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

New Year's Day and big snow storm passing through. We also had one the other day - which means one thing to me - I get to tool around in my new 1990 Ford dump truck with a snow plow. One would think plowing snow is easy, but it does take some skill (I'm learning). With a couple thousand feet of roads and driveways to keep clear, the payback on this old truck is pretty quick, since a snow plowing for above mentioned amount of drives can reach $500+ per storm. It's a great day for snow storm - and I always think about my customers, hanging out in their houses watching it magically come down, with the fireplace roaring (and arguing about who's going out to get the wood, or who forgot to order it in the first place). I'm sure today is tempered by the fact that most of them need to get back to work. I'm hoping they just wait until morning and let everyone else try to make it home today. It's impossible not to feel foolish your first year up here, when in the middle of January you are calling around for firewood to be delivered. By the 2nd or 3rd year, most people know you need to order it in September to have any chance of getting it delivered timely.

Wow - our first mini-house is really coming along, and the interest in them has been amazing. Small open spaces, lots of land, and small affordable price tags. WE RAGE AGAINST THE MCMANSION.

Below is the gentleman who has signed up to by our first mini-house. Not native born, he is very excited to own the american dream - and even more excited about the huge pottery space in his pimped out basement. Our mini-houses with mini-price tags - a brand new idea in Sullivan County New York. We will finish this house by the end of January, and for those who have been following the adventure - that translates into a 3 month construction period. Yes, you heard it right - 3 months from drawing board to closing table.

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Back from Mexico, 2 hours south of Cancun, in a small gentrifying village of Tulum, in the Yucatan. Pretty spectacular, and the peso is not as demoralizing as the euro. Conceivably, what makes our homes more attractive is many faceted. First, many times the opportunity exists for a collaboration between myself and the new owners, satisfying the craving many people have to design something- what's better to design than something that will be there forever. 2ndly, search high and low and buyers can't find homes that match the architectural uniqueness of our homes. That uniqueness comes from constant experimentation with processes and materials, as well as the unique chemistry between Catskill Farms and the new homeowners, and what each respectively bring to the design phase. 3rdly, we price them right. I am a student of the real estate market, and we neither shoot for the moon with our prices or firesale them. We work hard, efficiently, intelligently, and toss all the savings of our process into the sales price. Show me one construction contract that is structured where the builder pays for everything - no surprises. 4th, we do our best to stand behind our work. Like the local old-timer real estate tycoon Gib McKean has said - 'you can't eliminate the problems from construction, but you have to minimize them, and address them.' Standing behind your work is important anywhere, but up here in the sticks, it's rare to take the responsibility as seriously as we do. 5th, although most of the customers get to enjoy a thorough design and architecture process, they don't have to pay for. I pay for the drawings, and from there we collaborate, free of charge, until the house is finished to customer specifications. It's a $15,000 savings at least, and a true advantage to working with a builder who has good taste (rare.). 6th, I pay for all taxes and interest costs during construction. All in all, a strategy focused on the needs of our clients - they want a house, they want it to be a great house, they want it quick, they do not want the process to take over their lives, and they do not want to pay out the nose for it. That's fine with me - and is seeming to work out well for everyone - since in these trying economic times, we are selling our houses quicker than we can design them. Happy Holidays.

This post is long over-due, since this is not a picture of a Christmas gathering, but rather Thanksgiving at our home at Chapin Estate. My uncle, dad, mom, stepmom, Juan, Amy, Lisa, my bro and his entourage of 4 kids, a wife and dog.

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Ouch! Since the last weekend in October, the weather has beaten us up pretty good. Snow storms, ice storms, rain storms, freezing temps, warm temps, etc... On a daily basis at this point we are needing to employ our best winter weather management techniques. Take a large 2 wheel drive box truck filled with windows, insulation, sheetrock or whatever have you, add one part solid icy driveway, add one part unpredictability, add one part lots of trucks, vans, cars attempting to access the sites, park, manuever, turn around and you get a complicated cocktail of chaos. Snow is not so bad, but it eliminates parking areas for the tradesmen, meaning everytime someone comes or goes, someone else has to move their vehicle. The ice that is building up everywhere is a true foe, equally competent at causing logistical issues as well as safety issues. Putting on a roof after melting 1/2" of ice off, construction steps covered in black ice, ankle-breaking divots in the rough earth, soft spots, hard spots, things froze together, cold houses. This week we were attempting to install 2 roofs, among many other things. We encountered an ice storm on Tuesday, a blizzard on Thursday, and an ice/sleet/snow storm today. Onward we trudge.