1.  What are your favorite outdoor pursuits?  Are you a big skier?  Or a bigger boater?  Would you rather spend your days hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail or playing 18 holes at one of the fine golf courses around the lake?  Zeroing in on the way you will actually spend your time as opposed to how you THINK you will spend your time can go a long way to making your purchase a successful one.  Let your passions guide your home site decision and you will always find joy in your Tahoe home.

2.  Will you be hosting many family gatherings in your new home?   The ‘bunk room’ is a feature seen in many new homes in the Tahoe area.  A great addition to any second home, (or first home in a vacation area), the bunkroom can easily sleep 6 children with plenty of room left over for play.  With two bunks, a twin over queen set-up (with built in drawers underneath) there is room for everyone and their stuff.

3.  Where will your store your outdoor gear?  While the mudroom got its start in the east, it is truly a necessary luxury in Tahoe.  With lockers to store skis, clubs etc. and a bench to sit and pull off boots, ski gear and bike shoes the mudroom is one of the most used areas of the house.  Even better is to have that laundry room tucked alongside so that those trail encrusted socks can go right into the wash.

4.  Where will you seat all your guests?  While there has been much press over the last 10 years about the demise of the dining room, the dining room is alive and well up in the Tahoe Basin.   With a Tahoe home, more times than not, you will be hosting friends and family on a somewhat regular basis.  Whether it be having a large family gathering at Thanksgiving, Christmas and even the Fourth of July or the group of friends coming up for some fresh powder in the winter and fabulous hiking in the summer, these days often end with dinner together—at the dining room table.​

5.  Will there be more than one cook in the kitchen?   With the addition of all those houseguests (see above) the kitchen needs to hold more than one cook.  A prep area, often on an island with a second smaller sink, is the perfect area for your guests to help prep some hors d’oeuvres, toss a salad or even plate a wonderful dessert.   After that wonderful meal, the prep area often leaves room for a second dishwasher—leaving more time to enjoy the great outdoors. 
Building a new home (or remodeling a current one) gives you the chance to create a sanctuary that truly fits your lifestyle.  Let Advance Design and Construction help you create the home of your dreams.

Advance Design and Constructions' new build on the shores of Lake Tahoe is moving quickly.  Already the first pour of the foundation has passed.   Within a few short hours, five Tatarek Construction concrete trucks deftly backed down the picturesque one way street and poured the base of this Elise Fett & Associates designed dwelling.

The concrete pour is a multi-step process and must take into account temperature, altitude, and regional building codes.  Up in the Sierra Nevadas, the high altitude, cold winters and the threat of earthquakes and forest fires create the need for a home that will stand strong against the elements. 

As this future home is nestled on the edge of the hillside, the base of the home is several floors below street level.  To that end, the concrete must be pumped down through many feet of of hosing and then leveled into the forms that were set the previous week.  As the cement surges out of the pipe, Mike Tatarek's crew swiftly 'screeds' the concrete using a large wood board.  The screeding process helps compact and consolidate the concrete and begins the smoothing and leveling of the top of the concrete.  Once the surface has been screeded, the concrete is floated. The surface is floated to further compact the concrete, even out any depressions or high areas, and create a smooth finish on the surface. At the same time early finishing takes place, joints and edges are worked into the concrete with special hand tools.

​As soon as the forms are filled, the Tatarek crew is quickly on their way,  leaving the concrete to cure in the fresh mountain air.  They will be back to pour three more times as this structure takes shape.

​The late summer sun hangs over the job site at Martis Camp while a symphony of construction noise wafts over the valley.  At the Advance Design Construction site, the crew is creating a stunning new home designed by Scott Gillespie and Sandbox Studio.
 
The Advance Design and Construction crew is hard at work, with the efforts of their labors shown daily in changing landscape of the home site.  After a few short weeks, the concrete forms, poured by Tatarek Construction, already show the outline of this Lake Tahoe sanctuary within the luxury community of Martis Camp.
 
Once the concrete is poured, the ADC crew marks ‘plumb lines’ all along the perimeter of the new home.  While the concrete pouring is done within a carefully constructed set of forms, the ADC crew states that concrete has a ‘mind of its own’ and a plumb line is needed to make sure the vertical lines of the home raise straight and true up towards the crystal clear Tahoe sky.
 
All around the perimeter, the crew goes with the plumb bob, carefully marking each section of walls, calculating and leveling to make sure the walls will be as straight up at the top as they are at the base. 
 
It is this attention to detail and this expectation of excellence that imbues every job that ADC undertakes.  From the first excavation scoop to the sweep of the broom at the close of a project, the plumb bob is a reminder of the careful and meticulous attention shown in the building of this home.