I have often wondered about whether I will be able to be doing things in my creative life , creative ideas that I may never have the time enough or money enough to ever see come into reality.  I want to share some of my (a very few of my…) creative dreams with you that I have always wanted to do, and I only hope someday, I will find the time, situation, and money to do them, before I pass from this earth.

     I have always wanted to create an elderly care home which would be the kind of place that would bring a new dimension of peace and excitement to aging lives.It would bring a better quality of life to older folks.  More than hospital rooms disguised as hotel rooms, disguised as real home rooms. More than a sitting area and an eating area and a few card tables for crafts.

     I would design someplace that the family members would actually want to visit because the place had something special for the whole family to enjoy.  Having families “want” to visit (instead of having to drag them to see great grandma or cousin Albert) is important because seeing younger folks interact helps keep the residents young. If I were to build such a home, it would have pool tables.  It would have a video arcade and game room. It would have a playground to let youngsters tumble and frolic while older folks could watch and enjoy the laughter of play.

     I would have a small “church” complete with pews, an organ, an alter, and stained glass. This would be a spot where some may go to pray and reflect and praise wihtout having to always find transportation to a church. We could have guest preachers and small services at Christmas and Easter. When a resisident passes-on, we can have a special area to put thier portrait and special memory photos so others can pay their respects, or place flowers.

     I would have a pet shop where folks could go to snuggle with pets, and an art studio where arts could be taught and artists could teach how to paint, draw, or sculpt. Perhaps a few kilns for doing ceramics.

     It would have a gift store where an outside entrance and signage would invite customers to buy gifts, some of them hand made by the residents. This way, business minded guests could keep their minds sharp by seeing commerce at work and maybe even turn their work into a few dollars profit.

     I would have a restaurant styled area which projected video images on all the walls so as to mentally transport guests to exotic settings while they eat(by the sea shore or on a mountain top). This would allow them to explore and travel without leaving “home”.

     I would have parks and ponds, and a theatre stage where music could be heard or plays be performed by guests or residents. The movie theatre would be big enough and comfortable enough to allow everyone to enjoy movies just like going to the cinema. 

     I have seen people in my life who were seemingly healthy adults go into elderly care homes and then deteriorate and die. I think it has something to do with these folks not feeling alive but rather being put into “storage” until they pass. I know, if I were in one of these homes, I would be hard pressed not to age and give-up. I need to design and build one while I still can.  We all need to feel like we are not shut-out of normal living and all need the ability to contribute in some way.

      On a much lesser creative scale, I have always wanted to design and have my own kind of restaurant. In my place, like the elderly home idea, where folks would be transported visually to different remote spots on the earth, or to the greatest Wisconsin sights. A place where you can bring the family and “get-away ” on a small escape vacation to the tropics when you have had too much snow.  The grand piano would play different types of music for each destination or season.

     I have always wanted to build a fantastic tree house which has running water and all the amenities of home, next to a stream. The tree house would have lots of glass so you could see upward and feel like you were sleeping under the stars at night.

    I have always wanted to build a bedroom where you could walk into this children’s  bedroom and find yourself  walking on a suspended rope bridge going directly into a huge indoor tree fort. You see, the floor of this bedroom is suddenly gone because it is open to the basement entirely! You would climb up stairs to get to the sleeping hut in this tree and another hut for the play room. The trunk would have a curving slide to take you from the top of the tree to the very bottom of the trunk exiting in the basement, near an indoor pool.

    I have always wanted to build a bedroom entirely out of legos. I thought this would be especially fun to build the walls, bed, dressers, chairs, even the doors and window frames entirely of legos. Then build common non-lego toys out of legos.

     I have always wanted to build a teenager’s room which was decorated to be messy and beautiful. I would have the carpet seamed with cut-in shapes of clothing astrewen about the floor. The dirty sweat socks are actually seamed into the carpeting along with the shapes of jeans and t-shirts, all done in carpet. The bed spread and window curtains would all be made of fashionable clothing sewen together to form these items. The walls would be soundproofed so they could play the music or guitar or drums as loud as they like, and I would have a stack washer dryer right in the room to make doing laundry as easy as possible.

     I have been an amateur magician since middle school and I would love to have a bedroom with shallow stages all around the room so I could display my large colorful stage illusions on all walls and be able to perform them at a moments notice for guests. I would like to make it so my bed could “magically” rise from the floor and a couch group would rise up onto the main level of the floor for changing the room into a lounge or bedroom.

     I have always wanted to build a living room or rec-room that was built on a turn-table so it could turn in various directions to favor the views or sun light.  It might feel like you were in one of those spinning restaurants or just be static.

     I would like to build a master bedroom that has two toilets as well as two sinks and have a special way to automatically separate the beds when someone is snoring (see a previous blog article)too loudly.

     In this year’s parade of homes model ,I am calling the “HYBRID WONDER HOME” I will have the opportunity to do several things I have always wanted to do. I will be creating outdoor “rooms” that feel like indoor rooms. I will be creating a portion of my fantasy restaurant complete with automatic piano and changing video environments, I will be creating the first kitchen ever to have no space wasted between the counter tops and the wall cabinets. I will be putting a laundry room IN the master bedroom closet area, and many more things that I have always wanted to do.

     The term bucket-list seems a current popular term. It means making a list of things you want to do before you die(kick the bucket). I may not ever get to do all of my bucket list(I have so many more things I want to create) but thank God for the many blessings he has allowed me to create or help create. It is not about the creation, it is about the smiles and lifes you impact with the things you create.

