By Clarence Cromwell
Houses in the Bellgrove development on Saratoga Avenue will be slightly more expensive and completed a little later than expected.
The first new residents won't be able to move in until March, but by the end of January workers will complete three model homes to show prospective buyers.
The company originally planned to complete the models in December.
"We've had a little weather delay," said Carol Meyer, vice president of marketing for Greenbriar Saratoga Road Company. "And the elevations are elaborate, and they do take a while to build. There's lots of small details that have to be worked out in the field."
Meyer explained that workers had difficulty building one example of each model the company is offering because of the intricate trim-work that finishes off all three of the designs.
Those difficulties and a sudden surge in home sales pushed the price of Bellgrove houses from the $600,000 range to the $700,000s.
"The building cost was more than we anticipated, and also the market is up," Meyer said. "To build this quality of home is very expensive. We're hunting around for hand-forged shutter hinges for our cottage elevation."
The wooden skeletons of 15 houses are under construction on the Saratoga Avenue side of the 24-acre property. Those constitute the first phase of the five-phase, 94-house project.
Forty concrete foundations lie nearby, ready to support houses comprising the second and third phases of the project. Half of them are sold, although unbuilt.
Rough carpentry work will be under way on 20 of those houses soon, said JoAnn Connor, community sales director for Bellgrove.
All the planned houses will range from 2,900 to 3,139 square feet and rest on 7,000- to 10,000-square-foot lots. They will have five bedrooms and three bathrooms. They will include three-car garages and landscaped front yards.
A "linear park" will loop around the triangular neighborhood, in front of houses along one side of the street. A rustic rail fence separates front yards from the park area and its meandering sidewalk. The ribbon-like park will be connected to a five-acre park on the southwest edge of the property containing a par course, picnic area and tot lot.
Although the houses aren't completed, Bellgrove's sales office on McFarland Avenue is open.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 10, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.