Our Construction and Design Projects

Saugerties Loft Conversion.  Nearly complete.

Cottage 45 in Barryville revving its engine...

Barn VII in Barryville kickin' it...

Great shot of Cottage 44 in Saugerties the other day - the sun accenting the reds and cedars.

Mini- Barn in Barryville coming out of the ground - this "I'm so cool' little barn house will be priced under $200k, maybe under $175k, depending on how the stars line up.

Modern VII in Mt Tremper is 40 days from finish.

Farm 24 one mile outside of Woodstock NY is shaping up nice.  This 3 bed, 2 bath home on 6.2 acres is for sale for $500k +/- (hey, what's half a mil between friends?).

Sort of a busy weekend, with a pre-pig mountain party at the Big Barn, then Pig Mountain, in Narrowsburg, then a Post Party at the Shack.  A house tour on Sat and Sun with prospective clients.  At least I got the blog post done.

George Jones - RIP

My Dad was a BIG country music fan, so I heard a lot of George Jones growing up.  George Jones was a real piece of work, more or less imitating a country song his whole life - getting drunk, getting married, using drugs, getting divorced, having car accidents, missing concerts.

I remember when my dad took me to see George Jones at the Pequea Silver Mines outside of Lancaster PA, and the man didn't even come out of his tour bus.  No Show Jones struck again.  Being 10, being pretty church going at that time - it was a hard thing not only for me, but for Dad to really get his arms around, since he's a pretty simple man who believed in doing what you say you were going to do.

But one thing this I've learned over the last 3 years as I see a parade of smart people play 'follow the leader' (actually 'follow the celebrity') - is how important, and rare, originality is - regardless of the gnats constantly swarming and biting.  And regardless of how imperfect that originality is.  He's the type of guy you'd actually like to meet- how rare is that?  Plus the fact that guy lived to 81 gives us all reason to hope.


Rest in Peace Mr George Jones.

"I Always Get Lucky With You'


Video

Video II



I've had good luck, and bad luck
And no luck, it's true
But I always get lucky with you.

I've been turned on, and turned down
When the bars close at two
But I always get lucky with you.

I've keep strikes against me
Most all of the time
And when it's down to just a phone call
I'm minus a dime.

There's been good days, and bad days
But when the day is through
I always get lucky with you
Oh, I always get lucky with you.

--- Instrumental ---

I've keep two strikes against me
Most all of the time
And when it's down to just a phone call
I'm minus a dime.

There's been good days, and bad days
But when the day is through
I always get lucky with you
Oh, I always get lucky with you.

I always get lucky with you...

Christmas Gift Distribution

Ok, so what if I'm in Miami, looking over the bay, with wispy clouds, far away jetliners, and soundless sailboats cruising the coast.  

Every year we at Catskill Farms come up with some sort of branded Christmas gift - one year was a cooking apron, one year an oven mitt, one year a baseball cap and this year a thermometer.  Like I said last post, or the post before, it's not as easy as it used to be - takes a serious commitment to get them ordered, bagged, delivered.

So here we are nearing the middle of January and I still have a bunch to still deliver.  It was fun to circle back to all homes as I deliver them, especially since they were newly covered with snow.  I come across all sorts of scenes of people enjoying their homes - be a snowman in the backyard, a new custom ax Bill got as a Christmas gift, a sled on the front porch, socks on the mudroom radiator.

Craftsman III in Barryville.

Barn VI in Saugerties.

Cottage 38 in Stone Ridge.

Barn V in Narrowsburg.

The Big Barn in Narrowsburg.

Farm 11 in Narrowsburg.

Farm 19 in Narrowsburg.

Cottage 21 in Barryville.

Cottage 35 in Narrowsburg.

Micro-Cottage 3 in Barryville.

Cottage 33 in Barryville.

Micro-Cottage 4 in Barryville.

Ranch V in Barryville.

Barn III in Barryville.

Cottage 29 in Barryville.

Cottage 14 in Yulan.

Cottage 7 in Yulan.

