Mike and Patti Bacon are empty nesters who were looking to downsize when they began searching for their dream home. With two grown daughters, the Bacons were ready for a smaller home where they could enjoy retirement comfortably. After thumbing through several plan magazines they finally settled on the Lujack by Donald A. Gardner Architects, Inc.
Mike & Patti Bacon
Now knee deep into the building process, their life has become consumed with building but fortunately not been the source of stress that some find it to be.
“I think building this home has definitely become the focus of what we’re doing with our lives. We aren’t doing much else other than this. But we’re not rushed,” Mike said. “Because we’ve done this before we somewhat know what to expect,” Patti added. The Bacons built their current home 18 years ago, but did not have nearly the positive experience they are having now.
The front facade begins to take shape on the Bacon's new home.
“I wasn’t able to get a lot of what I wanted with the old house. In this one I’m able to pick out exactly what I want. Our builder doesn’t tell us we can’t do something,” Patti said.
That builder is Dave Sarkela of DSR Builders, Inc., in Greer, South Carolina. The Bacons’ relationship has been smooth with DSR from the start, which is something they thoroughly enjoy.
“Our builder has done a good job of telling me when the next milepost or decision time is and what we need to be ready for to avoid having to make quick decisions. He doesn’t wait until the last minute and say ‘we’ve got to have this tomorrow.’ That would be highly stressful,” Mike said.
Given the opportunity to do it all over again, they probably would have waited until Mike retired and their house sold before building a new one. But the Bacons loved the neighborhood so much that they quickly decided to begin the process. “We found a site we liked in a neighborhood that we liked. We weren’t planning to move quite so soon, but the builder had another offer and it was our ideal lot, so we jumped on it,” Mike explained. “The neighborhood is perfect for our demographic. There aren’t many kids, it’s all brick patio-style homes and a lot of people who are retired and downsizing,” he added. “Overall I’m really excited and not overwhelmed yet. I think it helps that we’ve built a home before. It takes away a lot of that overwhelming feeling,” Patti said. “I’m just excited to have so many things exactly the way we want,” Mike said.
Mike had a small storage closet added to the rear of the plan, which is
accessed through the single door.
Some of those things are causing increases in the Bacons’ budget, but they are finding which items are most important to them and adjusting accordingly.
“We seem to go over our budget a thousand dollars a day,” Patti laughed. “We keep finding things we like more and we’ve had some confusion over the cabinets and the product choices within a certain brand,” she added.
Some of the items where Mike and Patti have exceeded allowances are shower fixtures, granite in the kitchen and bathrooms and their cabinetry.
“We wanted lighter colored cabinets because we didn’t have a window on that side of the kitchen, so our designer suggested we go lighter,” Patti said. “The lighter color wasn’t in our budget, so we spent more there. Our back doors have built-in mini blinds in the glass. I went way over budget on that. And because I wasn’t sure of the allowance, we went over on the guest bath shower also,” she said.
A glimpse through the pass-through shows the off-white cabinets the
Bacons chose for their kitchen.
Some of the Bacons’ frustration was due to their not knowing exactly what was included in their allowance and what wasn’t. While a particular brand might be listed, certain products or colors within that brand weren’t always mentioned and sometimes caused overages.
“The lesson to be learned is not to have open-ended allowances, but rather make sure you get specific dollar amounts,” Mike said. “When we were told a brand to use by the builder we went with that brand, but later found out certain fixtures or products within that brand weren’t included in our budget,” Mike said.
“I think if we hadn’t done this so quickly then we would have had more time to go to home shows and we’d have a better picture of what’s available and the costs. It’s been so long since we’ve done this that we didn’t really have a good idea of what everything costs, and that’s been a challenge to try and learn all of that,” Patti said.
However, the Bacons consider some items to be worth the extra money and don’t mind spending more to ultimately save money.
“Another place we went over budget for both energy saving and investment purposes is the upgraded insulation and energy efficient windows with Low-E coating. They weren’t standard, but it was important to us to spend the extra money because we feel energy is going to get more expensive. In time it will pay for itself,” Mike explained.
Square columns and wainscoting set off the dining room.
In addition to the insulation and windows, the Bacons’ home features many “green” elements. Some of these are a NORCO tankless water heater, Velux skylights with solar-operated shades, Panasonic Whisper Dream Fans in all the bathrooms, which operate more efficiently and with less noise than other fans, Tyvek Therma-Wrap, which has a greater R-value than traditional house wrap, and TechShield sheathing, which makes the attic cooler and allows the air conditioning to work more efficiently.
While upgraded fixtures might not add savings to the home, they will make the home look nice. Because it is the Bacons’ last home they plan to build, they are including a few luxury items they’ve come to love, and others they’ve always wanted but never had.
VELUX skylights in the bonus room are just one of the many green features
the Bacons incorporated into their new home.
“We have an ice machine in our present house and love it. We’re big boaters and go to the lake quite often, so we need plenty of ice to fill the coolers. We had to put one in the new house because we can’t live without it,” Patti joked. “The other Kitchen-Aid appliances will also be nice. I wanted upscale appliances.”
“We’re also putting in a trash compactor and a central vacuum, which we’ve never had before,” Mike added.
Though some items have gone over budget, the rest of the building process has been ideal. Weather in South Carolina has been dry and sunny, so construction has moved quite quickly, something that delights the Bacons.
“Our new house is very close to the old house, so we go out to see it frequently. It’s fun to see the changes and developments each day,” Patti explained. “We take friends out to it and everyone absolutely loves it. Even strangers have passed and want to tour it. They love the layout too,” she said.
That layout was what initially drew the Bacons to the Lujack. A one-level plan except for the bonus room, the Lujack is smaller than their current home yet contains everything they need to live comfortably. Patti, however, was skeptical at first about some of the room dimensions.
“When I looked at the house plan and saw the two secondary bedroom sizes I was afraid they might be really small. But now that we’ve got the house framed and with walls I can tell the rooms are going to be great. On some home plans I’ve seen the smaller bedrooms are like closets or only big enough for nurseries. But not with this plan,” Patti said.
“My favorite room is actually going to be the guest bedroom. It has a pretty Palladian window and will be great for overnight visitors. We’re going to put a king-size bed in there for guests or for our daughter to use whenever she comes home. The rooms are a great size and they don’t look small,” she added.
Custom arch-topped bookshelves and a built-in entertainment center flank
the great room fireplace.
Making the home impressive is something their builder, Dave Sarkela and his foreman, Chad Niskanen do with pride. The Bacons have thoroughly enjoyed working with both and advise future homeowners to try their best to develop a good relationship with their builder.
“I would advise to people building a home to really learn about your builder and find out who you’re going to be dealing with on a daily basis because it’s often not the head builder. Find out if they put stuff in writing because very rarely does a builder only have your project going on, they usually have multiple houses they’re building at once. It’s nice to find a builder who respects your time as well. If Chad is going to be late to an appointment he calls and apologizes and notifies me in advance, which is impressive,” Mike explained. “What I like best about him and the company is that he takes notes and doesn’t rely on memory. I don’t know how many projects he has going on. I appreciate that they do what they say they’re going to do. I don’t have to chase him and follow up with him,” Mike added.
Join us in the next issue as the we catch up with the Bacons after they’ve moved in and settled. We’ll be there for all the excitement as they tell us what life is like in their new dream home.
VIEW THE LUJACK HOUSE PLANS HERE: http://www.athomewithdon.com/home-plan-details.aspx?pid=2840
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