     If you want to join me for some creative idea sharing or hearing more about our 3 Parade homes we are now building in Richfield’s Reflection’s  Village, I hope you will stop out at the models in Milwaukee, Monterey, or Jackson.  I would love to share a lively conversation. Remember, this is the last weekend for the MBA Spring Tour Of  Homes  from 12 to 4. We will also be open this Monday night from 6 to 8 in Jackson and Milwaukee. I hope to see you there!

     Creative Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

P.S. I would love to hear your feed-back or comments. Please feel free to post them. I get a LOT of spam comments so please comment by mentioning something I actually wrote about in your comments.  Thanks for blogging!

    Our bigReflection’s Village project continues to move forward in Richfield. Today, we back filled one home and lumber is coming tomorrow to begin pounding nails at about noonish. The very last time we can tweak a project is the day before it begins the rough carpentry stage and , as with anyone who is seeking to do their best, we tweaked this one up to the very end. We were working on some final things today. 

     The 2 story home we are building at Reflection’s Village is our super-popular Dream 2000, also known as our “Rent Buster“. It is indeed a special home when it comes to a mix of low price($199,000 starting price including any $60,000 lot, located about anywhere in Southeast Wisconsin.  After building this home so many times, I wanted to bring a fresh approach to the design by adding something new on every floor.

     The basement has a nice walk-out patio door(not a part of the $199,000 price, as are many, many other options we are adding which bring this package up to about $379,000with a $115,000 lot) and we are adding a basement bedroom and bathroom along with a raised seating platform for the theatre area.  We are adding transom windows above most of the second floor doors for passing sunlight through the upper floors. We are also adding a huge pantry expansion which will have a long 9 foot food prep counter in it, a sink, and even a small freezer in it. Lastly, we are adding a big side porch of about 11 by 20 feet which is covered by a trellis arrangement.  We are installing devices to allow us to keep the patio doors open and not get bugs into the home AND keeps the air-conditioning IN the home as well.

     When folks see the normal version of this Dream 2000(we have one in Milwaukee and one in Jackson), we commonly get surprised faces from the many details we have put into the home. The home does not look as inexpensive as you may first think.  This past weekend, we had someone who wanted to see this home but wanted to first peek at one we had under constructionin Ixonia.   I told them they could take a peek but that the drywall was just being finished. They seemed happy to take a peek perhaps thinking they could see past the bare drywall.  After they saw the home, they were just not excited about the home. A few days later, they became convinced to meet one of our staffers at the finished version we had in Jackson. The effect(so I am told by that staffer) was dramatically different. They were so glad they took the time to See the finished version.

     Taking this example into account, I was reminded of just how emmotionsneed to play the key role in any home purchase. I have said before that homes are usually sold in the first 30 seconds after someone first sees the home and the rest of the time before the actual contract is spent in justifying and hammering out the details.   In my example, both homes were pretty much the same homes but one was not decorated or carpeted, the other was. We had taken a few neutral colors such as tans and browns and splashed these colors onto a few walls to accent the rooms. We had the doors in place and the wood flooring and cabinets installed.   The home was not furnished but the impact that a few walls of color and the home beign ”finished” was more than you might imagine in delivering an emotional impact.

     Most of us want to think we can judge a home by seeing how the home is layed out and how big the rooms are and don’t need the razzel-dazzel.   Most shoppers think they can look at a floor plan and decide whether it is suitable for them.   If you think you are the kind of person who can judge a home by just seeing a printed lay out or where the walls are, try it for yourself. You can start by seeing the floorplan of our Dream 2000 on our website.  Then, go to our map and locate the Ixonia subdivision where we had last year’s Parade Of Homes. Try to see what impact these two homes(a ranch and a 2-story Rent Buster) have , then go to see for yourself these homes the slightly more finished stage(still no furnishings) in Jackson or Milwaukee.  You might be surprised to see the big difference and may not even think these are the same homes. We are open this Thursday night from 6 to 8 and open this weekend from 12 to 4. Remember, this weekend is the last weekend for the MBA Spring Tour Of Homes. Get more detail at mbaonline.org and by clicking-on our homepage Spring Tour link.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

     Today was the second Saturday of the annual MBA Spring Tour Of  Homes.  It poured and drizzled rain all day so I was curious as to the attendance potential.  We had about 30 visitors in all at the 3 open locations.  Not too bad, considering.  

     One hot item we are showing is the option of having a 2 panel door instead of a 6 panel. This is nothing all that new. 4 years ago, I made sure our new model homes back then were going to show 2 panel doors.  Back then, 2 panel were a newer thing. Back then, arch topped cabinets were just going “out” of vouge so I made sure the doors were also squared on the top panels.  It has taken a while for this trend to catch on, but it seems like it is now here. Today when I was at our Jackson Spring Tour model home,  it came to mind how popular this 2 panel idea has now become.

     This Jackson home looks pretty complete in most ways, except it is missing 3 doors and the corresponding door frames. You see, door frames usually come WITH the doors attached and all is stained and finished.  I have been waiting for the last 3 ,  2 panel doors to arrive to this job.  My supplier tells me he has tried to get these doors at several distributors, and they all seem to be experiencing a run on these doors.  Today’s home buyer still sees a lot of the more common 6 panel doors. Funny thing, the 2 panel doors cost MORE than the 6 panel. The reason is because while it may appear cheaper to make 2 panels instead of 6, the 6 panels are made in such huge quantities and are so plentifully warehoused, the factories are seeming to take longer to re-tool and re-organize to change the emphasis to the 2 panel doors.

     Another thing I run into all the time when it comes to selling the upgraded 6 panel doors is the seemingly informed consumer.  The consumer is not the problem, the mega-home center phenomenon is the culprit. When we quote someone the current up-charge for a solid wood door, we find many times our client does not understand why our up-charge is more than the price of a new door at Menards or Home Depot.  Today, you see 6 panel doors in newspaper flyer’s for these type of stores touting a low $99(more or less) per door price , and we are charging $125 or $135 for the seemingly same door.

