Designing Our Custom Home

Design Appointment - Day 3

2007-07-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

Day 3 started by again tuning items from Day 2. Then we went into more detail on various options such as installed ceiling lights, telephone and cable outlets, kitchen "bar top" locations, shelving in the various closets and pantry, etc.

After the "design" was supposedly done, we discussed placement on the lot. This rapidly became a problem, as we wanted to push the house back significantly on the lot to get a better view of the water, and to have less noise from the street. The lot plat and the city setback requirements showed a minimum rear setback of 15'. There was a drainage easement of 20'. At first, I was told that these were cumulative, so there was a minimum 35' setback. Then I was told that there was an additional Pringle setback requirement. When I asked for an explanation of this added requirement, it could not be explained.

Part of the process was a requirement for a customer sign-off on the home placement on the lot at the end of Day 3. Since we were unable to agree, I annotated the sign-off as subject to review and our desire to set back 40' from the front lot line.

I was told that I would receive a complete set of prints for Notice to Proceed in about 120 days. There were major open cost items on adding a screen cage, HVAC upgrades, front door upgrades, countertop and cabinet costs, tankless water heater costs, master shower redesign, and electrical.

This was also a relatively short day. At the end I was given a partial computer sketch of the cabinets for the kitchen and baths, a floor print of the home, and several written documents. I also got some expensive change orders to sign. I left somewhat disappointed, as I had expected to have a lot more detail, including all costs and detailed elevations. It was not to be.

Design Appointment - Day 2

2007-07-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

The first part of Day 2 was spent tuning up, or correcting, some things for the house footprint from day 1. We also changed some window sizes and locations, after thinking about them overnight.

The rest of Day 2 was spent on dimensioning interior walls, placing and sizing doors, working on electrical outlet locations, attempting to get information on cabinets, and discussing HVAC options. I was somewhat frustrated that cost information for cabinets and HVAC items was not readily available.

Again, there was a long mid-day break and an early end to the day. The designer said that he needed to work on our design and get change orders updated. I suspect that he was also working on other customer's issues. We got an in-process print to review overnight.

Design Appointment - Day 1

2007-07-20T04:41:00.000-07:00

On the first day of our Design Appointment, we got to the Pringle Design Center about 15 minutes early and checked it. We looked at various tile and cabinet options while we waited to meet with our Designer. At 8:30 AM we started our meeting.

The design rooms are small. The Designer sits on one side of an open desktop, with his CAD terminal. A slave monitor faces the customers on the other side, so we can see the design being modified.

We started with a standard Stirling model on the screen. For Day 1, our Designer said he wanted to concentrate on the exterior footprint of the design. Based on our previous planning, we added a room on the front of the base plan, pulled the garage forward a bit, moved the master bedroom back, and extended the side walls.

We also talked about window location and sizes. The windows were all priced the same at the time we went to design. As an example, it didn't matter if we had a 2' x 2' small window or a 3' x 5' large window, the cost was the same. If we mulled together two windows, than that counted as two windows. Judi and I moved most of the windows to agree with our planned furniture locations.

We put two mulled together windows in the back of the Master Bedroom and took out the slider to the lanai on the 45 degree wall and replaced it with two more mulled together windows. Our reasoning was that A), we didn't need access to the Lanai from the bedroom, as there was the doorwall in the Great Room just a few steps away; B) the doorwall took away wall space that we wanted for a loveseat in the bedroom and for furniture on the lanai; and C) a doorwall would be just one more place for our low slung dogs (2 dachshunds) to leave nose prints to clean up.

We also took out the transom windows above the Master Bedroom main windows. Our reasoning was that these would be hard to have operable room-darkening window shades at and we need to be able to really darken the room for the times when Judi has a migraine headache. The added benefit was that we got credit for each transom window we deleted, so we could add windows elsewhere in the home.

We added windows in the Den, which will have a great view out the back of our home. In each of the guest bedrooms we mulled together two windows to add more daylight.

We put a transom window in the Master Closet to add natural light, and I added a high transom window in the garage.

At about 11:30 our Designer suggested we break for lunch and to let him work on the change order for the costs of the added square footage and the window / door changes. He asked us to return at 1:30 PM. We took a long lunch at a local restaurant. There presently are a Perkins, Chilis, Friendlys, several fast food restaurants, and some good local restaurants available in Mount Dora and Eustis.

