We have been working with the designers at Kurk Homes for about a month on the floorplans and exterior elevations. Since we are are doing a custom build, we got to design the house of our dreams (within budget of course). We were working with an odd pie shaped lot that has a sewer line easment about 50 feet from the bulkhead. We have 100 feet of water frontage but only about 50 feet at the street. It was quite challenging to get all the space we wanted, especially the garages on this lot but our designers did it. They were amazing! We were thrilled with the end result. I got my dream kitchen and closets and Jose got his dream garage. Since we were able to do split garages I can keep all the Christmas decorations and miscellaneous memorabilia in my garage and Jose's garage can be completely devoted to the two cars that are restorations in progress, his workshop, and a parking spot for the car he drives to work.
I'm sure I forgot something but since this is the house we plan to retire in, we really tried to think of all the things that bugged us about all of our previous residences. For example...I hate cleaning shower doors so our master shower was built with two shower heads, a seat and no door, not even glass bricks. We knew we would always want to dine lakeside especially when we have friends and family over so we built one dining space open to the kitchen with plenty of room for our table and china cabinet. My sister-in-law, Geraldine and my sister Camille both have open kitchens in their homes and both entertain quite a bit. I love how their kitchens were open to the family room which became the inspiration for the kitchen, dining, family room space. We opted for a corner fireplace even though I didn't wear my coat a single time last winter. I had to have somewhere to hang the stockings at Christmas. And on the offchance we
might have a cold day and we
will want to build (and by that I mean turn on the gas logs) a fire. We wanted a ton of storage on the first floor. There's plenty of room for all of my shoes, summer and (unnecessary in Houston) winter clothes in the same closet at the same time! I've never been able to do that! The laudry room has a utilitly sink, extra fridge with ice maker, (yall know how I like a little drink with my ice) washer and dryer and room for my hanging racks to dry clothes! It's as if I've died and gone to laundry room heaven. We put the office/library on the main floor with built-in bookshelves floor to ceiling on one whole wall. We just haven't decided which wall yet. We have a pretty big corner desk so we have a couple of options for the shelves. We'll meet with the cabinet maker to finalize at a later date.
Upstairs we have three guest rooms (two queen bedrooms and one with two twin beds) two bathrooms and a gameroom that will function as my workout/DIY craft/hobby space. There will also be a sofa in there for additional sleeping space. We really would have liked to have that room on the main floor as well but we figured if I'm too old and feeble to make it up the stairs I probably won't be working out or crafting. As you can see there's plenty of space for our family and friends to stay comfortably! So Y'all come! It's BYOB (Bring Your Own Boat) until we can afford one. Hopefully, summer 2013.
