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

I'm at Blacksburg VA for a wedding, a full 11 hour road trip from Eldred NY. Lisa said it was 8 hours, but it turned out it was 11 and that's one of the reasons she and her friend Amy have the reputation and nickname for BAD INFORMATION. This is no new trend - realistically, all information coming from these two women needs to verified to some degree - This has been one whale of a 18 month stretch for Catskill Farms. Currently, by the numbers - Since January 1, 2008, we have sold 12 houses We are currently building 4 new homes, and renovating 2. We currently have 4 homes in some stage of a sales contract. We currently have a 2 home waiting list. We currently are selling 25% of all homes selling in the entire area over $250k. And that's an incredible statistic. Our sales demographic since January 2008, including houses currently under contract, is - 4 families with children under the age of 5. 6 singles 5 families without children (as of yet) 1 family with grown children A brief extrapolation of the above stats - 'Singles' may include a serious relationship, but the design and purchasing was handled by one person. I was going to break out gay and lesbian and straight families since I think that is an interesting stat, and definitely a frequently asked question (is the area gay friendly? family friendly?), but then I thought it might be one of those things that get me in trouble - but for what it's worth I would estimate of the 6 singles and 5 families without children to date, maybe 35% are gay, and that statistic probably holds steady throughout our 50 home progression. Probably what I find most amazing, consistently - is the diversity of our client-base. In their careers, income, life direction, goals, approaches, etc... And that is probably why we continue to do well - we identified a niche marketplace, and then educated as many potential clients about this niche marketplace. In terms of advertising, there is no other real estate related company in the area that comes close to the energy and money expended to get the word out about our homes. I mean, at any given time we only have one or two homes for sale and we are probably spending 4 large every month marketing those homes - compared with maybe a few thousand a month by real estate companies marketing their entire inventory of homes. As mentioned before, we sell our homes directly to the clients, which allows us to better manage expectations of what they will be receiving, as well as saving everyone a few bucks. When I used to sell our homes through the local real estate companies, I was always beside myself with the lack of exposure, focus and attention our homes got - it wasn't until we started doing it ourselves - showing our own homes, marketing our own homes - that we really started to kick it. It looks like we got a deal going on Cottage 17 - our newest cottage design - Tom and Bryce sent up a deposit this week and we are hot and heavy into getting them 'up to speed' since the house is well under way, having started insulating this week. This 1300 sq ft cottage with with 2 bedrooms and two baths sits on 8 very pretty acres. As far as I am concerned, it's quite a deal for these gentlemen, and they signed up just as the fun is beginning - all the interior design decisions are in front of us - kitchens, paint, stain, stone, tile, fixtures, etc... A commenter earlier suggested I highlight some of the construction processes and materials in order to counter some of the 'shadow' people who make their business to denigrate the good thing we developed up here. I don't think it's a bad idea, but I hate to give away too much since there is a fair share of loser imitators out there still trying to copy, borrow and steal our designs, strategic direction and inspirations. Of course, of the 3 or 4 companies who tried to steal from us instead of coming up with something original, all are either bankrupt or close to it, so I guess there isn't too much to hide, since our success I think comes less from the parts, than the whole - our passion, creativity, experimentation, commitment to improving, understanding of the marketplace can't be stolen or borrowed or stolen - it's what makes us who we are, and yes, they can sneak into our homes and see what type of doorknobs we use, but they can't capture the essence, the flavor, the nuance, the esoteric, eclectic personality of our structures. Our architectural spaces feed back to those who walk through them. And that is very difficult to pull off in new construction. Cottage 17. Just about ready to turn the corner.

We now use organic spray foam insulation in most of houses, giving them a huge energy consumption advantage over other homes. Between the positioning of our homes (passive solar), the size of them (small), the natural and native materials, the efficient insulation and the efficient furnaces, we are probably building the greenest homes in the area. So green, in fact, we don't even have to yell it out.

Here's pretty Cottage 19, the only home we now have left for sale. To those with a trained construction eye, this is a beautiful picture - the house is weatherproofed, clean, and just waiting for the next phase. Compare our construction sites to others, and it's instantly obvious who is paying more attention to the small things.

