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

3 yrs ago, the week Katrina hit, Lisa and I were in Poland, via Berlin for my friend Boogie's wedding. Boogie was a friend I met my first year in business when I picked them up hitchhiking, -he and his friends previously blogged about. I mean, it's pretty amazing, this free market system, - I start a business, hire boogie and his friends, they work hard 7 days a week, 15 hours a day (still less than me) and leave the country at the end of the summer with a pocket full of cash that goes a long way in Poland - enables a marraige proposal to a girl named 'delicious', the purchase of a small apartment, and a real jump start on life. Here's Boog, Delicious and Lisa at a cafe in Lodz, Poland.

Same with Juan - my right hand man who has been with me since the very beginning - 7 years. During his stint with us, he has mastered the english language, supported his family at home in Guatamala, invested his american money in building an apartment complex in his home city. All the result of my gamble and perservence. Edwin got his green card and his family is coming over, spent 3 years nurturing 2 country carpenter and turned them from dishonest hill country carpenters to responsible young men (who in the end screwed me - can't change a tiger's spots), and a very large number of subcontractors and supply houses have benefitted from the boat I float - remarkably, until 7 months ago, the boat was leaky, large, lumbering, and for the most part, a very tenuous proposition. Oh, how many times have I been screwed, cheated, taken advantage of, fixed other people's mistakes during this business building experience - let me count the ways. Well, maybe not. Let's just say focusing on the big picture is not the easiest task when confronted with a weekly barrage of bullshit coming from all direction. But, as Lisa has often remarked, it was that ability to look past the country spite and sometimes lackluster performance in order to keep my eye on the ball - the ball being paying my bills, and developing/designing/building & selling perfect country houses. Here I am in a consignment shop overlooking a square of Berlin.

Train trip from Warsaw to Lodz, very hungover after a big night out in Warsaw which included some accidental eastern european strip joints, which let me make clear, are different from the ones in Reno.

Golden Gate bridge and Chuck the builder in the fore.

And Lovely Lisa in our suite in Berlin.

We promised boogie we woul be there for his wedding, and lo and behold, we were - come hell, high water, and no money.

We did, however, fly first class, since there are some frequent flyer advantages to buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of lighting, lumber, doorknobs and flooring.

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The final weekend of the summer. Most of the Catskill Farms homeowners up for the weekend, stretching out and cooling it for an extra day this weekend. Barbeques, wood splitting, a little gardening and landscaping. My weekends start out at 5 or so on Friday, leaving work a little early. I was a NY Times guy for over 15 years, but about a 1/2 yr ago I began augmenting it with the the WSJ weekend edition - both, at least for the moment, are a lot of fun and a great compliment to the weekend, filling in those hours between golf, work, strategizing, and the inevitable honey do list. Lisa usually makes a good weekend dinner, even in these late months of pregnancy and serves it up hot to me, the breadwinner and man of the house. Lisa and I prefer and are more comfortable in the traditional roles of man and woman - me earning and bringing home the bacon, and she barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Just got some bad news - Lady Storm, the dog we adopted when her old owner passed along, has cancer and is slowly fading out on us. I mean, we knew this was going to be the drill since she was an old dog with bad legs and sordidly bad breath. But she's been good to us - low maintenence, fun to be with, awfully touchy about the cats playing with her tale - little ruby and big storm - reminds Lisa and me of the show Rob and Big. I'll post some pics of the two of them shortly. It'll be sad, but jeez leweez, I can't think of a better way to go out then being pampered by Lisa for the last 9 months of your life - much better than what was going to be her fate - slowly starving as neighbors forgot to feed her, or sent to the pound to fend for herself. Old Storm - a real good dog. It's been a great month of weather of here. Since the beginning of August nighttime temps around 45 and daytimes never exceeding a sunny 80. This is prime time Catskills - beautiful weather, no traffic, no noise - just the family, the house, the pets and a little well earned respite from all the overachieving I'm sure most 2nd homeowners do most days of their lives. Cheers - happy Labor Day and hasta luego Summertime.

Rob calls me up and says 'take your lady out'. I'd agree - 3 closings in 3 weeks - not like I often have the opporunity to quote ZZ Top but - "Top coat, top hat, I don't worry coz my wallet's fat. Black shades, white gloves, lookin' sharp and lookin' for love. They come runnin' just as fast as they can coz every girl grazy 'bout a sharp dressed man."

Cottage 8, our 2nd mini-house, has left home, and is striking out on its own with its new owners, Rob and Leah. Da Facts - 850 Sq ft above grade - 500 sq ft below grade - 3+ acres Started in April Finished in August No sweat, but a lot of glory. http://www.thecatskillfarms.com/location/product/33

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boom, boom, boom, boom - another one bites the dust. Cottage 7 facts - -Sold from blueprints in January -Started in April -Finished in August -1300 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths Cottage 1 sold in June of '07, and since then the idea has blossomed into a great business. I remember when I started tinkering with the idea - and the conventional wisdom mantra was 'no one will ever buy a small 2 bedroom home." I guess there is something to be said about 'doing it my way." Anyway, Emily - who is spearheading our new and improved approach to marketing - is something of a photographer as well - and snapped a few finish photos of the house, on the day of closing. This house is tight - ain't no one who sells houses as completely finished, as clean, with grass growing - as Catskill Farms - as I said before 'you can't touch this'. Here's a link to the finished home - http://www.thecatskillfarms.com/location/product/38