Beyond the Tour - A STUNNING Timber Home in the Catskill Mountains

Right. So John and Justin, I see that you guys just came back from the Catskills of New York. You have this new home out there. Why don't you tell us a little bit about it? Yeah, it's a, it's a new Timberlake design. I mean, it's, it's a classic Golden Eagle design, the Timberlake, but the client put some fresh new ideas in there, some different color palettes, you know, really made it their own. There's a lot of cool, unique details in this home and just a lot of extras, you know, the home itself, but then they expanded outside of the home with a pool, a sauna, pickleball court, timber pavilion. I mean, it just, it was endless. I wish we had more days to spend in that home because it was really spectacular. Yeah. I mean, I think obviously the home was beautiful, but just the property, it sat on everything. And then the guy's story too, you know, the client's story that he told us how they used to go up there and vacation, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it really started when, when he was a kid, his dad took him up there, they was actually Cub Scouts, took him up there, him and his brothers fell in love with the mountains. He ended up, you know, going up there as a young adult, started a family, they had a condo up there. His family fell in love with the mountains. His kids ended up moving away, but now grandkids came. So now he's bringing that family back together in the mountains. He basically created a resort for his family to come back and spend and make new memories. I mean, they have the golf simulator, the movie theater, again, the pickleball court, the pool. And then he's expanding outside of that with a pond and moving that barn that was on the property, moving it up. It's going to, you know, an old truck, it's going to look like a Norman Rockwell painting when he's done. Yeah. You make a good point about this legacy home. And we're starting to get more and more customers coming to us with that dream of creating a legacy home that we're going to be in this house for a period of time. And we want to have something special for our kids and grandkids so they can experience it. We've seen that as well on the Iowa home. That home design was very similar with that thought in mind. And for me, it's really kind of heartwarming to have a home where somebody is going to have what they really liked growing up and felt special about. And this home really reflects that. Yeah. I mean, so many of our customers are just building the destination, the legacy, the spot where the kids and the grandkids can come and hang out and just gather and want to go there. Right. And actually want to spend time as a family together. And this, this house just, I mean, everything they had outside plus just how the layout worked on the inside, I think was just perfect for hosting, you know, large family gatherings and stuff. They came to us because they saw the original Timberlake home and just did some amazing adjustments to it. Yeah. That lower walkout, you know, I mean, this design really fits well with a sloping piece of property, but that lower walkout, I mean, it just invites guests into that lower level. You know, they don't have to come in the front door and then walk all the way downstairs with their luggage. They can, they can come right into that lower level, right into those guest bedrooms in the, in the lower level. And it really flows well. Just, just saves them a lot of, a lot of steps going up and down. Yeah. I mean, the, the house fit the property perfect. It was designed with the, you know, the topo of the land and he created that second driveway coming off the main driveway where, yeah, you could just pull right up to what's, you know, the front side of the walkout. Typically a home has just a walkout on the back. He was able to create the walkout just like the original Timberlake on the front too. But it had that second driveway where you pulled right up, had a second mudroom downstairs. You could come in, unload all your luggage, had that little storage room for dropping off skis and snow snowboards and stuff right there in the lower level. That was a really good design layout. You know, when I was watching the video and had an opportunity to take a look at the floor plans, there was a lot of foresight that went into putting this home together. On the first floor, you had a guest bedroom and a nursery. I mean, there's anticipation of having little ones there. Downstairs, you had another guest room with a bunkhouse for some older grandkids. So that was really neat. You were talking about how the entries would accommodate people coming in from outside. So that just shows you that we can do so much with what somebody brings to the table as far as what they want to accomplish in a home. Yeah, basically it's, you know, give us your story, just like this client did. Give us your story, what you want, what your intentions are for the home, and we can help you achieve those goals and build this legacy home. Right. How long ago do you think the client came to you and started this process? I'm going to guess it was probably about three years ago when we first started discussions. You know, he found the property and then we optimized the design of the home to the property. You know, so that design and planning phase could take anywhere from nine to 12 months. And so there's a year right there, just in that planning phase, making sure we've got all of your dreams incorporated into this design, you know, and then moving into permitting then actual construction time, you know, on this type of home, crafting this style of home, this type of home. Yeah, it could take 12 to 16 months, you know, and then, you know, all the landscaping extras that he had with it. So probably brings us to the day. Today's date is about three years from when he first called. Right. There's just so much detail in this home I mean, the range hood with the colors that played off the timber truss color. I noticed just going from bathroom to bathroom, the client even incorporated the different color veining in the countertops played off the color of the faucets that were in that specific room. And then even the pools on the cabinetry played off that, you know, just everything tied together. There wasn't anything that was overthought, you know, overlooked. