Michael Emilio

The 12th ever Home & Garden Television (HGTV) Dream House is built and ready to be moved into.

The Florida Keys vibe is definitely in full effect in this custom built home in Islamorada, which is right off U.S. 1 near mile marker 87. The designer is Linda Woodrum, who is actually the official designer for the annual HGTV Dream House - she’s designed 11 Dream Houses already.

“We create the fantasy home for people to live in,” says Ms. Woodrum.

The three-story home, which is built as a modified Florida Cracker style, had some interesting design quirks that most custom built homes don’t have to worry about. For one, this home is designed for a television giveaway sweepstakes. Advertising, marketing, and sponsorships come into play here. The products that sponsors donate to the HGTV Dream House project must be incorporated into the home design, otherwise they’d be getting some angry lawyers on their hands. This is a television contest of course, so not only must the home look good in person it must look amazing on camera as well. Also, since this is a nationwide contest, the home must appeal to people across the United States, not just residents in South Florida, Miami, Islamorada, or Key West.

“We’re appealing to 50 states. There has to be some connection to everybody in this country,” says Woodrum.

If you win this contest and get to live in the HGTV Dream House, you’re definitely getting a home with value. It’s currently valued about $2 million, which is very nice, but is actually somewhat reasonable for the Florida Keys area. The residence has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and covers 3,000 square feet. A patio, dock, and two balconies allow you to take in those amazing sunsets and beautiful views of the Florida Bay.

The Islamorada HGTV Dream House Room Setup

The first floor of the house has a garage with a sports closet - because you’re definitely want to get in the fishing action in the Keys! You can store your fishing rods and other equipment there. The first floor also includes a bedroom, bathroom, and a media room with views and an opening to the patio.

When you walk into the main floor, you’ll walk into a great room with a spacious open kitchen, two small sitting rooms, a powder room, and a bedroom with full bathroom in the suite.

When you go up the stairs to the top floor, you’ll find the master suite. This master suite includes a large bathroom, balcony with a bay view, and a coffee bar for those refreshing mornings in the Keys.

The Islamorada HGTV Dream House Interior Design

In short: Interesting and different. It’s definitely not typical South Florida design - that’s for sure! As an example, when you walk into the ground floor and enter the children’s bedroom, you’ll find blue carpet which is really unusual in high-end South Florida homes and especially not mansions (not saying that this is a mansion or anything close). I also found it odd that South Carolina based designer Linda Woodrum used dark hardwood prefinished floors in the rest of the house.

Instead of colorful pastels that you usually find in Florida decor, Woodrum chose a British Colonial style - which is dark wood matched with white trim. To my eyes it seems to contrast too much with the lively feel and sunshine of South Florida and the Keys - but perhaps this was done to appease those that are used to these colors - perhaps in the Northern United States.

The great room walls were painted white - Woodrum explained that this was done to not compete with the view.

“The views are so amazing. I didn’t feel that we should fight the views. In the public areas, where people gather, I like people to be dominant.”

The bathrooms are done in white - with traditional subway tile. “I don’t put color in bathrooms,” says Woodrum, “because if you get up in the morning and the walls are green, you don’t look so cute.”

I did notice that the powder room has a more traditional wall color - saffron thread. This color is also found in the “shell room”, a small sitting room that includes a daybed and trundle for guests.

I also noticed a pattern - Woodrum chose bolder colors for those rooms that don’t have a view of the Florida Bay. For example, the guest room with no bay view, has walls and ceilings painted dark lime. Furnishings include a four post bed and a Southern quilt, set off by a hot pink sheet. And yes, the hot pink sheet definitely gets your attention!

Woodrum chose to incorporate the Florida vibe more into the accessories - specifically, shells. You’ll find a clear glass bowl of shells in the guest room, shell picture frames in the sitting room, and artwork that yes, incorporates shells. Faux coral is also used as an element for decoration. Woodrum decided against real coral because it is currently endangered.

Guests will definitely feel at home in the HGTV Dream House in Islamorada. The master suite will sleep two, four can sleep in the 2nd floor and two in the 1st floor.

Behind the Scenes of the HGTV Dream House at Islamorada

What’s interesting about the 2008 Dream House contest is that HGTV television viewers were able to vote on the master suite design. Monica Pederson, part of HGTV’s Designed to Sell program, thought up some color schemes and then had viewers vote on which color scheme they liked best.

The Dream House is the first home built in a 8 home development project named The Shore at Islamorada, right off Overseas Highway. Developers of The Shore are Ned Johnson and Michael Uhre.

You can imagine it takes a lot of people to pull off a project like this. One of the tasks needed is to find the land and then to find the builders. Especially when you’re on a tight schedule - the HGTV Dream House was completed in 6 months. The man for this job was Jack Thomasson, the HGTV Dream Home House Planner. Jack finds architects and local builders that know their stuff concerning local building practices and building codes. One of these important considerations Jack used was constructing the Dream House with concrete block, using a metal roof, and impact-resistant windows. These specifics might not be important in other states - but are definitely very important in Florida, especially the hurricane-battered Florida Keys. He finds these architects and builders by getting recommendations from others and checking their references. The Islamorada HGTV Dream Home team includes architect Richard K. Wissmach of Dawson Wissmach Architects of Savannah, Georgia; builder Juan Dellanos and father Juan Dellanos Sr.; and landscape architect Richard P. Brown of Brown & Crebin Design Studio of Plantation Key.

HGTV Dream Home Free Bonuses and Taxes

The winner of the HGTV dream home not only wins an amazing place to live, they’ll also be getting a GMC Yukon hybrid SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle). Remember that if you win you’ll have to pay taxes on your winnings - which amounts to about 1/3 of the value of the prize package. Property taxes will likely amount to $20,000 a year and a few thousand more for hurricane insurance. But don’t focus too much on paying taxes - if you don’t want to pay out of pocket, you can always sell the home. In fact, and I’m pretty shocked, no past winner of the HGTV Dream House sweepstakes has ever lived in the Dream Home that they won! What many winners do is that they sell the home and then use the cash to finance other dream projects they may have.

“We maintain that the Dream Home sweepstakes is just about living your dream,” says HGTV spokeswoman Emily Yarborough.

The HGTV online sweepstakes for the Dream Giveaway be running until February 19th, 2008. Winners will be announced on March 16 at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on HGTV. Enter online at HGTV.com. Tours are also available until March 2nd with an admission price for the tour set at $20.

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