Why we built a Tropical Lifestyle Home with 3 Tips.
It was just by chance that Jude, my wife and I stumbled upon this piece of land 2500 sq.feet on which a double storey intermediate terrace house of about 40 to 50 years old stood on. It sat on highland and dropped at the rear to a lower level, which actually formed a "natural basement."
We had enough experience in this arena, as we had done this many a time and this looked like a, "Diamond In The Ruff" and it clicked almost simultaneously that this was it. We wanted to build our home and the challenge, as it was an intermediate terrace and to encompass the elements of a Lifestyle Home.
Lifestyle Home - What's That? In our own terms, a Home is where families unite, congregate and find comfort and safety in. And to add the Lifestyle elements in, is to create features that would make this more than a house but one that would create additional pull factors that would give us all the more of a reason to stay and enjoy our home.
The excitement began and within one night, a draft blueprint of our home was formed. Jude who has a keen attraction to beautiful homes and possesses a natural flair in decoration had set her sight to bring this home and nature close to us and to also provide a very open concept for the added ventilation so challenging especially inherent in intermediate terrace homes. This led us to creating Our Tropical Resort Home.
The lure of Bali and the getaway feel got us thinking of creating a Resort Home, after all, Live A Perpetual Holiday Lifestyle. So the hybrid was born i.e. One that would encompass the open resort elements and our Singapore lifestyle put us on the road to creating our home, "Villa Gila Bali."
Tip 1 : If you are redesigning or rebuilding, put in as much thought as you can to enjoy this place you create called, Home. This is a special place that families bond and memories are created and it is beyond sheer dollar and sense.
I am a little embarrassed to confess that it took us 1 year 9 months to complete our home. However, I take full responsibility for the delay as it was a tough one to build and even tougher when the woman of the house, is the project manager. Haha - but totally worth the wait as it turned out as one unusual Inter Terrace Home that we so love and enjoy.
Some features that we created, within the constraints :
Driveway that parks 2 cars.
Open concept Living & Dining Area.
Integrated Wet/Dry Kitchen.
Existing house connected to a 3 storey New Annex by a bridge - This created the open feel especially lacking in an inter-terrace home.
A Large Airwell that spans the Basement to the 2nd Storey
Basement - 2 rooms separated by Swimming Pool c/w Water Feature - that wakes us up to the sound of a running stream.
Mini - Home Theater Room for Entertainment of our Kids and Grown
Ups as well.
A Gym Room that cuts out my excuses especially on rainy or hazy conditions.
Open Sky Terrace Garden c/w an Attached Guest Room.
We thought that we were being over adventurous at first but we finally made it happen. This was going to be our home and was our chance to break some minor barriers.
Tip 2 : Costs have mostly been the primary consideration in rebuilding homes however, value - real and perceived play a sometimes intangible or priceless role, that sometimes gets lost in the budget process.
Time, we spend at least 40% or more of our livable time in this abode, design it well with tailored facilities and the better the tailoring, the more you spend your time enjoying this place you call Home. I really do not know how our home will be valued but I do know, if you could make it functionally different, you could possibly get a functionally different valuation.
It's 5 years now and we look back, we keep asking ourselves how could we make this any better and have set our sights on further enhancements to create maybe what could be called, "The Lifestyle Landed Condo" encompassing all the facilities you could imagine in a Home.
Land Costs is expensive, no doubt and it is about optimizing the use and creating the added value that drove us to make the best of what we had.
Tip 3 : Beautiful Homes do not necessarily cost, "An Arm and A Leg." It's about good practical design, space planning and then aesthetics that fit each of our individual needs that creates added value within the household. It's a lot about finding the common connection that pulls us back and brings the family together, be it a Movie/Entertainment/Game Room or just chilling together, that makes this more than a House but that of a Home.
Food for Thought : Landed Property makes up less than 6% of the current residential homes in Singapore. Is this % getting higher or lower?
Enjoy Your Home.
Brian Kow
http://youtu.be/JqiB3R0ppIc
