We would love to see your pictures. We hope to build a version of the J Series on Whidbey Island in Washington. We have a sloping lot with a view of the water, so we will be adding a basement as well. Thank you!
David, I am located in Dupont, WA (South of Tacoma). My wife and I are interested in building a J series further north of here along the inside passage. Any pictures, information or considerations that you could share is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Terry
Dear Terry, Thanks for the email. We are actually about 2 1/2 years away from building(we have to retire first), so you may be building before us, but it would be nice to keep in touch and share ideas. We are familiar with the South Sound(we used to be sailboaters)and remember the beauty and tranquility of the area. We plan to build on Whidbey, just sound of Deception Pass. Our adddress will be Tea rose Court, Oak Harbor, WA and if you look on Live Search Maps you can actually see our vacant lot off of Jones Road, down Krieg Lane and up Tea Rose Court. We border a farm and last time we looked you could see our fire pit and two lawn chairs from the aerial view. Our half acre sloping lot looks SE down Saratoga Passage and across to LaConner, the farmland, Cascade Mountains and down to Camano. We will have to drive up from the bottom of our property to the middle where the house will be. The main entry will be on the non-view side. We can just barely fit a two car garage on the main level that will be connected to the house by a breezeway. We have corresponded with Robinson about building a flipped version of the J-2018 plan with some revisions. We liked the main floor of the plan pretty much as is, but may rearrange the kitchen a bit. The loft seemed nonfunctional to us, so instead we want to extend the ceiling from the loft over to the second story eyebrow. We figured out that the two extra bedrooms with the full bath in between (from the 3 bedroom J Series plan),if flipped,fits exactly into the would-be loft and extended ceiling space. This cinched the plan for us and Robinson said there was no problem doing that. This will give us a guest bedroom with a great view out the eyebrow and functional windows (instead of ones that would be very hard to keep clean). The other bedroom can double as a den. We plan to have a basement, but it will be more shallow, half the depth of the main floor. We haven't decided what all will be down there and we'll probably take our time finishing it off, but we're thinking shop space, wine room, kyak storage, garden area & a half bath. We don't have any pictures of any building yet, just ones of the land and view. What are your plans? We would love to hear your ideas. Thank you, Rhico & David Stamey
Rhico & David, I am in the same boat re: building at retirement. My target is 2012. Given the list of considerations, I already feel somewhat behind the proverbial "power curve". I will send an email to you from my AOL account. I would love to share some thoughts & such. We were also toying with the idea of extending the second floor ceiling from the loft to cover the "great room". I was thinking of doing a step-up from the loft to the new area so that I could still have a taller ceiling in the great room. Thanks, Terry.
We're about a week away from beginning the framing and will be extending the room upstairs over the great room. We'll keep the 9 ft ceiling height. We're also adding a full bath and closet upstairs so it can be considered/used as a bedroom. For just a small cost we decided to have the truss system revised to become a storage truss, basically opening up that space. We'll do the same over the garage I believe. We'll also make a few other changes. The mechanical room will become a pantry and we'll move the hot water heater and HVAC to the crawlspace under the house. We also built in a fraidy hole (for tornados) which will be accessed under the stairs. It's basically a 5x10 4-sided concrete walled room with escape door under the house. We changed the windows from being a 9 over 1 double hung to a prairie style pattern and on the back of the house replaced the windows with casements and a cottage style (4 small panels at the top over a single large full view window) so we could take advantage of the view off the back of the house. We'll be posting pictures as we get going. Right now there's not much to see.
I'd love to find a J series home within driving range so I could personally walk through one. If anyone knows of one in the midwest, or found pics on line, I'd love to know about it. Thanks, Derek
We also are considering the JG series. Also extending the 2nd floor over the living room and a pantry instead of mechanical room. Would love to see your pictures