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what takes probably a little bit more time with this type of home. You mentioned the hood, some of these other pieces that he had in the home that were custom made. You know, these things aren't something that they're pulling off of a shelf at a warehouse. These things are crafted, are handmade, you know, just like the home itself. It's awesome. Yeah, and I like the fact that, you know, you touched on, you know, the different countertops tying into the hammered copper trim on the stove vent and whatnot. So a lot of that is achieved here while we have conversation. I know that the girls here in design, they have conversation with the owner so that they have a little bit of an insight going forward rather than just to have to work from a blank palette. Excuse me. A lot of times people walk into a big box store, not really have an understanding of what they're looking for, and they settle. Here, they don't have to settle. We have so many different options that we can help them make that home look so cool. Yeah. I mean, just cabinetry. You look at the cabinetry in that home, every room I think had a different color. You know, we had painted cabinetry in the kitchen, a white color in the master, sage in the master bathroom. Then you move into some of those other bathrooms, you got wood cabinetry and furniture style vanities. So yeah, a lot of details and a lot of thought going into this type of home that just takes a little bit longer to do, but certainly well worth it in the end. Just the design of the home when I was walking around it, it just, everything flowed so well, not only within the home, but just the property itself. You know, you're down in that lower level, you're shooting pool. Maybe you got some people hanging out by the pool. There's the bathroom right off. You know, you don't even have to go into the basement necessarily. You just walk right in that door. I mean, everything just flowed. Just entertaining is all I could think about when I was walking around that house, just how everything could flow from inside to outside and just feel continuous. Yeah. And while you're entertaining, you have a view, every room in that house. I mean, the windows were endless that, you know, it went from that guest bedroom all the way to the master bedroom down in that lower level. You got windows on both sides, front and back. I mean, it was just spectacular. It really, really was. You guys got to talk a little bit about the texture. You mentioned it a little bit in the video. On the outside, you have the stone and the different really impressed you about what you saw there with their thoughts? Yeah. I mean, I think it's all the different textures that go on the outside, all the little details. You know, we had the stone kind of anchoring the home, fit really well with the mountains, right? It looked like the home was coming right out of the earth. And then you move into the hand hewning, the double hewn that we call it, it's the 10 inch double hewn, dovetail corners. And then we move into the timber trusses up above, cedar shakes on the exterior. It was just one thing after another that you just couldn't take your eye off. You just kept looking and just kept expanding all the details. The details also come into the home as well. You know, taking a look at the lower level, we had talked about this in the past with other homes where you have the beams on the ceiling where you have different sizes that really create shadow lines for that. And it really looks massive and strong. It's neat that they brought that influence on the inside as well. Yeah. And then their use of the stone down there along with the hand hewn, you know, siding just played again, made it feel like the inside was brought, you know, the exterior was brought to the interior kind of. And I was blown away when we walked underneath that garage and then you had the whole movie theater and golf simulator. I know you got to practice your swing a little bit on that. Definitely need more practice, that's for sure. Well, that was a great dual use of the space. Yeah. So you had the projection that would come down in front of the golf simulator. Now you can watch a movie when you want to hit the golf balls, the projection screen rolls up and now you're hitting into the golf simulator. I mean, that was a really cool use of that under garage space. Agreed. I just brought that same idea to a client last week that was here for selections. They wanted a theater and a golf simulator area. We just combined those spaces because of what I saw in this home. So now the golf simulator and theater are in one area. Now their exercise room just got bigger. So we combine those spaces together and open up more opportunities for them in their lower level. The theater was laid out really nice too because you kind of came in from the backside of it. You had the tiered seating and then there was a little raised bar area. So it was perfect for, let's say the kids or grandkids are watching a movie, but maybe the adults are out hanging out in the family room, but you want to go check in on the kids. You just kind of walk in, you can stand up back by that bar area, check out the movie, make sure the kids are being haved, and then you just sneak right back out that back door and don't disturb the movie or anything. The layout was perfect. It really was. Yeah, it set up really nice for sure. Yeah. And