Lot #28, Day
Originally uploaded by tropo
Does this mean that this is the perfect piece of land? Rarely is a piece of land perfect. It might have a great view, but be really steep. It may be flat, but small. This lot has a road that curves around three sides of the property. I am worried that the house will not be as private as I would like it to be, even though the road will have very little traffic on it. The original piece of land was a steep, steep slope, but the road construction company filled in a pad across almost the entire piece of property. We will still have to do a lot of engineering to make the fill stable enough for a house. And the house cannot be more than one story above the pad height. That means that whatever we design will probably be two stories and spill down the hillside. Although we are really grateful to have a one story house now after the "house of stairs" that we owned in Burlingame, I think we can handle two stories, especially if we add an elevator or at least a dumbwaiter.
Now comes the really exciting part: actually designing the house. We are going to interview two construction companies on Monday and Tuesday. Later on there will be interviews with architects, kitchen designers, landscapers, and media consultants. We have talked about the functional areas we would like to see on this piece of land. Now to see if we can make all the parts fit.