More to come.

Makin' The Roundz

Some mornings each week I 'make the rounds', checking out job sites and progress and seeing first-hand what the obstacles are that are staring us down.

This the Mitchell Farmhouse, up in Callicoon Center, that we just finished. They say you can't have good pricing, quality and speed - but we proved 'em wrong on this one. 4.5 months from start to finish. The Owners were planning on a January or February closing -

And sweet little Cottage 29 outside of Barryville, NY in the morning sun.

We furnished it to make it more homey.

Cottage 33 rounding the corner. Painting and loose ends, then the floor finishing, then the loose ends and punch list and wallah, it's finished and ready to turn over in the new year.

And Micro-Cottage 2 - all 725 sq ft of it.

On 7+ acres.


And Farmhouse 15 with garage, with the foundation in and the garage prepped and ready for Dean and his framing crew. This house is outside of Narrowsburg.


And the drive into Cottage 34.

And the foundation...

And Cottage 31 looking real sharp in his cedar shake overcoat.


Insulation in and sheetrock up. This house has partial radiant heat which we got up and running early, so it's all nice and toasty in there.


And little ole Shack #2. It's our first Shack, but our 2nd design. 500 sq ft of simple mountain living.


And Lucas - he's only had his hair cut once in his life, and that was a while ago.

And Norm (or is that David Hasslehoff?)

And me, mid-summer, on a big hill looking south. Calm your wildly beating hearts, ladies.

Cottage 2 Resold

I mean for all my thrice weekly bloggin' bluster about the value of our homes and how all these smart folks do a bunch of due diligence and then decide we offer real value - I mean besides passing that test over the past two years (and boy what a test that was), there is something independently legitimizing about Catskill Farms resale efforts.

For instance, when the Carr's wished to sell this farm house, they found a buyer who had an appraisal done that verified the worth of the house actually increased since they bought at the top of the market in 2007 or 2008.

And then this Cottage #2 (photo below) just sold for 10% MORE than the woman paid for it in 2007.

These are incredible facts - that our homes, maybe the only homes in the country, in the nation, are selling for more than people paid for them at the height of the biggest real estate value bubble in 80 years. It's totally validating and great news for all of our existing and future homeowners.

I think that means two things - 1. We are charging fair prices for the value of what we are offering and 2. good thoughtful design at reasonable prices can hedge the downside of real estate risk.

I mean, our customers don't have trouble refinancing since the homes hold their value, and our new customers don't have trouble getting their 4.3% financing. I've said it for years when prospective customers ask about resale and value - I have always said that while we can't predict the escalation of value, we do seem to believe that we have hedged the downside - and that's a pretty good pitch in this day in age of complete catastrophe regarding real estate value.

Now, granted, these resales didn't exactly fly off the shelf - but that's the hard lesson I learned early - if your real estate rep doesn't spend money on marketing the home, it's gonna take some time. Here at Catskill Farms, I probably spend in a month what most regional real estate companies spend in a year on marketing, and that possibly provides credibility to the old adage 'you need to spend it to make it'. I remember waiting for months, after months for some of our first homes to sell and in the end decided if selling two or three homes a year was going to be considered a success by my real estate reps, I wouldn't be in business long. My definition of success was much bigger than that. I mean, I love McKean Real Estate as much as the next guy, but should you really be broadcasting the fact that you sold a house after all this time? Seems a bit counter-intuitive, but you never know I guess - maybe some people are impressed with 14 month sales cycle.

Now, of course, none of our homes, or actually a lot less homes in the entire county would be selling, if Catskill Farms would not exist anymore, or suffered the same fate as real estate focused companies nationwide by disappearing, because by god, I swear our previous sales are used in nearly every sale in the county over $200k as sales comps.

So, congrats Cottage 2 owner and congrats McKean and congrats Catskill Farms homeowners, It's all good for everyone when a new house of ours or an existing house of ours sells.

And on that note, it appears Farmhouse 14 is heading to contract. That's not a bad thing at all.