking but has serious chicken legs.
Big southern oak tree.
Pelican posse.
Lucas close up.
The ships and boats at the Grand, from our window.
Well, that's it. A nice vacation to the deep south with lots of homecooking and hospitality. Now its time to get back to work and sell some houses in this challenging environment. Just entered contract to buy 44 acres and a house for a price not seen for a few years - I'm pretty sure this isn't the end of the world, and soon enough optimism will pervade the psyche, and Catskill Farms will be there with a little house to augment those fancy life aspirations.
