I have mentioned on a few occasions that we are building a new home at Lake Tahoe. More accurately, the house is being built a group of skilled craftspeople led by a terrific builder who makes sure work gets done right, on time and within budget. We just write checks. With luck, we'll start moving up there in about two months.
These are some progress photos. The drawing is an architect's sketch of the new place and the old eyesore is what we tore down. There's a lot of sawn and engineerred lumber, Simpson brackets and fasteners in the structure to carry 200 psf snow loads in an earthquake. Building codes are pretty stringent, as are the rules that govern how big the house footprint can be (20% of lot size) and how tall (three stories with a max height limitation). We wish we could have built on a bigger footprint so that some of the rooms could be more comfortably sized, but this is fine. And yes, there's a "filtered view" of the lake through the trees. A wildfire two years ago stopped just short of providing us with the panoramic view LOML craves. You'll see the project manager in the photo of the top deck inspecting things. The middle floor deck, which is outside the master bedroom and my office, has turned out to be the nicest of the three. Nice view, shade, and a feeling of intimacy without being claustrophobic or dark. The middle floor is wheelchair accessible from the outside by building a simple ramp. Doors will use paddle-type handles for old arthritic hands, and light switches will be rockers instead of toggles for the same reason.
The only things we splurged on were the size (3500+ square feet of conditioned space), in-floor heating, which was as much for energy efficiency as for comfort, and a little stone veneer on the front. The other two costly add-ons were a sprinkler system - required due to the size - and lots of concrete (30+ yards) due to the slope of the lot. Most of the furniture is used. Cabinets are medium-grade factory-built stained alder with plywood boxes (custom were too expensive and I'm not skilled enough to build my own - yet) . Interior trim is vertical grain fir, the great room ceiling will be T&G pine, floors will be a combination of oak on a plywood base, ceramic tile and carpet. The garage is wired with 2 220V outlets for electric cars if we ever decide to buy them. Each room has telephone, Cat 5 and coaxial cable connections.
Most importantly, it has a 21x21 shop on the ground floor under the garage. With a heated floor.
These are some progress photos. The drawing is an architect's sketch of the new place and the old eyesore is what we tore down. There's a lot of sawn and engineerred lumber, Simpson brackets and fasteners in the structure to carry 200 psf snow loads in an earthquake. Building codes are pretty stringent, as are the rules that govern how big the house footprint can be (20% of lot size) and how tall (three stories with a max height limitation). We wish we could have built on a bigger footprint so that some of the rooms could be more comfortably sized, but this is fine. And yes, there's a "filtered view" of the lake through the trees. A wildfire two years ago stopped just short of providing us with the panoramic view LOML craves. You'll see the project manager in the photo of the top deck inspecting things. The middle floor deck, which is outside the master bedroom and my office, has turned out to be the nicest of the three. Nice view, shade, and a feeling of intimacy without being claustrophobic or dark. The middle floor is wheelchair accessible from the outside by building a simple ramp. Doors will use paddle-type handles for old arthritic hands, and light switches will be rockers instead of toggles for the same reason.
The only things we splurged on were the size (3500+ square feet of conditioned space), in-floor heating, which was as much for energy efficiency as for comfort, and a little stone veneer on the front. The other two costly add-ons were a sprinkler system - required due to the size - and lots of concrete (30+ yards) due to the slope of the lot. Most of the furniture is used. Cabinets are medium-grade factory-built stained alder with plywood boxes (custom were too expensive and I'm not skilled enough to build my own - yet) . Interior trim is vertical grain fir, the great room ceiling will be T&G pine, floors will be a combination of oak on a plywood base, ceramic tile and carpet. The garage is wired with 2 220V outlets for electric cars if we ever decide to buy them. Each room has telephone, Cat 5 and coaxial cable connections.
Most importantly, it has a 21x21 shop on the ground floor under the garage. With a heated floor.
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