Real Estate and Related Topics

                             How Important Is The Direction Your House Faces

It depends! What are your interests? Where do you like to spend your time and doing what?
Do you like to garden, grow vegetables,flowers,grass? Do you have sensitive rugs, paintings. Do you read a lot, paint, draw.Do you have a Plasma TV, or watch a lot of TV?
Well unless you are buying or building a mansion, you won’t be able to cure all these nor would you want to spend the time figuring it out, but with a little planning and a good builder you can maximize your homes potential.

The first question is where in the world are you building, we’ll just deal with the US for today. North, South, East, West, or a combination of them. Being in the South-East we have mild winters and warm summers so shade in the afternoon is important to keep the house from heating up too much. I started this post after being in two houses yesterday, both had three season rooms. The first house which faces East-South East, has a fantastic three/four season room with tile floor, Eze-Breeze windows, bead-board vaulted ceiling and it was frigid cold in there. Now the builder could probably add a vent to take the chill off. The next house we went to faces North North - West, same four season room, tile, Eze-Breeze windows and this one was toasty, in fact you could have opened the windows and let a breeze in.

Quite a remarkable difference, which got me thinking. If you live in a colder climate that gets a lot of snow there might be an advantage to having your driveway face towards the sun to melt the snow, I’ve seen streets where one side is cleared completely and the other side is still dealing with frozen snow and ice.

This is a fascinating subject and there is a lot of opinion out there on it, there is one issue that is common and that is using the suns rays in the winter but shielding the house from them in the summer. This can be done with proper placement and also the correct overhangs. Vital to have the correct insulation also. Getting the sun into the kitchen, bedrooms in the morning is another favourite, the placement of the garage can make a difference, trees, and the type of trees, deciduous trees look and act a whole lot different in the summer time versus the winter, (they loose their leaves, silly!)

Many a patio goes unused in the summer because it gets too hot, and many a lawn suffers through life with no sun. I have seen many amateur gardeners start their vegetable garden in the shade only to curse their lack of edible vegetables...no I haven’t! That was me!!
So building your dream house just got harder, well not really, better to find this stuff out before you build rather than after you move in, and with the technology available today, and the advances in building materials there is a lot of help out there, start by getting a compass app on your phone!

Energy Star Custom Built Home in Clayton at Portofino.

This custom built home will save you a ton of money on your energy bills, from the sealed crawl space to the insulated attic. Plus it's cleaner less irritants in the air, and it is fully functional, no space is lost in this house. It flows beautifully and the builder Jarman Homes has included some wonderful features.

Custom Built Four Bedroom Energy Star Home In Portofino, Clayton, NC 27527

Overview Maps Photos Description Neighborhood

$486,900 Single Family Home Main Features 4 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms Interior: 3320 sqft Lot: 0.70 acre(s) Location 154 Sicily Drive Clayton, NC 27527 USA To get updates on open home dates and other property events, please click the "Like" button below:

---

David H O'Doherty Coldwell Banker HPW (919) 6012268 odohertyd@hpw.com http://www.davidhodoherty.com Listed by: David O'Doherty

Our recent listings Basement Custom Built Home in Clayton Single Family Residential for $135,000 in Selma, NC Great Ranch Home in Wyndfall Subdivision on an Acre Custom Built Four Bedroom Energy Star Home In Portofino, Clayton, NC 27527 Beautiful Custom Built Home in Portofino,Clayton,NC 27527 Subscribe to our listing feed

Nearby properties for sale

Whatever Floats Your Boat!...Works For Me!

I was showing this custom home in  at 154 Sicily Drive in Clayton, NC to a delightful family on Saturday, it's a magnificent home built by one of the area's top builders, Neil Jarman of Jarman Homes

I am always pleasantly surprised when I get a comment from a prospective homebuyer that I never would have thought of.

What do you think was this lady's favorite part of the house?

It has cathedral ceilings in a living room with a wall of windows opening out to the three season screened and tiled porch. It could have been that!

Maybe it was the beautiful curved brick patio with  gorgeous landscaping. The kitchen has granite, tile, stainless steel appliances...you think? Or the master suite which has a huge walk in closet with custom built shelves and a wall of shoe boxes. There is an oversize shower, dual vanities, ( they're not even beside each other) a jacuzzi tub. Skylights, Tile, Granite.

It's very possible she was taken by the spectacular hardwood floors which cover the living room, kitchen, dining room, office. I'm sure she noticed the bonus room is wired for surround sound and the latest in technology and I know she liked the custom dual desks upstairs, ready for computer hook ups and homework, they are a neat touch.

Her two daughters picked out their rooms with the Jack and Jill bathrooms.

She really liked the walk in pantry, and it was a must-have for her whether in this house or another.

So any of the above would work right? Sure, but,

This lady's favourite part of the house was  this..........

A Cubby, just inside the garage door, right beside the laundry room. It's got a seat, shelves, boot and shoe boxes, an outlet, it's the greatest thing in the house it's like a decontamination room in a lab or a decompression chamber in a submarine, everthing must pass through here so when you can't find your keys, phone, the ground beef, your purse, briefcase (do we still use them?) go look there!!

This house is in Portofino, so you know the kids will be constantly coming in with muddy boots, frogs, snakes, bridels etc!!!!

