I spent a good part of my day this Saturday covering some open house hours and client meetings for one of my sales staffers. This staffer was out to attend a funeral and I am happy to pitch-in. I went to Milwaukee and met with a few extremely nice groups of clients and visitors.

The home I was at was located at was on 91st street  and Good Hope,  in the Oak Hill subdivision.  This is a newer development quite close to Menomonee Falls and has a community full of police officers, teachers, and fire fighters(mostly).   Anyway,  we are building one of our Dream 2000 two story homes and it is now in drywall AND the drywallers were plastering their “mud” today while I showed the home.

In a previous post, I mentioned how I love to attend the big International Home Builder’s Show each year to see what new ideas or products I can discover. This year,  I found a great drywall product that makes it appear like the effect of a very old or classic home. I used many new drywall effects throughout the home but my favorite is the front room’s effect.   This room is located off the foyer so it could be used as a Den.  This room is equally convenient to the back located kitchen , so this room could also be a nice formal dining room if you prefer. In today’s “generation Y” design trend style, this multi-purpose room  (it could also be a parlor or tot’s play room)  is a hot button for allowing folks to use it as they wish. The 11 by 14 foot size is perfect for so many uses AND it is located directly accross from a bathroom so it could also be used as  a guest bedroom if desired. All of this IS NOT the new idea.  I am , slowly getting to that.

I had fun showing the new idea to the visitors today and they seemed to really like it.   The effect is that of having an old fashined room with inset panels on every wall and ceiling too. To accomplish this, I first dry-walled the entire room in a single (normal) layer of drywall. Then, if you can imagine,  I had 6 inch wide and very long, strips of drywall cut and these were put around the room to form picture frames around the  newly created  rectangular inset “panels”  .   I tryed something like this on our Parade 2009 master bedroom(see the home page photo galery of this home’s master to see it) but the difference here is the new edge shape I had applied to the raw drywall edges that formed these panels were a fancy chair rail colonial shape.    The effect is truly stunning and would normally be found only in homes costing much much more.   Until now, this effect would have needed to be done using fine carpentry. We also did this to the cieling and it looks fantastic even in this early state.   I knew I was going to try this, so I decided to really take the design up a notch by building an 6 foot wide by 6.5 feet high alcove into the predominant 14 foot long wall. I could do this because the other side of this wall was against the garage. This meant,(you won’t see it on our Dream 2000 floor plan) I could cantilever this alcove protrusion into the garage and not need to have a foundation under it. I gave an arched top to this alcove so we can put a dining hutch or perhaps a bereau(if used as a den) inside this alcove.   THEN on either side of this alcove, I made two floor- to- cieling rectangular inset panels AND added two ornate wall light sconces(with mini lamp shades) to finish the old world effect.

In the great room, I added crown moulding but NOT of wood, but rather of a new hollow plastic drywall moulding!   What fun to do something so simple that adds so much charm and warmth and not spend an arm and a leg in doing it.   I also used a new drywall corner that is neither square nor round but BOTH  round AND square at the same time!   I will try to explain this in my next blog.

I met the folks who have actually purchased this home and loved showing them around. I feel like a proud Father.   The problem was we had our showing cut a little short because another super couple (and her Dad) showed up and we had a wonderful time dreaming about building a bigger 2-story a few miles away.  I sure love my job!   Lastly, I had a lovely time showing some folks the home and taking an “imagination tour” of our new upcoming “Hybrid Ranch” which I have discussed here on my very first blog entry. I had the Hybrid Ranch design with me in my truck so we took a very brief look. I have a new radical wild idea I am going to introduce in this new design and I can’t wait to share that idea (soon) with all of you.   It is so novel an idea that once I thought of the concept, I honestly can not look at any kitchen cabinet layout without visually seeing a ton of wasted space.

As always, thanks for imaginating with me. If you want to see the drywall ideas I am talking about AND MORE drywall ideas I have not even mentioned (as well as a nifty finshed basement that is sooo simple yet sooo roomy) , stop by the Oak Hill house , 1 to 4 this weekend.   I gaurantee, you will see things you can not see anywhere else I know of!

Blessings and thanks.

Tom Hignite

     The day was spent visiting client homes we currently have under construction. If you know the wonderful feeling it is to see your own home being built, (trust me, if you have not had that experience, it IS wonderful), then you can imagine how I must feel looking at multiple homes we are building at any one time. One of these today was a home we are building on Ochauchee Lake .  This is actualy the second home we are building for these nice people. This one has a 12 foot high basement where the concrete floors were just poured yesterday.  I sure love seeing progress and making notes or suggestions as to how we might make each home a little better.  In this case, I am particualrily happy to see a lake house that was not as custom as some we have designed.  In this case, these folks took an existing simple design we had and modified it so it works and looks great but only costed a fraction of what a scratch-custom would have.

       In my last 2 posts I have talked about creating outdoor spaces that are as nice as indoor spaces, or at least TRYto make them as preferrable as indoor spaces when it comes to simple, after-work relaxation areas. As I mentioned previously, my years of attempting to achieve the perfect outdoor living spaces have been a journey of discovery. That is, I build them in a model, then observe the public reaction, then observe if the new owners actually use these spaces. Sadly, creating an outdoor space that rivals the indoor couch/T.V. combo, where you can control bugs, noise, privacy, and temperature, is tough to do. Who wants to come home after work and relax outside only to find it is too hot, bugs are flying around your head, and the neighbors are outside forcing conversation when you are tired from the day? 

      I wrote how I tried to tackle all (or most) of these challenges when I designed my perfect outdoor front porch, complete  with weather enclosed television, couches, screens, even a built-in fireplace and refrigerator. But creating great outdoor spaces are more than amenities, they must also be “user friendly“. This is to say, that if access is available only by walking up or down a tall flight of stairs or walking outside the home using an unnatural path, you can have all the frills and amenities you want, but the area will NOT be highly used in everyday living.