     We find this same situation occasionally in the area of lighting or plumbing or whirlpool tubs.  Funny thing, on many other items , we usually find our prices often lower than those big stores. Let me try to generalize an explanation as to why SOME builder items MAY sometimes cost a little more than at the mega-discount home centers.

     Let’s take the 6 panel pine door. The mega-stores usually use a common pine species of wood. Common pine can be troublesome to stain as it may look blotchy since stain unevenly absorbs into common pine. The grain of common pine doors is usually uneven and not especially attractive when compared to hardwoods like oak , maple, or cherry.  The type of pine doors we use is a higher-end species of Riata pine. Riata pine takes a stain considerably better and has graining that is more attractive than common pine.

     In the past, we have ordered doors from the mega-home centers.  When we have had an issue of peeling veneer or splitting jambs occur well after the warranty period, the stores understandably will not cover the deficiencies. When we have issues with our supplier’s doors,  they are usually quick to resolve the issues, even (in some cases) long after the warrenty period is over. 

     Remember, if you do see a door listed in a home center flyer, it is usually headlining the lowest price “starting from” kind of price. This is to say the smaller the door , such as a 24 inch door, the less the price. You need to also make sure the low cost doors are pre-finished since staining and varnishing the doors and jambs would cost anywhere from $25 to $35 per door if the door is raw wood.  You need to also know that the price for the builder’s door usually is including the labor to install it and the cost of the door knob/lever and that hardware’s installation as well.

     Lastly, you need to consider the color matching. Home centers do offer pre-finished doors. The problem is that if the finish of the doors do not match the general color of the rest of the surrounding woodwork, it may not be an easy fix.  I will be first to admit, that a pine door , or veneered oak or maple door may never be an exact match for the solid wood trim in the home. This is the nature of wood species and of pre-finished products in general.  Whenever I run into the client who is hyper-critical about  having all the home’s trim match precisely, I point them to take another closer look at our model homes.  Our models trim and doors do not precisely match. I will say however, they are usually pretty darn close .

     Despite my efforts to make accurate representation of what a client may expect in this color-matching idea, we still get 1 out of 100 clients who becomes fixated on having all the home’s cabinets , doors, and trim match precisely. In these cases, I seriously doubt any home center would jump through the hoops and go the extra mile we need to try to make the client happy.  Other than ripping out the home center’s  doors and returning them with no  easy color-match resolution in sight I can not imagine them doing what our door reps do to try to please the” unusual” demand.

     In the end, we want to try to build the best quality home with the least potential for call-backs. Using a supplier who has a proven track record of working with your builder is well worth any little extra nickels you think you are saving in the short term.   Building homes is a long-term endeavour.

    I hope to see you all out at the Spring Tour this weekend (12 to 4) or this coming Monday or Thursday nights form 6 to 8.  I will likely be in either the Milwaukee or Jackson locations. 

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

     Jacquie and I had been married for one year and were living a a small 2 bedroom apartment near Northridge Mall with our one year old son Nik and another child on the way.  Jacquie was working at a banking clearing house for cash withdrawal card services, and I was working at Duchow’s Marine in Pewaukee doing advertising and sales.  Like so many folks of my situation and age, I wanted the American dream of owning a home, preferably BUILDING a new home. Due to our inadequate financials,  every bank seminar that was held, which I attended(frequently) told me that my dream was more of a “pipe dream“.

     I was (still am) a workaholic, but found time to steal away to visit various model homes on my drive from work to home. We were so poor, I distinctly, clearly recall me wanting to go to the Parade Of Homes at 5 Feilds subdivision in Pewaukee, but the 5 dollar entry tickets were honestly just too much of an extravagance at the time.  Jacquie, always the realist, did not want to go with me to the various open house and home shows since this only was feeding a dream that was seemingly unlikely to happen.

      Since I loved promotions and advertising, I just kept on visiting all the builder’s models and collecting home plans. I kept saying, I could do this or that better than this or that builder.  I kept dreaming of the day and kept calling bankers to see if they would give me a break and give us a loan. I distinctly also remember me walking by Pete, a nice sales person at Duchows. He was sitting at his sales desk near the front door and I sat down at this desk and he told me about how he financed his home.  I was so jealous of the interest rate he had locked-in. The rate was a stunningly low 9.9% and we both just knew we would never see rates that low again.   Seriously, this was how we felt , and this was his rate.  The year was around 1988 or 1989 as I  recall and the rates of the day were 11 or 12% as I recall.  If someone else out there remembers this time period, please correct me if I am wrong, but double-digits were not unusual at all.   Boy have we all gotten spoiled with today’s 4.9 or 5.3% rates.

     When we finally did find one very special banker who had the “power” to grant our financing dreams, I was elated when the day came when we could actually begin construction of our new home.  I was out at that home every moment I could manage to be there. I got a natural “high” from being on that job site. Today, I still feel that high and I still clearly recall my emmotions of that first home start every time someone comes to me and we start their new home.  For some, the starting process of appraisers who appraise way to low of a value, or the back and forth cost cutting the clients go through to get into their budget, or the struggles getting the design approvals all make the dig-day just that much more special when it arrives.

     This last week, I got to do something which was as high of an emotional high as when I built my first home. I began construction on not one, but 4 new model homes, all in the same general location, namely, Reflection’s Village , in Richfield.  If you don’t know, I live in Richfield, just 2 minutes from these 4 homes.  To be more accurate, I did not actually commence construction on all 4 homes, yet. I have dug holes and started basements on 3 of the 4 and the 4th is coming very soon as we await a Wisconsin sanitary permit to arrive.

