New Company Builds Stylish Backyard Cottages In Just 45 Days

Sept. 29, 2010 - PRLog -- BETHESDA, MD  – Two influential forces in the world of custom homes announce today the launch of RETREATS, an exciting new company focused on serving the growing market for compact, well-designed, enclosed living places that are companions to homeowners’ main residences. The new company is the brainchild of master architect Russell Versaci, author of Creating a New Old House, and Sandy Spring Builders, one of the leading custom home builders in the nation. Together they are introducing an appealing new line of systems built, compact designer cottages -- RETREATS -- that can be delivered directly to customer homesites nationwide within 45 days after the issuance of a building permit.

RETREATS can be set in spacious backyards and used as guest cottages, pool houses, home studios, media centers, or for any type of “getaway from the everyday” one might desire. Designed personally by Russell Versaci, they range in size from 450 to 1,000 square feet of living space, including kitchens, baths, and bedrooms. Floor plans are one-story, one-story with a loft, and two-stories. There are six classic exterior styles to choose from and three interior finish package choices: standard, deluxe, and luxury. Designed to be within reach, RETREATS prices start at $175,000.

“Everyone has a secret desire for personal space not far from the orbit of the family home, but nevertheless isolated from the drumbeat of everyday living,” says Harvey F. Seegers, President and Chief Executive Officer of RETREATS. “Our cottages fulfill this desire by providing customers with their own backyard ‘personal sanctuaries’ that are both elegant in style and therapeutic in their simplicity."

RETREATS are designed with livability and flexibility foremost in mind. Sandy Spring Builders principal Phil Leibovitz observes, “Over time, what begins as a guest cottage can evolve into an artists’s studio and later become a home for aging parents or returning adult children. Also, besides being ideal ‘backyard getaways,’ these cottage RETREATS make excellent primary residences or weekend escape destinations. Or, they can be a turnkey solution for developers wishing to build a complete cottage community or vacation resort in a matter of months.”

RETREATS are manufactured in an environmentally controlled facility by strategic partner Haven Custom Homes, one of the nation’s leading systems homebuilders. Systems building is the application of industrial manufacturing process disciplines to the indoor construction of homes. It assures better structural integrity, higher energy efficiency, and faster construction time than anything built outdoors with conventional construction methods. It also relieves
homeowners, and their neighbors, of the many inconveniences associated with lengthy stays on the homesite of work crews, construction equipment, and building materials.

For more information about RETREATS, please contact Linda Flame, 800.935.0349, lflame@retreatsllc.com.

About RETREATS
RETREATS LLC was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. CEO Harvey F. Seegers is a former President of Home Depot Direct and a graduate of Harvard Business School. Sandy Spring Builders LLC is a custom homebuilder serving the national capital region since 1982, led by Phil Leibovitz, Richard Mandell, and Mimi Brodsky Kress. Russell Versaci, the national leader of the New Old House movement, is a graduate of Yale
College and the University of Pennsylvania. He has practiced architecture in the Washington DC area since 1986.

Press Contact: Barbara Martin
7307 MacArthur Boulevard, Suite 207
Bethesda, MD 20816
Tel: 301-229-6770 | barbara@fingerprintdc.com