     The perfect example of this is the family who builds a large dedicated home theatre but then only really uses it for special occasions or weekends. The basement location for this theatre was simply not “user friendly” to the kitchen or living room and took an effort to get to that theatre area. To avoid such placement issues, a wide set of front double doors can open up the entire front porch or patio to the rest of the home. But, what about the bugs and air conditioning escaping or entering through the wide openings?

     One device which is used in commercial operations is called a wind screen. A wind screen actually creates a wall of air flow (wind) that starts at the ceiling and blows in a sheet of wind to block the outside from the inside even with doors open. The next time you go to  a theme park like Great America , or Disney, look at the many door-less shops they have that still mange to stay cool inside on hot days. That cold air is being (mostly) held inside with these invisible walls of wind.   With a wind wall, you can easily walk from inside to outside without worrying to much about getting small bugs  or cold air conditioned air outside, or inside  the home’s interior.

     Another way to keep the bugs out is to simply use screens, but that requires opening and closing screen doors and will not keep the temperature inside the home. On the perfect weather day, or if you use a nice system of cieling fans to keep air moving, you can make screens work.  If you are planning to really use exterior “rooms” in your everyday living and don’t have a wind screen system, try designing the home so the great room(Kitchen/seating/eating area) is all in one area and is zoned so the rest of the home is on a separate heating/cooling zone.  If you have the great room zones so you can turn off the air conditioning without turning off the rest of the homes air conditioning, you must also have a way to door-off the rest of the home. Designing in doors that close off the bedroom hallway are not difficult to do IF you have the forethought to do it.

     The patio area or backyard area of the current design (again it is my “Hybrid Ranch” design and , AGAIN, you should read my first blog entry to see more on that exciting development) I am working on , approaches the idea of creating the perfect outdoor “rooms”.  In my ideal world, this area would be more than an oasis or get-away, it would be all the rooms you need to live in, but outdoors instead, AND, doing things you ould only do outdoors. Here’s how I am doing this.

1. I wanted to have multiple rooms enter/exit onto this lower (walk out basement) patio area. The two guest bedrooms, the upper great rooms (via stairs to lower level), and the lower great room (rec-room) all enter/exit onto this backyard area, making it accessible to many.

2. There is a brick paver pattern and concrete pattern that are curved and curve right into the home’s interior. The brick/concrete patterns actually flow through some main doorway so that the pavers come nto the home. The effect is to make a statement that these outdoor areas are the same as indoors for use. We want folks to not step from carpet onto concrete which instantly tells them, “I am now outside”.

3.  Since it is hard to live outside without having a kitchen, a kitchen was created around the idea of the cook-out, or grill area. Today, some new style kitchen cabinetry , that you would swear are luxury wood cabinets, are being amde of resins to be weather-resistant exterior cabinetry. In the future, don’t be surprised to find complete wood-styled kitchens outside along with exterior grade appliances! My small efficiency outdoor kitchen will have hot and cold running water and a refrigerator. I am designing it to have a commnon wall touching the home so hot water is not problem and inexpensive.

4. The outdoor living room needs to have pleanty of outdoor furnishings (again) that look like indoor furniture styling. Most important, we will have a 60 inch flat panel television set. To make this feasible, I am taking a simple large clear glass picture window and putting it into the home’s main body looking out onto the patio living room.  This window is sized to the size of the television screen. The television (here’s the tricky part of my little invention) is actually not outside at all. It is inside and it faces out of this window so it is seen only from the outside!  I will use exterior grade surround sound speakers and exterior grade sub woofer speaker ( some in the shape of rocks and others attached to the home)to have a sound that will “rock” the backyard for everyday living or an awesome garden party where you can invite Jimmy Buffet or whoever you wish on concert DVDs.

5. For eating areas, I have designed several areas ALL with fans overhead to keep bugs away. Some are on dry land areas and some of these tables are in another one of my inventions I call the “flooding patio”

6. A flooding patio is something you could only do outside and I have done several of them before. They are a concept where you have a portion of the main patio(in this case, 18 feet by 22 feet) sunken a step or two or three below the main patio.  When dry, it appears as though you have a sunken living room on your patio. It is a conversation pit look. When the days or nights get hot, you can flood the patio area to fill with water. You can mingle your feet in just an inch or two of cool water or you could choose to have as much as 12 to 24 inches of water for a great kid’s wading pool or floating around the patio on an air mattress or tube.  In the homes I have built them in, visitors are instantly attracted to these shallow fun pools and in moments remove their shoes, no bathing suit required. Some folks have issues with bathing in a hot tub with others, or swimming at a party, but no one I have met has had any qualms about sitting on the (non-rusting aluminum framed) furniture while splashing their feet. What fun!

7. This outdoor living area series of “rooms” are separated visually by plantings or outdoor art paintings suggesting walls. As for a ceiling that may protect against sudden rain storms or such, one of the big features has the home’s main roof structure covering most of this oasis. A system of screens can be rolled down to enclose most of the backyard rooms.

8. As for the bedroom or bathroom outdoor “rooms”, I needed to address this as well. If  a bathroom was needed, I wanted to design a fun compact “yacht-style” bathroom which was both adjacent to the outdoor rec areas, as well as being available privately to the outdoor bedroom area.

9. Did I say  outdoor “bedroom”? Yes I did. What it appears to be is a covered gazebo or cabana which is pool-side(flooding patio side, that is) . The entire cabana is sided in french doors and hide-away screens.    When you wish, the area can be used to lay out on the covered outdoor queen bed/futon  or sit on a few chairs. When the temperature is too hot for some but right for others, this cabana’s doors can be shut and air conditioning from the home fills the room. Both the bathroom and this bedroom touches the main home only on one corner and (at a casual glance) appears to be separate from the home. In  Winter, this room can be a cozy guest cabana with attached bath. Your guests would have to walk outside to get to the cabana but the huge main room over the rec area does give cover going to and from the main house.

10. The shape of the home and the extra landscaping gives total privacy from any neighbors who would desire to see you in your outside rooms.  We even have, of course, the outside fireplace in a perfect area to give heat to the living room on cold nights watching the outdoor television.

