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

Tucked way back in the biggest and baddest building lot of our newest project, Mr Cross has reserved a 5.5 acre, 1400 sf cottage. Big trees, big sun, and a big brook (well, not so big or it wouldn't be called a brook), this gentleman's escape is what people dream of.

Cottage 5 is another attempt by Catskill Farms to enable more people to buy that get-away home. 1 bedroom, fireplace, wide plank floors, 2 acres, vaulted ceilings, and a full basement to build-out when the wallet allows. Did I mention the brook running through the property? And the price is less than $200k? My first home in Sullivan County was a 600 sf shack in the woods, and we lived there for 4 years as I built Catskill Farms. Plenty of space, even at Thanksgiving when everyone brought their kids and dogs. I was very tempted to call this mini-cottage series "The Shack Series", but wasn't sure if prospective homeowners would appreciate it. I believe the McMansion/Hummer era is coming to an end - and reasonable, intimate spaces will be in vogue for many years to come.

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Well, for better or worse, we're bloggin'. My thinking is that reading about design and construction, seeing pictures, watching the progress of a sketch become a home is a good spectator sport, and since we are immersed in the world of contractors, subcontractors, building inspectors, zoning boards and architects, it may just help those who eventually go out and build something. The one truism about house building, renovation and restoration is that most people only get to do it once or twice in their lives. And the first time is often nothing more than a painful learning curve that leaves you yearning to do it again so all the lessons you've just learned can be put to work. Unfortunately, the house is finished (or nearly), the money is gone, and the lessons have been bought and paid for. Design and Construction is an adventure - the personalities, the weather, the logistics, the problems and the glory. We're going to bring it to you live - straight from the backhills of Sullivan County.

I wanted a few days away, close to home, but something nice, so I took a look at Wildflower Farms in Gardener, Innes in Kerhonkson, and the famous Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz. It’s late in the season for leaf poppers and would seem like these places would be transitioning to their slower routine of winter, but I guess not quite yet.  I’m not particularly price sensitive, but each of these places had room plans that started at above $1000 a night, one pushing $2000 a night.  I travel a lot, so I can say with certainty that this is an above average room rate.

It makes me think at times I have a psychological and economic detachment from this one segment of the upstate economy - this visiting and tourism circuit of $5000 weekends.  I ended up at the Mohonk Mountain House, a large establishment on a New Paltz bluff founded in 1890’s and expanded ever since.  Quintessential Inn experience.  It’s early on Monday morning, we are fogged in.  I sit in the reading room.  You forget at first if you arrive at check-time at 4pm, it’s dark at 4:45.

I’ve recently been struck by the concept of shrinkage, where product sellers don’t raise the price of an item, but rather shrink the item they are selling.  Cereal is infamous for this, or chips, where the bag or box stays the same but the amount in the box/bag gets smaller.  I really noticed it the other day at Pizza Hut in Houston - their personal pan was literally an offense to a hardy appetite.

I’ve been inundating myself with a wide range of reading, vacuuming it up in wide and varied swaths, adding the contextual layers from which I understand the world, understand my place in it, and understand my business and personal strategies derived from it.  So many metrics, data, theories and guesses about what comes next in the economic cycle.

Healthcare right now is scary for individuals not attached to a large corporation or to small businesses.   Rates have climbed steadily for the last few years, and now they are set to jump.  This is a zero sum game for small businesses - every dollar increase is a dollar not invested elsewhere, a dollar out of the pocket, a dollar not spent on new employees, equipment.  With annual premiums topping $15k for a father and son, $10k for an individual, $25k for a family, and then deductibles of $5k, $6k, $10k before the policy even kicks in, the absurdity of the American healthcare experience grows.  At some point, perhaps already past, where just choosing a catastrophic plan that kicks in at $100k of medical expenses makes sense and self-funding the first $100k with savings from NOT buying health insurance.  It’s definitely one solution for those with access to savings or investments, or who take the risk for 5 years while building up the reserves. 

Healthcare and higher education should not be the burden on the American experience like it is.  It’s just absurd, and the idea that a bunch of working stiffs support a political party that strips them, fights against, such a human right, is another layer of absurdity.

Trump is right, when he was caught on camera back before he was president, commenting on the stupidity of the average American.  It’s not conjecture - it’s a reality.  You have the stupid and you have the self-serving who feed off the stupidity at the extremes of our society. 

You have this argument and debate with every new political football about its ‘socialism’ components, which again, is an absurd debate on many levels.  The American Experience is already, and has been, a mostly socialist country for a long time - corporate welfare to an extreme, healthcare to everyone over 65, welfare, SNAP, WIC, unemployment, Head Start, free school lunches, - you name it, we have it.

I just realized I’m getting to the age where my peers and now me start to have parent issues of a medical nature and the new experience of figuring out a plan to care for them, or assist them, or participate in their lives in some new fashion.

It's been an exciting year of High School football, with another thriller in the rain last Friday. We were down 17 zero in the first quarter and it looked grim, but clawed back and took the win. This is the 3rd thriller this year, games that went down to the wire. Been running all around Pennsylvania state for these Friday Night Lights.

My son Lucas, #7, lost the starting QB role to his best friend Colin, #8, but loves being part of the team nevertheless.

I remember when I was 18-25 I would go days if not weeks without talking to or hearing from my family.  When I traveled after college it was spent mostly without contact with them.  It’s such an odd juxtaposition to nowadays, where even independent parents expect to know where their kids are more or less all the time and expect to hear from them via text or tele every day if not more.  I’m undecided about the pros and cons, but for sure it can make you feel overly needy by needing that child validation on a daily basis.  I try and think back and reassemble how anything happened on time or in an organized fashion prior to handheld devices - did we all just show up when we said we were going to?  Was there a broader acceptance of uncertainty?  I literally can’t remember.

On the homebuilding front, we are accelerating into the colder months and should be in good shape to build through winter months and have a long runway into 2026 planning.

I found myself with 3 teenagers in Houston on the way home from a NFL game in the first hints of the chaos entering our airports due to the government shutdown.  6 (SIX) hours in a security line and a full night at the airport, navigating a lack of TSA workers to process a normal Sunday night at the airport.  

Kids in shock and relief exiting 6 hours of TSA wait, only to find an overnight stay in an airport is no bowl of cherries either.

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