that's just further evidence. We had discussed this in many other videos before. We have these specialty rooms in the home. I mean, they're real. I mean, we just don't talk about them. They're real. Yeah. Some of them we have to keep a little bit private because of the personal touches that they put on them. There was something, it felt like in every room that, that the homeowner said, this was from this, you know, like in the golf simulator, movie theater, that, that huge mural that he had, that was Charlevoix from France. I mean, he hadn't hit snowboarders, skied that. Some of the paintings and some of the artwork and some of the furniture were, were pieces that, that were special to them. And they were able to bring that into this home and just put those final details into that home that's made it extra special. So talking about personal touches and use of different materials, I learned that the homeowner had a background in fabricating and seeing the, the touch of metal in that bar area with the background of the, of the display. And then the, also the steel used on above the bar roof area, I thought it was a really good touch. Yeah. I think those colors all displayed, right. The, the tongue and groove on the wall, the metal shelving, and then even that patina that was on the, the corrugated steel again, back to Jeff's point, you know, when you come here and you pick all those little colors out, they just all tied together and it felt cohesive, like they were all meant to be. So speaking of the bar area, while we were there, the homeowner was talking about just how usable that plan was, that design was, I think, you know, his comment was whoever designed this, this home was, it was genius. You know, he talked about how, how it was a big home, but it didn't feel big. It held a lot of people. They just had a family reunion there. We had a hundred people there and you know, everybody was still connected, had enough space for everybody, but it didn't feel overwhelming. And he felt he could, he could hold another hundred people in that home and entertain. Yeah. It's just the over the openness of that plan. I think that's why so many people love it. I mean, I've got a customer that's going to be building one in Kentucky. Here's, you know, they're just getting ready to start. I mean, I think we got one in Steamboat Springs. We've, this is one of our most popular models and I think that's why we're just building them all over the place because of the useful or the use, you know, open use of the floor plan. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I was, you know, I was in the original Timberlake, but now I'm getting in a few more. It's just this, this design is, is awesome. It just captures views and you know, it invites that outdoors in and it really does work well for just about any setting. I had a conversation with a fellow yesterday that he's got a piece of property that's down in, I think it's Southern Kentucky. I exactly, I'm not sure what the lake is, but he's really looking at the Timberlake as well. He was a little bit concerned about the square footage at first, but you know, after having further conversation, discussing the open concept of this home, how it actually feels so much bigger than what you actually have. And he's really sold on that idea of, of having a kitchen that's close to a living area that everybody can sit down and visit. And this particular home, again, we have the two islands that we've discussed earlier. People can gather around there while meals are being prepared. So it's really neat. It's a great use of the space that's available there. And it does feel so much bigger than what you normally have. Yeah. I kind of like that L-shaped design between the great room, the dining and the kitchen, where everything still kind of has its own space. It's still, you're still all connected. If you had a large gathering there, everybody's still in the conversation. Everybody's still in one area, but it still kind of has their own designated spaces. It really does work well. Right. Yeah. I like to tell the customer, even incorporate the barn doors on that mudroom area, that if you are entertaining and you do have a lot of people where you could close off those barn doors and it's like, it closes off that side of the house and just keeps everybody together. Yeah. It gives you a bigger opening and those barn doors are pieces of art in themselves. Right. I'll talk a little bit about that in our conversation here earlier, talking about the influence of that old barn that was on the property that sold the owner on it. Tell us a little bit about that. Why that, that was really cool. What, what brought that in? Yeah. I mean, that, that's what really drew him to the property. One of the features that, that drew him to the property besides the view was the old barn on the property. And he wanted to take some of that, that barn look and use it for inspiration, incorporating the design. So you'll see barn doors throughout the home, some weathered wood as in the mudroom and in that, that other guest bedroom down in the lower level. So taking inspiration or influence from the local area or the property is definitely something that clients are looking to do. Yeah. It's really kind of a salute to what was there prior. And I know Lucas is having conversation with a couple down in Arkansas that they too had some older buildings that are going to become part of the homes that are going to be built by us, you know, in the near future. So I think that's really neat to keep that in mind. If you have that opportunity. One of the rooms, I think, I mean, it sounds kind of weird, but one of the rooms, I think I was most blown away by was that mechanical and electrical room. I mean, just how meticulously neat everything was laid out, how clean it was. And then talking over with the customer about the smart home technology they