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How nature plays a part when a contractor builds a home for his own family.
You have to wonder what a builder will build for his own family. Is he like the cobbler whose children run barefoot? He gets a roof over their head but the closet doors and trim take years to complete? Or, does he put his all into the project because he believes his family deserves nothing but the best? Does his family get a cookie-cutter version of all the other homes in the neighborhood? Or does he customize everything to suit their own passions, preferences, or personalities?
Jimmy Dollman, principle of Dollman Construction in Roanoke, recently finished a new home for his family. What he built evolved over two and a half years into a delightful place to work, relax and for the children to grow up.
“The plan was to build a 20x24-foot cabin by the creek,” he says. “But then the kids kept adding their own ideas of things they wanted and the cabin quickly turned into a house.”
Dollman previously owned a piece of recreational property more remote than this current location. It proved inconvenient to amenities and returning to work on Monday mornings. So, he decided to build closer to town on an eight-acre plot in Catawba he bought six years ago.
“It was in horrible condition,” he says, “so it took a lot of work.”
The land stretches along Craig Creek and was the site of a neglected 1880s cabin. “It had been left exposed to the elements and was destroyed by weather, wood-boring insects and plant life,” he says.
Dollman removed that cabin and a spring house to make room for his new getaway. He did leave an old stone wall that runs along the creek and used the limestone slab that was the cabin’s entry step as the landing at the bottom of his deck stairs.
“The sound of the creek will put you to sleep,” says Chris Duncan, a project manager for Dollman Construction. “It was hard working out here some days with the soothing sound.”
Dollman capitalized on the creek when designing his home, which he says, changed gears half-a-dozen times as they went. “I’m my own worst client,” he says. But that’s not why it took over two years to build.
“It was important to me that the house be finished without a mortgage,” he says, “so part of the timeline was the result of paying for materials as I went.” Plus, he only worked on the home on weekends and days off.
About that creek
How did Dollman capitalize on the creek and it’s soothing sounds? He built his deck over one of its tributaries. Orienting the house so the deck is shaded in the evenings, with a babbling brook flowing below, extends the comforts of indoor living to the out-of-doors.
Curious minds want to know about the potential for floodwaters to ruin his hard work. “The house was designed to sustain water flowing through it,” he says, “and the deck support is built to the specifications of a bridge piling.”
“What’s underneath that support,” says Duncan, “is as big as a Volkswagen. That deck isn’t going anywhere.”
“Besides,” Dollmans adds, “for water to reach inside the house, it would have to be waist high in the yard. ”
The real wood deck, with powder-coated metal railings, wraps around the side and back of the home. A cypress ceiling with recessed lighting covers the rear portion, making it enjoyable even in the rain. He also designed the deck to support the weight of any future room addition.
While the deck area provides space for intimate family gatherings, the front porch is the perfect spot for watching the world go by. Its size gives room for comfortable rockers, and the natural pine ceiling and front entryway door, as well as the up-cycled slate walkway, gives visitors that cabin-in-the-woods feel.
Inside the lower level
Walking through that door takes you into the great room. With the vaulted ceilings and open floor plan, the lower level looks larger than its 977 square feet. Second-story dormers that serve as skylights and open stair and loft railings that Dollman designed himself, assist in the movement of light throughout.
Resembling the popular cable railings, Dollman’s are made with pipes. “The railings aren’t from a kit,” says Duncan. “Jimmy designed them and we had to put them together on the floor and then lift them onto the anchors. It wasn’t easy.”
Other highlights of the living room include a striking travertine gas fireplace and white oak flooring and stairs.
“All of the white oak flooring and much of the trim were milled in the area from trees we removed from another construction site,” Dollman says. “Not to save money but to teach my kids about minimizing the overall impact on the environment.”
A large butcher block island painted a coastal green, separates the kitchen zone from the living room. Above the ceramic under-mount farmhouse-style sink hang handblown pendant lights Dollman brought back from a trip to Virginia Beach. But the jewel of this space is the Curava recycled glass countertop.
This composite of recycled glass, quartz and resin provides the environmentally-conscious homeowner an affordable alternative to marble or granite. To remind them of the beach, and in keeping with the beach house meets cabin-by-the-creek style Dollman was going for in his home’s design, he chose an arctic blue glass product.
Other beach-themed elements
The dining nook and loft office both include window seats overlooking the deck accessorized in coastal blues and greens. This color scheme is used throughout the home as well as a bathroom tile that looks like driftwood. And the white denim slipcovers on the office furniture will almost make you mistake the sound of Craig Creek for ocean waves.
The nautical theme continues with the boat-like stairs that seem to float up to the third level. Of course, anything this remote would be used for a boy’s bedroom hideaway and makes this fishing cabin turned family home into a four-bedroom residence of over 2000 square feet.
The nitty-gritty details
The home includes propane which fuels the on-demand hot water, fireplace and generator, “that powers the entire house during an outage.” The siding on the house is James Hardie. The kitchen appliances are Samsung, smart, high-efficiency and fingerprint resistant.
A few of the home’s closets are cedar-lined and the double barn doors which cover the upstairs linen closet are alder wood.
In addition to his home site, Dollman purchased the eight-acre lot next door. Once he’s done cleaning and clearing that property, he’ll have 16 creek-side acres for not just his family to roam, but the area Cub Scout troop, as well.
“The large open areas and creek access are perfect for car-camping,” he says.
Building his home may have taken twice as long as it would have for a client, but the details are worth it.
The story above is from our November/December 2020 issue. For the full story subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!