Elevated Homes in the Lowcountry
Posted on | November 5, 2008 | No Comments
I worked with some people a while back who were looking for a vacant lot in Mt. Pleasant, upon which they wanted to build a retirement home. They finally settled on Darrell Creek, which is a neighborhood on the north side of Mt. Pleasant, very close to the new Wando High School, which was not yet completed at the time. Much of the land in Mt. Pleasant is somewhat low-lying, especially land close to the water, which this was. Building codes in these areas often require that the bottom of the first main floor be built one foot above the hundred year flood level. Once you have an elevation certificate stating that your home complies with this rule, you can get flood insurance, which is required prior to closing if you are getting a mortgage.
Anyway, that is all stuff that I handle for my clients; it’s not that big of a deal, and it’s secondary to the story. So, we drove around looking at lots in the neighborhood they determined they wanted. The wife disliked the Lowcountry Style home, and wanted to find a lot that was high enough that she wouldn’t have to build one. Lowcountry Style homes are the elevated homes you see, with stairs leading up to the middle of a front porch, and the front door to the home off of the front porch, with parking underneath the home. Turns out this is an uncommon architectural style in the rest of the country. To me, it’s the most normal thing in the world. It just makes sense.
What happens is that the home is on low lying land (hence the name Lowcountry Style), and the home had to be elevated. So, instead of elevating only the absolutely necessary amount, homeowners chose to elevate the rest of the way and make the underneath part of the home usable space. It provides ample parking and storage. It just goes to show what tremendously different tastes people have, which depends largely on where they came from and their life experiences, as well as their current situation. It certainly made sense to me that they were concerned about having an elevated home as their retirement home. That’s a lot of steps. Of course, if you are building, you just add an elevator. Or just frame for one. If you take one piece of advice from me, take this: If you are building an elevated home, frame it for an elevator. You can always use the shaft as closet space, and add an elevator later if you need one, or if the person interested in buying your home needs one. Then all you have to do is add the elevator itself. It is SO expensive to try to go back after the fact and add the framework for an elevator. Especially now, with the Baby Boomers getting older, more and more people will be eliminating elevated homes without elevators, either because they need one, or they think it will be bad for resale value.
We had a tough time finding new development in Mt. Pleasant that was on high enough ground that the home would not need to be elevated. We eventually worked it out, though.
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