Farm 15 - Sold

You know, we have a lot of great customers from a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different professions. We also see a lot of reasons and rationale for building and buying with us. It's personal, it's a big investment, it's a big lifestyle change, etc... And we take our part of the transaction very seriously.

I mean, it's a delicate situation to be in - half the people I know up here I've done business with - not just small potatoes business, but like the largest transaction of their lives and that comes with some responsibility on our part to do our best. We've sold 80 +/- homes, we've renovated and restored another dozen - I can't go around the corner without running into someone who has exchanged 6 months of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars with me. And for the most part, we've successfully navigated the nuances of big business in a small town. Not entirely, but mostly.

Chris came to us a year ago or more and liked our stuff and fell in love with Farm 12 and now here we are - it's no longer my baby, it's hers, and they closed on Friday of last week.

Which was annoying. I think of my 5 closings this year so far, 4 of them we the days of big snowstorms, where you didn't really know how it was going to play out until the morning of. And considering it takes a lot of scheduling gymnastics to get the bank and the attorneys and the clients and the title people all to the table, it's all terribly stressful for everyone.

Farm 15 is cool. It sits on 7+ great acres, a few miles outside of Narrowsburg. The exterior will have black trim, and we are installing a big stone patio out the back. The exterior painting, final land grading, seeding and patio has to wait until Mid-May or so, so the ground dries out.

The kitchen is getting rave reviews. Superb design and layout and a little experimental with the low slung cabinet depth/height refrigerator. Everyone I take through there is always looking for the fridge. But it's got all of our famous tricks - black rad, open shelves, nice range hood, island with cantilevered top, farm sink, lots of light, white washed wood plank ceilings, fan to keep things cool, polished stained wide plank floor.

and even our trademark barn door.

Any time I can create a little extra elbow room upstairs, I do it. Walking up the stairs to light and open-ness is a lot different than walking down an alley of doors.

Pretty classic -
Rads and a fireplace. and a good paint color.

Wood burning fireplace and salvaged barn beam mantel accent.

Catskill Farms has pretty much perfected the clean open simple floor plan look.

6 light 2 panel front door.

2 light, single panel, wood ceiling. This door is like 8' high.

One of the bedroom with lots of light and 5 panel interior doors.

Painted wainscoting, double sinks and mirror.

The guest bath with a nice gray.

BIG shower.

A neat small radiator, painted gloss black.


And a very unusual site at our homes - a garage!

So there you have it. Chris and her mom (who I enticed to the area by subtlety mentioning the Catholic church down the street) and her brother and the Catskill Farms team collaborated and made it happen. Another beauty, on time, on budget. Nice work team.


Life goes on, and so does the work at Cottage 35, who had a really interested viewer over the weekend, so we will see how that pans out.

And little old shack, looking sharp. Still unspoken for.

And then a renovation we started at Yankee Lake. Taking her down the bones, adding a lot of windows and bring the whole house into a more modern sensibility.

Sooooo,
Cottage 29 in contract, set to close next week.
Farm 12 just closed.
Cottage 34 closing very soon.
Cottage 35 looking real good, although dateless at the moment.
Shack 2 is awesome, also waiting to be asked to dance.
Cottage 36 is in contract, and we are starting in a few weeks.
Cottage 37 is moving towards contract.
Farm 11 is moving towards contract.
Micro-Cottage 4 is just starting, and is unspoken for.
Ranch V is just commencing as well, and is unspoken for.
and the Yankee Lake renovation is full steam ahead.

Not a bad performance for the Great Recession.

Way up on the Hill

Marcus and Courtney have built a house up on a hill on a few acres outside of Callicoon NY. It's a nice spot, to be sure.

Now, I don't mean to blow our horn again, but cheese and crackers we only started this dang thing in late June. 800' driveway, full design, 900 ft of underground primary and secondary electric, literally moving a couple of tons of earth to carve a homesite out of the hillside, 3000 sq ft of customized design with wide plank floors, a lot of beadboard and wainscotting, etc...

Final site meeting walk-thru this weekend. Count it - 4 months. That's fast anywhere, and triply impressive up here in nowheresville.

Like I said, I would pit our team up against any team, any where. It's not just a matter of talent, which the team has in great supply - it's also a matter of attitude. You figure if 35 companies and 130 individuals working for those companies all give just a little extra effort, go the extra mile, at the end the customer reaps the benefit of these little extra efforts which cumulatively add up to something of real value - a lot of times the value is a little hidden, since it is a result of powering through the 100 unforeseen issues and problems without passing along annoying little change orders to me or my clients. Norm may stack some cool boulders we found on site, John may snake a switch to a new location, Tito may knock 'em dead with his final paint review and touch ups, the King brothers may address some heating or plumbing issue without using a box of tissues.

It's always a big synchronized dance on the final few days with too many trucks, too many people, shitty weather, and lots of chaos - just how I like, borderline chaos.

I love this picture below for its subtle reflection of our precision. Floors all covered with paper, and high traffic areas with cardboard as well. Cardboard on the countertops. Protection on the refrigerator, and even thicker masonite underneath that heavy beast.

Lots of great colors. Pushing the envelope a bit on the jazzy nature of the selection but never going too far.

