Front door and northwest side of the house.
West side of the house.
East side of house
Inside facing north to kitchen and front entryway.
Inside the west bedroom looking southwest.
Looking south out of the west bedroom door and windows.
With all of the plastering just about finished, it really is starting to look like the finished home I had originally designed. With me having no real design experience or architectural background, I was a little bit apprehensive about how it would all turn out. On paper it looked good. The mock up looked good. But would the design itself work, and did I allow the proper amount of space for all the fixtures and appliances. When I was first laying out the house on the lot using masons' lines, the house appeared small and the inside even smaller. Was I leaving enough room for the hallways and stairs? How tight were the bathrooms going to be? I knew the bedrooms would be big, but did the design account for airflow? All of these were unknowns until the house went up and by then, it would be to late to change my mind. But so far, the home is exactly as I had pictured it in my mind. The views from all the rooms is spectacular and the patio will be much larger than I had originally designed, due to a larger cistern underneath. We didn't plan on installing the pool until a later date, but with the layout and retaining wall, it was best to install it now as opposed to later when it would have to be hand dug and piped. I think that was a good idea in the long run. It's extra money that we didn't plan on spending at this time but I'm sure we will be using it a lot, even though we have the ocean right in front of us. The ocean isn't always an option for a swim depending on the wind and waves. I am looking forward to my return in November to complete the interior design and to start on the landscaping. It will be here before I know it.
5 comments:
We are building our house right now, and I thought it was going to be too small when it was one paper, but I think it's going to be Ok in "real life".
Been enjoying your blog!
Hi Sandy,
It's a new experience when you build your first home, especially in a foreign country. I'm just hoping that I have included everything I wanted, because it can be real tough sometimes to add it later. I'm a wood and drywall guy. This block house stuff is new to me. I'd love to see pictures of your place. Do you have a blog or photobucket?
PC
Here's our flickr site(link at bottom). There arent a lot of pics up yet, but hopefully we'll get more on there this week. There are 7 phases to the building and they are 1/2 way done with phase one now(pics are from 2 weeks ago). We are doing like y'all: our builder is sending us pics, and one (or both) of us are going down when a phase is done to inspect and approve. We are going down in about 3 weeks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catdance62
Looks like you've got a nice site. One or two levels? When are your plans to have it completed (or when do you think it will be completed)?
It'll be on stilts, as are a lot of houses on the peninsula, so just one main floor for living area and larger porches on the east and west sides. We'll enclose a room on the bottom for the breakers boxes, pump, washer. it should take about 7 months depending on the weather and "Belize time"! LOL!
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