THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996 TAG: 9604110233
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
The Outer Banks has an appeal that transcends rational thought. I'm a victim myself, hooked by these ribbons of sand from the moment I set foot here 12 years ago.
There's something in the ocean breezes that makes a person want to put down roots and call the Outer Banks ``home.''
One Virginia reader found herself similarly smitten but she's hit a small snag in building her dream home here.
``As a 26 year Navy veteran who often observed the Outer Banks from a distance on a surface search radar or on government Hydrographic Office charts for navigation, the intrigue of the Outer Banks fostered by your column over a period of years got me!'' she wrote.
``I am now the proud owner of a beautiful home site located in Kitty Hawk Landing, And I am deeply involved in making preparations to build a home there. My building site is located in a flood plain with a spectacular view that can be best seen from the highest vantage point possible. So, I am looking for one of those `reverse floor plans' that are so prevalent on the Outer Banks.
``I have researched our public library and `Builder,' the magazine of the National Association of Home Builders, to no avail. Home plan book vendors such as Home Builders Library and Homestyles also proved to be dry wells. I also consulted an Outer Banks home designer . . . Even he could not identify a catalog source for reserve floor plan home designs.''
Reverse floor plans are not unique to the Outer Banks, but they are definitely a resort property product most commonly seen along the mid-Atlantic coast. The limited market probably accounts for the lack of home plan books offering reverse plans.
Gloria Pokelwaldt of Waldt Construction, a local custom builder, collects floor plans from magazines and plan books for customers to use as starting points in planning their homes but says she rarely finds reverse floor plans. ``I'll find one or two in books of vacation home plans and that's about it,'' she says.
Starting with a traditional floor plans is usually no problem, says Southern Shores house designer Kent Godwin. In most cases, the living and sleeping floors are the same size and simply stacked one on top of the other. These plans can be easily reversed.
``Because living areas are usually large open spaces and sleeping areas have more support walls,'' explains Godwin, ``it's often easier to build a reverse floor plan.''
Godwin says that 98 percent of his clients have wanted reverse floor plans and, with only a couple of exceptions, their houses are vacation homes. The remaining clients either had all the views they needed from the first floor or they were building year-round homes.
The reader doesn't say whether she's building a year-round home, retirement home or a vacation cottage. Because of the west-side location, I would assume the house will not be used for vacation rentals and so I would caution the reader about using a reverse floor plan.
There's no question that top floor living areas maximize views, a plus for any home no matter how it's being used.
But vacationing in a reverse floor plan house and living in one are two different things. Carrying suitcases from the car to the first floor bedrooms and those few bags of snack food up another flight of stairs seems easy enough. For day-to-day living, having a floor of bedrooms between living space and the real world just doesn't work for most people.
Even if the reader won't mind carrying groceries up three flights of stairs (assuming the house is a reverse plan and elevated on pilings) or trash down three flights, or having guests enter through a hall that also services bedrooms, potential buyers might balk at paying top dollar for a vacation floor plan in a non-vacation neighborhood.
Building houses on pilings, like reversing the traditional floor plan, has become a hallmark of coastal construction. Pilings, although introduced to modern residential construction by the Swiss architect and city planner Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (better known as Le Corbusier) more for form than function, have proved more practical.
Elevating houses on pilings minimizes - if not eliminates - most flood damage. While practically mandated by the National Flood Insurance Program passed by Congress in 1968, piling construction more likely gained popularity because it opened up new views for homeowners.
Don't forget that this weekend, April 13-14, are the final two days of the Outer Banks Home Builders Association annual Parade of Homes. Twenty houses, from Corolla to Manteo, are open on the tour. Tickets - $5 per person - are available at the door of any Parade house. For more information, call 919-255-1733. MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head,
N.C. 27959. Or e-mail her at realkidd(AT)aol.com
by CNB