I'll tell you what - it's a lot easier to build a big house than a small house. A big house you can scatter shit around and work in places other people aren't. Small homes everyone is just right on top of each other.

Looks messy, but to my construction management eye, it's all looking good.

Up the stairs.

2nd floor laundry with Curtis overseeing.

Job and Bryan cutting some trim on the front porch for the final push of fine carpentry.

One of the two wings of the house.

And the other.

Looking in towards the master bedroom, with his and her sliding barn doors at the closets.

Deck off of this bedroom.

And there you have. More pic next weeks after we pull back the covers.

Farm 12 - Sold (New Catskill Farms Tour Bus and Photo editing software)

It's been a bit crazy around Catskill Farms lately - this is the 3rd weekend I've had to double book appointments, meaning take more than one prospective customer out at a time since there just isn't enough time in a day to accomodate all the 'tour requests' - even got an email the other day from Mike wondering how to make an appointment for one of these 'famous tours'. So anyway, to make a long story short, I'm thinking about buying the above touring vehicle, and outfitting it with a speaker system - 'And here's Pablo's house on the right, and Jeanne's on the left and this old rock wall used to be the foundation of barn, and you see that deer and group of turkeys - I paid them to run across the yard just at the right moment, and that other family that is trailing behind us, well, they are paid actors to inject a sense of urgency into your homebuying process." Lisa always says I belong on the 'short bus', so why not go out a buy one?


Then I bought this cool high end photo manipulation software - so hopefully I can jazz up my photos even more than presently. Below is a radical interpretion I call "Guest Bathroom and John and Wendy's New Farmhouse". Who spiked the kool-aid?


Old School black and white of Farm 12, a house idea that the new owners brought to me - and after literally months of work nailing down the shaker details, and finding the land that matched the house - here we are, literally 6 months from ground-breaking, literally the weekend I told John it would be ready, here we are, just closing the deal this past Thursday.


Farmhouses and larger homes were our bread and butter for the first 4 years - I think I designed and built 14 1800 sq ft farmhouses, barns, art and crafts homes and the like from 2003 to 2007. Now we usually have one going but our bread is buttered more with cottages (1300 sq ft), mini-cottages (980 sq ft), micro-cottages (750 sq ft) and now the Shack series at (400 sq ft).

This home is on 7+ acres, has a seasonal stream, big trees and pretty picture perfect setting.

The thing about our homes is that they are not complex, grandiose, over-the-top marvels of craftsmanship. They are well-built, and they will stand the test of time both from an aesthetic and quality point of view. The genius is in the appreciation and execution of simple ideas - ie, an appreciation of good taste.

In the below photo - a simple entry way with stone flooring, a sliding barn door that segues into the powder room, laundry and double closet, a simply elegant staircase and spindle treatment, and some Jacobean stain to finish it off classically.

A little photo shop trickery below.

And the light that cascades into the dining room like the pearly gates of heaven. Actually, another photo shop effort.

Cathedral ceiling in the kitchen, a ceiling fan and recessed lighting. And the cool rad off to the left.

From the kitchen, past the stairs and peeking into the fireplace room.

Lots of heat in this room with the fireplace and white brick, and two radiators. French doors lead into the library with built in bookshelves.

Great built in with a great window seat with lifting lid for the kids to hide in.

Laundry room area, with the 5 panel doors and black hardware stealing the show.

2 upstairs landing shots - one manipulated, one not. Bead board edge and center planking make up a traditional wainscotting.

And the master bedroom, where the magic happens. The 15 light door leads out to the 2nd floor deck.

Double his and her sinks in the bathroom off the bedroom. I hate the words subdivision, development, bonus room and even master bedroom (made worse by the abbreviation 'MBR') and worst of all, Master Suite.

Great shower with bench.

A little more fun - these doors lead to the kid's rooms, the linen closet and the gst bath, respectively.

These hanging trough sinks have really become popular. I think Albert pioneered the selection.

So there you have it. So far this year we have built and sold Cottage 24, Cottage 2o, Ranch II, Barn II, Micro III, and now Farm 12. Cottage 25 will be coming in for a soft landing here in Mid-June, and Cottage 28 and Ranch III are under construction and spoken for. Cottage 29 just got started and is unspoken for and Farmhouse 14 is sitting, furnished, looking for a date to the dance. We just put some furniture in and boy does it look great.

Just read in the Times that some owners of an expensive 'green building' in lower Manhattan are suing the developer because the 'green' attributes are dubious at best, with no quantitative proof of lower energy costs or improved air quality. I think this is a great development, because if you are out saying 'this house is green', 'this house will pay for itself', 'this house will improve your health', 'this house will save you money' - then the house better be all those things. If someone buys a $400k home over a $325k home because they believe it has long term financial benefits, then that house better perform.

In terms of all the 'green washing' out there - builders and marketers are trying to gain an edge by claiming their homes are green, I'd say watch out. I see a field day for a good attorney, quantitively proving that a lot of these claims are bullshit, leed certified or not. I think a good young attorney could really make his make suing for 'misleading or outright false advertising'.

Our homes - I don't even bother yelling they are green they are so green. With the fantastic spray foam insualtion, salvaged materials, propane boilers, small footprints and efficient build process- I will put our homes head to head with any modular or stick built 'green builder' - the proof, they say, will certainly be in the pudding.