The first house project for The New Home Show is called "The Wedge Plantation". It's a reproduction of a house built in 1826 near Charleston, SC. It's designed by William E. Poole of Wilmington, NC. The plans for the house are available from Southern Living Magazine at 1-800-755-1122. Its plan number 951HM. View the original Charleston 1826 Plantation Home.
The 3500 square foot plan features four bedrooms, a two-story family room, living room, large master suite with walk-in closet and a large kitchen. We expanded the plan to include a four-car garage and 1 1/2 extra bathrooms. We also finished the room above the garage, which is used as an office. We also pre-plumbed the walk-up attic for a future bathroom. When you purchase a stock home plan like we are using it's expected that you will make some changes to the plan. We planned our changes before construction had begun and that is the way you should too.
We chose the Wedge Plantation plan for several reasons. The major reason this plan was chosen is that it is an economical plan to build. Although this is a large house, the cost per square foot is reasonable because of the style of architecture used. This is not a starter home by any means and we did expand the size from the original plans. However, it is still possible to scale the plan (and the costs) down by sticking with the original plans and not finishing the room above the garage.
The finished home looks spectacular. We've taken special attention to blend the house into the neighborhood where it is constructed. The house looks like it has been sitting at the end of the cul-de-sac for 150 years. Visitors often ask if the house is a new house or a renovation. It's difficult to tell! What's even more amazing is that the house is finished with maintenance free materials.
Every outside material has been carefully chosen to be a maintenance free or low maintenance material. We've used Vytec vinyl siding on the exterior of the wedge plantation. We've used aluminum columns on the front porch. We've used Sherline vinyl decking from L B Plastics on the front and rear porches (instead of pressure treated lumber). We consider the vinyl decking to be one of the most innovative new products on this seasons New Home Show.
Since this is a reproduction of an 1826 house, some might consider this a historic house. Some might say that we should have built the home just like they did in 1826. We politely disagree. When the original home was built it didn't have indoor plumbing or indoor bathrooms. The original home wasn't insulated and it didn't have a climate control system. The original home had a kitchen with a brick fireplace where food was prepared. But it was a far cry from the modern commercial style Frigidare gas cook-top and electric double oven we used in our project. The original home used massive hand hewn timbers to support the second story. It probably took many men and several horses several hours just to get one of the timbers in place. We used pre-engineered Boise Cascade TGI joists to support the second story. It takes just two men about 10 minutes to put one of the new style joists in place.
The outside of the original home was covered with wood lap siding. It's probably pine or cedar that was sawn on the property. This type of siding was used because it was available. It you were to study early American architecture and building techniques, you would find that homes were usually built out of materials that were "at hand". The early settlers had to use what was available. They had two choices. They could use materials that they had brought with them (like shipping crates) or they could use materials on or near the home site (like standing timber). The early settlers could not have possibly used vinyl siding because it wasn't available to them. However, we believe that if vinyl siding had been available they surely would have used it.
