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

If our readers are interested in the rant and rave section, those posts have been backdated, but still exist.

Off-balance moonlight photo -

Baby deer trying to blend in -

Kids at a picnic in Cochecton -

Momma goose with a group of new chicks -

Cupcakes at abovementioned picnic -

Sunset over the Delaware River -

Domesticated chicken with cat in the background -

Bear -

Momma Goose puttin' the hammer down to get out of town -

Me with my son Lucas and cat Ruby -

Butterfly and bumblebee -

All quiet on the western front - looks like 2 or 3 more house deals were struck this weekend. Can you say red rope 'waiting list'? I love this recession.

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The Ranch - seriously, it's a Ranch house - sitting on 5 acres, looking into Pennsylvania, 960 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, bath, big walk-out basement. I remember the conversation well - "Hey, it's a real estate depression - let's really stack the odds against us, really test our metal, go build a god-damned Ranch house (sorry for the emphatic cursing)." Well, she's done. She's amazing. And she's going to passed on to the new homeowner next week.

New driveways, new lawn, new house, new everything - How many families buying in the Catskills can say they bought a 'house that works'. It doesn't need anything - it's finished. And my builder paid for the whole thing until it was finished.

Just for clarification - the yellow tape does not demarcate a crime scene, but rather an alert to 'STAY OFF THE GRASS OR ELSE!!'

Great Picture of the interior - with the Ranch siding brought inside to define the hallway, 3 synchronized galvanized lights hanging from the stained beam, a cool radiator, a chalkboard door, and the open kitchen.

Fireplace, living room and entry to deck all in one shot.

Sitting here in my office in Eldred on a quiet Saturday morning with not much going on to distract me from some quiet reflection of what has been, what is, and what will be.

Courtney and Bronson are now in the house - not literally - what I mean is they have committed to a customized Cottage 18 on the new land I just purchased. The Adam's family (I couldn't resist) is coming up tomorrow to check us out.

and Norah and Jeffrey are nearly in contract on Cottage 21 - we just have to wait until they get back from the Cannes Film Festival to sign the papers. Well, excuse me.

Someone called me 'irrational' the other day - I was, like, 'duh, I build spec houses in the middle of nowhere during a depression, -of course I'm irrational and unbalanced."

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Momma Goose and Family out for a stroll on Mother's Day.

These chicks were just born a few days ago...

OK, some people called us crazy when we started spreading the word that we were going to start 3 new spec homes back in November in the middle of the greatest recession since the 1930's. Who, actually, do we think we are?

But, not to point out the obvious, we are 1 week away from closing on Johnny and Tina's Red Cottage in the Woods, 10 days from Erin's Ranch on top of the Hill, and Norah and Jeffrey are moving towards contract signatures on Cottage 21.

So, to summarize - Catskill Farms has, thus far, done what very few companies in the world have done - which is, in short, sell homes and turn a profit in this severe economic contraction. Don't ask me why this is happening, but it is, and we are quite pleased, quite pleased indeed, Sam I Am.

Here's a beauty - Cottage 18 - all 960 sq ft of it. The trees are just budding and there is always a week or two that the foilage is a lightening florescent green before it matures into the deeper forest green.

And Arts and Crafty Cottage 21 with big stone pillars, tapered porch posts, exposed rafter tails, and thick spindles.

Pretty neat shot below with the wide spindles, handhewn beams, radiator and barn lamp. No wonder we're getting to be famous with taste like dat. I mean seriously, that's more character in one little corner than most homes have combined throughout their overdone 4000 sq ft.

And then the Ranch, the lovely Ranch. With the big views into Pennsylvania. This house was a totally new experiment and I think we did just fine.

So, pretty windy today, Sunday, Mother's Day. Spring is here and we are ready to get down and boogie, - if you know what I mean.