For those who have been following along, you will notice that we have made major progress on our custom vacation rental. I'm thrilled that the house has finally come out of the ground.
The purpose of our visit was to walk through the interior of the house to show the builder our furniture layout so that he can accurately place the HVAC and electrical wiring/outlets. We thought this would take an hour or so but it took nearly 5 hours! The level of detail that we had to communicate was astounding. However, our preparation came in handy! I used West Elms's FREE interior design software to do the room layouts (exact same software that designers use). The layouts were so handy! After the walk through, I only had one room that required a complete overhaul - one of the bedrooms on the main level had to be redesigned because I had a king bed in a room that really needed a queen. There were two rooms that needed more work - the great room and the rec room. Both needed a detailed schematic of the feature tv and/or fireplace wall. My layouts were incomplete because I hadn't selected the size of the tvs or the fireplace. I've since finished the rec room and sent it to the builder. Exhale! The fireplace wall is now being designed by a professional 🙃 since we decided to use custom cabinetry in the fireplace surround. It's a weight lifted because the fireplace/tv design was starting to feel more technical and less creative and fun. It was begging to be delegated!
Exterior
Initially, the house was being built below street level. My husband, Justin, and I were not at all happy about that and caught up with the builder just in time during our previous visit! Thank goodness our contractors were amenable to a solution that included raising the foundation 4 feet. We ended up with a massive crawl space for storage and, essentially, a three story house with all levels being above ground! Let there be light, people!
The building site still has its challenges. The front door and entry are about 30 feet from land. The house is almost "floating" on the lot so we have to get a suspension walkway built to access the house. I'm hoping that it will be a cool design feature. The site is rocky and the view from the street could still be better but I'm about 85% satisfied.
While I always wanted a lot with a steep drop off for the best views, I'm actually glad that we have a backyard. The cleared spot looks perfect for a fire pit! And the view looks good. It's not a million dollar view, but it's not a million dollar lot so I got what I paid for (I think)!
Interior
At this point, the house is mostly framed. All exterior walls are in. The interior rooms are framed. There are markings for all manner of things to help the sub contractors install plumbing, electrical and HVAC (including an electrical panel in a location that I do not like!). We are still missing 3 crucial elements - roof, interior stairs and windows. Instead of stairs, we used steep ladders to get between floors - it was pretty scary!
During our visit on a cold April Saturday, it actually rained in the house for most of our time there. It was so cold, wet and miserable that we couldn't even concentrate on getting great photos. But, we are thrilled to finally see progress.
I'm most exicited about the great room and the rec room. I can kinda close my eyes and see Thanksgiving dinner and big gatherings of friends. I'm a little nervous about the suspended walkway and front entry. We are required to have a ski locker but due to the way the house is constructed, there isn't a place adjacent to the house that works so the architect is working on a plan that would add it to the formal exterior entry. Seems like a lot to cram on a spot that isn't anchored to the ground....?
So, lots of progress but a lot more to go! We estimate about 4 months before completion so there will be more updates to come!
In the meantime, enjoy these photos!