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The master bedroom at the end of the house has tons of natural light. All bedrooms have access to the covered outdoor living space.
I wonder if a house is ever finished. My own answer is no. But the rooms are livable and we have just passed our final building department inspection. The furnishings are a collection resulting from years of saving things, along with just a few new purchases. If you start looking way ahead you can find deals and save lots of money.
The kitchen is ample in size. Actually we are having a debate about whether we have made the kitchen too large. There is more than enough storage even for trays.
Our theme outside was less is more. Along with the house and pool, we have to incorporate the septic mound, a water tank, and a storage shed into the landscaping.
Kitchen Cabinets- we looked closely at Ikea but ended up getting our cabinets made in Northern California- we chose a plastic laminate with no detailing.
The gas fireplace and cantilevered bench are key design elements – the main room needed anchoring and this combination of the gas fireplace and the cantilevered Douglas fir hearth-bench more than achieves the vision we had. Planning ahead is crucial for this- you need to tie the steel support into the 2×6 wall and build strength into the structure – inexpensive if you do it up front, expensive if you add it later.
We have a narrow lot. It’s only 100? feet wide. We decided to raise the pool 18? above ground to make the pool a seating area as well.
The two bathrooms use concrete (floor), ceramic tiles (shower), and hanging, or cantilevered, cabinets.
The skylight at the end of the long hallway draws the eye by brightening the space and creating a focal point.
We ended up installing two skylights instead of three, to save costs: one in the master bath and one at the end of the long hallway.
The insulation is pretty cool. Its soy-based and has a very high R value for insulating the house. It is a closed cell green product that also has some structural value.
The siding (shown below). We used plywood and battens. The plywood is structural and also acts as our finish sheathing. We love the look of simple board and batten. By avoiding a second layer of finish material we saved tons of money and time.
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