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

Many Sullivan County construction companies are similar to this beast below - taking their good ole time. This big bad boy is crossing Route 55 West in Highland Township, just south of Bethel.

The office is coming along just fine. If you remember I'm converting a pretty mundane school bus garage in Eldred into swanky office space for my staff (pretty easy since I don't have any), and hopefully create some shared office space down below with 5-6 offices, shared copier, high speed internet, ready to go industrial office space. I figure someone will want to work out of nice looking space as opposed to their basement or some crappy badly designed upstairs room in a converted Victorian home.

This photo below will be the headquarters of Catskill Farms in Eldred NY, a place to sell our very fine Sullivan County NY real estate. This space came out nice - very clean, unique with the sheet metal ceiling juxapositioned against old school wainscotting and large crown moulding, accented nicely with some red overhead hanging lights and a sliding barn door and yellow pine floors stained red chestnut.

Networked with Cat5, audio, high speed internet, southern sun, beergarten out back - you get the picture. Work hard, play hard.

If you remember the photo from a few months back, the lumber pile was much higher. Very much higher. Now all that's left are some misc. items. Picking through the pile every morning has turned into a weekly challenge - why buy when we can salvage. I just installed a window I had left over from Farmhouse 2, meaning it was laying around for 3 years. Now that everything is in the same space, it's much easier to use it up.

On the outside of the office space looking up, cool pic of the exterior of the interior office - the goal not only looking good, but now, in just this little space I can show customers different siding choices such as cedar shake (upper), board and batten (lower) as well as beveled siding, wood ceilings and wainscotting.

And beautiful Cottage #5, our first mini house. The owner is really making it a home - which is my favorite thing to see.

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Ponce de Leon's unrequited search for the fountain of youth has nothing on Catskill Farms' ability to bring this old lady back to life.

Lisa chose a light green for the body color, and the trim and window and corners and faccia and freize board will be glossy white.

Stately and simple - just how I like it - it's possible some shutters would look super sweet on this home. The distressed 75 yr old standing seam roof will probably remain.

The only thing we didn't change was the bathroom, which we we kept exactly how it was - tin ceiling 6 1/2 feet high, old school wall paper, old bathtub.

We completely reconfigured the house and made a strategic choice to include an oversized mudroom with closet and laundry, as well as plenty of room to kick off the boots and avert the 'why are you in the house with your muddy boots?' query. The reason I say 'strategic' is because the house is small (1300 sq ft) so a big mudroom means a small something else. That's the thing about building small - every square foot is important - there is no wasted space.

This mudroom features the original side entrance door, a new wood ceiling and new wainscotting.

Here's my main man Juan on Saturday checking out the wood in order to get started trimming the windows and doors.

The above photo is also a great shot of the wood floors we are refurbishing - underneath the carpet, and glue, and ancient padding is a wood floor dating back 150 years - a heart pine that not only is perfect in it's character and detail, but a floor that goes for over $14 a sq ft on the salvaged free market.

Photo below is taken standing in the dining room looking towards the kitchen. We installed audio and security before putting up the wall coverings.

This pictorial study of the NorthWest elevation at 7:30am - the leaves are very green, just beginning their march to a fuller, deeper green that will last until it doesn't. For some reason this picture looks antique and romantic to me - a simple farmhouse, well-kept, in the morning sun as the farmer and family start the day's chores that keep everyone fed and housed.

Was on the golf course at Villa Roma outside Jeffersonville yesterday late afternoon and the clouds rolled in, some vertical streaks of lightening, and then the skies opened and a heavy downpour of hail (hale?) and large rain drops swallowed the real estate of western sullivan county in one of those intense, unexpected shows of power the weather goddess likes, as she reminds us who is boss.

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It's baby season up here in the country and while cruisin around many and diverse sightings are possible - baby deer, baby turkeys, baby geese, baby ducks and I even saw 2 baby bear cubs and their Momma crossing the road the other day.

The deer are losing their big winter coats, and looking foxy in their form-fitting summer wear. The other week the turkeys were mating (hence why we are seeing babies now I guess) and all the males were buffing their peacock-like plums, looking for a mate.

