Monday Morning Millionaire: Meet the New Generation Spec House — so Custom, so Versatile, so Fresh!

My newest mantra: “a potty by every back door”.

I have so much real estate news for you I am am about to burst. This Angel Baby over on Stichter caught my heart about a week ago, and I have been hankering for the photos ever since. Well, now I’ve got them. This is the Spec house that isn’t a Spec House! It’s really a custom home for sale by a new dynamo duo of home builders you will be hearing more of right here on CandysDirt.com: Barrow Durrett.

Drove up to this house at the invitation of listing agent Stevie Chaddick, who is with movin’, groovin’ Nathan Grace in a Highland Park Village office BTW, yeah stay tuned for that story! It was shock and awe: first up, bye bye stone, baby. This baby is creamy white painted brick! For 6,102 square feet on a perfect .32 acres and everything is so well-designed. That could be because starchitect Robbie Fusch designed the home — he is one of the principal’s father-in-law! (Robbie also lives in the ‘hood, and knows how to command spaces on these lots better than most.) I happened to walk in from the garage to a wonderful mud room right there, a half-bath near the door: I can not tell you how critical it is to have a potty by the back door folks. Put this HIGH on your MUST-HAVE list — “POTTY NEAR THE WAY YOU COME IN THE HOUSE”.

(I will not go into details, but from potty-training youngsters to oldsters with weak bladders, I worship my potty by the back door. Oh Lord, will you buy me a Mercedes Benz and a POTTY BY EVERY DAMN BACK DOOR!)

Of course there is a wonderful foyer and entrance, but space is used so wisely in this home. They managed a wonderful master in on the first floor with an ante-room that can be an office, exercise room, nursery, or meditation room.

Yes, I have to meditate before I go into my master bedroom, don’t you?

The master bath is to-die for, so spacious with loads of closets and that other necessity: his and her commodes. Or as they say, “water closets”. The kitchen is phenomenal with uber high end appliances, and oceans of white Carrara marble that I have been dreaming about for five nights now. If those counters go MIA, they will be chez moi. The cabinetry is beautiful, custom, and so ample. Talk about thoughtfulness, there are two laundry rooms, one major down, another upstairs. Again, a thoughtful touch and totally workable for the young harried mother or the baby boomer who really doesn’t want to lug the linens down after Thanksgiving when her home has been invaded by out of state kids and THEIR kids.

By the way, if you are drooling over those interiors, you can thank the folks at Blue Sky Living who are responsible for the staging of this masterpiece. Are they not the cleanest, most refreshing but still inviting homes you have seen? Scootch on over to their ad right here on our site.

Upstairs are four bedrooms and an as-of-yet unfinished game room over the garage that Barrow Durrett will finish out as a playroom, game room, office, dungeon with torture rack (hey, it’s Halloween, and they are casting for “Fifty Shades of Grey”) all included in the unbelievable price of $1,595,000. I love, too, the thoughtfulness in every square inch: rounded corners even upstairs, foamed insulation, clean, beautiful moldings (not overdone) and an exhaust in every bano DOWN NEAR THE COMMODE where they belong. Also impressive, something I’ve been talking about for days: instead of one of those gritty pull-down ladders, this duo made a carpeted staircase to the upstairs attic so you can walk up there civilly with a few boxes in hand to store.

Finally, a spec home built with thoughtfulness and care. A spec house that isn’t built LIKE a spec house.

All in all, you get five bedrooms, five full baths and two half baths, and so much thoughtfulness you will think an award-winning architect has drawn up the plans. Well, in fact, he has!