Wide open floor plan, 960 sq ft, full basement, huge bathroom, 5+ acres. We are roughing her in, meaning all the wiring, plumbing, security and audio and heat are going in before we close 'er up. This house will be ready for sale by the time the leaves start changing colors.

And Cottage 22, ready for the siding. Courtney and Bronson did some fine work on this house, with the wrap-around porch, additional half-bath, and a few other tweaks on the original.

Thanks to all our new Facebook fans. Be patient will we figure out exactly how this social networking is supposed to helping us. It's Saturday morning, I'm just off-campus at Virginia Tech, in Blackburg, getting ready for a wedding at 2pm. Lisa's hot cousin is getting married today. It's funny - she has 4 cousins, I have about 125. Lot's of potential trouble brewed last night, with people feeding Lucas a bottle while smoking with the other hand, people being prohibited from holding the baby after drinking too much, nearly averted bar fights between AARP members (our party) and Virginia Tech summer students, etc..., etc... etc.... Just want to put it out there that I am a terrible golfer - no matter how you spin it, I suck, and I'm not getting better with practice. In fact, just the opposite - I seem to be getting worse the more I work at it. One thing for sure is that while I am sitting here doing nothing, the grass in is growing back home, one day closer to my badminton court completion. I think I'll spend some time now googling (or perhaps 'binging') official height aluminum referee chairs.

www.nofaultsports.com/Tennisfolder/umpire_chairs/umpire_chairs.html

‍

‍

In our never-ending attempt to cover all marketing bases, we have gone social and created a Catskill Farms Facebook page. To all our readers, please accept this invitation to 'become a fan' of Catskill Farms, available at your nearest computer terminal.

A nice picture of our house on a sunny day, one of the few this year so far. It's been incredible - something like 27 days out of the last 32 have had substantial rain. That's not only depressing, it really has a tendency to make us construction guys look pretty bad - landscapers, painters, and homebuilders all suffer under the same need for at least some dry days.

This was really insulting - we sweat and work at every house to get the grass growing at every house, and here a few seeds fell out of the bag and, without the help of any topsoil or really anything organic at all, started growing on the floor of my old yellow truck.

I thought it might be interesting to point out the local towns I enjoy - Lisa and I travel around a little bit and have been doing so for the past 5 years, so be it Callicoon, Narrowburg, Livingston Manor, Port Jervis, Barryville, Kauenenga Lake - we've seen it grow, and have our favorite restaurants and stores in each. In this area of very small towns, it doesn't hurt to have a little inside info from a guy in the know (that would be me).

I've always like Milford, PA, which is about 25 minutes away from the Eldred and Barryville areas in NY where I build most often. I remember when I was much younger, much before I lived in the area, and would stop in Milford on my way somewhere north from Lancaster PA, my hometown. I always loved the feel of the town - sort of like a Bucks County cousin, without all the wealth. Pennsylvania has always had a certain feel to me - can't cross the border into PA without immediately knowing it, without being perfectly able to articulate it.

The anchor of Milford must be the Hotel Fauchere - where Sean Strub engineered a glorious comeback for a hotel faded into glory. With 2 great restaurants, and a front porch for kicking back, right on the main drag - this hotel spared no expense (probably now to the owner's chagrin) in recreating that dreamy moneyed past of it's storied history. This is probably the best scene in the area, with good food, people and service.

Another place Lisa and I like in Milford is the Cliff Park Inn. It's an old inn - too large to be a bed and breakfast, so has that quiet anonymity I prefer. Weekly poker games in the tavern below on Monday and Wednesdays.

Here's the old church in the center of town.

A sampling of the architecture below.

And the Main Street. Lots of good antiques, especially over by the old lumberyard north of Town.

