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

Because we have so many damn houses under construction, and each of them come with a driveway of varying lengths, and some of them are even on private roads unmaintained by the local Town, I bought myself a plow truck last year, and then realized a plow truck ain't worth squat without a sander to lay down some traction. So then I bought myself a sander - and now Catskill Farms is totally self-sustaining when one of those northeasterners come along. So after each storm I go out plowing and sanding, mostly of my homes I have under construction, but then also for some of the new customers who haven't found just the right plow guy to help them through the storms. So, here's the old 1990 Chevy with plow and sander.

So it's kind of fun, because half the time I stop by a client or two's home and chat and whatnot. Here's a pic of Jeanne and Deb in front of their cool ass fireplace that defines the living/sitting room. I think I snapped this photo during the final walk-thru, just after giving a tutorial on how to work the fireplace (flue closed - bad/ flue open - good). These women built one heck of a house.

Here's Gavin and Emily and Sophie at the start of another day in the country.

And here's Gayle, the owner of Cottage 15, is obviously keeping that new house spic and span.

And then Dean snuck in on Saturday just before the snow storm hit to check out his new pad which is entering the floor sanding and staining phase. Here he is in the kitchen.

And James and me keeping everything rolling in the office. In this picture I am most likely speaking respectfully and politely to some fool or another. Note the new brown pleatless cords.

And the Lisa taking care of our boy in our old farmhouse. Notice how quick he is - camera can't focus in on those high speed legs and arms.

Monday night, and I am at home with the baby because Lisa is at a pilates class. Lucas the cats and the dog totally take advantage of me.

Well, I got a new D-60 Nikon SRL digital camera so I've been snapping away. And this is my flower -

And this is my old adopted dog, Lady Storm -

And this is my Son, Lucas -

And this is Ruby, who was found in a trap/cage in Brooklyn -

And this my plant -

Snow on the way. Currently building 7 houses.

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Icy today. Shitty rain ice. Pretty messy. Here's James - the office is pretty cool - beadboard, red door, red blueprint filing cabinets, nice shelf, etc... He is determined to fit that square peg in that round hole, and in this picture, he almost has it figured out.

And here's the brain center - My desk.

And Mr Deer outside our home, eating some rotten apples from the apple tree before-mentioned.

And my new F-250, with Catskill Farms lettering.

Dean's house sits on 6 pretty fabulous and private acres and he was part of our waiting list last summer. And now, give him 4 weeks and he will be living large in Cottage 13. This pic was taken early in the morning on a day we were expecting some snow.

Here are some shots of the plank walled kitchen we are just about to install.

Here's a picture of Alvin the Tile Man in Dean's large, 2 headed shower arena. If you've seen our tile work, then you know first-hand how talented Alvin is.

He has had every size, type, and quality of tile thrown his way - from Nick's Frank Lloyd Wright's shower, to Gayle's stone, to Gavin's to Davids, ... well, you get the point.

Juan and Joe in the basement making some porch railings.

Upstairs bedroom with 12' ceilings.

We are hoping to close this house in early February and if all goes well, will be our 2nd deal of the new year.

It's a pretty neat house - I loved the exterior shape from the moment I stumbled across it in one of those house plan magazines. I must have looked at 15,000 plans to come up with the 30 houses we thought just might work - if we move this, and tweak this, and raise this, and add a window, and enlarge the bath, and add a door, and move the porch, etc...

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Big article in the Times the other day about falling prices of homes in the Catskills - I have only one thing to say about that - 'Duh!.' Or, actually, "Double Duh." Anyone with their nose to the train tracks and understood a little about economic history, and a little bit about regional history, knew when shitty houses on shitty property were selling for $300k that something bad was going to happen. I mean, houses that wouldn't have even been considered by a weekender were selling for $400k, doubling or more their price of just 3 years back. Luckily, we never got greedy, never paid more than $4k an acre for our land, never overpaid our labor and staff and never forgot to make the hard design decisions that kept our houses full of detail at the lowest cost. And, most importantly, kept the prices far below what our customers could build the house independent of our vertically integrated process. I think we may be the only company in the entire country that is selling our houses for equal or more than last year. For instance, we have had 5 of our houses appraised over the past 2 months in this tough climate in order for the buyers to get financing - all appraised by different banks, different appraisers - and all came back with values at or above our selling costs. Since appraisals are the biggest obstacles to getting deals done presently, I am definitely pretty proud our homes are not only retaining their value, but actually increasing in most cases. Real Value is always in demand. So is good taste.