The pool room develops

The most unique feature of our new house is the indoor pool room. The pool itself will be on the walkout basement level. There are windows from the main floor living room looking onto the pool at the high end of the room and windows on the low end of the room that look out onto our valley. We also are putting skylights in the roof. I've been nervous and excited about seeing the walls and roof go up in that room. As luck would have it, that it was the last part of the main structure to go up. I understand it needed the rest of the house to lean on to but it didn't make the wait any easier. Today we headed up north to see it for the first time.

The light in the living room is fantastic and the view down are both wonderful. The pool room walls still look eerily high but in a good way. John loves the hotel feel of it. I did lose the eastern view out the breakfast nook windows but it's something I expected and can live with. I'm thinking that it might be a good spot to set up bird feeders for the cats to watch. Maybe it could keep Abbie and Nelson out of my cooking! There were the beginnings of plumbing and duct work but I was too absorbed in the pool room to get any pictures of Alex's tub and the vents in our bedroom. Also, the shingles are being installed. Here are the pictures:

The front of the house, shingles are starting to go up The south west side of the house with the pool walls and roof up Looking into the pool room from outsideThe main floor living room The main floor living room windows,
lower windows look onto the pool, upper to the outside
Looking onto the pool room from the hallway windows Looking onto the pool room from the downstairs family room,
the pool is covered by a large plywood platform now that all the cement has been poured.
The south west corner of the pool room,
I swear there is a pool under there!

Looking up at the skylights,
one row is blocked by the scaffolding The north east corner of the pool room,
these windows look onto the mainfloor hallway.
A view of the north east corner of the pool room from the south west,
the little window goes to the master bedroom.
The door to the downstairs family room,
above are the windows to the living room The space for the skylights,
each are just under 4 foot by 4 foot The compromised eastern view from the breakfast nook,
there is still a lot of light from these windows and a good western view of forest.

House Details

I've been remiss in posting more about the floor plan. When I asked recently the builders were kind enough to send me some simplified outlines of the house. This should give a better idea of what kind of house we're building. Summed up it's a 3 bedroom ranch with a bonus room upstairs and a walkout basement downstairs. The most unique feature is that the walkout basement includes an indoor pool and the living room windows look onto the pool. This the grande scheme of my husband who works at home and has dreamed of an indoor pool for years.

If you'd like to know more about our builders you can go to their website, Steinorth Fine Homes.
Images of the exterior of the house are here.
Here are the labelled floor plans:

The main floor

The basement level

The upstairs bonus room

About the land

Dog Hill is on 16 acres of rolling northern Michigan countryside. About 65% of the land is heavily wooded with the remaining land covered in grassy meadow and brush. There is a low valley that has a patch of white pines and there are several abandoned apple trees around. There are lots of deer signs especially near the blackberry patches when we were there in late summer last year. We are planning on building on a central hill that faces another smaller hill that has a nice steep slope. We've seen lots of signs of snowmobiling this winter, especially on our two biggest hills. We had lots of fun on our trip in December sledding down the hills.

About Dog Hill

For over 5 years now my husband and I have been looking to purchase a piece of land and build our dream house in northern Michigan. There were several near-misses, almosts and quite a few disappointments but we finally found a spot of land we love. This past fall we finally purchased 16 acres of beautiful rolling hills covered in meadow and forest in the midst of cherry orchards and vineyards. Dog Hill is the name that seems to have stuck. Mostly because John, my husband, can't stop talking about how many dogs he wants to have when we move. We have two dogs, Karmal and Roxy.

We've been so ready to move, we quickly found builders we liked and started designing our new home. This occupied most of my brain this winter. Now with Michigan thawing out and our financing settled we're ready to get started! Soon I hope to journal the culmination of our dreams come true. While you and I wait here's some pictures of our property:

My son Alex on our land (08-28-07)
behind him is the retention pond at the end of our road

The home site on (12-28-07)
the small structure in the center is a deer blind left from the previous owners
The white pine valley (12-28-07)

The building site on (04-03-08)
the snow was completely melted on the big hill and
it was strange to see all of the meadow grass flattened down

Our road in and our neighboring cherry orchard (04-03-08)
our land is on the right, I'm standing about 20 feet from the western property line

Alex playing in the retention pond (04-03-08)