I'm sure to all the high-falutin' people who read this blog that this town looks nice but 'they've seen a lot nicer.' How true I'm sure, but in these parts, this is about a good as it gets, and we are truly appreciative anytime anyone gets it right - be it a restaurant, a deli, a window treatment place, etc... because from my vantage, having hired hundreds of small local businesses over the course of the last 5 years, it seems intrinsically embedded in the gene pool to do it poorly.

Not to switch gears too quickly (note the clever auto analogy right above the Mercedes picture) but here are Bryce and Tom leaving town after a weekend at Gayle's. Tucked safely in the car somewhere are the floor plans to our two new homes and hopefully we can be saying "hello new homeowners" shortly.

And Gayle leaving after a long weekend -

Here's a quick picture of the the future badminton court now that Norm has her flattened, raked and seeded. Before too longs competitive tournaments of hardcore badminton while under the influence of tasty martinis will be the norm.

And ole Lucas, better looking each time we capture him on film. We've just taught him how to read and write, and honestly, he picked it up pretty quick. Still struggles with the 'i' before 'e' thing, but other than that, really taking to it quickly.

The 4th weekend was fun - very sunny and cool. Played some paintball down by the river, bought my first paint by number (a beach scene which we later determined to be a subconscious cry for sunshine) and just really enjoyed spending time with each other in our newly renovated and added-onto home (talk like that should get me some major points).

‍

In a tribute to the passing of Michael Jackson, I do my best imitation of his famous 'hanging baby from window' moment from a few years ago. Don't worry Lucas, Daddy's got a firm grip. Speaking of Lucas, he has just entered his real pudgy phase, so we have taken to calling him 'the potato'. Just learned how to get his one arm out of the way and now he roll over and over, to his endless amusement. I'm dipping his feet for the first time into a pond over at the EarthGirl's house before volleyball the other day.

I don't know when I started wearing my dad's shoes. At my house on Crawford Road, where Catskill Farms builders are putting on an addition and a lot other bells and whistles, here the guys are putting up a picture perfect picket fence. Say that 5 times (not you Jeanne, after the screen door martini incident, keep things simple). And by the way, a nice shout out to DM, for the new book out on her boss, profiled last week in the Times. We do have quite the varied and accomplished client list at his point.

As it appears, this shot was staged - the men were supposed to act a little more natural, and I asked but did not receive a spray bottle for the imitation sweat - but here it is, by best attempt at manual labor. As Lisa like to joke, 'hey, is that Manuel?", "Manuel who?" "Manuel Laborer." Cracks us up everytime.

That's Juan and Joe looking on.

Front porch looking out onto the street, with lots of symmetry by Mauricio.

And back at the office, James continues to try and figure it all out while not losing a step. Seriously though, as most of my clients know - there is a BJ phase of Catskill Farms and a PJ phase - before james, post james - those lucky enough to buy in the last 12 months have the PJ phase, meaning they were able to work directly with James on many of the home building decisions, tasks and chores, and rumor has it, James has a better bedside manner than lil' ole me. Well, I think that is unarguably true - so Rock on Karpowicz, keep those customers happy. With his purposely slow speech, monotone, odd humor and disinclination to make the tough decisions (passes the buck to me), James has proved an asset worthy of this shout out - always the consummate good guy in white hat.

Nice work James. And Thanks, from me, and the clients I'm sure. He used to always wear one of those french/scottish hats, but he lost that in Vegas when we went in January.

And Lara - our new bookkeeper, project coordinator, and all around facilitator, she comes off a 5 year stint with the largest design/development/build company in the area - so their loss is hopefully our gain. Like I posted previously, we are picking up a lot of great help as other companies in the area slow down, and we remain busy- which, of course, helps us get better while others are fading away.

Frickin' rain continues. I don't think a day goes by where it doesn't torrentially rain for 15 minutes or so at least, coupled with the fact that it rained for a solid month. If this is global warming, this is really going to suck. Too much rain is really depressing. Thing about it, just because it stops raining doesn't mean that you can 'get to work'. Landscapers need dry earth, and painter need dry wood, which takes a few days after the last rain to actually happen.