     If this sounds interesting to you, please contact me because I am looking for all of the feed-back I can have for this first-ever concept. I hope , with the kind cooperation of the bankers of course, that I will be able to unveil Wisconsin’s first indoor outdoor home. I have never seen anything like it anywhere and…that makes it all the better and fun to do!

     I hope to unveil it at the 2010 Parade of Homes , this year, in my home town of Richfield.  At that time, again, I will sit back and see how people accept and use these outdoor rooms.  Once again, I am sure I will learn form my latest plan and go on another day to re-think and re-design the perfect outdoor living area.

I am also building a throwback to the age of farm houses and I will talk about what I am doing that no farm may have ever done.  I hope you will visit this blog again to join me for more wild , creative ideas.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

I have just stayed up all last night (until 5 am) to design a unique finished basement. I awoke a few short hours later to spend the day working on a re-design of a 2-story home, so at 5 pm I could meet these nice people and show them the plans in South Milwaukee. I sure enjoy taling new homes with nice people! The dinner was good too, but I digress.  I tell you this as my “excuse” to keep this rather short. I realize I have an obligation to keep my blog updated but this is not the night for length so here-goes.

      In my previous posting I talked about the passion I have for trying to design outdoor spaces that are a continuation of the interior of the home. If I had my way, my designs  would remind you more of being an actual outside room rather than just a deck or patio or porch.

     I wrote about my ideas I am currently designing into my “Hybrid Ranch ” design(see my first blog post). In showing any home, I think it best to approach it like a play.  That is to say, there needs to be a proper introduction or anticipation. This is the look of the home from a distance. I might say “curb appeal” but that does not take the concept far enough. The mere shadow shapes or silhouette of a certain home in the distance(before “curb appeal”) should , in a perfect world, be distinct enough to have viewers be drawn to the building for the sheer architectural interest.   Take, for example, a castle. The mere shape draws you into an anticipation to see inside.   Now, take the closer approach, as the viewer moves-in for a better look.   This is the curb appeal. Not all homes have the appeal of distance but most have some degree of closer curb appeal.  A simple shaped home could have a certain detail (a front door or real working shutters, or a fanciful roof shingle pattern) or a more sophisticated home could have a fountain or intricate masonry, or perhaps a sidewalk that allows visitors to walk over a waterfall(an extreme but real example we have done ).

     As you go onto the front porch, you have now moved into the storyline of this living “play” I am referring too. The porch should reveal more surprises or details. This is telling more of the story.  Maybe a real wood porch floor, or some railing patterns that are unique, or a different type of furniture or fresh flowers. Moving into the foyer reveals the next act of our home’s “play” and as you progress through the home, each new area should tell another part of the whole story of who the home’s occupants are.  As I blog further into the future, perhaps we can discuss the best ways to make each room speak clearly and have a singular distinct message all it’s own.  As you get to the end of the home(usually the backyard or basement, you need a grand finale for your play. I once had a home where it was feasible that the grand finale might just be the basement guest bathroom!  Now for some folks, they might end their visit in the basement theatre.   If that was the case, the theatre was indeed a great grand finale spot to visit.   But,…what IF the visitors last new thing/room they viewed was the basement bathroom?  If the last impression (as important or more important than the first impression) is not strong, the home’s overall impression will not be strong and the great rooms,  or story we are telling becomes   watered-down,  or weak, or just not letting the play end  with a “bang” of memory.  I had to make sure that for those ending their visit in that last room, they had something worthy of being their grand finale. I decided to make this bathroom opulent-extreme,   with a real claw foot tub, rounded walls to follow the tub contours, and all real wood wall panels(painted white) with a huge/long  sink area wall but done classy with only a small bowl pedestal sink and arching themed twin  cabinet towers with simple oval mirror and twin wall sconce lights. The result was enhanced by a special music track which played exclusively in that room  sounded like the finale!

     In many cases the back yard is the finale and this needs to be treated as the most likely grand finale, final act of our “play“. This is where my energy has expired for the night and so, I will continue this tomorrow morning when I find the refreshed power to give this outdoor decor report my “grand Finale”

      Thanks for reading. I would love to hear your comments to see if anyone is reading my ramblings. We did sell another home today and I am feeling overwhelmed by the number of homes we are now selling in the past week(s).

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

Hello ,

     It is quite late and if I want to make this a Tuesday blog entry, I had better type quick!

     I spent an invigorating morning deep in designing what I see as a new-age backyard.  A few years ago, I had the crazy notion (especially in cold Wisconsin )  that folks don’t spend a lot of time outside when relaxing. Socializing, yes.  Relaxing after work or when no one else is around, no.   Sure, you might garden or have the oft cookout outside, but with bugs ind humidity or wind blowing stuff around, really…hanging outside is not the most relaxing place compared to a bug-free, television-ready, temperature -custom , bathroom close-by,  couch inside the home.  Besides, the smaller lots today have potential issues of privacy , both visual and” noise-wise”.

   Despite all of these obstacles, I have become fixated on a crazy notion of asking, seeing, exploring, whether it is possible for me to think outside the box enough to get past some or all of these problems.  If you bring up(on the website photo gallery) our 2009 Parade’s Little-Big House, or check out our front yard photos of our Homestead 3 Special Edition 2-story, or see our Sand Bay front yard, you will see I have been experimenting with this outdoor living concept for some time.

    There is nothing that teaches better than carefull thought, careful design , then  just building something and seeing how it works. I have observed how these outdoor areas functioned and I have seen the deficiencies in each exterior area I have designed and built. People loved our Little-Big House front porch more than they loved to sit on our Little-Big House  back patio. The patio had more room, good privacy, and even my first new invention of an outdoor television, that was quite watchable after dusk. I think folks liked the front porch better because it first, had a roof which gave it better sun protection, and second, it had better furniture. But, unless you had someone outside to talk to, or a television or computer , you might easily get bored and want to go inside.

