Our change of plans

Part of the beauty of our lot is its dramatic view to the west each afternoon as the sun set.  The lot is the highest point on the peninsula and in my mind it had enough drop in elevation to allow us to place our home in such a manner as to accommodate a walk-out basement.  We hoped for a wall filled with windows to take full advantage of that view.  Unfortunately that just wasn't to be.

For the past six months we've been working with a very nice architect from Fort Worth, making the necessary changes to our house plans.  We deleted the room above the garage; we cut out a section of the middle of the house to make the rooms on both the main level and the lower floor more manageable.  We flipped the garage layout to accommodate the motorcoach.  We changed the roofline to make it look less chopped up.  And in the end, we abandoned the plan altogether.  The house simple would not fit on the lot as we had planned.

We had been poring over those plans for three years.  We knew each room as if we had lived in it already.  Giving up those plans seemed like quitting, but we just were not willing to quit.  Instead we took about a month off from all the planning to rethink our situation.  We had to reconsider what it was that we wanted in a house and what we were willing to do to get that.

What we wanted was a gathering place ... a place for family get togethers for years to come.  A place with wide open rooms for laughing and including anyone who wanted to be in the mixture.  But it also had to have rooms removed from all the noise and frivolity ... a place for quite contemplation and reflection.

We wanted a place that was easy to maintain since I was going to be the one maintaining it.  And anyone who knows me knows I don't love doing handyman work.  I told the contractor to build us a home that won't need repainting or re-roofing for the next 50 years.  My descendants may need to repair this home, but hopefully I won't.

The home we determined filled our needs and would be our new direction was this one:

This home would be built of stone and brick with a metal roof to last for decades without needy maintenance.  The back is filled with windows to open the views to the lake and outdoor rooms so we can take the party out back.  The rooms are open and inclusive for our growing family.  And it will include a quiet study, as well as a game room and media room removed from the main area of the home, so noise from one area does not interfere with another.

Now that we have a new plan and direction we are moving forward at a very quick pace.  It is exciting to watch how easily each of the other aspects are coming together.  We've finalized the contractor's bids and hope to close on the construction interim financing this week.  If all goes well, we could begin digging the foundation before the end of the month.