This blog documents the progress of our super-cool, pre-fab home "somewhere" in the wilds of Northwest Arkansas. Rocio Romero designed the home, model LVL, and incorporated our custom modifications. GC Don Lourie is doing the build and architect Brad Satterwhite is providing additional ingenuity.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mom's Day Getaway

We heard Don's sheet metal crew had made a lot of progress and we were anxious to see the finished deck, so we celebrated Mother's Day at SFH. The weather was absolutely gorgeous after Saturday storms--breezy, fair, low 60s. Using a remnant piece of ipe decking and an old dock line, we improvised a rope swing for the ancient, broken oak that dominates our east view. After discovering several ticks in our flight path (and in our pants), we spent the rest of the weekend hangin' on the deck with Durga and Pedro.

7 comments:

Meredith said...

Hi Ethan
I live in SW Missouri, (about 1 1/2 hours from Eureka) and I stumbled across your blog while researching the LV Home. Your SFH is really stunning. The reason for my email is that based on one of your posts, I inferred that you might at some point be renting it out as a vacation rental. Is this the case? If so, when were you going to begin doing this and what would you be charging? There would be no better way to learn about the LV than to spend a weekend in it right? Let me know if I'm off base on this or if you do plan to rent it out.

Thanks very much.
Matt R.
mr5890@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Hi Ethan,
I also would like to know of your intentions to rent your home. I am an architect in Wilmette, IL north of Chicago. My wife wants to visit Mo. (we've been to an open house in Perryville). We are adults, no kids, no pets, non-smokers, non-party-ers. We may build a Romero home in Alabama and would love to experience one for a week, a month?
Let me know.
Regards and congratulations on your good taste!
Marshall Moretta, AIA

em said...

We are on the fence: retire to 'enchanted cottage' in downtown ES or go green, prefabricated/modular with SFH views. Would you please share info on approximate $$ including property and prep and construction? Your place is amazing, it is.

Ethan Whitehill said...

Currently, we're running just over $180 sq/ft. This is soup to nuts, including kit costs, site prep, deck materials, some landscaping, labor, and so on. It does not include the land, 33 acres.

em said...

Wow. Including cabinets, appliances, bells and whistle-y things? Is it still wonderful? Is there anything you would do differently?

Not usually this obvious when it comes to life's occasional envy pangs but -
i.want.that.

Anonymous said...

Does Ethan read these posts?
I never received an answer to my question.
Do I need to go to another site to see answers?
Does he respond by e-mail?
Can anyone shed some light on this - I'd appreciate it.
Thanks, Marshall
marshallmoretta@comcast.net

Ethan Whitehill said...

Sorry about that Marshall, I thought I had replied to you, but maybe it was for the other post. Anyway, I'm happy to show you the place when we're down for spring break if you'd like to check it out. Our policy is to rent only to family, friends and people we have met beforehand in person, since it's not really our intent to run a rental business. I hope you understand. Thanks.