Plans for the Future

The planning begins.

I have an idea of how I want the house to look, keeping it simple in design. I don't want to go overboard on the design because it will drive up the cost and the time to build if I do lots of curves and odd angles. Thats not to say I won't have some interesting designs, but KISS (keep it simple stupid). My friends Kit and Tim are going to send me pictures of their place in Mexico that use palm frond designs on the ceiling and Tim came up with an idea to make the supporting columns look like palm trunks. Interesting idea.

The plans have gone through a few redesigns, mostly to add things we thought we would like have, but won't break the bank. But unfortunately, Wall Street has done that for me. The plans have been downsized due to the downsized state of my savings acct.. I have now made the design so I can build the house in sections. Kitchen, living room and half bath on the first floor and the Master bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. We figure we can add the extra bedrooms and bath, that are in the picture, at a later date.

If this ends up being the design we use for now, I want to finish all the landscaping, add the pool and possibly the dock. As you can see, the design is rather basic. I did the rough mock up just to see the overall look and if that is what I really wanted. We would just build the two storey part of the structure and add the rest later.

I also have designed how I want our lot to look when it is finally finished. With it being a little over 250 ft from the ocean to the road, I have quite a bit to work with. I'd like to place the house about here.

The dream is there, can we make it happen? Now, I need to find a contractor. One that shares my dream and also can afford my pocketbook. I have seen the work of a few of the contractors online, as a couple of people have blogged their experiences and included pictures (www.consejo.bz , http://winjama.blogspot.com). I also have a few other recommendations from the BelizeForum.com, that I will also check out. There is a world of information out there, you just need to find it. I will add sites that I think are important, or at least interesting, as this blog continues.