Clay Lee
Broker/Realtor®
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Home Improvement & Design Category
Benjamin Knox Designed Pebble Creek Show House Update!
July 21st, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Pebble Creek
5203 Whistling Straits is being built by Crowley Construction and in a matter of a couple of months will be totally complete. Designed as a luxury show case home, this home will be open for two weeks upon completion as a charity event with all proceeds benefitting the Brazos Valley Rehab Center.
This week the flooring is starting to be 
installed. The guest quaters are almost complete with the gorgeous slate flooring, soaring beamed ceiling, and custom French doors to the back yard. All of the Walker-Zanger tile should arrive this week as well. This includes the unique stone floor that will flow from the entry hall to the family room, breakfast area, and into 
the the amazing kitchen.
Last week all of the custom granite and marble counter tops were installed. The kitchen’s three-inch thick counters really provide a glimpse of just how exacting the details are in this house. You have to see the powder bath with its unique solid granite sink and custom vanity! Most of the final flatwork around the pool was also completed last week and the pool should be up and running within the next two weeks.
It won’t be long before this place is finished, and with the number of buyers walking through it every day, I’ll be suprised if it doesn’t sell quickly as well.
If you have any question, feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com or 979-255-1839
College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle & Real Estate Exper for over a Decade!
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How Much Driveway Can You Have in College Station?
July 15th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Market Trends
Maybe I’m the last one to know, but the City of College Station is pretty strict now on where one can have a driveway, how wide it can be, and how many openings one can have out of it’s property.
I recently sold a property that has no street parking in front of it or on the side of it. The only parking you have is for two cars in the driveway and for two cars in the garage. My client asked me to check in to getting him a permit to pave a wider opening so that he could have driveway parking for at lest 6 cars. This would have been considered “head in” parking which basically means that a drivr would have to back out onto the street instead of entering it in a forward direction.
After approaching the city, I have found that they city code does not allow for more then 25 feet of curb cut from ones property onto the street! The normal 2 car garage is 22 feet wide so this doesn’t leave much space for more parking. To get exceptions to this, you have to file for a variance with the city in order to get more curb cuts. The problem is, they don’t like to give the variance in the first place, and secondly they don’t want to give it to addition “head in” style parking. They usually like to give it to circular type driveways that have an opening for entering and leaving.
If you want something different, it’s best to schedule a meeting with Carol Cotter at the City of College Station’s planning and development department. Turn in a plat of what you have and what you are doing along with an application. She will then review it in person and with city staff. In a couple of days they will get back to you with an answer. Unfortunately there isn’t a “set in stone” set of principles they follow. It’s all pretty much up to their discretion and view of how the design will affect saftey and traffic concerns. I’d recomend having a pretty good case in place if you are looking for something that may be questionable.
The best advice I can give is design your home with lots of extra driveway space and room to turn around on the property and get the plan approved before constructing your new home. This work up front will ensure that your property and home design work for your lifestyle.
If you need any help or suggestions or have questions, please feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com.
College Stations #1 Luxury Lifestyle and Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!
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The Mistakes that Luxury Home Builders and Owners Make
June 27th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Market Trends, Miramont, Pebble Creek, Selling Real Estate
I see it every day, and it’s really sad. A home builder or even a buyer will construct a high priced “luxury” property and try to sell it immediately or within a couple of years of its completion. I use the term “luxury” in quotes because in this case I’m calling it an interpretation of what a luxury property really is.
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that a luxury home qualifies as a luxury home merely based on the properties square footage or land size. However, a luxury home can be a 1500 square foot town-home or a 20,000 square foot ocean front compound. It’s the features of a property that make a luxury home a luxury home, especially in College Station, TX.
The following are the biggest places that mistakes are made.
Master Suites
A Big Shower and Walk-in Closets are just not enough. Buyers expect a Spa in their own home today. You have to have multiple shower heads, rain showers, body sprays and if possible a steam shower. Closets have to be totally custom with built-in packing centers, extensive shoe storage, tons of drawers, adjustable hanging space, full-length mirrors, and good lighting. The sleeping area has to be well designed with plenty of room for a bed and a nice sitting area. High end quality flooring of wool, stone, or wood is expected in this space as well. Buyers also want separate closets if the home is larger and even more popular are separate master bathrooms. Read the rest of this entry »
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Real Estate That Changes and Moves as You Wish: Coming Soon to Dubai, Moscow, and New York City!
June 26th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Market Trends, Real Estate News, Real Estate True Tales
When you were a child, you probably had or played with a slinky. You probably remember how you could twist and spin a slinky in a million different ways to create some crazy looking tubular shapes. Well now you may be able to do the same thing with your home! Today in Dubai, a new building was unveiled called the Dynamic Tower which will be 80 stories tall and be able to adjust its shape at any given moment. Each floor will be able to spin independently to change that floors view or to change the shape of the entire building! The picture to the left shows different configurations that the tower might have. I guess that if you wake up and decide you don’t like the ocean view of your bedroom that you can twist it around for a desert or city view! A part of me wonders what it will sound like when the entire building is rotating. Will clients feel it rotate?
The building is truly a new study in the way that high Read the rest of this entry »
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5 Star Hotel Bedrooms – In Your Own Home!
June 25th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Kids, Family & Personal Stuff, Market Trends, Real Estate News
If you’ve ever stayed in a great hotel and when it came time to check out you didn’t want to leave, you are not alone. Today’s 5 star hotels and many 4 star hotels are making their beds and bathrooms more luxurious all the time. It’s almost as if it’s a competition between them to see who can top the other. The bathrooms keep getting larger and the beds keep getting fluffier with even higher and higher thread count sheets.
But going home doesn’t have to be the end of your stay at your favorite hotel! Due to an enormous amount of client demand, many of the 5 and 4 star hotels are now selling almost everything you need to recreate your hotel experience at home. If you had to pull all the materials together yourself, it would take extensive travel and weeks of internet searching to find all the bedding, accessories, towels, and plumbing products. Now with just a simple phone call you can have almost everything you see!
For example, W Hotels has a retail store in Read the rest of this entry »
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Thinking of Buying or Building? Make a Book First
June 18th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Market Trends
How many times have you looked through a magazine and spotted something you would love to have in your next home? Have you ever driven by a house and taken a picture of the outside because it was exactly what you wanted? We have all done it, but how many times do we actually rip those articles out and organize them in one place?
A house book is one of the best ideas I’ve ever used to help clients decide what they really wanted in a house. If you are thinking of buying or building, how do you plan on telling your REALTOR, architect, builder, or interior designer what you want? Pictures are worth a thousand words, and having those ideas in one place makes it a snap.
To get started, you will need a large 3 ring binder, several tabbed dividers, some blank plain paper, a 3 ring hole punch, a glue stick, and some clear sleeves that fit in a binder. Label the dividers with different headings like floor-plan, kitchen, exterior, pool, master bath, home theater, audio-video, and others that suit your taste, you can always add more tabs. However, the tabs just help keep it separated. You don’t have to have them Read the rest of this entry »
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