“I brought in plan after plan I’d found on the internet,” Randi said, “and finally we landed on one that worked on the lot and had the square footage that fit our budget.”
ABOVE: Comfy furniture and plenty of gathering space in a serious cook’s kitchen are important to the Burchetts. Outdoor seating can change to face the lake or the patio’s big screen TV. LEFT: All set for the holidays, the living room looks out on late-season vineyards. The Burchetts love having family and friends packed into the big open living area for TV watching and casual meals; the festivities can extend right out the sliding doors to the patio.
the hill, while their son and daughter finished high school and then headed off to their own lives. By 2016, Randi and Shelby were ready to move on up to their beloved property. Then started the balancing act between square footage and building costs, which Randi December 2019 | The Good Life
explained are surprisingly high here because of new demand and a good but limited skilled labor pool. “People want to move here from Seattle, which we always think of as expensive, and go “Hey, what gives?!’” she said. Enter Gold Construction, which took on the project in 2016 after the Burchetts became www.ncwgoodlife.com
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discouraged with three out-ofrange bids. “I brought in plan after plan I’d found on the internet,” Randi said, “and finally we landed on one that worked on the lot and had the square footage that fit our budget.” Randy Gold was aided on the blueprints by Moonlight Drafting and started building, offering not just construction expertise but good ideas and assurances. “It was wonderful working with him; he’s a problem-solver and has such a calming personality,” Randi said of the veteran Wenatchee builder. “We got just what we wanted — a one-level French Country style rambler with views of the lake. And he and the subs were able to build the actual house really fast — seven months from start to finish. Sometimes there were 10 trucks parked up here all at once.” Leveling and paving the easyaccess driveway was a priority, but a later and unexpected necessity was the reconstruction of much of the back of the property with 120 linear feet of terraced retaining wall, 10 feet tall at the outer rim, built by Antonio’s Landscaping of hand placed rocks in concrete. The flat space became an extended patio with concrete decking and a frequently used hot tub, the rest is in lawn. Randi remembers, “I used to tell people about our great ‘level’ lot
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