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

Well, the very first people who looked at the land, pre-house decided to take the getaway plunge. It's almost like magic - I wave a wand and we sell a house.

Considering we are also pretty close to nailing down a deal on Ranch #3, that would prove to be a pretty remarkable spring start.

Old Norm, working Saturdays - in this photo, just finishing up the construction of the septic. We all work Saturdays - it's just another day to get shit down for us.

Rainy today, which is fine with Me. We needed it, and I kind of like rainy Sundays.

Cottage 28 with the big sky. Framing lumber in the ready. Below, Cottage 24 with the final grading just complete and the hay mulching shading the grass that will be growing shortly. Green grass, sagey green house, and soon to be green trees.

Norm working hard getting the land regraded. Lots of times after winter there is lots of work to do on each piece of land and house that we sold over the winter, when the 'final grade' was impossible. Norm's one of the good guys - we have bad guys work for us as well - this guy Ken who did some siding jobs for us before getting kicked off the job has been calling the DIY network for some reason or another, using that same old 'public humiliation' ploy I've been subjected to many times over the years. So this guy Ken does a shitty job, his tyvek actually blows off the house, he sends me an outrageous bill which does not jive with the work he's done, and then when I don't pay, he spends his idle time (which is more or less all his time) calling up the network to tell his story. Sorry Ken - seen that movie many times before. Although, I guess a confrontation would be great television. I can't even count all the ways I've been threatened over the years -

Modern Ranch #2, sitting high on the hill, perched, cantilevered, balanced on the side of the hill.

And Cottage 20 - wide lens, little house, big sky.

Cottage 24 from down the hill.

And the driveway to our new house.

So, I'm watching American Idol and it's a terrible series of 'inspirational songs' being song slowly and badly. Thank god for the fast forward and dvr.

Wow, what a perfect spring for construction. Usually it's all muddy and messy and soggy and hard to navigate but not this year - this year is sunny and dry and slightly breezy and mid 50's. So dramatically different from last year where it started to rain in May and didn't stop all summer. It rained every day. It reminded me of 2003, when I was building my first home and it rained everyday, making every effort triply difficult. The thing about Catskill Farms and it's catskill real estate efforts is that we build quick - I mean real quick - no messin' around quick. 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, with an army of skilled talent. I purchased this piece of land in February, and we started construction - putting in the foundation - on April 5. Check out the progress below - Excavation and Foundation - Week of April 5th.

Week of April 12 - Foundation complete, foundation waterproofed, perimeter drain installed, and house backfilled.

Week of April 19 - the framing begins. Day 1

Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

This house is being built on 'spec', meaning no buyer lined up at time of construction. The price is $335,000, and will be ready by August or so. And today Denzil and Carolyn come up to check it out for the 2nd time.

If you've been following this blog for the last two weeks (and not part of our paused social media brand extension effort that is stuck in programming nevernever land), then you have been able to see this house rise from the ground to this fine looking structure in about 3 weeks flat. Not bad for a bunch of country boys.

Stapling up the tyvek and laying out the electric. Our local lumber supplier is now stocking pink house wrap, so this house at least will be pink until we put up the siding. Not the exact thing I was hoping for, but I've learned to let it go.... be mellow, calm, understanding in the face of a pink home. And then I ran across this stripped and pickpocketed barn in one of my favorite valleys of Southern Sullivan County.

The wide angle really allows for some fun approaches -

And then, below, one of my favorite little farms sitting in the valley. I've always liked the way it sits there - all small and cool.

And some links to local news stories about our DIY Project - Builder Scores TV series.Ranch House Transformation.