Work continued on the footprint in the afternoon and we started on the interior redesign. At about 3:30, our Designer suggested that we call it a day. He said that he would work on tuning up the design work we had done and also on updating the change orders for the work we did in the afternoon. Before we left, he gave us a printout of the design as it was so far.

That evening, Judi and I spent lots of time going over the design and thinking about what we wanted to do the next day.

Preparation for the Design Appointment

2007-06-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

We elected to go the "full custom" option, where we could add / subtract rooms, move walls, and do just about anything we want with our new home. It's not free, but we hope to end up with a house that reflects our living style.

We had about a year from the time we signed the contract until our Design Appointment. Judi and I used this time to plan our home design.

First, we took a base Pringle design, The Stirling model. Our Sales Representative gave us detailed floorplan and elevation prints for this base model. I took these prints (36" x 24") to Kinko's and made several copies so we could mark them up with various design thoughts.

Second, we considered how we lived in our present home, what changes we would like for a retirement home, and our in house traffic patterns.

Third, we spent a lot of time on Mike Kelley's Florida Retirement Forums, http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/flretire/ , talking with others who had retired to Central Florida, particularly in Pringle communities. This sharing of information helped us greatly.

We tried on various ideas and eventually came up with a design that we likes. It basically does the following to the Stirling model:

- Pushes the Master Suite back about eight feet.
- Adds a Study in front of the Master Bath.
- Deletes the hall to the Guest Bedrooms and Bath.
- Moves the Guest Bath to be next to the Laundry Room.
- Adds a Powder Room near the Nook and rear Den.
- Widens the kitchen a bit.

Next I built a tabbed notebook in preparation for the Design Appointment. I included pages for each room, showing the design and dimensions we wanted, where we wanted the doors, windows, lights, fans, outlets, etc. It also included sections for appliances, HVAC, cabinets, closet shelving, electrical, plumbing, flooring, light fixtures, and hardware.

Then, we drew out the home design, first as the Pringle base Stirling model, and then as we wanted to change it. I did this using the computer, but it could also be done with pencil and a ruler. We kept a log of each change, deletion, and addition. The Pringle design center had told us that moving walls inside the building envelope did not add any cost. We also knew the cost per square foot for adding square footage at a given ceiling height, including "under air", "under roof", lanai, and porch. Using this, we estimated the costs of our changes.

We talked with Customer Care and got the specific brands / models of all the appliances, the furnace and A/C compressor, water heater, and cabinets. Then I went to the various brand websites to look at the specifications for these items. We looked at the base appliances and decided which we wanted to keep and which we wanted to upgrade. Judi and I used the same process to plan for our HVAC, cabinets, and other features.

We took all of this pre-work with us to the Design Appointment.

Next post - the actual Design Appointment.

First Things First!

2007-06-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

First - some background. In mid-2004, after Cap had been retired for six months, we began thinking about having a retirement home in Florida, either for the winter, or as a primary residence. In December, 2004, we went to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and also spent some time looking at various developments in the Central Florida region.

We have a good friend who has wintered in Mount Dora for almost ten years and she highly recommended that we consider the City of Mount Dora as a location for a home. After looking at several Pringle Development locations, we liked the descriptions of their planned Lakes of Mount Dora community, and their willingness do allow both semi-custom and full custom design of a home at a minimal design cost. At that time, the cost added for the design work was only $3,000.

After a week back at home, we called to select a lot in the pre-construction phase and sent in a $1,000 deposit. Three months later, in March, 2005, we again vacationed at Disney World in Florida and took time to go to Mount Dora to sign a contract with Pringle Development. Our contract allowed for a two year deferral of home construction and provided for three days with a designer on a CAD system to design our home.

Since we wanted to prepare our existing home in SouthEast Michigan, near Ann Arbor, for sale, we didn't schedule our time with Pringle's designer until more than a year later, in April 2005. However, we had a year to think about home design, learn about Pringle's design process, and talk with other people who had been through the building experience in Central Florida. It was a busy year.

The next post will provide more information about the preparation for design that we did.