Whether your family has already grown to the point of needing more room or you are planning to buy your “It” home — the one you’ll never leave even as the family grows and changes over the generations — builders are finding ways to create places for families to live and grow.
At TRI Pointe Homes’ Green Valley community in Fairfield, for instance, the pride lies in the possibility that a family can discover its own personal style while growing with a house. Nestled about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento, the community includes two neighborhoods, Bloom and Harvest, each offering three floor plans.
An exploration of these TRI Pointe homes reveals that two of the Bloom models and all three of the Harvest models feature spacious second-story lofts that are standard, with additional bedrooms as an option in those spaces. Plan 3 at Harvest even includes an en suite bedroom on the first floor. And Plan 2 at Harvest features a den that opens directly to the front porch. All six models include dedicated interior laundry rooms.
Builders like TRI Pointe Homes, Kiper Homes and others are finding that most buyers are choosing options that allow for families to grow into their space or with spaces that can be repurposed to match the family’s needs as lifestyles and household dynamics change.
“Most of our buyers are taking advantage of the opportunity for multigen suites,” said Linda Hebert, sales and marketing director consultant for Kiper Homes, which recently opened its Newport community at River Islands in Lathrop.
Featuring four plans, the largest residence at Newport has a master bedroom, a bonus room or loft and four other bedrooms including an en suite on the first floor, said Hebert.
“The smallest, at 2,286 square feet, has a master bedroom with a walk-in closet and two other bedrooms that have a Teen Room between them.” Hebert noted that the Teen Room setup rethinks the traditional Jack-and-Jill bedroom layout for the contemporary household.
Rather than simply placing a shared bathroom between two bedrooms, Kiper’s Plan 1 at Newport features a massive bonus room as well as the bathroom, creating a space that can be repurposed over the years and across generations. As an option, the Teen Room could be configured as a fourth full bedroom.
Each home at Newport offers the multigen suite option. The two-story Plan 4 at Newport, which can be as large as 3,948 square feet in size with five or six bedrooms, includes a “dreamy” glass-enclosed den that overlooks the gardens and lake.
Michael Van Daele, COO of Van Daele Homes, also described some spacious room choices within each of Van Daele’s four communities at River Islands.
Van Daele’s two largest plans at Bridgeport in River Islands feature the company’s Imagination Room and/or the My Place room. With either room, or both, homeowners can use the spaces however they see fit. Some buyers choose to put lower and/or upper cabinetry in the My Place room to create a dedicated homework space or kids room.
“In the Imagination Room, we’ve seen families use it as a billiards room, a home office or a craft room where they can store and use gift wrap supplies,” said Van Daele. “And it’s big enough that some buyers choose to use it as a formal dining room.”
Meanwhile, with one plan at The Reserve in Santa Rosa by City Ventures, buyers can choose either a five-bedroom home or a four-bedroom home with a three-car garage.
“People can have additional garage storage space or convert that to a bedroom,” said City Ventures CEO of Homebuilding Phil Kerr. “We get a lot of buyers who choose to use that fifth bedroom option as an office or as an additional bedroom for guests, grown children or grandparents living with them.”
Chances are, if you’ve wondered about how your home can adapt to the changing needs of your family, your builder has, too.