A Diary of Building a Custom Home in Portofino in Clayton...Day 6 and 7

So we have excavated the footprint of the home, we have dug and layed the foundations. We let the foundations set and then the crew assemble the forms for the basement walls.

Once the wall frames are installed it is time to bring in the pump and the cement. There is no time to waste and they don't start until all the trucks are lined up on the road. The inspector came out to inspect the frames and gave the go ahead to begin pumping.

It is obvious that this crew have done this many times before as every one had a job and once that cement started rolling they had to move fast. You can see the amount of re-bar used to add strength to these walls. They aren't going anywhere. As the concrete is pumped into the forms they send down a pnumatic vibrating machine that forces the concrete into all the forms. They will allow this to set for a couple of days and then remove the frames.

Here are the links from the beginning of construction.

A Diary of Building a Custom Home in Portofino in Clayton...Day 1

A Diary of Building a Custom Home in Portofino in Clayton...Day2 & 3

New Custom Built Ranch Home With Downstairs Master in Selma

Of course, it probably wouldn't be a ranch without a downstairs master. It is a trend that we are seeing, a lot of people are looking for downstairs masters, and a growing trend is for two downstairs masters.

Ranch homes are popular for a number of reasons, no stairs for folks who are getting to that age where the knees give out. Everything is on one level so parents with babies, or small children can hear and have access to them easily. They have more open space and a better flow so if you are in the kitchen you can probably hear and see what is happening in the living room.

The cost of the land has a big role to play in whether or not the builder can build a ranch or a two story. the footprint of a ranch is larger, so you won't see too many new ones being built in cities or densely populated area's.

Which brings me to this custom built ranch with a downstairs master, and so much more. The home is in Woodview in Selma, a small subdivision of only ten homes so there are no HOA dues. It is not in the city so you only pay county taxes, a substantial saving! It is on an acre of land with trees.It is an open floor plan which flows easily from the living room to the kitchen, breakfast room. It has a large two car garage, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, great screened porch overlooking the back yard. The house is under construction and should be finished in the Spring.

It is convenient to Clayton, Smithfield, Wilson and Raleigh.

Call me to schedule a showing (919) 601-2268

Building A Custom Home in Portofino in Clayton...A Diary, Day 1

For Illustrative Purpose Only

The first thing we start with is the raw land, in this case a very nice lot with some pine trees and a great view. In todays world the bucket of the grader is remotely wired to a GPS system which tells the operator how close and how much dirt they need to move. This basement home lot was dug in a day by one person.

The Custom home is being built by Corker Enterprises and it is on Lot 31 in Portofino in Clayton. Portofino was just named 'Community of the Year 2010' and it is because of homes like this one and the builders like Steve Corker who are on the Builder Team at Portofino.

Building a Custom Home starts in the design and drawing stage as each home is different and each time the builder will tweak something or add something to the plans.

Lot 31 is a little over an acre it has a gentle slope which will make it ideal for this basement home. This is a four bedroom home with three and a half bathrooms. It is approximately 3100 square feet plus another 1200 square feet in the basement.

Grandparents Think! Will The Grand Kids Want To Come Visit You if you live in a 55 Plus?

Lets see which grandparents do we want to spend the summer with?

Grandparents A live in a cool community that has three pools, a lazy river, a jungle gym on every corner, lots of kids our age. A fishing pond, near the city, a movie theater a block away, pony rides!!!!

And Grandparents B live in a 55 plus community that also has a pool but it's always adult swim....and there's Bunko!!

Seriously, I have had a number of grandparents tell me lately that one of the reasons they would choose to live in a certain community is because of the amenities that would encourage their grand kids to come visit!

In North Carolina, we see a couple of types of migration, job seekers and college grads who decide to stay and raise a family and they are then followed by their parents who have retired and live a million miles away and get to see their grand babies...never! So they move here!

We took our boys (10 & 8) to Ireland in 2007 and needless to say they were spoiled at every turn. I have three sisters, two aunts who never married and my mom who while very active at eighty four probably has done all her trans continental flying. And my two boys would go back to Ireland in a New York Second, they loved it, they got ice cream for dinner, they were taken to three story toy stores and told to pick whatever they wanted. They saw castles, lighthouses, trains, horses, tree houses and had wads of cash stuffed in their pockets at every visit. They cant wait to go back!

Now I understand living in a community with a bunch of kids may not be ideal for people who are in the take it easy part of life, then again it probably has it's benefits.A little plug here if I may, I am the on-site agent at Portofino which is where these people have been coming as we are working on our new phase which has a lot of Ranch plans with downstairs masters and we have a horse barn on the property, we have a beautiful zero entry, salt water pool. We have miles and miles of trails through the woods with streams and waterfalls and a river and canoes.......and kids!

Food for thought!

Four and a Half Bathrooms Outta Be Enough, You Think?

Four and a half bathrooms is what's going in this incredible home in Portofino, Clayton. The house is a custom built home being built by Johnny Adams Inc. It is approximately 3700 square feet and it will be somebodies dream home.



It sits on a beautiful wide lot surrounded by pine trees on Vercelli Drive and is just down from the Estate Section of Portofino. The home has four bedrooms, two up and two down. Spacious Master Suite, Deck, Screened Porch, Huge Kitchen, an endless list of the most desirable features in a modern home you are likely to find anywhere. If you would like to take a walk thru I would be happy to show you the home. It is scheduled to be finished in January/February but the are making great progress with it.