A Letter About the Mountain Cottage

We received the following letter and picture from the owner of the Mountain Cottage: 

Hello Mike and associates,

We return to our island cottage or as you refer to it the mountain cottage on your website, in a few days, for the tenth year. It was over eleven years ago when we purchased your house plans with some minor modifications to accommodate Canadian winters.

 We lived four thousand kilometers (2,486 miles) away during construction. With your excellently detailed plans and a distinguished local builder there were few issues as it was being built. We did visit the site every several months to monitor activities.

The layout works. We can accommodate our family of 16 and 4 dogs for summer weekends and at Christmas. It is a great place to reconnect, with lots of get away places if someone requires a bit of down time.

 In August we have friends over for an annual pot luck supper, numbering over 40, without feeling too crowded. There are lots of conversation places to share news. After 10 years of enjoyment we would not change a thing.

 The structure goes through a full 4 seasons. Temperature can hover around +35 C (95 degrees F)  during summer and it has seen -35  C  (-31 degrees F) in winter.  No issues. During the hot days in July we open all the windows and enjoy a cool breeze off the lake in the evening. The design sheds snow so we do not worry about snow load during the winter months.  Attached is a picture we took during December of 2012. The structure looks capable of embracing winter.

We want to thank you for having had the privilege of enjoying your architectural skills. 

We love to get letters like this from our customers!   We are pleased that our clients are still happy after 10 years.

The Mountain Cottage is a modified version of the Island Cottage.  Both of these homes were designed for gracious informal living and include wrap-around porches, roof decks and a roof-top observation loft.  Curious what this house looks like on the interior? Please visit our blog post entitled the Island Cottage Interior.   

All of our Southern Cottages Construction Plan Packages are detailed, professional, architectural drawings with framing plans, wall sections, and construction details. They will save you many thousands of dollars over custom designed plans and save innumerable hours of time, money, and mistakes by your contractor if he were left on his own without the benefit of well-coordinated plans. Furthermore, with our plans, you will be able to get accurate contractor bid prices from bidders since all construction items are specified and detailed. Bid documents and bidder instructions are included in the project manual.

If you have built one of our Cottages and love it, let us know by emailing us at mike@mcleodarchitectpa.com.

Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com. View our architect designed house plans at www.southerncottages.com.

The Island Cottage Survived Hurricane Sandy

Last November we received the following email from a client who built the Island Cottage.

Island Cottage with crawlspace foundation

Hi Mike,

I built your coastal cottage design over ten years ago. My family and I have enjoyed the home very much and live on a point on the bay with water on both sides. We have weathered many bad storms in this house and we really owe its success to your design. The roof plays a huge role in protecting us from nor'easter storms which hit us often. This is our primary residence. Recently we were hit with hurricane Sandy the eye hitting our community directly. Homes on either side and many more were destroyed by the ferocious wind and waves. We were left with some cosmetic damage lost stairs and railings but structurally we were ok and are currently up and running in our home while unfortunately most of the community is abandoned. Thank you for designing a heavy duty house. Check out YouTube put in Tuckerton, NJ sandy you will see your design under direct attack in the storm. Also the picture was on Fox, CNN and many other news cast around the country. Most of this community calls our house the blue lighthouse and use it as a landmark and GPS and radar setting for their boats. Anyway thanks Mike.

Please watch this portion of a newscast after hurricane Sandy which shows the Island Cottage spoken about in the letter above (the home with the blue roof).  We believe that the Island Cottage would have gotten more air time if the damage hadn't been so minimal.  This is proof that the Island Cottage was designed for both style and strength.

All of our Southern Cottages house plans were designed to meet coastal conditions and codes in the state of North Carolina at the time they were designed, with a basic design windspeed of 130 mph, to make them storm resistant.  Our houses on piling foundations were designed to withstand hurricanes by meeting coastal and flood plain and high wind zone construction in the state of North Carolina at the time they were designed.  To see more storm resistant home designs for coastal conditions by Michael R. McLeod Architect, P.A., please visit the Southern Cottages website.  We have a number of house plans for the beach or any waterfront property.

Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com.  
View our architect designed house plans at www.southerncottages.com.

"We truly love the Island Cottage"

We recently received an email from a couple in Texas who were interested in purchasing a second set of plans from our Southern Cottages House Plans website.

We truly loved the Island Cottage we built last time, and received so many compliments. The compliments we got that meant the most to us were the ones by all the contractors that bid on the home and worked on it. They stated how well designed it was, and sturdy. THEN... Hurricane Ike beat up all the homes near the Island Cottage, and yet she stood totally unharmed! Proving this house was well designed! So when it came time to build again, I could not even consider anyone else's plans. We are very excited!

Thank you,
Michelle


Here are some pictures of the Island Cottage Michelle built.

Thank you, Michelle, for your kind words and trust in our company.  We are happy to have customers like you!

Have you built one of our Cottages and love it?  Let us know by emailing us at mike@mcleodarchitectpa.com.