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

Just in the nick of time, our infrastructure went in. Electric poles, electric wires, underground electric to the houses, and the underground natural gas takes that will power the homes at Crawford Farms.

If my readers have any friends (or maybe they are like me, friendless), this house is FOR SALE. Amazingly, it's the only house we have for sale, having had our inventory bought up like used records outside a disc jockey conference. We like to experiment, and we like to keep things real - so we stepped outside our comfort zone and did a little Modern. Kind of like the pre-fab, overpriced, over-designed Dwell houses, except not pre-fab, not over priced, and not over designed.

This house is 1200 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, open loft living/dining/kitchen, 2 full cool baths and a ton of outside living space. Lisa said if we owned a country house, this would be it. My electrician calls it 'the fort', I call it 'modern cottage #3'. The above picture features the staircase, salvaged wood rails, and local bluestone floors that are warm to the touch because of the radiant heat beneath it.

When we built this house, we had 'green' in mind - not fake green, not marketing green, but true attention to how we could build a house that used less energy. This house is built into the earth, taking advantage of the thermal insulation, is positioned to take advantage of passive solar energy, has an abundant amount of insulation, a super efficient heating system, and radiant heat on the ground floor.

This is probably the most unique house for sale in Sullivan County in the $300k range. Not for everyone, but definitely for someone. Catskill Farms has made a good living creating niche houses for niche buyers, or, as our marketing says - 'unique homes for unique individuals."

What doesn't hurt this house is the 6+ perfect acres, private and beautiful, or the security system we installed, or the mack-daddy whole house audio system. Pretty perfect.

Saturdays I have to pull double duty - not only do many of the contractors we employ work the weekends, but it's also a day when Catskill Farms homeowners and prospective homeowners are in town. So on top of meeting and strategizing with tradesmen, a lot of Saturdays are spent designing homes, showing homes and walking land. For the most part, Catskill Farms meets with homeowners and possible buyers whenever it is convenient for them. We had one customer who could only meet after 6pm on Saturdays and Sunday - so that's what we did, and got the house built without any delay. Truth be told, without all the built advantages of building or buying with Catskill Farms, most of our customers wouldn't own a country home. We are available 24/7, we pay the interest charges while building, we pay for anything unexpected, we pay for the architect, we pay for the engineeers, we pay for the permits, we pay to market our homes saving everyone a lot of money, etc..., etc..., etc... In Sullivan County, most construction projects should include a cynanide pill with the construction contract, since 8 out of 10 projects don't get finished or are so painful, negatively life-changing, and over budget to make ending it all an attractive option. Catskill Farms consistently delivers brand new old house within 4 months of commencement, a pretty amazing feat anywhere, let alone up here in the middle of nowhere where even simple tasks are complicated by distance, delinquency and dumbness. We take the home-building/home-buying process pretty serious, and understand the stress on the pocketbook and relationships. We think building/buying one of homes is definitely life-altering, but in the case of our customers, only for the positive. It's a rare experience. Today was busy. Up at 6am, Home Depot by 7am to pick up 7 misc. items for the punch list at the Jeff Lake house, met Juan at 8 to drop off misc. items and give him the keys to the Uhaul I rented yesterday so we could move furniture out of the Jeff Lake house (we furnish our unsold houses) and finish the punchlist, then to a quick meeting at the Kittay house addition (this addition is for President of the Chapin Estate Homeowners Association), then to McKean Real Estate to finalize the deal on mini-house #1, otherwise known as Cottage 5, then off to look at 14 acres of land priced right, then back to the Kittay residence to meet with the architects and engineers, then down to Farm #9 to meet up with the Carrs. Presently we are designing the lighting, kitchen and beginning to think about which rooms will be sheetrock, where the wainscotting will go, and where we can slip in some perfect plank ceilings. Then a 2 hour nap, and now Amy and Lisa are in the kitchen (barefoot of course) cooking up a nice country dinner (in between fighting off this very aggressive and active Kitten) and listening to some Christmas cd's I impulsively picked up at the local gas station.

The Jeff Lake house is poised to sell. It's 1050 sq ft, 2 bedrooms outside Jeffersonville. It also has access to Lake Jefferson. We bought this in 2002, ill-advisedly rented it out to a local couple who kept dogs, cats and snakes (and when I say 'kept', I mean it loosely). Since '03, it has set empty until the beginning of '07 when I gutted and remodeled it. Now it's swanky and just about ready for that new homeowner.

I bought this house from Mr and Mrs Piccarello, from Brooklyn. They used it as a seasonal home for over 40 yrs.

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