Cottage 8, our 2nd Mini-House is well under way. This house features about 800 sq ft on the first floor and loft, and the owners hedged their bets by building out the basement with a bedroom, bathroom and large media/cooling-it room.

Another interesting way we approached this house was to build small but splurge on the details that made it perfect - stone all around, cedar shake siding, big back deck, cathedral ceilings. Great value oriented decisions.

Here's a pic from the living room looking up through the loft. There will be 2 sliding barn doors that open up into the loft.

Steps going up to loft made of big timbers and structurally supported by one of our barn beams.

And the Cathedral Ceiling.

This little house has big visions of living easy and large.

THIS BLOG MAY CONTAIN REFERENCES TO HUMOR THAT NOT EVERYONE WILL GET OR ENJOY.

So there's this blog out there that tracks regional real estate trends and I have been a regular contributer over the last 3 years (I also write lots of letters to the editors of our local rags). Anyway, for a little background this area up here in Sullivan County has a very superficial tendency to exhibit some class resentment among the newbies and the oldies - but it's just that, - superficial. The area is actually pretty open to the people who have newly landed, -straight, gay, banker, artist, musician, teacher, potter, etc.... The diversity of the under-the-radar 2nd homeowners is actually one of main drawing points, in my mind - otherwise, you could go to Oneoata.

Anway, to make a long story short I recommend NOT EVER saying one of the reasons people buy 2nd homes is so they can enjoy life's little moments more, such as seeing their dogs run around without a cage- or worse, that because NYC is expensive some of the surprise that this region is not super cheap is blunted. Well, it quickly went downhill and ended up on a very interesting strand about how 'all New Yorkers are easy suckers for us sophisticated country folk' and that any one who buys a Catskill Farms house is just throwing money away since the value will suredly drop precipitously. My thought is exactly the opposite, of course- that the better informed and educated about the area our customers are, the happier I am since then they are aware of value we are offering.

It wasn't the constant attack and simmering hatred that caught my attention, but rather the mob mentality of the anonymous blog post - people say really stupid things when they don't have to post their name. I guess that's why newspapers insist on full name and addresses. Post after post by people who don't know me - his houses suck, his customers are dumb, his prices are ridiculous, on and on, and in some cases, some even using my name to post blog threads. It reminded me of the one episode of West Wing where Josh starts replying to a fan web site blog and is really surprised at the mean reaction.

I say BigTime Bunk.

It's even better when I get threatened with 'you'll never sell another house again'. If I had a nickel everytime I heard that, well, let's just say Storm would not need to be laying on a worn out hand me down pillow blanket (she's doing well, thanks for asking).

Catskill Farms wakes up, works hard every day, delivers an honest product, and earns its money - the only thing that makes us different is the fact we understand the marketplace, and cater to a very discerning group of people who understand the definition of value - that value is a mix of financial emotion well-being, and you can feel it when you walk in the door.

Scattered all over Sullivan County are failed development projects by big smart money. I can name 8 without even thinking too hard. But here we are, a little simple company with a little simple idea - and we can't build them fast enough. I used to read the newspapers during this economic malaise and worry that it will only be a matter of time before it affects our business - but knock on wood, we have a year's waiting list and are turning people away on a weekly basis - supporting our current pricing as well as our historic prices - ie., very good for our customers.

The question is why - and I think the only explanation is that there was a market demand for a product for many years that no one ever figured out - and when we stumbled on it, and didn't make any big mistakes that put us under, - we inherited a surge of pent-up demand.

When the market was hot, a good company got lost in the crowd because everyone looked good. But now that the market has been pretty dead for 14 months, all those companies that were strolling along, then limping along, then using crutches, finally could not outlast the downturn and are simply gone, gone, gone.

On another note, Over the weekend I went to an Irish Musical Festival in East Durham, NY, just outside Cairo NY. This is in Greene County, which is another 2nd home hotspot.

I bought a new set of Callaways couple of weeks back and have been hitting the links regularly, here teaming up with 3 guys from LI who are married to 3 sisters.

And the cute little 'massage parlor' for some after-golf happy endings.

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