     These are not just ordinary (we don’t do ordinary) Miracle Homes. Each of these homes has something “special” unto itself. Each has something new that has never been done quite like this before.  One, our HYBRID Ranch (read my earliest blog posts) is so fantastic in unique features,  I am up at all hours researching and designing just how we will be able to create all of the many fantasies we have imagined.

   We have imagined a new version of our invention, the “Flooding Patio”. This is a sunken patio, complete with tables and chairs which can be easily (and quickly) flooded to become a wading pool. You can sip drinks and entertain while you and your friends dip their toes into 2 inches of cool water OR you can fill this patio a few feet deep to use for kids play and swimming.

     We are taking our concept of our unique invention the Tri-Screen theatre and making it more deluxe than ever. This is 3 ,   10 foot movie screens  that are adjoined to create one huge 6 foot tall by 30 feet long image. We use a camera rig of 3 cameras to shoot footage of ocean waves by the beach, of lush green forests, or of purple night city-scapes. The intient is to put our viewers into the image and make them feel as though they are “there”. At  the same time that each 7 minute scenes  change from , say, the blue seaside waves to the green forests, all the table tops and bar top , and even the walls of the room all turn the corresponding color and the (player) baby-grand piano music changes to suit the new scenes mood. All of this done automatically, all on cue.

     For the kids, we are working on our first kid’s bedroom suite where the sitting room/play room joins together to become a wonderful theatrical experience not with video screens, but rather in fully lighted rooms showing what in effect is more like a stage show/puppet show that is (again) fully automated. When this Miracle invention is complete, we hope to have kids be able to take their favorite illustrated book and bring it to life on stage.  The action would be synchronized to music and lighting and other moving effects which I have never seen done before. I think it is safe to say, that every room both inside and outside(yes, outside rooms too) have something very special to remember.

     It will all begin with a special presentation in our main garage entry which will resemble a seminar stage where we will give a short 10 minute presentation to everyone who enters the homes.  Imagine, deciding that instead of sleeping in your master suite tonight, you and your spouse decide to sleep in the backyard cabana.  An at -home get-away that makes you feel like you are sleeping at a vacation resort destination.  Catch an outdoor movie right from your cabana’s bed, just outside the glass wall.

     If anyone thinks they have seen or heard it all, we are just getting started in making your home, the most magical, special place of all. Now, I go back to spending my wee hours of the night making sure we have enough pixie-dust loaded in our wands to make this all really happen.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

Note: Don’t forget to see me at the Spring Tour special open house night this Thursday night 6 to 8 and this weekend 12 to 4.   I will likely be in Jackson.  We are also open Monday night from 6 to 8.

Anyone who has been reading my blog has likely seen the earliest writings of a few moths ago when I explained  my HYBRID Ranch concept. If you have no idea what I am writing about, please go back to my first postings.   It is  a very exciting project and I am thrilled to see it finally coming out of the ground (or to be more exact, going into the ground). It is going to be the centerpiece of our new set of models we are building in Reflection’s Village in Richfield.

     This home has been a long time in the designing and tweaking phase and Reflection’s  Village is just the place to showcase this  latest example of Miracle innovations.  I think of Reflection’s Village as a great “experiment” to be a modern development with a look of the older villages of the early 1900’s to 1940 era.

     This concept was originally a vision of one man who would later find the financial crunch of just a few years ago just too much to allow him to steer the project.  After the long, hard community approval process of Richfield, the project stopped and looked for an investor to buy the project. An investor group was eventually formed and many millions later, Reflections is again on the move but with a slightly different set of guidelines.   The important aspect of this being a micro-community with shops, a park, a fishing pond, a swimming pool clubhouse, and lots of walking trails and side walks, is still intact. The original insistence of every home being a certain Victorian-styled , pre-approved motif, is gone in favor of a more diverse style of homes.  The Milwaukee Metropolitan Builder’s Association has approved this unique development to be an official site for the big August Parade Of Homes. There are two other sites, one in Pewaukee and one in Franklin, but (while both are first class developments in their own rights) neither has the charm and unusual aspects of this promising concept of being a “Walkable Hamlet”.

     As for my involvement, I and my crew have designed 3 homes which will be a part of Reflection’s Village, and a 4th home which will technically NOT be inside the development , but WILL be directly at the entrance into Reflection’s, just across the street on highway 175(Appleton Avenue). If you wish to drive-by, it is quite easy to find.   Just take Highway 45 north  past Germantown and take the Holy Hill Road exit, heading West. When you go about two or three blocks, you see a Dairy Queen and a school. Turn left(South) at that corner and in 2 blocks, you will see Reflection’s on the left(East).

     Presently, the Village of Richfield will not allow any permits to be taken except for Parade lots until the development’s pump house is built and running. The general prices for these lot/home packages will be in the $400 to $500,000 . The lots are seemingly expensive until you realize the lots include the sewer community mound systems in the price.  Frankly, the VERY high architectural standards are pushing the prices substantially upward. On the other hand, I truly believe that these very high standards are the key element to this development working. 

     While two of my homes will likely be kept as longer-term models(mostly due to the higher amenities and price tags that these homes will carry, not because I am interested in “collecting” long-term homes), the other two homes I am building are not only going to be fun and stunningly beautiful masterpeices(if I do say so myself), I also intend these homes to be the best values in the development with price tags (yet undetermined as of this time) probably near the $375,000 to $415,000 area.  For this life style,  anyone who wants to reserve one  of these special homes knows to call us…soon.