    On this particualr front porch idea, I had the most comfortable padded love seats that you could want. I had designed the landscaping to have pretty good privacy so you would not feel like you were relaxing in front of passer-bys on the street. I had even thought of including that  most relaxing element  of splashing water in a  which was to  mesmerize and draw you to the area(and it did1)  But alas, even all of this  was not enough to  make this area  preferred for relaxation sake over an interior couch.

     I took all of this into account and have been designing my heart out to get the next attempt right. If I had an area where folks could have laid on a couch or bed, that would have been a big , MAJOR,  first step in competing with the inside couch area.

    I remember, my Grandparents in Glendale had a back porch and they spent lots of time in that area watching a small television, eating on a small table, playing cards, and…laying down for a nap on a couch. This porch had a small bathroom right off of this  porch, just inside the home. It had fantastic privacy from passer-bys and it had all screens so it could enjoy the breeze and the sounds of nature. ( Grandma fedd and watched the birds and Grandpa had his b-b gun ready in case of squirles) I t also had a train track just behind the porch by 200 feet on a hill, but even that noise was  was not powerful enough reason to detract from this being a most desirable area to relax.

    My Aunt and Uncle  in Cedarburg too have a back enclosed porch and they use it all the time. We built a lovely back porch with an area for a hot tub on one home last year and they use that area a lot,  so I hear.

     Am I advocating back porches? …yes and no. I have a grander plan of making the front porch just as attractive  as these rear porches and I think I  have found a way to start by finding a perfect balance of open railing and short wall pieces to give the porch a sense of privacy. I have come up with a method to use hide-away screens to protect the area from bugs. I have porch ceiling fans to keep it cooler. (here’s where I get a bit extreme) I have gone so far as to find an aesthetically pleasing way to have a large weather-protected television and  a heating fireplace both on this front porch. I also have a huge set of french door on the front porch that leads a few steps away to the inside dinning table AND even a concealed refrigerator. Yes, there are places to have couches and you can see  passer-bys if you sit up but are totally private if you lay down on the couch!

     There is a dynamite sound system, and even a quick access into the garage if you have the need. I am working at putting a bathroom close by but that may not come to fruition.   But that’s not all.   As wonderful as this big 10 by 18 front porch may be, the back yard concepts are even cooler, wilder, and I have not seen the vast majority of these  ideas   done before anywhere(which always excited me!).

     I will share some of those “ back yard “rooms” ideas in the next blog. Here’s the big deal on what I am doing with this design, ( First, the whole house has all sorts of new ideas I have had percolating in my head for many months and I could write  pages on every room ,    really).   Second, what make all this so much more exciting for me is that designing this kind of stuff into a home that is 2,500 , or 3,000, or 4,000 square feet is easy enough for any novice  designer to do.   I always say, anyone can throw money at a design and make it wonderful to behold. The real fun and challenge comes in doing stuff like this , to make the home FEEL like a 3,000  or 4,000 square footer, but do it in what some would see as a “small” square footage home. This home has everything but it is part of my “Hybrid Ranch” (see my first few blog entries for the general scoop on this idea). This, folks, is a 1,500 square foot ranch that I bet will fool even the most savvy home shopper into thinking this is twice the size. A home that blends outdoor “rooms” with inside rooms in ways that blurs the line of indoor/outdoor.

    By the way, today, we posted a whole group of photos from our Lake Bay and Ellison Bay(and others) on our home page’s photo gallery. I hope you will take a look. I hope you will check back to see what I have in mind for the backyard “rooms”.  Thanks for reading. I missed my quick part of my headline, I missed my midnight deadline to post this, but I hope I did not miss making these ideas “sweet”.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

I am blessed to be  alive in a time where (once we get do get through this home market downturn), I will have a sense of perspective that I would never have had if the road never got so bumpy. When a home builder, such as Miracle Home Builder’s , who is used to seeing several new home sales a week , can go several weeks without a single prospect, …what a week!   When we get used to getting so many sales phone calls on any given day that we need to literally pick and choose who to call first, then turns to not getting more than a call or two a day,…what a day!  And , when my life, which ( business speaking) was revolving around and was so connected to zooming to the top of the Home Building  “heap”, suddenly finds the flurry of mind-numbing decisions and frantic paced interaction with a whole building full of a giant workforce, turn into some empty desks and a mostly blank appointment calender,  a fast-forward life is seemingly put into slow-motion and pause, …what a life!

The foxhole mentality (you know, the one that finds God most needed when the artillery shells are blasting closest) , the mentality that you had only seen in other ’s lives, comes  very close to my own home.  Each week that passes, makes this new slower pace seem more normal and acceptable,  making that faster pace seem like it may have been just a dream.  Existing in this “new” housing market , if nothing else has given a 20/20 perspective to just how good we , as home builders, really had it.  If only we could hold on to this perspective, that would be a very good thing.

Unfortunately, I know that once this home sales roller-coaster starts rolling upward again(all roller coasters do, you know) I will likely see these past few down-market years as a distant memory, an awakinging  to re-start that frantic pace once again.  As much as I want to keenly remember the lessons of frugality that this tough home season has taught, I know that humans speak of learning from history but few really do. Look at 911 for example. Look at the death of a loved one.  No, we never forget the pain or history, but as time passes, the pain does not sting as acutely as living in the day.

Tonight, moments before this posting, one of my sales folks nexteled me to say that he signed some very nice clients to building a new home.  I was naturally happy, both for us and the client(really, I do still get a legitimate high out of seeing other’s happy, and I wanted to share and hear about those folk’s smiling moment). Yesterday, I went to Office Max and purchased a big dry-erase board to put congratulation notes in our foyer for the 5 other homes or lots that were sold last week at Miracle.  In the past several weeks, I have seen a dramatic positive up-turn in our home building business.

