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

In my mind, I pictured thousands, if not tens of thousands, of readers waiting anxiously for this long-awaited post (lisa thinks a baker's dozen, max, including family). Truth being, I have been without phone, cable, internet and even electric since Tuesday night when a quasi-twister came twisting through Bethel leaving quite a bit of devastation in its wake. It wasn't as if whole neighborhoods were flattened and all the mobile homes flying through the air (a true air traffic jam because of all the trailers in the county), but a lot of big trees down and enough electric lines down to cause to real hardship and inconvenience for a lot of people. Lisa, Juan, Amy, Amy's parents and myself were down in Barryville enjoying Taco Tuesday at Cedar Rapids campground and missed the storm of century in favor of bad mexican food (hard to do), but on our way back up 55 East we could tell something had just happened - it seemed like the morning after, - lots of leaves, branches, eerie colors and lingering winds. We got back to Chapin Estate and prayed as we pushed our gate opener, hoping the system was working off a backup system or generator or something. Luckily, it opened and Juan and Lisa high-fived. Trees were down though, and it was dark and raining hard. Within 100 yards on the private Chapin Trail Road leading into the project, a tree was down, blocking any hope of getting by this tree which was tangled in electric wires, phone wires, and cable wires. We got out of the car to check it out, - do we try and pass, or do we not and where do we go for the night? At this point we weren't sure the extent of the damage throughout the county. About that time a big Hummer - yes some people I guess still drive hummers - arrived with Steve Dubrovsky and Mike Watkins, owners of the Chapin Estate. Oddly, they pulled up to the trees, obviously decided not to chance it, and left quickly without a word into the darkness, leaving me and my pregnant wife wondering the best course of action. So we ended up driving over to Amy's house and her barn and breakfast, and spending the night there. Even 15 miles away, still no electric - meaning no fan and it was still hot hot hot. Interestingly, it wasn't too bad being off the grid.

Big tree with big branch broken off. Lots of 'b' s in that sentence - illiteration I think they call it.

Some trees were broken in half, other were twisted out of the ground whole.

The thing about trees is that to remove them are expensive, especially if a homeowner pays a retail weekender price. You have to cut up the tree, haul out the wood, get rid of the stump (one stump and roots can fill an entire truck), and then you have to fill the big hole the tree was rooted in. The eye of the storm seem to have gone right through Lot 45, my old house at Chapin Estate and lots of trees were done on this property. The homeowners called their insurance company and they said, with a straight face, 'did the trees fall on the house? No, well you live in the woods right? Trees fall in the woods right?" Classic - I wish I could say such things to my customers.

Here is a picture below of the electrical lines dangling dangerously. I guess it wasn't that dangerous since Chapin Estate founder offered no guidance just after the storm. Hey, what's a little electricity pulsing through the ground and trees.

It was a bit refreshing to be disconnected from email, phones, fax and electric - although no electric means no water, no refrigerator, no air conditioning. I was using my cell phone a lot and had to charge it up in my truck - so not only am I definitely going to exceed my minutes, but I was spending $4.20 a gallon to charge my phone. We had to pay some bills on Thursday and couldn't access our accounting software to see who we owed what - so we decided to hand write the checks but this entailed a calculator not run on electric so we located a solar calculator but then it was too dark in the house for it to work so Deborah the book-keeper had to keep running outside into the sunshine everytime she needed to calculate something.

The one thing we had going for us was the fact that summer was in full swing meaning it stayed light late. No news, no email, no tv. At least we had some scotch to pass the time. Or, as Lisa offered, at least we had each other. She's sweet like dat.

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This weekend was lots of non-work related fun - and boy was it hot. I guess it was hot everywhere, but you especially notice it up here because usually the nights are so cool. This part of the Catskills, the Sullivan County, lower foothills of the Catskills, region can get hot, but usually the nights cool it down - we can easily see swings from 45 degrees on a June Morning to 90 degrees in the afternoon, back to 45 degrees again. But mid-90's in early June is a bit unexpected, to be sure.

Lisa's pregnant and probably the 2 most common reactions we get to said situation is 'sleep now' and 'oooh, you have to carry through the summer'. We really don't know the true meaning of either of these comments but i'm sure the understanding is imminent.

My customers and clients come to the Catskills for fun, and over the last 4 years one thing I have truely lacked is the time for some unadulterated fun. Don't get me wrong, I like fun and leisure as much as the next guy - in fact, if you can't enjoy some leisure what's the point of all the hard work. I think that's one of the things that drives my company is the pleasure we as a team get from seeing our homeowners get to enjoy their life's accomplishments - a country house, a truck, couple of dogs, a garden, some peace and quiet. It's not like these are grandiose or immodest aspirations - but they do mark a certain place and station in life. A marker of progress when you can take a break and take it all in.

Anyway, Saturday marked the opening of the Woodstock Museum in Bethel NY. For those not familar, Bethel NY (Sullivan County) was the default location of the 1969 concert after the town of Woodstock denied the concert permits at the last minute - so everyone came a little more northwest and half a million people landed in this nowhere's ville.

We all know the rest of the story and legend and about 4 yrs ago the local golden boy Alan Gerry who made his billions in cable tv and selling his life's work to Time Warner dreamed up and ponied up for an outdoor amphitheater on the exact site of the 1969 concert - so you have people like Neil Young coming back 40 years later to play on the same stage. Pretty cool, and very beautifully done.

Now, Mr Gerry has opened up a very well-done musuem dedicated to the memory of the turbulent 1960s. The opening day was Saturday.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-06-06-voa47.cfm

To all you sophisticates, these little accomplishments may not seem that impressive, but to anyone who lives here and has seen a lot of dreams come and go, to see a big project get done well, on time, and attractively is terribly exciting. Sullivan County doesn't have many big wins these days.

And then on Sunday, I was invited to the Swan Lake Golf Club for a round of golf with 2 executives with the local bank, The First National Bank of Jeffersonville, and my attorney. It was what they call 'better ball' where a team of 4 plays as a team, using the 'best ball' of each shot.

What has been neat about living up here in the sticks is the return to simplicity - if I have a problem I can call the bank president and he knows who I am - in fact, this bank was the financing source that got the whole show started - they gave me my first $100k I didn't qualify for, and have followed (or sometimes led) the way upwards ever since.

I have often said I would not have been able to build this business as quickly or as solidly if not for the ability to sit down with a small bank and explain some of the reasons why the scary numbers on the finanical data I was submitting while asking for my credit line to triple was not the whole story. Very Frank Capra-esque, to be sure.



Sunday was also the big day for the Callicoon Tractor Parade - an event where all the area tractors drive to downtown Callicoon and then one by one drive by the large crowed of on-lookers. Tractors of all shapes, sizes, ages, makes and models (and the same could be said for the crowd.



Here's pic of owner of Cottage 5 playing with a baby deer he found near his new home -

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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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