Zach: Today will be a really fun day in the office.
And I know that because this is the part that our clients love the most.
They love customizing their own floor plan and that's exactly what I'm doing for myself.
And if you're anything like me, you’ve been on Pinterest, you've watched H.G.T.V.
You see a lot of really great ideas out there.
And this is when you start to apply them to your own home and that's what I'm doing today.
So I look forward to showing you what I have in mind.
I knew from the start that I wanted timbers in my house.
I like the square look of exposed beams and that made it really easy for me to choose
Golden Eagle’s custom timber package.
I wanted drywall because it gives me the ability to paint and change my wall color, if I ever
want to.
And the drywall will balance out the heavy wood trim and the wood planking on the ceilings
as well as all the wood floors throughout the home.
Narrator: With the Clearwater floor plan as his starting point, Zach begins the process
of customizing his home, beginning with the exterior.
Zach: First thing that's important to me when I'm thinking about this house is I want it
to be a timber home.
So, I need to add some trusses in here.
What I see here is a 10/12 roof pitch.
Think I'll make that a 12/12 and that'll give me a little bit more clearance, it'll push
that truss up higher in the great room area.
And then, I just like the idea of a simple truss.
And then, what would really compliment that well and tie it all together is just to do
some arch brackets on these posts.
It’s actually a real simple addition but it sure does bring everything together.
I suppose the way I picture everyone coming up to the house is they're going to see this
truss up here but they also see what's happening in this gable.
So, we might as well have another truss but if I move that up to a 10/12 roof pitch I
should be able to easily fit a truss in here, a beautiful truss.
Now, I think it's a shame that we have a wall here without any windows in it.
I want as many windows as possible in this house.
So, I think it'd be great to have a window right in the bathroom, that'll bring in a
lot of light.
And then what I would do to that window is I'd make sure that it has obscured glass in
it, that way no one can actually see through it.
And then there are bedrooms here.
So, we might as well have two large windows.
Zach: Now, one thing that I’ll have to give some consideration is this garage.
Although I really like the idea of keeping it more simple like this a little bit more
unassuming.
I don't really know how I feel about the idea of snow going off that garage roof and landing
in my driveway.
So I probably have to take a look at the cost implication of changing my gable the opposite
way.
Let's see if I take a gable, if I go up here, and then we do another truss here.
I like that a lot.
Zach: Whenever you have a gable, you need to think to yourself what do you want up on
that finish?
What do you want to actually be on the wall of the gable?
So, I'll probably look into a vertical 1” x 12” cedar board on board, that might look
really cool.
Probably do some big strong 12”x 12” corners there, running vertical also on each side
of the house.
Not only will that save me money but it also makes sense when it comes to a timber frame
home.
When you think about timber frame home, you think of straight edges and square edges.
That vertical 12” x 12” corner, that'll look really good.
If I could do some sort of an eyebrow roof or little overhang here.
I really like the idea of two 8 foot wide doors.
That way it doesn't look like a garage.
I want to actually look like a house, an extension of the house.
Narrator: Moving to the interior, Zach places a mud room in between the garage and the entryway.
Within the mud room, he adds an area for his dogs, complete with a doggie door with access
to the outside.
Now he begins customizing the laundry and pantry room.
Zach: We have a lot of space to work with here.
Everyone talks about having a large pantry, a nice walk-in closet.
I can see where, I could probably make that pantry a little smaller and add in a half
bath right there.
The reason I think of a half bath is, I grew up with my grandpa, he's always showing me
his new floor plans and the thing he always says, he always wants a bathroom right by
the entry.
Because he says, “ You come home from grocery shopping you want to be able to set your groceries
down right away and then go to the bathroom.”
So, that's always on my mind when I'm designing floor plans.
He wouldn’t want to have to go across the house to this bathroom over there.
So, I’ll look into that, we'll see if maybe a half bath is a possibility there.
I don't see why it wouldn't be.
The one thing I am hesitant about with this laundry room area is it's all open.
If I could do some sort of a barn door here that would slide back and forth to kind of
dull the noise in that area there might be some some possibilities there.
I’m about ready to get these revisions to design and these timber trusses here, those
I’ll have design figure out where those should be really located but I’d probably
match the same profile that I'm doing on the outside of the home there.
I'm really liking the overall layout of this plan.
I can see why it's one of the most popular ones.
I'm excited get this to design and get the revisions back, that way we can work out a
little bit more.
Narrator: With Zack's changes now on paper, the engineering department gets to work implementing
the revisions.
They also meet with Zack's local building inspector to verify local building codes that
are specific to his building area.
Chris: All the engineering is done site specific.
So, we take that all into consideration.
Where other log and timber companies typically engineer to where their home facility is and
then it's the customer's responsibility to meet the requirement of their local municipality.
Every home that we build for a customer here is a custom home.
We may start with a model that interests the customer but it's really just a starting point.
Narrator: After some clever work by the engineering department, Zach is presented with an opportunity
to maximize his living space.
Tim: Since we have all the vaulted ceilings in here, we have an option to add some plank
shelves in this area here.
Between these two bedrooms is vaulting up and we have basically this dead space right
here in the bathroom.
So, what we could do is we could frame that in with some timbers, and go over that with
some decking, 2”x decking to give them more of that rustic feel.
And then on top of that we would have a wall up above, that would still keep the room separated.
Then also in the master bedroom, we can also do the same thing as to put a storage/plank
shelf area over this area also, because we got about 6 ft. depth here.
And we could do that same principle up there too, where there would be wall along here
with the plank shelf.
But then behind that we could frame this in there and it’ll be almost like a hidden
storage area for you.
Zach: I like that.
Could we not even have a wall here and just make this all loft area?
Tim: Yes.
We could.
We could make that a loft area also.
Zach: So when I'm down here, in the master bedroom area I can look up and basically see
a loft area.
Tim: Correct.
Zach: A smaller version of a loft.
Tim: Yes.
Zach: And then probably do some sort of ladder to get up there.
Something custom.
Tim: Yes, we could.
Zach: Awesome.
Awesome.
I like that.
Tim: Over the garage, what we do as well, an example here is we go with a what we call
a storage truss.
What that’ll do, that gives you a little extra space for storage.
It's not too expensive and also, it's just like cold storage, where you put some stuff
up there like your camping gear.
We have the roof space is there for this house and then it just gives a little simple way
to put some stuff in there for you.
Zach: One of our engineers Tim, discovered some great opportunities for my floor plan.
I'm really excited about that storage truss above the garage, that’ll give me a lot
of extra space.
But you know it's the bedroom areas, that extra loft space you know that would have
been unutilized before.
And now, it's really going to add to the mystique of the home.
It's going to look great when you look up there.
So, I’d say, we're really close to heading into final engineering.
Things are looking really good.
Before I sign off on my plans, there's one last thing I want to do and that is to take
it to my grandparents' house.
They both founded Golden Eagle and I think they'll be really excited to see what I have
to show them.
Zach: So what do you guys think of the plan?
Walter: Well, I think it’s fantastic.
Marlace: I agree.
It is very, very, very nice.
Walter: Yup
Marlace: I can’t see much I’d change on it.
No hallways to speak of and it’s great.
Yeah, I like it.
Zach: Thanks.
It feels good to have your approval.
Marlace: And it’s got a lot of room.
Narrator: Zack is another step closer to living in his dream home.
Follow along on the next episode as he picks out kitchen cabinets, doors, vanities and
the rest of his interior.