Here's the front of our 1860's farmhouse we bought, stripped down, and put back together last year. Now this year we added an addition, fixed up the sleeping cottage, and are working on the grounds. I'm planning a big time professional badminton court with a high referee chair, lights, spectator seating and weekend tournaments with celebrity referees.

We had two main challenges for this addition - don't overwhelm the original sweet little house, and 'follow the grade' as the earth tiered down over the the bedrock and ledgerock. Worked out pretty sweet, but it definitely took some experience to make it work out right - which by this juncture in my country building career, I got plenty of.

One thing I do know, without question, is that I am probably one of the most vetted Catskill builders at this point. I can see a piece of land and with a little study, know the problems are, the opportunities are. I can see a house and identify the issues, the resolutions and the problems that are going to arise while traveling from Point A to Point B. It's hard-earned, expensive experience, but while many other things in my business may be fleeting - from the waiting list to the cash flow cushion - that experience of what can go wrong and how to avoid it can never be taken away.

Planting some dogwoods, a pear tree, some grasses and hydrangeas.

The tiered look, from the west - and we are wrapping a fence around to make a nice little play area for the kids and dogs (hopefully getting two dogs shortly).

Our Kitchen, with 4 red lamps, rolling barn door, white pine ceiling painted white, open shelves, reading 'man-chairs' and a plywood countertop. Lisa likes color splashes, and she's also proud of her saw collection on the right.

Looking into the dining room that was the living room. Before we moved into the addition, this was our living room, and the house as a whole was around 1100 sq ft.

These are the original floors we uncovered while renovating. Probably heart pine which would cost $20/sq ft from Carlisle reclaimed flooring if we had to buy it.

It was very exciting when we broke through from the old to the new. We built the entire addition before we broke through. The board & batton wainscotting, stained Anderson french doors, bedroom off to the left and the new living room pod down below. The baby was crying today and I couldn't even hear him, poor thing. We added on around 650 sq ft.

The living room pod. That's my mom - she comes up everytime we move because she is a master coordinator and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Since she has been here for every move - let's rewind and remember.

Lived in the 600 sq ft no bedroom rock house for 4+ years - moved to 2900 sq ft 4 bedroom 3 bath renovated farmhouse on 30 acres - got in a financial pickle and sold the estate to Sarah and Dennis, moved to the fancy gated Chapin Estate where we lived on 5 acres and 6000 sq ft, sold that to Erik and Shannah, moved into a 3000 sq ft rental at Chapin Estate, then soon after moved into our present 1100 sq ft now 1700 sq ft renovated farmhouse in Eldred NY. Oh yeah, and Lisa was pregnant for 2 of those moves.

This room turned out extraordinary, and as a builder who has created many great spaces, to be wowed by the emotional feedback from a room is really saying something at this point.

We retained the original exterior of the house in the new section hallway - that clapboard is a century old, and those old foundation stones were laid by hand after being plucked from the fields.

Marrying the old with the new is definitely a challenge, and a real design mistake can really be pronounced and unfixable.

And a great guest bedroom, that will be private and almost serve as a guest wing when we have guests.

The Delaware River outside of Callicoon, NY.

And a picture of the sky, on a day of clarity.

From one of my favorite Jackson songs - "Shake Your Body"

I don't know whats going happen to you baby

But I do know that I love ya

You walk around this town with your head all up in the sky

And I do know that I want ya

Let's dance, let's shout

Shake you body down to the ground

Let's dance, let's shoutShake you body down to the ground

Let's dance, let's shoutShake you body down to the ground

Ya tease me with your loving to play hard to get

Cause you do know that I want ya

You walk around this town with your head all up in the sky

And I do know that I want yaLet's dance, let's shout

Let's dance, let's shout

Shake you body down to the ground

Let's dance, let's shout

Shake you body down to the ground

You are the spark that lit the fire inside of me

And you know that I love it

I need to do just something to get closer to your soul

And you do know that I want ya

Let's dance, let's shout

Shake you body down to the ground

Let's dance, let's shout

Shake you body down to the ground.

A quiet Sunday afternoon, with only the birds doing much of anything.

‍