Glasco Cottage, Woodstock NY - Finito.

Says Wiki - "Glasco's name was taken from a glass company located in the mountain area several miles inland. The glass was carried by horse down the "Glasco Turnpike" to the banks of the Hudson where it was shipped on for ports of sale. The settlement along the river where the glass was loaded became known as Glasco."

So, you all know how fond I am at saying how talented, precise, tasteful our clients are - Well, Carl, this Bud's for you.  I'm not sure if Carlos and Carl read this blog (no one admits to it), but they know what I'm talking about - attention to detail, ha ha.  And it turned out frickin' pretty darn nice.

(Also, I like to write these 'end of project wrap-ups' after a martini or two, but here I sit all mature in the cool corner bookstore in Saugerties - so if my humor falls flat, that's why-)

These guys are veteran home owners - a lot of our clients are first time home owners.  They may have a place in the city or something, but haven't purchased anything in the real world (NYC process being unique onto itself), so that's always part of our job - helping them navigate the world of mortgages, lawyers, surveyors, building inspectors, zoning regs, etc... We are like upstate concierges. 

So these guys are veteran homeowners, having previously owned on the oldest houses in Ulster County which probably dates back to the 1600's or so.  Super interesting that they chose 'this new old house' after living in 'that really old house'.  And super cool that we were the team that got to do it.

We were hired at first to take a piece of land and make it build-able.  It was a smaller piece of land, right on a little creek, right off of Glasco Turnpike.  Our challenge was to take this house and make it fit on the land, with the septics, streams, driveway, building footprint, well/septic separations - each of these details have 'setbacks' set by the town, state, DEC, etc... and anytime you have water, you have an added set of rules, and oversights.  So we had the Woodstock stream guy involved, and the surveyor, and the septic guy and the driveway guy and the town highway guy - all these folks with their rules to enforce and we had to insert this house right perfectly just so-so so it fit.  It's the type of thing that you really rely on the professional relationships developed over dozens and dozens of homes, relationships that keep you out of trouble and ask the question you forgot you ask.

These guys knew what was important to them - lot's of porch, with an area gated for the dogs to go wild.  We build dog gates, kid gates, cat gates...  Whatever it takes...

 So we leveraged on this professional expertise as a one-stop shop for these owners.  We do that a lot - help people figure out what to do where, and what not to do, and since we are typically pretty 'on it', we help navigate the sometimes conflicting information coming from the disparate professionals.

This 1300 sq ft 2 bedroom 1.5 bath home was inspired by Cottage 38 over in Stone Ridge.  Boy was that a good house, and boy does this one pick up where that one left off.  We also finished off the 600 sq ft basement but more on that later.




Clean with the light floors and light paint and delicate spindles and french doors and crown moldings.  This is the living room, with the kitchen and dining to the right.




















Front door, stone entrance, book shelves, wood burning fireplace, wide plank floors.








First floor half bath with half wall, wainscoting, dueling sconces and stone floor.

I think there were 4 sets of 5' double french doors, 3 sets in the kitchen.

They had these cool pain in the ass to install cabinet clad covers over the refrigerator and dishwasher.

Upstairs foyer leading to the two bedrooms and bath - we used a lot of pocket doors in this home, which is an unusual treatment for us.

Bedroom 1 over looking the stream.

Very good-looking bath, overlooking the stream.

Bedroom 2.

And the basement buildout with gas fireplace and lots of light - overlooking the stream.

Well, another success story.  We are uncommonly consistent in our ability to deliver on our promises - and it's not like we don't encounter problems - both unforeseen and of our own making - but the trick is to identify them and fix them without missing a beat - that really is an important trick to learn - how to look good while being imperfect.  Most of clients are pretty savvy, and have had plenty of lackluster consumption experiences, be it a shoe purchase or a home purchase, so it's not like they don't expect to have a hiccup or two. 

The key is the quick recovery.

Farm 20 and the Glasco Cottage

Pics worth a thousand words.

Frustratingly, these pics are already long out of date.  lot's of progress.

Floors acclimating.

Ground floor build out.

Future bath.

Bedroom.

Upstairs foyer.

Farm 20

With some vibrant colors.

Mudroom and closets.

Media room / den/study/ bedroom #4.

Kitchen, dining, living room.

Pojab.  Pimped out japanese american bath.

Master bedroom

Car barn.

Green house off the end.

Houses for Sale in Woodstock and Bearsville (and under construction)

This inspired Cottage on Glasco Turnpike, 5 miles from downtown Woodstock, 7 miles from Saugerties is just getting started.  A very challenging building lot, but now that we have it figured out, well worth the effort of all the engineers, inspectors, surveyors and the like to make it happen.

And we do that a lot - 'making it happen' - with all the things that can come in the way of the finish line, or actually the starting line, Catskill Farms has a great record of helping families figure out what they want, and then the strategy to make it happen.  It's not easy, but our end to end integrated approach leaves few persons swallowed up by all the seams and crevices inherent in the process.

Cottage 40, in Bearsville, is inspired by Matthew and Sarah's Cottage 36 in Narrowsburg, and now it appears we will be doing a deal on Cottage 43 in Saugerties on a house that is similar.  It's always a double-edged sword bitter-sweet pill for our clients that pioneer a new path or design - it's quite the compliment to have persons with good taste choose a design you had a hand in designing, specially since these new folks are typically quite discerning.  But at the same time, some of the absolute purity is lost when we do a design more than once, but in the end it's the nature of the beast, and typically, the similarities are basically the structure, with the finishes and design approach in general being fresh and unique onto the new persons aesthetic.

Cottage 2 is Cottage 6 is Cottage 18 is Cottage 22 is Cottage 38 is Cottage 41.  Little bigger, little smaller, darker, lighter, bigger porch, finished basement, red, brown, natural, blue.

This 3 bedroom 2 bath home has been a winner since it was built, inspiring a few families to pull the trigger (and I don't even think I can give all of the credit the subtle decorating humor of Cottage 36 owners).  It's just a hot little house with a lot of punch.

In this home the cabiny/stain approach was taken a step further than the previous version, with the great room ceiling and the upstairs bedrooms and bath getting the 'rustic' 'woodsy' treatment.

It's a good design and we spent a few hours nailing it down and making it work.  That's Carl, from Glasco Cottage fame, checking out what we are doing at Cottage 40 and the Craftsman over in Saugerties, either for inspiration or in order to continually gauge our professionally.  I'm fine with either.  The more people see us in action, be through the blog or in real life, the more they believe they can pull this 'build the perfect little house' thing off.

Tito the painter stays right with us, which is quite the accomplishment considering how many homes we have going at any point.  While we have 2 framing crews and several masons and excavators we only have one painter, and he's good at what he does.

The Thing about the Herman Miller Eames Lounger is its arrogance.  I have one in my office, on my polished concrete floor, underneath my vintage typewriter collection.  It's comfy, but the angle is not adjustable - these designers in the 1950's just decided they knew what was best, and how to get most comfortable in a seated position to read or relax.  And they designed and marketed a chair based on their feeling that they knew best.

I feel the same way - at this point, we know how keep our clients aligned for success, and we are very serious they keep the chair in the right position.