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

Note - these pics are only a week or two older than the last progress photos - It's not that hard to fire on all cylinders occassionally, but day after day, week after week, month after month - in the middle of nowhere - is a real accomplishment. I'm not braggin - this is a true team effort to kick it like we do - a team of engineers, architects, road builders, excavators, framers, roofers, siding guys, porch guys, well drillers, septic guys, trim guys, landscaper guys, flooring guys, painting guys, sheetrock guys, suppliers of lumber, tile, kitchens, etc... It's a hell of the team, and I'm proud to be drill sargeant - it's boot camp, everyday, all day, never ending. Most people just get tired of me and move onto less profitable but more casual environments. Here's the McInnes Cottage, really taking shape with 1x 10 beveled pine siding stained Cordovan Brown. One coat in the factory, one coat in the field. I'm not sure if blogged this before, but we found some cool ass old school big iron strapped hinged doors. Today I was talking to the owner, Gavin, and I said you need a big ass fan for that big ass room and then just for the fun of it I googled 'big ass fans' and there is a company, believe it, named the Big Ass Fan Company. Frontal shot.

Rear shot. Then super beautiful Cottage #9, sitting in the woods, sitting on the dock of the bay, nestled (boy I hate that word) amidst the trees, old stone walls, big trees, and a lake down below. This house had a deal going, then the deal fell apart due to 'acts of god' but then we put humpty dumpty back together again in a few hours. A new deal in a few hours - I mean, this house is nice. 1300 square feet of perfection - maybe i've used that line before, but damn we have good taste, mixed with a lot of house placement experience, mixed with a lot of construction experience.

Here's little Cottage 15 - a sweet house selling to Gayle who said it was a 'no brainer' when she pluncked down a $10k non-refundable deposit and said 'put me on the waiting list' while standing in the middle of a forest with her friend Jamie. This house only started 8 weeks ago and now she's already struggling with the lighting and painting choices.

And Dean, who somehow through charm and savviness unloaded his florida house so he could push up the move in date for Cottage 13. This house is nicccce. Hello living large.

AAAAnd Cottage 14, Jeanne and Deb, with 2 big bedrooms, 2 full baths, a glorious kitchen with cathedral ceiling. A very unique house. but hey, that our thing - keep it real, keep it unique, keep it special. All very counterintuitive in construction where repitition makes perfect (perfectly boring if you ask me).

And Albert's house, that we are crackin on while he is in budapest following the progress of his farm on the hill. Hopefully his mag wheeled black range rover with the circular beatles tunes can make it up the driveway - if not, he can call the local snow plow truck taxi, meaning me, who lives just across the street and down the hill.

I mean, frickin right, this has been a beautiful 8 weeks of weather. Perfect Catskill weather, with night temps at 35 and daytimes at 72, with big blue skies with rebellious cumulus clouds playing raucously in the big forever skies. Pic snapped at around 6pm.

Albert's farm from afar, with big trees shading the courtship spots, the makeout maples, the horny hemlocks and pornographic pines.

And his barn - the green barn with radiant, solar, and thermal- that will be a music studio where pickin will be playin on Saturday nights, with the big woodstove cooking, and the musicians brewing a magical brew of music.

That's all for now. It's just about time for dinner. 2 martinis. 12 hours workday. 2 mile run. Now that's the way I like it.

We have a whole bear family living in the 20 acres behind my house - at first you would only see them once in a while, but now Mom and all 3 teenage cubs are fully in view everytime I go back there. Today they even had the nerve to climb into the back of my 1995 red dumptruck to steal a bag of garbage, in the middle of the day, while people were within shouting distance. I'll try and get some pics.

Here are some pics of the interior of our old farmhouse now that we are settled in.

Dining room table study -

Dining room study #2 - if you look closely you can see the speakers and motion detectors.

Dining Room study #3-

Kitchen. Splash of red lights, painted wood plank ceilings, open shelves, farm sink, plywood countertop.

Original structural wall uncovered, cleaned up and now used as a place for Lisa's old time saw and candle collection.

And Ruby, near Abe, sitting on the dutch door, watching the sun come in, probably bothering Storm in some fashion or another.

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Wow, for 2 fricking years there has been nothing but one bad real estate related event after another, and now with a 1000 pt drop in the Dow in 2 days things have really taken a turn for the worse. Luckily, I don't own stock - I am very undiversified in real estate, truly taking the contrarian approach to things.

At least if it all goes to pot, and the world collapses, we can all hide out in our country homes, living off the land from our little garden, chopping down a tree or two on our 5+ acres, and burning candles if the eletric grid goes down.

Made a round of calls today to our 6 families waiting for their homes to assure them Catskill Farms is well-capitalized, and we are building away.

And here is a sad example of how we country folk entertain ourselves over the cabin fever winter months.

I knew I lived in the country when I heard the ads for Vegas Gold on the radio, a local 'stripper club' - their competitive advantage - yes, say it loud and say it proud - was that their 'dancers have teeth.' Lisa does not approve this message.

Well, the Times validates us now, with a good article on small house living - of course, it could be mentioned, if we were feeling immodest, that we have been preaching the gospel to an open eared crowd for more than 18 months, with the release and advent of our cottage series last January '07. 'The Next Tiny Little Thing' http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/garden/11tiny.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin Lisa and I now live in a smallish house - the old farmhouse we restored in Eldred, NY, near the Delaware River. Probably around 1200 sq ft. Space is valued, and the design needs to be well-thought out to make it all work. Cool little song from 1970, Stephen Stills - There's a place I can get to Where I'm safe From the city blues And its green And its quiet Only trouble was I had to buy it And I'll do anything I got to do Cut my hair and shine my shoes And keep on singin' the blues If I can stay here in Johnny's garden Rainy today. Lisa and I did a trial run to the hospital over Labor day - the pun escaping us until someone pointed it out. The hospital we hope to deliver at is over 50 minutes away, since we are skipping the closest hospital, Bon Secuors, since it's nickname is Bon Voyage. Her doctor overseeing the pregnancy is over 90 minutes away, and we have had more than one friend who drove into the city to deliver. Healthcare ain't what some of us are used to, but for sure, like many things, it has improved significantly over the past 6 years. Everything going fine on the home fronts, building like crazy. I just bought 3 more pieces of land (5+ acres each) and I think I am planning to start building Cottage 16, Retro Ranch #1 and mini-house #3 before winter sets in, meaning the houses would be ready for some homeowner collaboration by new year and a hot warm romantic fire (usually a smoldering, non-flame, smoky mess the first few tries by new homeowners) by end of February. Just some clarification on my humor - with Lisa's pregnancy brain, she didnt' get my jokes at the end of the last post so just in case it wasn't her brain and actually my disfunctional humor, let me clarify - I'm not changing my name, it's not going to be mix of all the programs I mentioned, and our new client Donna is not being hired to do my hair.