Stormy Monday

So most of you know that my good dog Bella passed on here about a year ago, actually the exact same day I closed on Cottage 1, which was sort of a push pull emotional situation. Our good friend Gib McKean, a local real estate legend, was talking the other day at breakfast about this dog. The dog's owner got sick about 6 months ago, spent 5 months in a nursing home, and then passed away recently. So a few of this man's friends, Gib being one of them, were looking after the dog as best they could, stopping by to feed it, water it, etc... but the dog definitely wasn't living large, tied to his dog box all winter, without much affection being tendered his way.

Any way, Lisa and I took him home, without his dog box which was too big for 3 guys to move - plus, I'm not sure Chapin Estate would have been too excited with me driving into the project with some big old dog house hanging over the sides of my pickup, hay and roof shingles flying off the back.

So old Stormy now gets walked twice a day by Lisa and sometimes Lisa and Amy, and even though she is 11 years old, I could easily mistake her for being absolutely no older than 9.

The best part of the story is the owner who passed on owned 4 german shepards over the past 40 years, and he named them all Storm. Kinda like my grandpapa who always had these mini-dogs around and they were all named Pal. Should be a pretty glorious denouement to her dog's life, living at Chapin under the deck, getting lots of lovin from Lisa, and getting to experience first hand the insanity of the kitten we adopted from Brooklyn.

Old House Blues part deux

While we are still monkeying around framing new roofs, replacing studs, adding windows, leveling floors by jacking up the house and adding steel beams, tearing off two layers of siding, i.e., everything but moving quickly forward. I would guess at this point we would have encountered about $17,000 of extra work if this project was for a client, based on unforeseen and concealed conditions. Juxapositoned, Cottage 7 and Cottage 8 are well on their way to being closed in, while twice as much labor and money has gone into half as much progress at the Ole House.

Oh well, we all know romance is expensive and unpredictable.


New Roof system augmenting existing tree limbs.



Planking on the wall, covered with ancient newspaper. Jack hammer and pry bar stand at the ready.

Another archelogical find - first some sort of cardboard composite siding (seemed be the 'tin man' option of the 60's), then 'poor man shingles', which is a type of exterior covering which rolls out over the house, and then the original wood clapboard underneath. Many times homeowners covered up the wood siding with 'new' materials not because the siding was decayed, but because the expense and inconvenience of painting grew tiresome.

This pic below illustrates 3 distinct time periods of american home construction.

Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am

"Out of nothing at all..." (for all you Air Supply soft-rock 80's fans) -

Cottage 7 springs from the ground, kind of like the ferns, tree blossoms and early flowers since spring has arrived - sunny, sunny, sunny -

4 days - and now starts the roof.

Old House marching on.

Cottage 6 is Finished.

Cottage 6 is a simple 1300 sq ft cottage with a lot of care in the details. It's not everyday we installed duel heat lamps in the bath, a steam unit, a movie room, salvage barn siding flooring, and exposed rafter porches.

Here's a pic of the house while climbing the hill from the brook.

And a shot looking eastward.

Standing in the kitchen/dining room looking into the living room. Note the elements - 2 chalkboard doors, exposed rafters in the kitchen, perfect old floors with hand cut nails.

A pic of the bathroom under the glow of the duel heat lamps. Clawfoot tub, vessel sink, and local bluestone on the floor.

Very large and roomy shower/steam room with glass tiles and bluestone flooring.

The office/spare bedroom.


Living room looking into the kitchen and up the stairs.

We started this cottage in November and worked pretty hard at through the winter. The owner was only able to visit 3 times during construction so our ability to understand the direction of the homeowner was put to the test since the collaboration was mostly pictures and phone calls. I think it's safe to say it worked out just fine.

Another architectural gem to decorate the landscape of Sullivan County.

Old house blues

If I needed a reminder as to why our new old houses are such a hit, all it takes is to delve into a remodel of a 100 yr old house to remind me. The thing about old houses is you never really now how old they are, or how they were constructed, or what you are going to find. Even to a old vet like myself, each one is a real challenge and budget-buster.

More or less, just the opposite of the homes we sell, - where any uncertainty to the price or product revolves only around the bedtime debates of our clients as to whether the cedar shake siding is worth the expense, or whether foundation and chimney stone veneer is in the cards. Other than owner-inspired upgrades - which, surprisingly, are relatively rare - we come in right on budget - and when I say right on budget, I mean to the penny, and frankly (honk honk) it's unheard of in construction.

An old house, however, is only for those with lots of tolerance for the unknown. For instance, this frickin farmhouse on Crawford Rd was thought to be around 100 yrs old. Turns out to be more like a 140 yrs old, before standard framing wood was available. So we are finding tree limbs for roof rafters -


And 3 layers of roofing materials. The roof on this house reminds me of one of those archeological digs, or geology projects, where you tell the age of civilization by the layers in the dirt.