     ON ANOTHER PAST SUBJECT…

     I have been telling you folks about the solar powered new home which is right next door to one of our models. It has been reported by one of my staffers that this home now may have an accepted offer on it.  If this is true, I congratulate the new buyers and think the price was just SO RIGHT and it was a great , reduced buy.  As I expressed, the original price was closer to $300,000. The home sat on the market nearly a year and was eventually reduced to the very low $200,000’s. If you are thinking going “green” in building a new home, be careful. VERY CAREFUL, not to go extreme green.

     You and I may, or may not ,think the price for things like solar panels, and triple-pane windows,  and foam insulated walls, and Geo-thermal, and on and on are great investments. The biggest issue standing in the way of making these ideas all work is the bank’s appraisals. We have seen several solar panel homes simply cost more to build than the bank is willing to lend. The appraisers do not have enough comparables  to assess the homes to the kind of money needed , so if you really want to go ultra-green, get ready to bring extra ( I am resisting saying extra green)money to the table to make the loan work since you will likely need to subsidize the bank loan for the home yourself . We just had a few cases of folks who wanted nothing more than to add some (not all) of these green items to their dream homes and found themselves as much as $40,000 short of the home’s contracted price.

     I am taking photos of the Reflection’s Village homes while they are being built, and hope to share them with you each week. I did go to Chicago a few days ago to the huge National Kitchen and Bath show. Perhaps next time I can share some news on this show and what I saw. I was only there a half of a day but came away with a stuffed bag of good ideas.

     Blessings,

     Tom Higntie

Thanks for so many of you coming out to see me at this past weekend’s opening of the MBA Spring Tour Of Homes. Remember, we are open this coming Thursday night at Milwaukee, Jackson, and Monterey, form 6 to 8 at night.

     A few blogs ago, I was mentioning how important today’s buyers value their homes having a very appealing  attitude  or style. I would call this the ” cool  ”   factor.   I was explaining how I had designed what I felt would be a best seller because it had all the hot buttons you would look for in a home, yet it seemed to fall flat on it’s face when it came to getting folks to buy this home.

     Instead of giving up and moving onto another new design as a few of my staffer’s suggested, I was determined to give this excellent, practical  , quite inexpensive design an extreme Miracle makeover.  The new version was, and is a fantastic success story which is on it’s way to becoming a run-away best seller.   The reason, it’s all about building-in more”cool” .

     The rear wall of the great room originally was nothing much to look at with a simple patio door.  I took lumber and drywall and fashioned a wide decorative frame around the patio door which was located about a foot in front of the patio door. This was built into the ceiling and came all the way to the floor and had angles which look like a three-sided huge picture frame positioned in front of the patio door. I used hidden track lighting to create a glow around the inside of the picture frame. No one had seen anything like it before, so it was/is  instantly unusual and appealingly modernly, …cool.

    I repeated this effect on an adjacent wall and painted both these mock-frames in a chocolate brown to imitate the cabinetry.  I then went on to use 6 different shapes of drywall corners in the home so the effect was scultpural  .  Most folks are familiar with the standard square drywall corners or the more popular 3/4 inch radius rounded drywall corners. I found a source from the International Builder’s Show who supplies me with 45 degree angled corners for around windows, mini-round corners, and unique square-round(you gotta see this shape to understand it) drywall corners of two sizes.  Since folks who want cool, seem to want unusual and tasteful, the effect of seeing drywall corners that no other area builder has available to them, sets this home apart, and definitely on the coolness track.

    I also found inexpensive plaster-like crown moldings for in the great room. I found big plaster-like chair railings and a new less costly way to make an entire room of inset wall panels with fancy edged moldings, all of drywall. I used high gloss paints on smooth drywall to give the  illusion of the room being made of painted wood and contrasted these glossy wall areas directly against semi-gloss or satin sheen painted wall areas to play with the idea of using varying textures and finishes.  Again, since the norm of our industry locally today is to spray the entire house full of knock-down drywall texture and then paint it all one solid color, my varying technique was unusual and grabbed attention.

    I built the upstairs hallway’s normal  8 foot high ceiling up to an unusual 11 feet and hung a huge semi-modern chandelier in the center which you saw from the bottom of the stairs in the foyer(when looking upstairs)

     I also put two plant shelves onto this tall hall area and a big transom window over one door which was leading into the master bedroom. This glass transom appeared old fashioned and classy and…UNUSUAL.

     Instead of adding another one of the millions of common master bedroom tray ceilings(can you say” Ho -Hum” with me?)to this World, I did a single vaulted ceiling and made  an  angled drywall inset panel of only about an inchof depth  to boarder the ceiling edge. Once I painted the ceiling inset panel area, it was unusual and very classy indeed.

     I found a very different style of wood floor which was wider 7 inch planks, beveled edges, and they had markings of tooling’s which looked very much like older distressed floors. You might think this would not be appealing to a post-modern look, but the look was overwhelmingly enthusiastic!  Again, folks had not seen this before. Even small details like putting a very tall(Expensive to do the whole house) 4.5 inch base molding in only selected areas and around the kitchen island was a huge impact item.  I also raised the Master vanity and put in an elongated toilet in the master. All were details that spoke volumes to many who took note of such things.

     I added a few other notable cool items such as angles, 2 panel solid wood doors with furniture grade finishes, and handles on the cabinets, and finally, a finished basement with a stylish and minimalistic wet bar AND uniquely drywall-framed theatre wall to make the basement exciting. I also wanted the colors of each level to vary so as to suggest style unique to each floor and change the visitor’s mood as they go through the home. I used richer dark maple on the main floor. I used a pure white upstairs to suggest refined slumber. And, in the basement, I used the newest cabinet and wood colors which is very dark brown, almost black. I call it StarBucks color since I se it in the new-age coffee  lounges. It is currently the most popular color for homes on the coasts.

