Seminole View
Three years ago we bought a brick house down the street. We wanted the 210 x 250 foot lot to build a new home. After 3 years of thinking about it - and fretting about the money we lose by tearing down a perfectly good house - we finally pulled the trigger.
We have completed our plans - signed a contract with a builder - picked a wrecker - and gotten the building permits. On August 1st - when we return from London - we will start the project. First we must tear down the old brick house - then we must shape the land. After that we pour a foundation and go to work.
Our builder is Gary Shiver of town. He has been building here for 35 years and has come highly recommended. We have examined several of his homes - including his own house. We watched as he just finished a custom home north of town. Gary builds 3 or 4 homes a year and will be on site daily at our project. Bill Richardson drafted our ideas - and came up with the matching the formal window spacing outside with the rooms inside - one very difficult task.
The home we are building is very plain but elegant. I am responsible for the outside - Lulu gets to plan the inside. The picture above shows the front of the house - but the back of the house will look exactly the same.
The floor plan is 60 x 60 feet (3600 square feet) counting the porches. There will be an additional 1200 feet in the attic for storage. Measurements are similar to the Parthenon. The rectangle is 40 x 60. The porches are 10 x 10 x 60. It has a 6/12 pitched roof. There will be no rain gutters.
The house will have 28 windows - each 3 x 6 feet. All windows will have energy efficient glass and inside they will be covered with plantation shutters. The rooms will all have 10 feet tall ceilings. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Each bedroom will have 4 windows - 2 on each side of a corner.
The roof will have nothing piercing the surface. We will be using Icynene foamed in place insulation. There will be no vents going vertical - all bath vents and fireplace vents will go out sideways. There will be a bonus room in the attic that will be 20 by 60 feet. That room will have a 3/4 inch plywood floor with the liquid foamed ceiling. There are a set of steps to the attic for storage.
The house will be built completely of 3/4 inch plywood with foamed in place insulation. The walls will be studded using 2 x 6 planks. The outside will be covered with hardiboard lapped horizontal boards. All ceilings are 10 feet high.
We will expect the house to be done in about 100 days. I will be available to be a pest because we live 3 doors away - and I have not worked in 10 years. Right now - Gary the Builder - and I are great friends :-)
Inside - it is a very open house. On the left side is a pod with two bedrooms and a bath. This can be closed off from the house with a pocket door. On the right side is the master suite. In the middle is a great room with the kitchen opening into a living room and dining room. The living room and dining room are separated by a see-thru vented gas fireplace. The fireplace will draw air from outside. Lulu insists on this double hearth as the centerpiece of our home. The front door and the back door line up - like a shotgun house and like Mount Vernon. You could shoot a shotgun in one door and out the other without hitting anything.
Princess Murat House - Tallahassee Museum
The simple lines of Bellevue.
We had a design ready for paper when we visited the Princess Murat House - Bellevue - at the Tallahassee Museum. We noticed that that house was similar to what we planned. So we started using features of that Florida Plantation Style home. Our house will be the same style but will have 8 windows across the front instead of 4. It is a bit of Cracker Style.
Prince Achilles Murat was a nephew of Napoleon. When Napoleon had his Waterloo - Murat moved to Tallahassee in exile and married Catherine - thus she became a princess. When Achilles died - Catherine build this house and was very prominent in Tallahassee. Lulu reminds me a bit of Catherine.
Harry wanted a very simple design with super clean lines - but also efficiency. Note the left and right are the same - the front and back are the same. The windows are evenly spaced. There are no protrusions from the roof. It is super insulated - and energy efficient. There will be a separate 3 car garage.
The rooms will be ADA wheelchair accessible with wide doors. The bathrooms will have drive-in showers. Doors will not have threshholds. - It will have a heat pump for heat and AC. The heat pump will have gradual motors so they come on quietly and go off quietly. There will be 10 foot ceilings. Most of the windows will be shaded by porches. Rooms can be blacked out by plantation shutters.
The house will be about 100 feet back from Seminole Drive and be about 10 feet above the street surface.
After the house is complete and we move in - we will sell 1607 Seminole Drive.
Gary Shiver just completed this home north of town
The irony of this project is for 30 years - we lived in a 1000 square foot house - with a family of 4. Now that the kids are gone - we will be two gray heads living in 4800 square feet under roof not counting the barn and garages.
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