On this house we started with regular old worn out shingles, which are a breeze. But not when the next layer is old school standing seam metal roofing (see sample on front porch), below that is very uncommon cedar shake roofing (probably the mid-1800's original) and under that nothing but some bridging (usually you would find some solid sheathing).

Looking up through the roof from the 'master bedroom'.

And then the roof rafters being constructed of tree branches, about 3 inches thick, that really took the cake.

All and all, if you are a homeowner with a hired contractor, probably a $10k surprise in the first week of construction. Goodbye Viking Stove.

A Day's Work

We are busy. Everyday. Including Saturdays and Sundays.

A sampling -

We started framing Cottage 7. Began the demo and restoration of a 130 yr old farmhouse. Are completing the landscaping at Lot 1 and Lot 2 at Highland Farms. Getting the CO for Cottage 6 so we can get 'er sold. Getting the CO for Monte so he can sleep in peace. Beginning the subdivision work for the 50 acres I bought last Friday. Continuing the work at the office space so I can move in by the end of May or so. Planning the design of the McGinnis Cottage (2nd draft), planning the design for Adam and Brian (Cottage 9), getting started on the contract and design for Gayle.

All in all - quite exciting, considering the doomsday scenarios being bandied about.

New RockHouse Owner Feedback

RockHouse living is unique living. It's tough, it's romantic, it's frustrating, it's glorious. 700 sq ft of fine living indeed.

Here's a note from Julia and Marty, the musician/writer combo who took the reins after Lisa and moved on. Julia said she felt like 'Robinson Crusoe' her first summer there.

"Hi Chuck,Congrats on the exploding business of Catskill Farms! That is just amazing, and frankly, if I do say so myself, I am not at all surprised, and if you will remember, I did in fact, mention this to you last spring as we were closing on the Rock House, that "something tells me you will be very busy very soon." Yes, you heard it here first.Those small-ish houses were a great idea, and having people collaborate on the design is a stroke of genius. They are so cute I'm glad they are taking off. And in this business climate too, very smart. Well, I tell you, when we were shopping for a house last year, your house was the only one we were interested in. The other houses out there are just no good. They are overpriced and pretty rickety. Or they are super humongous. Nobody wants to take care of a super huge house on the weekends. What a lot of work! And who wants to pay huge tax bills for a freakin' weekend house? My fantasy is when I get really rich is to buy twenty acres and have you build a couple of little Katrina houses on it. What do you think? Would taxes be huge on a project like that?In the meantime, we are lovin' the Rock House, I mean LOVIN' it!!! Boy the winter was tough though. Ouch. We may in fact close the place up for the winter, next year, as we didn't get out to Sullivan County that much. It sure was beautiful though. Beautiful and treacherous. Almost killed myself on the drive way.Well, just wanted to say congratulations to you and Lisa again on your great success. We just love our house. It is so well built. The roof was great. No problems during all of that harsh weather.Last summer was amazing, as we were there for three months. I even leased a horse at Stonewall Barns in Jeffersonville.I wish the economy were better out there, we'd move full time for sure.Well, just wanted to say hi. Haven't seen Poker for awhile. I fear she did not make it through the winter. Will let you know if I see her.Best to Lisa.cheers,Julia"

Our bedroom, living room, reading room, music room combo -

And the winter's fury making access a bit arduous.

Cottage 7 and 8 in the ground

Getting a foundation in is not the easiest thing to do. It's very weather and subcontractor dependent. It works like this - the excavator clears the building lot of trees and stumps (2-3 days), digs a big hole (1 day), with the bottom of the hole being at least 4'+ underground to prevent any impact from frozen ground 'heaving the building'. The mason then comes in and lays the forms for his footings (4 hours on these size houses). Then the building inspector needs to come by to check it out - the width/depth and rebar reinforcement. The mason pours the next day. The mason comes back to strip his forms, and start forming up the foundation walls, which sit on the footings ( about 1 day). Then the inspector returns to check out the walls and the cross-grid rebar reinforcement. Then the mason pours his walls, and 2 days later comes back to strip his forms. Then the excavator waterproofs the foundation (tars the foundation), and installs his footing drains all around the perimeter of the basement to keep it dry (#2 stone and perforated pipe). Then the inspector returns to check out the installation of the drainage, then we are ready to move the dirt back (backfill). If everything goes perfect, it takes under 2 weeks - but rain can make it a nightmare for access (cement trucks, stone trucks, mason trucks, big excavator) and progress. These went pretty well, mostly because the subcontractors were right on schedule. Paying them quickly helps this process.

Here is Ana & Pablo's new sexy foundation in the morning sun. This is what they call a walk-out, with doors and windows leading out from the basement.


And Rob and Leah's foundation, tarred and backfilled, waiting politely for the house framers. Another couple of weeks and the trees will be ablooming.

Just the facts and Reflections

The facts are pretty straight-forward - if hard to believe.