I spoke to a friendly competitor (I do have a few legitimate ones) today, and he expressed that he too , had signed a new home contract last night, and had a good January.  When this whole down-turn came, I didn’t see it coming. Fortunately,by God’s grace,  we were able to weather the storm better than some builders who had big investments in land and lots.  If you don’t know, as a custom builder, we don’t own land. I saw many small builder’s buckle under the pressure and change professions. I saw several big name builders go out of business or come close to it.  When this market starts to make it’s come-back, I don’t think I will see it coming any more than when it got here.

I  look at the data on how many website visitors Miracle is getting each day and I see a spike since late December which has climbed higher, ever slightly higher, day by day, week by week. Does that mean we are now out of the down-market? I am feeling that old fast-paced excitement creeping back, at least for this week, and the last few.  I dare not even guess whether this is a trend or a blip on the radar screen. For now, I am satisfied that we are doing quite fine but I sincerely doubt we are out of the woods just yet. Unemployment is still down but all the experts (boy, did I see a lot of those financial-type-experts at the recent International Home Builder’s show/Vegas) confidently say, the worst is behind us by several months. Home values are coming up. Wisconsin should see a 3.5% increase in home values this year alone. Wisconsin home sales should be up 25% from  last year and 50% more next year over this year!  Interest rates are still down to about as low as anyone has ever seen, and consumer spending confidence is up as well.  Add that to another huge home buying/building “first” that the government is paying folks to buy/build homes, and we might just have the “perfect storm’ of home buying happening.

I  do kind of feel like the car dealer who ALWAYS says NOW is the best time to buy a car. If he always says that,  it seems dishonest.  Even so, it can not be denied that this is far better than I would have imagined even several months ago.  The biggest trouble folks have of needing to sell an existing home first ,before commintting to buying a new home we addressed a while back in our current promotional offering.  But this blog is not meant to sound too “overtly” self-serving, so on to the bigger point.

The bigger point is that tonight I feel a giant smile inside me . Not because of tonight’s sale(that certainly helped…a bit), but because I feel that the days, and weeks, AND years, of this down-market has given me a re-born appreciation of just  how special it truly is to build homes and make people happy in the process.   That smile is for a deep satisfaction that, for me,  I am in the right business.  I have seen the best and the worst and would not trade a minute of the worst since it gives a deeper appreciation of the best.  Good or bad, I am having a blast designing and creating some some of the most awesome new home ideas!  ideas that I might not have thought of in a great market, only in a poor one.  Thank God for the blessing of creativity.

On another note, if you want to see some pretty neat new photos of my Ellison Bay model ranch we had in Kenosha, our webmaster just added them to the photo gallery and to the Ellison Bay page. I am always interested in your feed-back.

Next time, I will give you some of those new neat ideas and try to stay a tad less preachy. Thanks for allowing me to share some reflections.

Blessings,

Tom Hignite

Hello,

If you have not yet read my first and second Blog postings(this is number 3 if you are counting) let me quickly re-cap. In blog 1 I gave a passionate plea to consider the many new possibilities in building a Hybrid Ranch (aka 2-story ranch). Remember, ALL ranches are 2-story if you have a basement. In blog number 2 I went on to explain a new way to have a walk-out basement(sort of)  , in a flat lot building situation. These two subjects are just two elements which I believe dovetail with this 3rd installment , and all three of these connect to my recent visit to the International Home Building Show in Las Vegas, a dozen days ago.

This Show, is the biggest show I can imagine , and half the reason to go to the show is to attend the long list of seminars. No matter the home subject, sales, green building, construction supervision, financing, or(my favorite) home design.  It always seems I have some new home idea or concept that is keen on my mind and in this case, and for the last several months, I have been really captivated by the notion of creating a whole new generation of homes.

Honestly, I am getting downright sick of visiting new homes and seeing the latest home trend plan books and not seeing anything that is truly “different”. I am sure that some guy at some time got tired of always washing towels to dry his hands with and then decided there must be a better way. He invented the paper towel. Now that we all use paper towels, they are nothing special. When the first television or automobile was invented, they were probably such radical  ideas, that it must have excited the pants off those riding on horses or listening to radios for entertainment. I am sure that when the next really big break in home design comes along, it won’t take long until it will revolutionize the industry and everyone will look at that design and wonder why we didn’t think of it before.

I am convinced that the basic concept of designing mostly squared rooms, made out of lumber and drywall using pointy peaked roof, and putting cabinets on the floor with wall cabinets on the…well…wall, and putting first floor laundry rooms, ceramic tile floors, hardwood, carpet, fireplaces, bathrroms, ALL of this will some day cahnge, just as sure as when the first out- houses  were brought indoors and folks must have thought how brilliant that idea was. ALL of what we know today as a house could change. ALL of this SHOULD change. And when it does, folks will ALL look at each other and say, gee , why didn’t we think of that before?

A few years ago, I drove by a home in Kenosha that looked a lot like one of my own  design.  I knew it was not but it looked so familiar. Every father knows his own child so I got out of the truck and went inside this new home which was about midway through construction.  This 1600 square foot ranch had balck and white copies astrewn all about the home. These photos were of MY model home.  Similar things like this have happened before, and even though Wisconsin has one of the toughest (best for builder) copyright laws in the book which could get me potentially tens of thousands of dollars for such an incident, I  just didn’t want to going through the mental anguish again.

The emotions of that moment caused me to decide to begin all over again and start designing even newer, even more unique, even more cutting edge designs that, if I have my way ,  will never be mistaken as anything but an original Miracle design.

I have heard it said that there are only so many ways to design a certain sized or type of home. I strongly disagree.  If you check out my Kinsey Bay design, you will se the home I designed immediatly after this incident. If you could see what I have been working on in the last 6 weeks(a 1500 sqare foot Hybrid Ranch) I think   you would see something totally new, bourn out of my circumstances at the time.  Now let me connect the dots from the International Home Show to today’s design subject of homes from 2012 and beyond.

I heard upwards of 7 famous home designers ,speaking at the show, all addressing  the same subject of what the new generation Y (also called New Millenials) will want in a new home. Here is the bullet- point synophsis I took in my notes at the seminars.

