Jeff Seal

 

     

    

This past Wednesday, our class went to tour upscale homes designed and built by Jeff Seal.  The two homes we toured were at 4104 103^rd Street and the other one was a few blocks from it.  The belief in quality and attention to detail was evident in both houses.

     The house on 4104 103^rd Street is a four bedroom, four and a half baths, and Mediterranean Villa styled house.   Some of the features not found in regular homes were a fire sprinkler system, French casement windows, a central vac system, and twelve foot ceilings.  Details such as symmetry, barrel vaults, real wood floors, and different layouts of the firebrick abound in the house.  Custom pieces of furniture and built-ins are a standard feature in his homes.   The most fascinating element in the house was the barrel vaulted brick ceiling.  This is not a typical ceiling treatment done in a common house.  Taking cues from customary French architecture design, no baseboards are used in the house.  The outside was just as exquisite as the inside.  How he approached supporting the Juliet balcony made both an architecture and artistic statement.  The simple visual homage to a villa church’s bell tower made a thoughtful statement.  A detail that was noticed later on after looking at pictures for the cover was the mortar joints underneath the Juliet balcony.  Some of the joints were intentionally recessed deeper to give the house an aged looked in keeping with a Mediterranean Villa house showing its age.

     The other house was much, much bigger in house size and lot size.  It consisted of two master suites, two bedrooms upstairs for the boys with a bathroom for each.  The house is going to have three laundry rooms, a two story piano room with a balcony overlooking the space.  The foyer contains the double bridal staircase and a prayer room.  Both houses incorporate the groin ceiling as one of the many types of ceiling used in his houses.  Since the house is in the early construction phase we had a chance to see the components of the structure.  Six inch wide studs are used to build the wall instead of two by fours.   This house also incorporated many variations of recessed ceilings in addition to the mentioned groin vault.

    The field trip to a couple of upscale houses showcased attention to detail and quality materials done by Jeff Seal.  The house located at 4104 103^rd Street contained unexpected surprises, unique applications of various materials, and fire safety measures.  The other house had much going for it already even though it was still in early stages of construction.

References

(1)   Notes from field trip

(2)   www.jeffsealhomes.com