We closed on a house in January, two in February, 2 in March, 1 or 2 in April, am sitting on 3 signed contracts, and have 2 $10k deposits sitting in the bank in order to reserve a place in line. My team and I are feeling very fortunate to be ripping a hang 5 atop this economic tsunami.

"Builder" magazine is doing a feature on 'niche building' and we made the cut, finally. Although from my limited experience, the people who make the papers and magazines aren't the ones actually doing anything noteworthy - they just have friends in high places. I know that's a class-ist statement, but hey, my dad was a house painter so a little chip on the should never hurts anyone.

Spring is here, and so far this week the weather has been great. The ground is drying out and a few more days like this we will be able to tidy up Bella Drive and the houses that reside there, get the grass growing, and leave it as neat and natural as possible.

We executed our winter gameplan pretty well on target - another week and most of the work will be done at Highland Farms. Given the respite of finishing homes gives us the opportunity to take care of some loose ends like build a deck at my new office, finish Cheri's exterior stone patio, repair a small leak at Farm 7, troubleshoot a basement moisture issue at Farm 8, review a 6 month post closing walk-thru with the gentlemen at Cottage 1, etc... Amazing, 1 yr ago Cottage 1 was not even finished, and now we are reserving Cottage 14.

Well, no need to beat a dead horse (what a terrible saying), but we have our fingers crossed that all the interest in our homes results in closed sales and happy homeowners.

Here's a pic of me and my dog in front of Farmhouse #1, the very first house I built. It sold in April 2004. It wasn't bad for my first try at country building.

And then our first attempt at grassroots marketing, when the marketing budget was around $45. It's been suggested my buzz cut is not the best look for me.

And then, after 12 months of planning, begging for money and early advances, pleading with my help to show up, reinventing every wheel ever invented and rolling along on a huge learning curve -

...this happened on the final week of construction.



To say the least, it took a lot of gumption to get past this pickle. I remember Curtis calling me up and trying to break it to me easy - 'um, uh, 2 trees fell on the house last night."

Catskill Farms - International Headquarters.

That's right - I bought a 2000 sq ft garage with 25' high ceilings that served as the school bus repair garage for the past 30 years for the Eldred High School. While I can use the 3 acres and the 2000 sq ft, I'm not sure if the 'heavy duty lift' will come in too handy. Sounds dangerous, especially to a mechanical moron like myself.

What a beautiful picture - Good Ol Yeller beside the ghetto bus garage. Note the avant garde paint scheme of poop brown on bad white.

Inside is wide open - this pic shows the framing for my 2nd floor office that'll be the dope - casement windows southernly swinging out, metal roof, big phat screen tv for me and my clients to check out pictures, audio, security, internet - space and permanance. I mean, really, I call an internet vendor I use and he has 7 addresses for me over the past 2 years. That ain't an easy life to lead, and even harder to sell to the lady. But my good looks and country charm have enabled me to wiggle through not completely unscathed, but at least undaunted.

Great picture from my upper floor office looking down on all the god damn furniture I own. Seriously, that's all furniture - bought over the years while we were furnishing houses that no one would buy (only because the realtors were too cheap to invest the commissions they were making off me in good advertising - but that's another topic and another story for another day.) I got like 7 couches - macy's, lazyboy, ikea - chairs, dressers, antiques, mirrors, rugs, pictures, art, mailboxes, boxes, armchairs, rocking chairs, broken chairs, typewriters (too many too count - i collect them).

And below one frickin' pile of lumber, windows, doors and siding that we have accumulated over the past 4 years of construction and until we bought the ghetto bus garage (thank you Jeff Bank), it was scattered all over the county.

There is at least $10k of material down there, and everyday we stop by and pick up this or that and it is glorious to a cost-conscious sort of guy (just ask Lisa about my audits of her credit card and my empty threats to 'cut her off' if the liquer store bill gets any higher regardless of her claim that it's 'all for you'). Construction is about managing waste, and to use all this extra material up is just like a dream come true - easy money.

Swiss Hill Farm Part 1

On a back pretty road between Jeffersonville and Bethel, NY lay a beautiful and dilapidated tiny little farmhouse and 2 barns on 30 acres. Even though I was past my eyebrows in debt, and owned a dicey business with a good idea but no assurance of short or long term success, we had tired of full-time living in the Rock House, our 600 sq ft house in Cochecton, NY - so I bought it.

Now, it's always interesting for a designer/builder/contractor to put the other shoe on and become a home improver - and now that I have done it a few times, I think I am a believer that every builder should build something for himself and his wife every few years just so they can remember the stress involved by home improvement/home builder participants - financial stress, decision stress, relationship stress, animal stress, did I say financial stress?

The thing about decisions is that the bigger they are, the more intractable and unchangeable they are. You can change a light fixture you don't like, but you can't shrink the house once you put the foundation in, you can't change the kitchen cabinets once they are ordered and installed, and you can't improve a piece of land that can't be improved.

Here's where started:

And with an empty wallet and many stories, some jubliant some sordid, here's where we ended -