1. We need homes that will address the social happening that generations of  all ages are now beginning to live together longer. It is not unusual to see retired folks living with their kids or a grandmother taking primary care of the grandchildren, or a son or daughter living in the parent’s home until they are married or even after they are married. New designs need to better addressing private spaces and be flexible to allow co-living.

2. There is a distinct price shift taking place. The age of the McMansion is over and price is more important than size. In fact, home sizes are shrinking and developers had better realize they need to lower their restrictions of size for new developments.

3. Everyone wants ”green” built homes but very few are willing to pay mcuh to get it. Green is good, extreme green is not. A new buyer will pay only about $35 more a month on their mortgage  to get Green features.

4. The new generation Y considers the outdoor fireplace or fire pit to be the new essential and things like a whirlpool tub or three car garage, dining room, study, and formal living room  are not.  Many surveyed said if they could only have one fireplace, they would choose to put it outside and sacrifice the inside fireplace.

5 Generation Y will want more uniqueness, less opulence . More contemporary than ever before. They are the age of Ikea(I hope I spelled that right) shopping and designs need to be bolder.

6. Generation Y is not desiring large families and many will opt for no children.

7. Technology will be huge and homes need to allow for all the new tech toys.

8. Outdoor social areas will be as important as the interior rooms. New furnishings and cabinets, are coming to make outdoor feel like indoors.

9. They are not about owning new “things”. They will not need all the bells and whistles in the homes but whatever is in the home must be nice and workable/functional.

10. Lot size is far less important than the location of the lot (proximity), it should be near shopping, entertainment, or near work.

11. More Generation Y people will work out of their homes. Even so, the need for an office(unless folks will visit the home for business) is low. They would rather work at their couches in the living room with a laptop.

12. The maximum time they wish to travel to their workplace from home is 27 minutes.

13. They will want multi-function spaces.

14. Female will continue to have the buying power. This is the fastest growing segment in the U.S. We will see lone females buying homes.

15. 55 years old(plus) is a whole new world. Older people are looking/feeling/living younger. 50 is the new 40.

16. People will work longer, pensions are gone, big becomes less important for them.

17. Big traditional families are becoming the minority. They are still the most important segment because they are the segment that needs and wants to move.

18. They prefer single detached homes rather than condo living.

19. 1500 sqare feet is heading into being the new norm for size.

20.They want a social hub, open floor plans, high ceilings, combined living and dining, and (again) outdoor spaces are going to be HUGE(popular not big)

21.The new buyer has and wants LOTS of clothes.

22. Generation Y is extremely brand concious. Sampo is not as favored as Sony for example. Quality is king.

23. Structured wiring is the norm.

24. New Millinials want products that represent their change oriented culture. They are less concerned about the illusion of wealth.

So, what does all of this look like. Stay tuned to see my current designs(or give me a call ).

Unless you think this is not real, these buyers will become the next , most massive home buying segment to ever hit America. A few stats  show that 82% of these Generation Y folks think it is important to buy a home. 50% say they will buy in the next 3 years. Once this group enters the marketplace in 2012, they will dominate the market through 2051. 86% list price as the most important thing in making a home purchase decision. 14% think size is important.Home sizes will run 1428 to 1728 square feet in size. 70% of these buyers want designs that meet their needs, not luxuries.

In my next blog, I will talk about a few new items that I am including in our next generation of homes that is pretty off-the-wall. Please let me know your thoughts and let me know you are out there.

As I said, I may not post every day, but at least several times a week. I hope you will check back.

Blessings,

Tom

I cannot assure you I will post every day, but here is the continuation of last night’s first-ever blog subject.

As you may recall, when we last left the land of Wild Ideas, I was making my case for what I call the Hybrid Ranch (or the 2-floor Ranch, I have not decided which name has the better ring to it), where we place only the master bedroom on the first floor and place the other bedrooms all downstairs. One of the big potential draw-backs to making this a widespread popular idea is that most available lots are not walk-out or view-out basement possible. Most lots are flat.

To make this concept appealing to the masses, would require the basement to have many windows and not everyone accepts looking out into deep window wells. Window wells that can fit large , bedroom size windows (called egress windows) have been designed to be more and more beautiful. The problem is that they still lack much depth beyond a few feet away from the window glass and that makes it all seem so much like a basement, rather than like a ground floor.

Here’s the big idea to overcome using wells on a flat lot. you will have to paint a visual picture in your head to understand the concept so stay with me.  Start by imagining(for simplicity sakes) that the shape of a home is a rectangle with 40 feet facing the front of the street and 50 feet of depth.  In your mind’s eye, dig the 40 by 50 foot (that 2000 square feet0 hole and pour/build 4 basement walls that are 8 feet tall(9 if you like), forming a 40 by 50 foot rectangular basement into a flush level lot.

Simple so far? Here’s where it might get tricky, but stay with me.

Take the back rear right corner of this rectangular basement, and at 15 feet , the midpoint of the rear wall, build a wood wall(with lots of patio doors or window openings in this wood wall), as high as the basement walls, and extend it perpendicular , from the rear of the basement’s 30 foot wall going 25 feet toward the front of the homes. Now at a 90 degree angle to the end of this wall(which is now near the exact middle of the original rectangular  basement)  build another wood wall (with more windows or patio doors) of 15 feet in length from the end of the 25 foot wall extending to the right until it touches/attaches to the midpoint of the 50 foot long concrete basement wall on the right.

If you followed this through, you have now built a recatangular basement with about one quarter of the back right corner sectioned off into a 15 by 25 foot “room”. Now build the first floor of the home over the entire basement EXCEPT, do not build any living area over the 15 by 25 foot sectioned off back corner.  NOW….. build a rectangular 30 by 50 foot rectangular roof  over the WHOLE basement concrete wall area.  Treat the two basement level wood walls like they are exterior walls, because in fact that is what they now will become. in effect, we have built a 15 by 25 foot basement courtyard with lots of windows overlooking into the lower level courtyard and to keep most of the rain or snow out of this huge 15 by 25 foot ” mega-window well“, a roof is covering this whole courtyard.

