Tag Archive for: new home

A lakefront home set on a lot with mature trees takes careful planning

A lakefront home set on a lot with mature trees takes careful planning

Do you have property you are looking forward to building your dream home on? Congratulations!  Get ready: The landscape of your home site is a complex part of the picture! It’s composed of topography, plants, trees, surrounding structures, and sometimes – lake and other water features. There are the zoning and code regulations. Each site also has a very specific solar orientation, views – both good and bad, and very often – an obvious character. There are a number of things to plan for when siting your home on your land. You’ll want to find out:

  1. What are the characteristics of the property? To know what your home building potential is, you should obtain a complete topographical survey of your property. A complete topographical survey will map out the contours, trees, flood plain, well and septic location, power poles, and existing drives. In addition, information on the adjacent properties can be added to the survey. It’s very useful to know the edge of the existing homes with sideyard and lake setbacks, the elevation of the structures, and the mature tree locations within 10 feet of the property line.
  1. What are the Setbacks? There are building codes that apply to your property. Municipalities have setback requirements for roads, fences, drives and more. An experienced builder will be well versed in the regulations and codes and design your home accordingly. Sometimes a variance will be needed and requested from the town and/or the county board before proceeding with the project. The home design drawings and where the proposed home will be located on the property (on the survey) are submitted when applying for zoning and building permits. In addition to building setbacks, state statutes require counties to adopt ordinances on shoreline zoning that include limits on how close structures can be placed to the water’s edge and the requirement to minimize clear-cutting of trees in the nearshore area.
  1. What type of soil is on the property? A soil scientist bores holes in the soil and tests for plasticity (how much the soil expands and shrinks) Many factors can be revealed by boring holes in the soil, like depth to bedrock, overall soil stability and depth to the water table. These factors can greatly influence where you will want to build your new home.
  1. What trees do I want to protect? Large shade trees and conifers take decades – or a whole lifetime to grow to maturity. Healthy, mature trees make your landscape come alive. A certified arborist can assess the health of the large trees. The arborist may suggest pruning weak or diseased branches, and how to protect trees during the construction process. The ground around the trees should not be compacted. (Don’t let heavy trucks roll over the tree roots repeatedly.) Plan the construction access and the future driveway away from large trees. For an extra-special tree or a group of trees, do not perform any regrading within the drip line. This may require a large area of protection. (Foundation walls and major construction cannot occur near the root zone.)

All of the above are all things to be mindful of in determining where to place your home. Your home site can also be the source of inspiration for your home design. When you look at your site for inspiration, good ideas tend to come very naturally. And by taking a meaningful approach with your builder you’ll have a home design that has unity with the land and interplay between the indoor and outdoor environments. The time and energy spent in the early planning phase pays off with a home that maximizes the simple enjoyment of a well-designed home.

Not home? Set the stage for your arrival by turning on the lights with your smartphone.

Not home? Set the stage for your arrival by turning on the lights with your smartphone.

The volume of technology news is enormous. From the perspective of a custom home builder, this stream of tech news is like trying to drink from a fire hose. What are the important macro trends? The Internet of Things (IoT) is a macro trend worth understanding. There are powerful internet chips that are being specified into products like thermostats, lights and appliances, and included in home networks to deliver increasing energy efficiency, expanded monitoring capabilities and greater control using smart phones.

One of the best magazines on home building; the appropriately named “Fine Homebuilding” has an article this month on how a smart phone can orchestrate an entire house full of electronic devices, many of which could only be controlled manually a year or two ago. Here are a few standouts:

Complete Remote Control

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a device in your home that Insteon doesn’t make controls for. Their remote, switches, plugs and sensors can monitor and operate lights, HVAC systems, garage doors and even irrigation controls. www.insteon.com.

Civilized Fire Safety

Fed up with being screamed at by your smoke detector for burning the toast? the Nest Connect smoke-and-carbon-monoxide alarm has an impressive list of features to make you and your family more secure. Wirelessly pair multiple Nest Connect alarms to create a web of devices that alert you to impending threats while constantly monitoring itself for issues such as lowe batteries (no more chirping low-battery sounds while you are trying to get to sleep) or sensor malfunctions.

  • Green, yellow and red lights work together with spoken messages to tell you what is-or what isn’t happening in your home.
  • Nest Connect can tell Nest Thermostat to shut down a gas furnace when it detects dangerous levels of CO.
  • Control features and receive notifications through Nest iOS or Android apps.

www.nest.com.

More than a light switch

The new Hue LED bulbs from Phillips with the Hue app can gradually ramp up the bulbs brightness for a virtual sunrise, turn lights on and off when you are not at home, and even match the color of the light to that of a photo you take with your phone’s camera. It’s not really designed to give you bright light, but if you love color and how it evokes a mood – you’re going to fall in love with it!

  • Join up to 50 bulbs
  • 600 lumens per bulb

www.meethue.com

Singular Smart-Home Solution

All of the above new home automation systems are great, but with every smart light switch, thermostat, and home automation component you purchase, that’s one more smart phone app or web interface you need to set up and manage. The solution for app clutter? the Revolv Hub. It’s a wireless base station and its companion app connects to dozens of popular devices for an integrated automation experience. The company plans to link 95% of all app-controlled devices. www.revolv.com.

Homes will be increasingly connected to the Internet of Things over the next 5 to 10 years. Our job as custom home builder requires assessment of the new technology – weighing the benefits and drawbacks for you. If you are building a new home, the possibilities are exciting for creating a technologically advanced home!

2014 Ticket VoucherDreaming of a new home or want to improve your existing one?  Need inspiration? Need advice? Come visit us at the Lake Geneva Home Improvment Expo where you can meet with experts in the home improvment field. And its right in your own back yard.

  • See the latest products and attend home improvement seminars
  • Kids have fun building projects in the Little Builder Workshop
  • Enjoy food and beverage samples from the area
  • Meet Green Bay Packer Hall of Famer Dave Robinson
  • Win exciting raffle prizes!

It’s at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva on Saturday, February 15th and Sunday February 16th.

Expo Hours: Saturday  10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. / Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Admission: $5.oo, Children under 12 are FREE

BONUS: PRINT THIS PAGE AS A  VOUCHER TO RECEIVE TWO FREE TICKETS – COURTESY OF THELEN TOTAL CONSTRUCTION!