     I then re-designed the exterior to give a coolness of mixed shaped gable vents and varying overhangs and differing roof pitches. Some windows were topped with different shapes.  Since I used a traditional starting template, for traditional placed windows and a traditional porch, and and older color palette for the exterior, the varying differences of shapes and roof pitches are only noticed subliminally and are not in your face.

     Combining common items in ways that are both appealing and unusual are the essence of “COOL”.   One of my staffer’s was able to sell another home of this design tonight and last night too. We have two more such homes scheduled to sign this weekend. Not bad, for a home which is essentially, the same home that started ho-hum now is Wowing anyone who sees it.  The power of coolness has even transformed a few couples who thought they wanted a ranch into buying this two-story. I had never seen that before.

     I am about to go to Chicago tomorrow for the nation’s biggest Kitchen and bathshow. I am feeling great about our housing outlook as we begin our first weekend of the annual MBA Spring Tour Of Homes. We are rushing tomorrow to get our Jackson model entry as close to finished as possible. Tomorrow we have the carpenters, the electricians, the plumber, the counter top installers, the wood floor installers, and the cleaners all coming to try to get this Jackson home finished. This is the latest version design of which I was just explaining to you in this blog.  If you want ot see a fully furnished one of these homes, come out to our Milwaukee location. We have another home right across the street from our Jackson 2-story which is a”  re-cooled”  version of our popular Dream series ranch. It too, is nearing completion.

     HEY,   IT’S STARTED!  Today, we just dug the first of what wil be 4 new homes we are building in Richfield’s newest , truly exciting, subdivison, Reflection’s Village. I am thrilled to be building these homes and putting all the newest ideas we can think of into these showpieces.  I am so excitied that I could write blog upon blog on these homes and… I will.

     Thanks for blogging. Feel free to leave your questions and comments.

     Blessings,

    Tom Hignite

   Hello All ,

    I just wanted to at least give you an update before I go too long without posting. Bear with me whilst I brag and ponder a bit if you will.

    I stayed up last night until 4 am working on a wonderful new custom lake home project design which I started at about 8 pm last night. I awoke this morning at 8 to finish the lake house project at about noonish. I only tell you this to say that life is most hectic and most good here at Miracle as the bad economy gets further away in my rear-view mirror. If this was just 4 months ago, I would not be working so long and late since we had more time. We have had the busiest first quarter since 2005! Thank God!

     I had a ball doing this lake house design since my favorite projects are the ones where we are trying to do a “great” home and trying to stay in a lower budget.  The challenge is to use creative ideas to not let anyone know this project has a budget at all.  This is when the creative juices flow heaviest and the solution that came onto my drawing pad would have taken me weeks to complete 10 or 15 years ago.  I truly see what the power of sheer hours of experience does for honing skill s and time. I am sure you too see that in your line of work or long-time hobby. The longer you do something the better AND quicker the results.

   I also wanted to share that tomorrow, we begin construction of two extraordinary, marvelous new homes in a ( likewise  extraordinary ) new Richfield development. They are set to be in the Parade Of Homes , and we only have very few months to complete them. They are indeed so special as they are what you might refer to as “throw-back ” designs.  They are heavily rooted in the look of the turn of the century.  Some of you may know I am a student of Disney lore and these two homes would be right at home on the streets of Main Street Disneyland, or in a re-creation of a historical district. We excavate tomorrow at daylight and I am busy all day getting two more homes ready to dig in this same subdivision/area.

     Much of what I have previously wrote about in these blogs will come to fruition in these new homes including our newest , improved version of my Flooding Patio invention where you can choose to have either a dry patio or a wading pool with tables in it for cooing-off while dining. This one incorporates “greeness” and has a fun water fountain included.

     Tomorrow, I travel late to Chicago to the nations biggest Kitchen and Bath show.  It feels like Christmas with presents waiting to be opened as I imagine the new things I might see at this show. I will take good notes to share with you all.

    I promise, I will get back to my subject of designing the “COOL” into homes soon. Now I have to get back to my real-life designing. As I said, we really are busy and (hint-hint to any sales people or cost estimators out there) WE ARE NOW HIRING!

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

     In my last blog I wrote wrote a few examples of how important it is in the current housing market to give home shoppers a “reason” to build or buy a particular home.   I think designing or decorating a home is more than the 3 “F“s of  floor plan, function, and features. As I explained one home that on paper, had it all.  In reality, this smaller, low price point home lacked the most important feature of simply being very “cool” in how it pulled-off it’s presentation. 

     Finding a unique and appealing way to design and present a home is akin more to being a good artist than being a good designer or builder.  I have seen many excellent quality homes with solid floor plans that fail to excite the home shopper.  The home I previously mentioned is a good example.  When I sat at the drawing desk , I took many hours tyring to fit all the hot button items into the design and make sure the traffic paths and furniture areas worked well.  Since this was to be the low cost home to beat all low cost homes, I figured the fact that it had so much yet was so inexpensive would be motivation enough to make folks fall for this one. I forgot to take the design beyond the logistics and into the realm of being attractive or artsy or(sorry for the over use of this word but…) “cool”.

     My sales staff thought this basic home was probably just not a winner and they were not too excited to hear I was not giving up on this design but rather I was going to improve the presentation and give this home an artistic makeover.  Taking a low budget home and giving it a distinctly cool feel was a matter of  not doing big sweeping changes but instead just keeping things simple and unusual. What I am about to explain , you are not able to see very clearly on any floor plan . These things need to be seen to really understand them, but let me try to paint a word picture of some of the “wow” changes.

