“COOL” 2.0
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
