Thousand Oaks: A dream home among the trees

When their children fly the coop, most people elect to move into a townhouse or condominium. But Maria and Gus Ponce are not "most" people.

Now that two of their sons are married and a third is away at college, the Ponces have decided to concentrate on themselves and build the home of their dreams.

"With all our children moved out, it's just the two of us now. So this time, we wanted to choose a new home that catered to our current lifestyle," said Gus.

Previously he and his wife and sons had spent a decade living in a home at The Preserve in Spring Grove, a community built by KLM Builders.

"KLM built us a wonderful new home in that community and they were a pleasure to work with," he said.

So when he and Maria heard that KLM was planning to develop a new community of 73 semi-custom homes nearby, Thousand Oaks, they started inquiring regularly so that they could get first shot at choosing a home site.

"We visited Thousand Oaks and fell in love with the fantastic views and the wooded home sites," said Maria. In fact, one of the main reasons the Ponces said they chose Thousand Oaks was its heavily wooded home sites, each graced with plentiful, scenic, mature trees.

"I think we were one of the first three buyers," Maria continued. "At the time, the roads were not even complete. But we had all the faith in the world that this was the right community for us."

The couple chose the Vail II design, a 3,000-square foot, two-story home with a first-floor master bedroom, plus two additional bedrooms, 2½ baths, a den, formal dining room, a loft overlooking a great room, and kitchen with adjacent solarium.

They also added their own personal touches like a solarium, a side-load garage, custom flooring, custom interior oak trim, two-panel solid wood doors, quartz countertops, custom maple kitchen cabinetry and a custom bookcase in the family room. The Ponces also enlarged the kitchen.

"KLM Builders customized our new home just for us and added many more amenities that we wanted," said Maria, who took delivery of their new residence earlier this year. "We designed this home for entertaining. We can't wait to have our kids and our grandchild visit. And this will probably be our last home, so we wanted to be sure everything met our needs and preferences."

While the Vail II's square footage wasn't much larger than their previous home, Gus said that the new floor plan offered more luxury features and flexibility -- including a convenient first-floor master suite -- as well as a larger yard.

The couple says their favorite room is the solarium which features extra-wide windows on all four walls and skylights that let in plenty of sunshine.

"In fact, every window in the house offers a wonderful sight. We wake up in the bedroom and there's a beautiful view of our backyard to greet us," said Gus. "Our home site provides fantastic views from all angles. We've got plenty of trees on our property, and we back up to a conservation area on one side and a tree farm on the other, so we're pleasantly secluded out here."

Buyers at Thousand Oaks can select from over 20 different designs, which include two-story, ranch and first-floor master bedroom designs or KLM can build a custom home from an outside architect's plan.

Prices currently range from the $470,000s to the low $700,000s and sizes range from 2,300 to 3,775 square feet. A standard one-acre home site is included in the price of the home.

Each home features three to five bedrooms, 2½ to four baths, three- to four-car garage, full basement, fireplace, vaulted and nine-foot ceilings, rear deck, oak trim and stair rails. Every standard design can be customized to suit a buyer's tastes and preferences but the most popular options are screen porches, solariums, finished basement space and covered or uncovered outdoor living areas equipped with a fireplace.

To reach the Thousand Oaks' sales office, take I-94 north to Route 173, west to Winn Road, south one mile to the Thousand Oaks entrance on the left. Or, take Route 12 to Winn Road, north three miles to the Thousand Oaks entry on the east side. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call (815) 678-0804 or (815) 675-0011 or visit www.klmbuildersinc.com.