     I was convinced the lay out  was solid so I began with givng the first view into the home a better first impression.  I placed my self in the front foyer and saw that there was not much there to wow the visitor. The view ahead was of several things that were not so impressive, so I upgraded them. The first thing you see was the front door so I upgraded it to an ornate swirled glass/leaded glass door. The next item you would see is the foyer items  so I upgraded the foyer closet to a solid wood door, wide trim, and ceramic tile on the floor instead of vinyl. I also changed the inexpensive slanted half-wall by the stairs to a wood railing idea. So far, none of these ideas are outside the norm of a higher end home, but needed to be done so as not to scream “low cost” apon entering the home. The great room was the most visible thing from the foyer and it was just a big open room .   Some were calling it “too” open to the kitchen and dinette areas, which were also a part of this big room.  I need to at least suggest mental and visual  separations of the great room areas.

     My cool factors started by creating a combination of ceiling drops and build-downs from the ceiling (again, you can’t appreciate this on a floor plan visually) which suggested separations in this big open room. I was also able to use these drops to allow me to install some unusual looking crown molding around the couch seating area ceiling. This crown was made of fairly inexpensive drywall items but the finished look was expensive plaster crown molding. I would guess you could travel to scores or even hundreds of area model homes and you probably will not see anything but wood varnished crown moldings. That difference of using a plaster looking effect instead of  the common wood look, is what qualifies this as being in the “cool” category.

       The fireplace was also made to set into the room as though it was an outdoor fire pit rather than the traditional way of putting a fireplace so it is flush into the wall. I used a relatively inexpensive way to finish the fireplace mantle. Instead of having the fireplace mantle made of wood, or even the new method of using a drywall mantle with rounded (adobe-look) 3/4 inch radius drywall corners, I found a wonderful new drywall corner that was an inch and 1/2 radius and had a mixture of square edge corners mixed with round edge corners.  Again, you probably have to see this to understand the shape. The effect had visitors wondering if the mantle was made of sculptured stone, since it did not look like wood or drywall. It matched the ceiling plaster-look crown moldings.  Again, creating something, this time, a fireplace, that looks like something folks have not seen before, is a major part of creating the “cool” factor.  This fireplace was surely different and neat!

     The fanciest item in a room  needs to be the thing you see the furthest in the distance. This fancy item serves to draw you into a room or draw you toward it.  Sorry to do this, but to continue explaining the way I changed this home, I will have to make this a 3-parter as I have to stop blogging and get to my design work for several exciting new homes I am working on.   Check back for more “Coolness” next time.

    As for my day today, I am short handed in my sales department(anyone know an interested salesperson , let me know) as our business continues to accelerate way  beyond my expectations.  I was meeting folks today at open houses and tomorrow will be the same.  Someone today came back for a second viewing of the home I was in, which was the home I am currently blogging about.  I had told that buyer of a new home which was MUCH less expensive than my home because it had been on the market so long and the builder really just wants to unload their home at this point. This home shopper told me they had no interest in that other home at whatever the price was.   If ever there was an example of why creating a “cool” home design is so important, this is a prime case of  someone willing to pay more to get the wow factor. This competitor home is every bit the quality of mine, and has more square footage. The price on this home just dropped another $20,000 and this shopper did not seem to care.  I guess  it must be kind of like falling in love with someone that suits your desires rather than just falling in love with someone’s wallet, or for logical reasons. 

     Another shopper today had the same comments on the cool factor. They did not like moving out of the city and thought this location was probably too far away form their friends and the bright lights.  Once I showed them my new design for the “HYBRID Ranch” (see my very first blog entries for this Generation Y design) I was permitting for in this development, they said they would rather pay more for this unusual new concept home than save money and not be excited to live in their new home.  Even when I tried  to explain how thie investment value of this marked-down competitor’s home was so attractive, the love in their eyes for that home just was not there. When they told me they had a small home in Milwaukee (900 sq ft)to  sell, they said they had recently remodeled it.  The first question I asked them about the home they were going to sell was whether they had remodeled it to be “cool”(honestly, I did ask this!). When they told me it was quite cool, I told them they would likely have no problem selling it.

     COOL SELLS.

Until we blog again,

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

     Cool is definitely “in”…real “in”(Daddy-o)!  In case you have not read any of my previous blogs, my qualifications are not only as the lead designer of (now) over 2,000 homes,but I have also decorated  countless numbers of these homes.  I know many respected home designers who know little about home decorating. That,  I see as a disadvantage since a properly designed home should not be a challenge to fit furnishings into.  MANY folks tell me that their home is big but does not fit furnishings very well.

     That is likely because their home’s designer did not care about sweating furnishing details and re-arranging entire rooms because they only had one possible spot to fit a couch. I prefer at least 2 couch spots , a big hutch wall, walls that will work with large wall art, enough space next to windows for curtains , enough space on your foyer tile floor to fit a 3ft. x 5ft. rug in front of the door WITHOUT covering the ornate tile design inlay or tile boarder.  BUT, LET”S GET BACK TO “COOL being “IN“.

    You see, just knowing how to place furnishings and having traffic and sight line paths that make living easy and joyful is not enough. Just having walls that are well insulated and the latest “green” gizmo, and the nicest carpets ,and granite counter tops, is not enough. I don’t care how much attention you put into all of the floor plan, quality, and features, it’s not going to cut the mustard in selling the home and that is because despite ALL of these important things, if it isn’t “cool”, it isn’t going to sell,   at least is not going to sell very soon or at a very high price.

     I beleive that folks decide they are going to buy a home in the first 30 seconds after entering a home. The rest of the touring and talking is just a series of justifications which allow the purchasese to happen. Homes today need to have that elusive “cool” factor and I believe few builders, few home designers have figured this out. Some home decorators HAVE figured this out, but I see many, MANY home builders and designers who think that throwing a lot of money at a home and including high-end features is going to do the trick.  A year ago, I was in a home that was quite expensive on a larger lot, with a super view.   The home designer apparently had little thought about where to put the furnishings once the home was built. This home had a two-story great room with a huge, expensive , soaring combination of stacked windows.  This home had very high end amenities. It had all the hot buttons, yet it was languishing on the market for way too many months.

