Sunday, December 16, 2007

Welcome

So, here's the deal. We have decided to build a house, and document the daily goings on right here in our very first blog. It is the "Tucker Bayou" plan from Southern Living. It is also the 2007 Southern Living Idea House in northern Florida.
This is actually the THIRD set of house plans that we have been through, but the only one that we went inside. And when we did go inside, we knew we were home. Click here to check out the plans.







We have had our land for about 10 months now, but we have been eyeing it for at least a year. After some careful looking we decide to use a StoneCraft Construction and builder Danesh Foroughi. He is a very energy efficient builder in our area, he uses ICFs, which are Insulated Concrete Forms, and open and closed cell spray foam insulation. But for our house, we are using SIPs. SIP stands for Structural Insulated Panel. SIPs are basically a OSB and EPS foam sandwich, a 7/16" sheet of oriented strand board, a 4.5" sheet of expanded polystyrene foam, and a 7/16" sheet of oriented strand board.

We will keep you updated, maybe daily, depending on what is happening. Thanks for stopping by our blog and hope to see you soon.

12 comments:

Charlygirl said...

Hi,
I am actually trying to decide on these plans too! (-; I found them online the first week of October and missed the tour in North Florida. Did you actually go on the Southern Living tour? Also, do you have to build this house modularly or can you do it traditionally too?

Unknown said...

Hey Charlygirl

We love this houseplan. We did actually get to go in it. Actually, I think we went in it like 4 or 5 times. We even went in it after the Souther Living Tour had ended (the owner was nice enough to let people to continue to tour it until he moved in). And to answer your second question, no you do not have to build it modularly. We are using SIPs for the exterior wall on the first floor and building the rest using traditional methods. Hope you enjoy reading our blog and stop by often for more updates.

Charlygirl said...

Hi Bubba & Moose,

When do you expect to complete your house? You are in Alabama right? Would you mind if I came to see it once you get finished or close to finished? Do you know of anyone else building it right now between AL and TX?

Thanks! I will keep you with your blog!
The only thing we'd like to change about the plans is to add a gas fireplace in the living room under the media center cabinet on the wall.
Please post lots of pictures...Congrads!

Charly & AC

Unknown said...

Charlygirl-
We expect to have the house completed by end of June 08 (assuming no major weather delays, etc)
I'm not sure if there is anyone else building this house b/t AL & TX but we certainly wouldnt mind if you came to check ours out once its complete or near complete. We are adding a gas fireplace in the living room also.
I've got TONS of pictures that we took while touring the house in North Florida - let me know if you'd like me to email them to you (or i might be able to post a link to them on the blog)
Glad someone is reading our blog (besides our family :-)

-Moose (Jaime)

Charlygirl said...

Sure, post the photos on the blog. I bet you'll get alot more hits b/c
I found you on google search while looking up info on Tucker Bayou.
What plans did you wind up buying to add the fireplace? What a
coincidence?! Am trying to decide which plans to commit to.
Thx!
Charly

Unknown said...

We just bought the standard plans and told our builder to put a fireplace there instead of the media cabinet. We plan to hang a TV on the wall above the fireplace, but we are going to make the Media/Hobby room a Theatre of sorts, whenever we get around to it. The pictures have been posted but only as a link to a flickr account.

-Bubba (Jim)

Charlygirl said...

Pix are nice, you should rotate the vertical ones if you can...
Oh, BTW, are those built in chests in the master walkin closet? That was really the only area you can't see very well on the 360 degree virtual tour. Do you have photos of that closet too? I am so disappointed that I never got to go see it myself. Glad to know about the plans. That'll save several thousand dollars alone.

Anonymous said...

i've been obsessed with the tucker bayou home for many months now and I'm thrilled to find your blog. We're in the process of looking for the right piece of land, so for now I just scour the net for any new pics, etc. on the home. I can't believe i didn't find your blog sooner - your pics are fantastic. we've never built before so it gives me a little more courage after seeing your blog and learning that it can be done conventionally versus modularly. i've made numerous attempts to get info from haven homes, but to no avail. like you and charlygirl, we too want to have a fireplace instead of the tv cabinet - was it difficult to amend the plans? i'd love it if you could email interior pics from the florida house - after studying the online plans for hours (did i mention i'm obsessed?) i realized that there's a lot to the house we didn't see in southern living.
congrats on the house - everything looks amazing. mimi g.

Byggeservice said...

This is a very nice house design and plan. I love the facade of the house. Thank you for posting....

Heather said...

Thank you sooo much for posting your pictures. Like others, we love this plan & plan on building it in the next few years. Your picture really help as we were never able to see the real "dream home". Now that you have lived in it for awhile, is there anything that you would change about the floor plan, etc? Thanks again!

Spray Foam Roofing said...

Spray Foam Roofing is a common word used in the building industry, but still not as readily used in our market. There are typically 2 types of spray foam used today. One is an open cell foam insulation and the other is a closed cell foam insulation.

WilsonFarms said...

Hi,

I just found these plans after months of looking and they really seem to fit the area we live in Missouri. I did have a question about the upstairs bedroom opposite the media room. Are those half walls in the room?