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

We built this home two years back for a gentleman from Manhattan who deals in Mid-Century antiques. His good friend from France/Italy designed it for him, and we built it.

Concrete floors, 25 ft ceilings, 2 bedrooms, radiant heat, steam shower, and 35 beautiful acres.

And you don't stop,
you keep on eatin' cars
Then, when there's no more cars
You go out at night and eat up bars
where the people meet
Face to face,
dance cheek to cheek
One to one, man to man
Dance toe to toe
Don't move to slow,
'cause the man from Mars
Is through with cars,
he's eatin' bars
Yeah, wall to wall,
door to door,
hall to hall
He's gonna eat 'em all
Rapture, be pure
Take a tour,
through the sewer
Don't strain your brain,
paint a train
You'll be singin' in the rain
I said don't stop, do punk rock

Hello Blondie - a song from when I was about 1o, or more perversely, 28 years ago.

Yes, it's true we work long and hard hours, keeping the show running 7 days a week, 10 hours a day. Sometimes you will even see people working by headlights.

Introducing Fabulous Cottage 8 -

And marvelous Cottage 7

Perfect Affordable Artsy Cool Quality Country Living.

Just as predicted, had to edit the post a few days back poking fun at my customers. Seems not everyone gets my humor - surprise, surprise. Lisa was giving me a few "told you so's" between tending to Storm, tending to the baby to be, and procrastinating the laundry.

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Spring has sprung - in the Catskills that means mornings are 32 degrees, and afternoons are 65. Even in the summer, our evenings cool down melodiously - negating the need for air conditioning and discouraging a lot of pests.

Here is Cottage 5 Maurizio's yard, about 10 days after we planted it. First you 'grade' it, then you rake the rocks out, then you add two teaspoons of top soil, rake it 0ut, sprinkle liberally Delaware Valley grass seed, and cover with hay (which keeps it protected from too much sun and too much wind), let sit 2 weeks, and enjoy. We differ from most country builders by even using top soil - most just rake around the clay like soil they found on site, throw some seed around, and wallah - a rocky, spotty, weed lawn impossible to fix without starting from scratch. This is a great example of how Catskill Farms exceeds expectations - a fine yard process like this is easily $5k, and no where in the contract does it stipulate I will do it. But let's be honest - it's better this way, so we do it.

Maurizio also has already planted some trees -

Sullivan County has lots of little farms and 'at home' suppliers of all the little essentials that makes life sweet - in this case, honey. Which immediately makes me wonder why a few of my customers have never heard the cliche 'you catch more flies with honey....'

And the Sullivan County countryside, in all it's glory.

And Cheri's 1100 sq ft modern abode.

And Cheri's note to us after she settled in (one of full timers) -

I'm so happy to be here.
It's unreal.

I'm not kidding.
I keep telling the dogs we are on vacation.
Norm is like a pig in shit, Scout a bit wary.

When I wake up and go outside
I don't need to smile at anybody if I don't really want to.
Or talk about the weather. Or how I'm doing today.
I don't have to make a mad dash for a hot pile of poop nearly getting hit by a street sweeper sitting on his throne.
I don't have to cover my ears as screaming emergency vehicles go by or be saddened by
firetrucks rolling by with american flags flying.

I can sit on the porch with scout and norm
and listen to a little chirpin' and hummin', whooshin' and cracklin'.
I talk to spiders before I pick them up and gently place them outside (where I think they belong). We differ.
I found a tiny bird dead on the patio in the morning one day...it must have flown into the sliding glass doors in the night.
I buried the little body in the backyard. (respectfully).
And yesterday I uncovered two tiny translucent bright orange baby salamanders under a log.
Awesome. After admiring them, I placed the log back over them, gently.

...not to mention having a washer/dryer. And a fancy stove.
shit. it all just blows my mind.

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well, here's a nytimes article about contractors and builders not feeling the love. Pretty good and funny article, and the related blog posts reveal the extent of the bitterness left by contractors and their minions. My thoughts - both sides have a point to be sure. "Building Rage" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/garden/15contractors.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=contractor%20therapy&st=cse&oref=slogin I thought it was well-timed because you always read about the homeowners and architects, but the builder sometimes actually has to serve as a bridge between the aspirations of the homeowner and architects.