Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

The 3rd life of this important Barryville structure.

As a school, way back.

As a Church, later on.

And now as a small hotel, if the zoning and planning board thing goes good.

A very imaginative reuse and design of the space.

And a somewhat complex construction project.

By reclaiming the never used before 'attic space', adding some serious structure reinforcements, design a non-intrusive but good looking stair case, it was accomplished pretty successfully.

We had to cover up the ceiling wood to apply a code adhering 2 layers of sheetrock, which lightened up the space dramatically.

Used some big timbers for the stair systems.

Got to painting and lighting up the space.

The original school bell.

The painter.

The tile guy.

The Proprietor.

And the Man, in his Cuban Miami Party Shirt.

I don't typically get a 95% show up rate to my parties, but Sunday brought quite a few invitees out for a  brunch and badminton (without the badminton).

And what brunch party is complete without Cheese balls.

And Jello-Shots - I got to tell you, jello shots before noon really work in terms of that heightened experience, and in terms of forgetting to take any pictures of this good looking crowd of 30.

Decent spread, plus people brought all sorts of goodies like banana bread, wine, homemade peanut butter, cookies and more.  Seriously good.

Lucas gettin' his game on -

The young daughter of my very first clients, who stopped by.

Teaching Lil' Luke the value of hard work.

Not having an experienced green thumb, I'm amazed at the speed at which sunflowers grow.  Hope to plant them out by my white picket fence.

Starting the morning wrastling a lion, while borrowing my new Nike badminton head band.

Power Ranger type thing with Will from Cottage 36 chasing in tow.

I thought I had invited a polite, sophisticated bunch, but judging by the trash in the flower bed move, I'm rethinking that.

And after the party ended, just the lonely old little tractor left alone in the yard.

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11am, 67 Crawford Rd, Eldred NY.

First of the season.

Rowdy kids welcome.

The Cottage 43 folks are a lot of fun, and as you see below, definitely facilitating James and my grasping illusion of coolness as it slips from our mid-40's grip.  I used to always say, and still do, 'yeah, all our clients are cool 30's Livingston Manor - Pretty Hot Cottageurbanites, you know, like us' - turns out after 10 yrs that isn't so true anymore, at least the fact that Im in the 'cool, 30's urbanite' demographic, convincingly failing to sustain cool, urbanite, or 30's.  Like I always say, if you are going to fail to reach yr goal - fail spectacularly.  I think we are well on our way to being imposters on our own business model.

1000 sq ft Cottage 43 directly inspired by our clients in Cottage 22.

2 beds, 1.5 baths, 5 acres.  Outside of Livingston Manor.

I was really going talk this one up tonight while listening to Shelby Lynne - but I think I shall refrain the story of perseverence, partnership and design journey until the end of the project.

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