If you do the math, what we now have is a 2000  square foot basement with a 1500 square foot house and 1500 square foot enclosed basement area AND a 500 square foot basement courtyard. If you read my previous blog posting, you will see why this 1500 square foot home is significant to a new way of thinking about home design.

At ground level, a deck-style railing system must be built around this area, giving the appearance(to neighbors) that you have a covered deck with rails. To enhance the usability of this area, a full pressure treated staircase is built to allow access from lower courtyard to the back patio or yard. In the future, you might consider enclosing the open first floor sides (where the rails are) with glass or screens. You may even want the first floor to have a deck that is partially suspended over the lower courtyard to add a new dimension to your upstairs entertaining.

At the recent International Home Show (in Vegas) a slew of famous home designers spoke at seminars about the   new homes which the new “generation Y ” , sub-named “new Millennial”, will be desiring . The orders from these generals of home design called out for us all to abandon all of our old designs and start new.  Numerous surveying of the massive new age of up-coming home buyers will be looking for things that you (and I) may have never imagined. One of the first desires on the new Generation Y home designs will be a new emphasis on enhanced and expanded outdoor living spaces.

I was glad to hear that because, if you visited our 2009 Parade Of Homes Little-Big House, you know that we put a lot of work into creating a fantasy front yard porch social area as well as a socializing back patio area complete with our own twist on an indoor/outdoor WILD IDEA television concept. I felt somewhat “ahead of the curve” on several of the Generation Y list of items and this covered basement level patio/court yard was unlike anything I have ever seen , anywhere, including at this home show.  I can imagine being able to cook out for friends  in your basement level. Now THAT is a very Wild Idea indeed!

On my next blog, I will cover the list of items that these top home designers predict will become a part of the next wave of homes that will be sweeping over the country from 2012 through 2052.  The future is coming next up when we blog again. Housing will never be the same. Here’s your  chance to get ahead of that curve with your new home design.

Thanks again for “imaginating “with me.

Blessings,

Tom

Hello  World !

This is my first entry of my first blog and I am hopeful to make it worth your while to log on and join me for observations about everything from what is (or has) happened in my Miracle Home Building day.  I hope you will share your comments with me on any subject, whether  it is a comment on a subject I am writing about or perhaps a comment on something realted OR entirely off the topic at hand. If you are interested in writing to me, I will try to return the favor.

It is nighttime and for me 7:30 is still early. If you are like me, I do most of my most creative thinking and designing long after Jacquie and the kids have gone to relax mode.  About a week ago, I was at the World’s(?) Biggest Home Building show, The International Home Builder’s show . This year it was in Vegas,  and like every year, there are literally 4 to 5 miles of isles to walk and see the latest things.     My ambition is to see it all, but in the 4 days of the show runs each year, I have never been able to see it all. My overall idea is to find things that no other home builder has found so when folks visit a Miracle home and want the things they see in my homes, they just can’t find where to get the “stuff” I have found. The main thing is to differentiate my homes as being something special and different.  A few years ago, I found an elegant wood formed archway that looked like something out of a very old house but was  pretty reasonably priced.  Any other builder who would want to immitate this, would need to pay an awful lot unless they know my “secret’ source. I only give this one example so you can see my show goals when I walk the isles.     Last year, I found a great new rubber gasket material to put under the floor boards before screwing them down. This fantastic product has been so good that I have yet to have a call-back for a single squeaky floor when I have used it.  I can (and will) be happy to share some of these awesome new product ideas with you as the blogs continue but this year the neatest thing to come out of the big show was not found in any isle but rather in my own private relaxation time in flight and in the hotel room.

That is what I want to share with you today.

I will start by sharing one of my core frustrations. I am addicted to attempting to design the “perfect” home. Every one of the thousands of homes we have built or the hundreds of homes I have designed(we build my designs but some are repeats), usually start with some wild concept that I have not seen done in a home. Many years ago, I observed that the favorite seat in our living room was the couch . I designed my own living room to have 2 couches and a love seat. Whenever I  or my 2 boys are in the living room, we are usually laying down on a couch. When my Dad would come to visit us, we wanted to lay down, but since there would not be enough room for everyone to lay down, no one layed down. More accurately, once my Dad settled in, he was laying down and the 2 boys tried to both lay on the same , remaining  couch. Sound familiar?

My answer was to realize that the ideal situation was to have 5 places in our living room to lay down.  When I designed one of my first popular designs for the 1998 Menomonee Falls MBA Parade, I started with the furniture . I found a logical way to have 4 couch spots and a spot for a recliner  all in the same “normal” sized great room. It was a huge hit! I know that most folks only have 1 or 2 couches but designing with 4 couch areas would give folks 4 different possibilities to place their 1 couch or a few combination areas to put their 2 couches. As long as I design for enough room to fit couches rather than love seats or chairs, I figure you can always fit a love seat , or 2 chairs into  a couch spot but you can’t fit a couch into a spot that only fits a love seat or a chair. I hope I  am making it clear that designing FOR furniture rather than just letting things “happen” is a wonderous thing that SHOULD separate my designs from any other normally designed home. But….I digress!

Just as the idea for the couch example was bourne out of a real ife observation that I  saw in my own house, most of my concepts that make it into one of my designs have some core WILD idea that starts my creative juices flowing. Here’s where this year’s Home Show “best idea” came from, another VERY WILD idea. Like most such wild ideas , I know in my heart of hearts that this idea is something I have never seen before and what’s more, I firmly belive the time has come for me to be the first builder to introduce this off the wall concept, because it is just so “right”for our times( and budgets).     Stay with me here because I am (slowly) getting to pay dirt. Let me introduce this idea by asking youto first  see if you agree with my initial central premise.

