Walking into the office right on time, Russ asked for her at the counter. The receptionist directed him to her office and after a brief greeting, she began questioning him in a business-like manner, a change in character which somewhat surprised him and changed his previous opinion of her personality. She began taking notes as he answered her questions.
"How far is the fire hall from your lot?"
"Less than five kilometers."
"That's good news for you as it keeps the rate down. Next question: what's the construction going to be?"
"I'm building into the side of a hill with a walk-out basement. Because it faces south, I'm adding a lot of windows across the front to take advantage of the sun for passive solar heat. The house will actually be sitting backwards to the road, with living room and kitchen facing the lake, and bedrooms and bathrooms facing the road. I'll have my office, recreation room, laundry and spare bedrooms in the basement."
"As to construction, I am going to use field-stone on the one-story level with gray brick veneer on the other three sides. There will be a covered cedar deck on the east side with an open cedar deck across the south side at ground level."
"I'm going to have a fireplace in the living room and an airtight stove in the basement and I'll also have a back-up generator wired in to start automatically if there's a power outage while I'm away visiting a site. I'm also installing a full security system as well as motion detection lights and camera. Because I'll be working at home a great deal of the time, with client files on premises, I have to protect their interests."
"My plans call for as many 'green' features as possible - everything from drywall, to carpets, to paints, to built-in cupboards, will be as non-toxic as I am able to locate the products. I'd like to be off grid, but there are too many tall trees on the lot for a windmill and I would need that to generate sufficient power."
"I'm adding an attached two-car garage on the north side of the house to help insulate it and to allow for easy inside transfer of groceries to the kitchen." Taking a breath, he said, "Sorry! I'm getting carried away. My uncle left me his estate in his will with the direction that I should enjoy it, so this is my treat to myself and I'm getting really excited to see it finished."
"What's your anticipated completed value?"