A Valmonte "Tuscan"

On this Memorial Day, thought I'd blog about another 60-footer - that is, a new custom-turned-spec-turned-custom home on a small-ish 60' wide lot in Valmonte.

(Source: NJC)


The original owners bought the previous home which sat on this lot in December 2007 for $913K originally for themselves, then given the 2008 downturn, decided to build it on spec and sell.  Well, fast forward three years later, the house is now complete although the home has not been put up for sale (lease perhaps?).  The 3,106 square foot home sits on a 59x120 foot lot.  Designed by Doug Leach and built in 2009, the home replaces a 1,651 square foot 1954 ranch.

(Source: Mapquest)

(Source: NJC)


While this home is a mild improvement over the original home, it still could have been so much better.  Where to start? The garage!  Why oh why did the owners opt to go for a brown painted plastuminum garage door is beyond me!  Would a proper wooden garage door have been that much more expensive?  You know, something like this:

(Source: NJC)

Or this:

(Source: NJC)

Or this:

(Source: NJC)

Any one of those would have been an improvement over the existing garage door - I suppose that's an easy fix later down the line.  Moving on.

I'm generally not a fan of stone veneer - I think there's a high degree of risk that the execution looks Disneyland-esque.  Here, we're borderline.  It almost works - maybe it does.  In any event, I think they should have carried that over to the garage - especially given the prominence of the garage door and how it  sticks out from the home.  Using the darker stone would have helped minimize the garage and also served to protect the facade's balance and symmetry.  It would also serve to minimize the upstairs balcony - which coincidentally is my third gripe with this home.

The upstairs balcony detracts from the facade.  I long for symmetry.  Right now the upstairs looks like a procession of stairs... all leading to the balcony.  I would have thought the central hall would be the focus.  But here, the garage and upstairs balcony take visual focus away from the rest of the home.  This home says "I drive two cars" instead of  "rustic Italian home ... with a garage for modern convenience."  Maybe something more like this would have been appropriate (Warning: I'm by no means a Photoshop artist, proceed with caution!):

(Source: NJC)

In my hacked version of the facade, we'd have a more authentic garage door and an upstairs that is symmetric.  Here the focus is on the central stone tower.  Taking it a step further, we'd stone the garage as well so as to minimize its prominence.  Something like this:

(Source: NJC)

Or maybe this:

(Source: NJC)

What do you think?

KEY STATS

Location: Valmonte, PVE
Style: Italian
Year built:  2009
Architect: Doug Leach
Square footage: 3106
Lot size: 7,090sf  (59'x120')