We couldn’t be more pleased to announce the latest addition to our Contemporary Series: The Austin.
The Austin is a single level, 1357 sq. ft. 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, designed by Josh Counter – Timber Block’s Lead Design Advisor. We talked to Josh about this design, and the inspiration behind it.
Josh says the inspiration for the Austin was derived from a common theme among clients building custom homes. “I am involved in all the custom designs, which allowed me to start to see some trends forming. The first trend is designing to a lakefront property – therefore trying to elongate the design to have lots of glass facing the lake. The second trend I noticed is that there was a “sweet spot” for the size of the cottages our clients are looking for. It’s often lying around the 1200-1400 square footage range. The last trend I was noticing, is clients often like to customize the roof lines. The Austin is so flexible in what we can do with the roof: we can create a shed, gable, hip or flat roof like presented. This leaves a lot of flexibility in the style of the home when people choose to customize this model.”
Like all Timber Block designs, efficiency is always key, and Josh says the Austin is no different. “We have kept the overall square footage down, whilst still providing a lot of the popular requests and re-sale features such as walk-in closets, primary ensuite, and of course a bathtub for the partial jack + Jill washroom. It can easily acquire a fireplace as well which is always a nice selling feature.”
We talked to Josh about the decision to make the Austin a single level home. He says the popularity with a one story home is as strong as ever, and expects that to continue for years to come. “There are many reasons that a single level home could be ideal for someone. Most commonly is because steps can be hazardous to children, seniors, and people with injuries. Another reason I’ve seen a lot of is because it can blend into its environment better because it can hug the ground rather than a two-story reaching for the sky. Another reason I’ve heard is specifically for resale value – the single level home market simply has more interest!”
While the Austin belongs to the Contemporary family, he says it can certainly blent into any of our collections by simply changing the roof lines. “However, the contemporary style we’ve chosen to showcase has many statement features such as the knife edge soffits (it tapers on an angle to the roof), lots of glass by use of sliding doors (which also helps with the flow of the design), and the vertical wood accents applied on top of the Timber Block panels.”
Here’s your first look at the brand new Austin model:
About Josh Counter
Josh works with the client primarily in the beginning of the design process. He creates the initial schematic designs that allows the client to visualize their future build without all the technical information clouding the plans and making it hard to read. They focus on the flow, scale, materials, and architecture of the building. Then once that’s finalized, they move it to the technical designers to draft the construction plans.
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