had incorporated into the home, you know, he can be at his primary house and still open and close the pool, turn on and off the lights, check all the doors, make sure they're all locked, get all the lights. When you pulled up, they would turn on for him for the exterior, which that exterior had some phenomenal lighting going on. Yeah. The smart home technologies in there were second to none. And I think that's why we kind of featured that mechanical room because it was really cool and it was meticulously laid out, you know, it just wasn't a bunch of wires and pipes in there. And boy, it makes the home easy to live in. You know, you don't have to walk around the home trying to find out what light switch, you know, to turn off or, you know, yeah, you know, he lives a couple hours away or they live a couple hours away. So just having, I think that peace of mind and walking away from the home, being able to just shut everything down, like hitting a button, turning all the lights off, maybe keep the exteriors on, knowing that the doors are all locked by hitting a simple button. It's a one, you know, it's a one button shut off and everything is locked and nice and tidy. And, you know, if he needs to open something up, like, you know, he had left for a little bit and, you know, we needed to get in somewhere. He was able to unlock something for us or turn the water fountain on. Man, it was, uh, it was super cool to see all those smart home technologies in, you know, this rustic, you know, timber style home. All right. He actually ran to town for a little bit and we were getting ready to shoot the exterior for a little while. And he on his phone opened up the pool, turned on the fountains and everything else was pretty blown away by that. One thing that I liked about this home is that a lot of times you might get a homeowner who sees one of our home tours featured and they fall in love with it. And kind of the case with this one where the design of the home was pretty consistent with that original timber lake, but the color palette and the color scheme going on the inside is a whole new home. They, they did a really good job personalizing the, the color selections, um, and the, the use of materials, you know, it's a more, a more warm and cohesive color palette versus the, you know, kind of contemporary design of that original ultra custom timber, timber lake. Yeah. I think warmth is the key word there. Like when you walked in just the brown tones, he used the ceiling finish color, even the cabinet color kind of had that cooler feel, but it still just made the overall space really have that warmth feel to it. What I like with that, the ceiling of the timber lake, I feel like is a, a staple of that design is that vertical that tongue and groove is ran vertically. Um, it's not something we see all too often, but that can be easily done in any home with a little more attention to detail and extra materials for blocking and that, but that's something that we see consistently with that design is that that tongue and groove ran vertically. And I think it's a good look. Yeah. Another thing I think that looked really nice. So it kind of played off the original timber lake, but they still modified it was they made that little coffee drinking area in the master. So they moved that soaking tub out, which a fair amount of customers want to do, but she incorporated that little, the reading chair where she said she just loved having her morning coffee. Cause all the natural light just poured in those windows. And then you had that convenient door that you could just pop right out onto the deck too, if it was a nice morning out and stuff. So similar layout, but still they made it their own little twist. Another cool feature about the master bedroom was those end cut mosaic tiles behind the bed is a great accent in that custom made cabinetry that was designed by our selections team here. Yeah. Yeah. When you walked in that door into the master, you're just blown away. Cause not only you had that tile work, you know, that was just really unique played off again. Well, with the color schemes in the home just fit the vibe, but then you had those amazing cabinetry built around there. I mean, it was just a focal point. And then you had the feature wall off to the right where the chair was. And then in the bathroom, you've got all that natural light just pouring down that hall from those windows as well. That feature wall that's that's in there now from all the different timber lakes that we've built, that area really becomes its own special area for whatever the homeowner wants. One home, we had the soaking tub in another home. We have this nice little reading area. Everybody's going to make that area designated for something special that they want. So that's, what's so cool about that. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the great things about working with Golden Eagle is we go through what you're looking for in your home. And we, while we can start with one of our models, I think everybody puts a little spin on it, even if they start with one of our models to make it unique to them. We're building these timber lake models. We've got several of them coming up and I think they're all a little unique in their own way. Putting their own personal touches on it again. You know, sometimes it's dictated by the property. Sometimes it's dictated by the lifestyle. Tell us what you're looking for and we'll accommodate it. And Justin, you mentioned you started working with this client probably three years ago, roughly. I would just say anybody watching the video right now, if you're thinking about building your dream home in the next couple of years, give us a call right away so that we can start going over these details with you. Cause as you can see, there's just a lot of details to go through and we want to make sure we get your home just perfect for you.