PREMISE: People in today’s economy and generational times would just as soon stay where they are unless they have something I can offer to them that is substantially different or appealing enough to motivate them to build and move.  New Generation Y (called New Millinials I would find out at the convention show design seminars) first time buyers and older “last house” buyers have one thing in common. They want a smaller house, are less concerned about glitz and opulance, but whatever IS in the house must be of high-end quality/design  and just simply “work” to make life easlierfor them. To summarize, folks want small, quality homes but subdivisions and builders have not realized yet how to deliver that at the all important lower dollar. Not many subdivions are allowing smaller homes to be built PERIOD.

The bigger problem with this premise is that I know many buyers who want a small house but when I interview them, they want three bedrooms upstairs, a sufficient sized first floor master, a large kitchen, great room, laundry, maybe even a den and they think the <em>magic</em> answer is they ARE willing to give up the dining room or formal living room. (They also want a bonus room over the garage!). I don’t care if you want a ranch or two story, the demma is the same, folks SAY they want small(and they do) home but the description (did I mention they want all the secondary bedrooms at least 11 by 12′6″)just does not add up to a small home when you do the math. The result is the home buyer discovers they can not bring themselves to build their smaller home and therefore they end up living in a home that, when the shine is worn off the new home, they sadly admit is just <strong>too</strong> big.

If you are still with me, pay dirt is now very close. If you agree with me that this is often the scenario,  I had the brainstorm to introduce what I am calling a  Hybrid Ranch concept. If that sounds fancy, the best way to explain it is to explain that if you were buying a mid-sized ranch or a 2 story with the master bedroom on the first floor, this concept is for you. A mid-sized ranch that meets many of the wish list demands is typically 1800 to 2,000 square feet. The normal sized two story/first floor master-3 beds upstairs is about 2300 to 2700 square feet, with about 1300 on the first floor.

Remembering that if I were to tell you that I was going to design your family a 2400 square foot ,story and a half home with 1300 on the first floor, you would have no issue with this. NOW, what if I were to tell you that I was going to design your family a 1,300 square foot ranch and (here it is) put the balance of those bedrooms in the “basement”, your immediate response might be to slam the door shut on the idea., but I ask you to ask yourself …WHY? Let’s assume, like many folks, you intend to finish off the basement and don’t want to loose the room with bedroom space. The answer is that instead of building the 1,300 first floor you would have built with the story and a half, you can build a 1500 square foot first floor and use that extra square footage not only to have a bigger first floor than you WERE going to build, but the basement, if done right, would still be close to the same available rec-room area you desired in the original 1300 square foot design.

You may say, you don’t want your kids to stay in the basement. I say, so long as you build with the same amount of windows you would have had upstairs with second floor common bedrooms, what makes this a basement other than verbiage? You say, I will never go in my basement except to store items. I say, if you have bedrooms upstairs, you would need to be going up those stairs to clean those rooms and there is no difference if you are taking stairs to the basement or to the second floor.

Let’s say you are intending to build a 1800 or 2000 square foot ranch. Once again, if you do the math and subtract the first floor guest bedrooms from a typical split bedroom ranch, you are in reality building a 1300 or 1500 square foot ranch plus two bedrooms.  Your effective living spaces, kitchen, dining, master bedrooms, etc, will be exactly the same as in a larger ranch but you will have used a small portion of the basement for the bedrooms with plenty of other space to do a large rec-room.

NEED MORE? Think bathrooms! I a typical mid-sized ranch, or master first floor two story, you need a full bath upstairs for the guest bedrooms, a half bath for guests on the main floor, and a full bath for the master. Baths cost bucks and are a cleaning chore. When you finsh off the basement rec-room, you will likely add another bathroom. Make the count and you will see that your proposed “small” house now has 4 bathrooms. Putting the bedrooms in the basement eliminates one of those baths by having the basement bath double as the guest bathroom. This saves construction costs and square footage.

I contend, that I can design a 1500 square foot , master first floor  Hybrid ranch with room sizes you would have only previously found in 2500 to 2700 square foot (very large)homes!

To those who are still having issues with having guests live in the basement(or kids) ask any kid who has had their bedroom downstairs and they will be quick to say how much they love it. If you are building a split bedroom ranch for better privacy, this concept beats that idea by far for privacy. Now When you do get around to finishing the rec-room, those guests and your kids have their own home -sized apartment downstairs.

When it comes to building costs,when it comes to taxes for square footage, when it comes to not waking up after you have built the home and the luster is worn off, or when it comes to seeing the kids grow up and leave,with  buyer’s remorse for building too big ,  this is the answer.

I have thought long and hard before I put my pencil to paper and one thing that can’t be ignored is that while this Hybrid ranch would be not trouble to permit on a country type lot, building what equates to a 1300 or 1500 square foot ranch in most subdivisions will not fly. Restrictions usually require (not always) ranches to have a minimum size of 1800 or 2000 or even 2400 square feet. For a two story, you would need typically 2000 square feet with at least 1000 square feet on the first floor or 2200 square  feet with at least 1200 on the first floor, or even a 2500 square foot two story with at least 1250 square feet on the first floor.

THINK about this. If you were to build a Hybrid ranch with, say, 1250 square feet on the first floor and add a small staircase going up to a finished loft over the garage, you would then likely   be judged to be conforming to the literal description of being a two story! That loft could be nothing more than storage space.

The last big issue is the previously mentioned issue of finding a way to put lots of windows in the basement. This would not be an  issue at all if you had a sloping walk-out or look-out exposure. A flat lot would require another WILD idea. You won’t believe the creative idea(simple yet bold) for accomplishing having abundant windows without using window wells. or worrying about snow or rain. I have saved the best part of this wild idea for my blog entry number 2 but until then …this idea has merit.  It could change the way America see s home s  and the way home designers approach home designs. If you want to see just how much space is possible WITH ALL bedrooms on the SAME  floor, check out the photo gallery on the miracle-homes.com website(little-Big House 2009 Parade Model). If you want to see my new Hybrid Ranch that I am passionately working on to introduce in a few months, let me know.  Is this a fantastic concept or  am I alone in seeing the “light”?

Thanks for reading.

Blessings,
Tom