     I was called-in to assist (a friendly competitor) to use some of my furnishings to help decorate and stage the home. This rectangular room was indeed a challenge to fit couches into.  At first, nothing would seem logical where the seats could view the big windows and yet also see a television, a fireplace, and allow folks to walk through the room without weaving through furnishings.  I orderd two couches and a love seat to be delivered to the home and one of my assitants gave the set-up a very quick attempt. It did not work and i stood a log time on the balcony trying to imagine the answer.   I found the magic key, when I placed the furnishings all on 45 degree angles to the walls. Suddenly, it all worked AND the layout began to be “cool”. I staggered a set of 4 matching framed art pictures  amongst the tall soaring window arrangement. I put a floor rug into the furnishing group on an angle as well.

    I could not do anything about a dining room that had barely enough room to seat 4 or a traffic path to the deck that was awkward for guests, but “COOL” trumped logic and the home sold.  The home in fact sold to someone who had previously seen the home. I was not there when the home sold but I suspect the buyer who had seen the home previously, liked the new coolness and it pushed them into the sale mode.

     I also see home buyers who think one feature in a particular home of mine is “cool”.  So, they try to “take” that element and transplant it into a different home design.  It rarely works since true coolness is not any one particular item, but rather how many items relate to each other. For example, putting a curved fireplace mantle into a home where there are no other curved items, is likely a bad idea.   Putting a “cool” fireplace into an area in a home where it is not easily and prominently seen, is likely also a mistake since the fireplace usually needs to be the heart and soul of the great room and must therefore be prominent.

     My biggest case example for “coolness” comes from me having designed a home that I KNEW was a winner. The suprise was that once built, it seemed more like a loser.  It had ALL the hot button items. A large kitchen, a walk-in pantry, a Corian topped kitchen island which seats 4, a dinette which seats a possible 8, a great room which has 3 couch positions around a central fireplace. It included 4 nice bedrooms, all with generous walk-in closets. This home design even had a 16 foot long laundry room, and a dining room which is just as much a den if you wish.  This home had the best finished basement design  for the future. I therefore did not finish the basement, but rather kept every mechanical item confined to a small area so a finishing of this area would be a sinch!   I even plumbed the basement bath and wet bar area.

     The real kicker was that this wonderfully laid out , large 2024 sqare foot home SEEMED to “have it all” and was priced WAY below anything on the market.  It had it all, all except the “coolness” and the buyer. You see, as soon as someone walked through the door, they did not see “cool”. They saw a nice home, but the salesperson had to try to convince them that since this home had all the hot button features, green-built, energy-star, the works, they should therefore want to buy the home. I had forgotten my own big rule”MAKE IT COOL”.  I thought, maybe this model was not seelling because of the location, or the market conditions being so poor.

    I then went to a big Home Builders conference and I listened to one speaker, who said, if you don’t give  the public a reason to move form their present home, why should they move at all? This speaker was telling me something I already knew, but I thought if I was designing the lowest priced home, the fact that the price was so low, and the fact that I was including so much, should be enough to sell the home.  In my higher priced homes,  I had always tried to get these homes to be the coolest I could create.  Money was not as much of an obstacle, so I felt these higher-end buyers deserved to get a really cool house with lots of alcoves, textures,  and neat shapes, and lower cost buyers did not deserve or pay for this “coolness.”   I may never had spoken these words, but they were ingrained into my design thought process.

     Since every builder in town was building low cost homes VERY PLAIN, I adopted that same attitude.  Then I thought, why should anyone want to move into a home that was not emotionally connecting to them?  What I needed to do was to get past my prejudices that inexpensive homes could not afford to be as “cool” as higher-end, bigger homes, and find ways to creatively AND inexpensively, wow home shoppers with “coolness” with-in the first 30 seconds after stepping in the door.  Suddenly,…the light bulb came on and my eyes were opened and the result, …SALES and much more importantly, very elated and happy people!

     Next time, we explore how and what I did to create the “coolness” factor on this lower cost home design and make it our best seller.  

   ONE MORE THING….   In my last blog entry, I mentioned how I had some new “solar” powered home news. Several blogs ago, I went into detail as to why I felt that Solar Power in homes was not such a great idea…yet.  I gave the example of how one competitor’s home next to one of our current model homes was solar powered.   I went on to say how the original price of that solar powered home was closer to $300,000 than $250,000.   I explained how the price had creeped downward to $249,000 and stayed at that price while I was building  a smaller home directly next door  and was blessed to had soon  soldit  for more than this neighboring home , before my home was even out of the drywall phase.  This solar home is now being offered in the $230’s and I now reverse my opinion on this home to anyone who has read my previous blog. At some point, a home is priced so well that a home shopper can’t ignore it.  This IS a high quality home, green built, big, new, and your energy bills will be very small.  At this price, I just thought you should know. If anyone wants more information(this is not a home I have built or will make a nickel in selling)on this home, please give me or my staff a call so we may direct you to the builder.

    We’ll continue the “cool” subject next blog. C’mon out this weekend and see our Milwaukee, Ixonia, and Monterey  homes.  The  one I am blogging about in this entry is in Milwaukee near 91st and Good Hope.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

Just wanted to blog briefly to say Happy Easter.  Despite the worldly problems and political or economic situations, the bigger picture of eternity is something we can all be sure of thanks to the message of Easter.

     I hope your day is the perfect balance of bunnies and God.

    Blessings,

    Tom Hignite