Paladia. The largest of my creations, and the longest in the making. I spent over 3 years designing and building our home and grounds. In case you were wondering, the name Paladia is derived from Palladian architecture, a style known for its symmetrical features and arches.
I'll never forget the hundreds of sketches I drew on graph paper, refining each small detail until it was just right. For a perfectionist like me, it seemed a never-ending project! Special thanks to Chuck Trambauer, a talented architect and friend who drew the actual blueprints.
I 'broke' a lot of rules in designing Paladia. For example, every luxury home I visited had its staircase in the foyer. To me, a curved staircase is a beautiful architectural feature, so I decided to incorporate the staircase into Great Room, where it can be appreciated more often.
The Great Room was a challenge in other ways, too. It's not easy finding an artist willing to faux paint a 24 foot high ceiling! To further accent the 'sky' ceiling, I added triple crown molding around the perimeter, with rope lighting and mirrors recessed at the top so that the sky lights up at night!
As you can see from the pictures, I wasn't afraid to use lots of different colors. I wanted each room to have its own personality. Each room even has its own scripture verse... Before the floor finishes were installed, Marilyn and I picked the verse that seemed best suited to each room and wrote it in magic marker on the concrete slab at the entrance to the room! There's a great story about this in the Songs Room.
Paladia is located on 5.2 acres, nearly half of which is a tropical forest with a creek running through it. It's really beautiful back there; you can't see anything but nature. When we bought the land, the front part was a marshy pasture, overgrown with weeds. I remember walking some friends through shortly after we bought the land, and their commenting, "Why would you want to live here?"
In a sense, they were right... it did take a lot more work than building in a subdivision. But now that Paladia's finished, I can't imagine living anywhere else.
Click on the thumbnail images to browse the interior and exterior of Paladia!
