Cottage 17 - Finished and Sold

Yes, it is a bit hard to comprehend - seems like each new day brings a new deal closing for us, and new homeowner and taypayer for the community.

I know Dean from Cottage 13 is eating his heart out out in San Francisco seeing this cottage inspired by his cottage come to a glorious conclusion. He took a job out west soon after buying his cottage in the woods and now for the most part it sits there, fully furnished, looking fantastic, like the green light at the end of the dock in Fitzgerald's Gatsby, symbolizing some of the hopes and dreams of his future. We use it as often as we can as an example of what these homes can be - as Dean has generously allowed us access when showing near clients around. Many of our homes - specifically Cottage 19 and Cottage 17 - have been influenced by Dean's design palette.
So, as we often do, we take one of our designs and tweak it, change it, alter it, add to it, subtract from it, rearrange the layout and build it again. Cottage 13 was designed and built last winter and this version, Cottage 17, started in June, found homeowners in July, sold yesterday, and will be moved into this weekend.

That's our 11 house design, build and sale for 2009 - directly into the teeth the Great Recession. If you count the land we bought, and a few other things we sold, I've completed around 30 real estate transactions in 2009 - with the requisite process of financing, surveys, appraisals, blueprints, closings, etc... Most times Catskill Farms doesn't hold our land very long - as opposed to some of the other big misplanned projects that have been trying to sell the same land for years - for the most part anything we buy we have turned around and sold - usually with a great house on it - within 9 months. As Gib McKean - the Sullivan County real estate legend has said of me - "that Petersheim, he doesn't marry his land, he just has a quick affair with it."

You'll notice the rocks placed smartly (no extra charge), the grass growing with grade A topsoil (no charge) - a totally turnkey home, completely modern in functionality, and thoroughly authentic in design - and clean as a whistle, in fact, squeaky clean (no extra charge).

And that's really the basis of the product we try to offer - stuff as much as possible into the purchase price as possible, instead of the more popular path which is to cry 'upgrade', 'extra' or 'change order' at any possible and conceivable opportunity.

Okay, it's true, we didn't rake the leaves.

1260 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, fireplace, big ass covered porch and cool deck out back.

Front door, whitewashed ceiling.

Good picture of the interior, with 5 panel doors, Jacobean stained floor with matte finish, glossy black door knobs, stone on the foyer floor and a bird chandelier.

This house pretty much has all of our upgrades - spray foam insulation to keep the heat costs down, security system to monitor intruders and more importantly to monitor any major heat loss/changes when no one is around, wired for a whole house audio system, stone facing up the chimney chase.

Corner fireplaces are great and Juan did a real nice job returning the mantel and stone hearth back to the walls.

Our famous hand constructed cross buck barn doors with 18" hinges and cedar lined closet interior.

Bad picture but great bathroom sink. Brand new.
6' long, 2'+ deep tub/shower area, AKA 'the lap pool'. Huge tub (not extra charge).

And the kitchen. Our clients love their kitchens, - not because they are super fancy (although they do seem be quite nice with the simple cabinets, shelves, tile back splashes and fine appliances).


Bedroom blue gray.

Downstairs bath with pedestal sink and horizontal wood wainscoting.

Ocean blue subway tile with a window to the woods.


The tankless, on demand water heater, - gas-fueled.

Underground gas fuel tank.

And above are the homeowners, James and their friend Gayle who turned these gentlemen onto us a few months ago after the final walk-thru on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Nothing more satisfying than a referral - so thanks, Gayle. That's her hiding behind the fridge above.


And Bryce and Thom. Congrats Gentlemen - great job, and welcome to the Catskill Farms Family- we are very pleased to have you.



What I enjoy most about design and selling these homes is the fact that we enabled these clients to drastically change their lifestyle - and for someone who has called the country home for 8+ yrs now, I think it's always a change well-earned and to be enjoyed for many years to come. I'm hoping a few of these homes in 20 yrs get passed on down to the children or other family members.