Just a heads up that next week we'll begin to look for inspiration in all those little places that city folk scurry away to when it gets hot.
Do you run off to a saltbox by the sea? A cabin in the woods? A little house on a lake?
Alright, so not everyone lives in a fairy tale, but summer house design is always casual, comfortable and bright at its best (and not always expensive). Tips, resources and inspiration from these summer places will be a rare summer harvest, so get your digital cameras ready and make plans to get out of town for a weekend! MGR
Given real estate in Manhattan, a "second home" elsewhere is a more viable proposition than investing in a primary residence in the city.
I take off to my place up in the hills above Mismaloya near Puerto Vallarta Mexico. The photos are online here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/badgurl/sets/266345/
I do the cabin in the woods thing. Its a place I had built on 7 acres of land in the Adirondacks. I'm not sure I could take Manhattan without it. It is one bedroom, one bath a sleeping loft and a couple of great porches. Just enough, and very cozy. PLUS, the added bonus that it didn't cost a fortune, and is a snap to maintain.
Here's the pics:
www.flickr.com/photos/29684205@N00/sets/652948/
Dee - love the Sidney furniture photos.
Jesse - Beautiful. I'm from the Adirondacks and my heart skipped a beat looking at your pics. I'm not a stalker (just nosey) so I have to ask what town you're near. Do you go up in winter?
Jess- wow, gorgeous. I love log cabins.
tell us more about having it built... so we can dream about doing it one day too!
Some weekends, I escape to a lovely 3 bedroom, three bath house in the lower Berkshires. It has a rolling lawn, manicured flower beds, swimming pool, and vegetable garden. Though I have the option of cooking for myself, most nights, a lovely meal is provided by a talented chef. I casually refer to this place as my parents' house.
I have the best of both worlds, too, because the (other) weekenders don't think I'm a local and thus don't get snotty with me, and the locals remember me from when I was a kid and don't give me attitude. It kinda rocks.
Thanks!
RR - It is located in the North Creek area, and yes I definitely go up there in the winter. Snowboarding!
LC- Building a cabin is a process of little steps...if you look at it all together, it's overwhelming. Personally, I spent about a month trudging around the mud one spring looking for the right land, (lakerights, 7acres, near skiing, can't hear cars, can't see people, good mix of hardwoods and softwoods). Next step is all the APA, NY state, and county building regs and permits, and a survey. Next, build road, bring in electric and phone (I didn't hired a General Contractor, so I contracted a lot of this myself - learning experience). Next find builder. Pick a good honest, friendly one, no-one who is slick. The builder will hire crew from then on. Draw what you want on a piece of paper, negotiate costs, have builder tell you that what you want isn't architecturally sound, and start over. Debate floorplan, windows, and fireplace stones. Then walk the site with excavator and put down the corners. I had bad dreams for a week about this part because I thought it would look stupid on the site. As it goes up, deal with the little stuff (buy fixtures, appliances, tell him where outlets should be etc).
The entire process took about 10 months of total time beginning to end, and about 4 months of 'work time' on the site.
And it was worth it, versus just buying one. It is a very neat thing to see what you drew up on a napkin come to life and actually look better than you thought. But, I will tell you, I was glad the whole process was over! The easier way is to hire an architect and they will do this all for you...but it will cost a LOT more, particularly percentage-wise when dealing with such a small building.
Jess, did you investigate buying an already-built property before deciding on building? I'm starting to look at such properties and am wondering how your more work-intensive and time-intensive route compares cost-wise.
I did *sort of*, at first, but really it was all about my vision of what I wanted for a cabin in the woods that started all of this in the first place, and it become clear that if I wanted what was in my head, I was going to have to start from scratch. Also, it is actually cheaper to build, if you don't screw up. There is definitely a premium for not having to spend a year creating this, vs. about a month to plunk down a check and call the furniture guys.
The only prebuild property I considered was an old, very charming barn on a beautiful piece of property. Renovating it into a vacation house also had me dreaming, but in the end it seemed that that process would be even more time consuming and expensive.