New Homes in Sammamish – Glencoe at Trossachs

            Glencoe at Trossachs is co-developed by two builders, William Buchan and Murray Franklyn and I am reviewing the homes by William Buchan in this article. This New community is located in the Sammamish Plateau. There are two drawbacks to live in Sammamish. First, there is no highway passing through Sammamish and it may be a long commute for most people living in Sammamish. Second, many people may think that the school district in this area (Issaquah School District) is not as desirable as the Bellevue school district. The ratings for the schools serving this new community (Cascade Ridge Elementary, Beaver lake Middle School, Skyline High School) are actually quite high. They all get the highest rating from School Digger (5 stars) and from Great Schools (a rating of 10), except that Beaver lake Middle School gets a rating of 9 from Great Schools. Disregard these two drawbacks, I think these homes are the most elegant homes among the three new communities I have blogged about thus far. There are several reasons I gave these homes such a high rating.

            In my opinion, Sammamish is the most livable city in Greater Seattle. Most of the areas in this city are residential homes. It is essentially a quite city within proximity to metropolitan Seattle. The city of Sammamish has the lowest crime rate among all the other cities nearby. If crime rate is your major concern when choosing a new home, Sammamish would be your best choice.

            Second, from the point of view of Feng Shui, a home with a water view or nature view would be great. Nevertheless, a view of your neighbor from some distance away is perfectly fine, provided that this neighbor’s home is reasonably appealing. The quality of the homes in this community is reasonably consistent and attractive. Comparing to other new home communities, the lot sizes of these homes are also fairly decent – ranging from 6418 sq ft to 8190 sq ft. All of these factors contribute to a comfortable view from these new homes. Also, there is no big slope within this community. Each lot is fairly flat. All of these conditions make this community a very cozy place to live in.

            Third, this builder pays great attention to details. They use painted millwork extensively to make the home look really elegant. This includes wainscoting, crown molding, window casings, and baseboard. (For a complete list of the detail work, please refer to William Buchan’s website at: http://www.buchanhomes.com/buchan/communities/glencoe-trossachs/glencoe-home-features) Figure 1 shows the extensive use of crown molding throughout most parts of the model home in Glencoe at Trossachs, while figure 2 shows an example of a living room without crown molding in another new community. Readers may not feel too much difference between Figure 1 and Figure 2, since people do not look up all the time. However, Figure 4 shows the all around window casing in the master bedroom in Glencoe at Trossachs, while figure 5 shows an example of a built in window sill without fully wrapped window casing in another new community. Without the valance, the windows in figure 5 would just appear so plain. This is why there is no need to display valance in Glencoe at Trossachs. The builder already did a good job making the windows look elegant.

            Fourth, the design of the model home I visited in Glencoe at Trossachs obeys most Feng Shui guidelines. When I took out my compass, I was really surprised to find that all the windows in the kitchen, nook, and the family room in the model home are almost in the direction of South. There is also a bedroom next to the kitchen with a big window in the south direction. This bedroom could be a perfect room for a home office. I later found out from the neighborhood map that these rooms all have windows in the Southwest direction. (There is a small difference between the real North and the magnetic North. This resulted in the small measurement error when I determined the direction.) Although these windows are not facing the exact South, I think this model home still has very good orientation. In fact, it looks like homes on many of the currently available lots will have their active areas facing Southwest or Southeast. I think these lots are all great sites for homes. The utility room window looks out a wall of the next door neighbor and most bathrooms are located inside the house without a window. If there have to be rooms looking out a wall and rooms locating inside the house, the utility room and the bathrooms are the best option. This is because people usually spend very brief time in the utility room and the bathroom. Therefore, a window with a pleasant view in these rooms is less essential. The architect who designed the model home (the floor plan of Milbanke IV) seemed to carefully take this into account. Bedroom 3 of the model home also looks out to the neighbor wall. I think this bedroom can be a guest bedroom.

          While there is much graceful design in this model home, there is one shortcoming in the living room. The TV is designed to be placed at a corner of the living room, which makes it kind of awkward for viewers. The builder placed a bigger emphasize on the fire place than the TV (see Figure 1). This kind of design may not be great for home owners who enjoy TV programs frequently.

Figure 1. Extensive use of crown molding throughout most parts of the model home in Glencoe at Trossachs

Figure 2. Example of a living room without crown molding in another new community

Figure 3. Extensive use of wainscoting at the entrance and the formal dining room in Glencoe at Trossachs

Figure 4. All around window casing in the master bedroom in Glencoe at Trossachs

Figure 5. An example of a built in window sill without fully wrapped window casing in another new community