Sometimes, it’s the little things that make us smile. And for a home as large as the 4,500 sqft. Saskatoon Hospital Lottery Home, there are a surprising number of little details that have been taken into account. The gold inlaid borders in the floor. The chrome mouldings in the Scotch Room. The fact that there’s a room called the Scotch Room. But we’ll leave that discussion for the home and architecture lovers to analyze.
Of course a virtual tour needs to be easy to use, look great, and make you feel as much like you’re there as possible. Those are givens, especially for a home of this calibre. A $2.5M Hospital Home Lottery virtual tour. This is a year, after all, when the home is completely shut to the public and the virtual tour is more important than ever.
What we thought we’d do today is point out some of the little touches. Things that we hope will delight you and make touring the home virtual-only a little more special than a typical virtual tour. Things that, speaking for ourselves at least, we’ve never before seen in a virtual tour in this city or province. And some things that you might just miss while we’re at it.
1) Day/Night Mode
In Saskatchewan winters, more than 16 hours of the day are spent in darkness. A good portion of your life is likely to be at home, after dark. So knowing what the home looks like, day or night, is pretty important. As well, this particular home has some beautifully integrated lighting features that just show up better after dark. On this virtual tour, you can make the sun rise or set with the click of that button in the bottom left!
2) Three Places to Watch Sunset
A home with a rooftop deck featuring views in 270 degrees simply has to be seen at sunset. We shot the three primary exterior panoramas in the day, at sunset, and at night. Hang around for a few seconds and watch the scene magically change as the sun sets on Greenbryre. You might not guess it, but don’t miss watching the house light up from the end of the driveway as day turns to night, either!
3) Aerial Virtual Tour
Did you notice the little helicopter icon in the last two panoramas? These aren’t just aerial photos… they’re full blown aerial 360 degree shots! View the home and neighbourhood from the front or back, no pilot’s license required!
4) A Bit of Flare
No, we didn’t misspell flair! This is likely to be something you wouldn’t even notice, but in photos where the sun is beaming down, we’ve generated an artificial lens flare. It adds a bit of depth and dimension to the photos and gives a little sprinkle of extra realism.
5) Hotspots!
You’ve already seen the drone hotspot, but here are just a few more, including the Decora Homes Logo. Open the door, walk to a spot on the floor, go up the stairs, or see more information about an item. We can customize hotspots for any tour.
6) Detail Callouts
See the little orange plus in the background on the fireplace? In the Saskatoon Hospital Home Lottery virtual tour, give one of those icons a tap or click to find out where some of these features were sourced. In other tours, these buttons may pull up a website, link to purchasing a product, or generally give a bit more information. This tour has approximately 30 features that are shown in different ways, including with these callout hotspots.
7) Open and Close Doors
Sometimes you just want to take a peek into a room, like this second-floor laundry off the main hallway, for example. Or, in the case of the kitchen, a hidden door leads to a walk in pantry. You can view with the door closed to see how seamless the kitchen finish is, then open the door and walk in to raid the pantry yourself.
8) Integrated Floor Plans
At over 4500 sqft, you can’t view a home of this scale in a virtual tour without some way of quickly navigating to a location. See where you are thanks to the ‘radar’ indicator (not to mention the name of the room above the floorplan) and what direction you’re facing. Click to jump to that room at the end of the hall again. Or select a whole different floor to explore.
9) Hotspot Free Viewing
Sometimes those hotspots can distract from the clean and simple elegance of the room. Well, we’ve got you covered there. A toggle button in the menu at the top right turns hotspots off or back on again so you can enjoy or grab a screenshot to share with your friends.
10) Turn On, Tune In
Just a little bit of an easter egg. After a long day at the virtual office (i.e. at night), head on down to the basement living room. Go ahead and turn on that TV by clicking on it. And watch the night highlight video of the showhome from the comfort of your virtual couch.
Head over to check it out here:
