Progress Report 3-Richfield
Hello all,
It is nearly 3 am and I still am up doing creative work on the Richfield Projects, a tri-fecto of new Miracle Homes. Tonight, the main goal was to get the first landscaping plan done so I could show it tomorrow to our concrete flat work(that is the patios, sidewalks, driveway items) person, Dan.
I have designed many such plans and I have found that each time I have finished such a plan, I believe it to be a fantastic plan that is better than anything I have ever done before. I am now experienced enough to know that what I designed tonight was a plan I am quite happy with but I know it may not win any awards for the “best” anything. In fact, I think, while it is a great ,solid plan, I doubt any visitor to the home will say”hey that front yard landscaping was my favorite part! Who did the landscape plan?”
The thing is , that this home is already an expensive home and I simply can not afford to design an all brick driveway or fancy brick walls or ornate iron work gates or even an in ground sprinkler system for that matter. You see, designing a home must always be keenly focused on not only wanting the most creative items but also it must focus on overall costs and where I am going to really spend the big bucks. Most importantly, each item must have it’s place in creating a pleasurable experience to our guests.
On this home, my big money is being spent on an over-the-top basement bar area and huge backyard entertaining area.I call it “Club Wonder”. Since I ned this home to be as low of a price as possible, I decided to have the audience(that is my term, at times, for the home’s visitors)take their journey through this home in a logical and dramatic progression. Let’s take a quick look at how we can build the drama of this or any home. If I was to show a brick paver driveway, wrought iron fence detail and huge fountains with ornate stone work, then I may disappoint the guests when they see all this super high end stuff and then see an interior that is less of a “wow” factor than the front yard. The same goes for the back yard or basement. I need to always be giving the visiting guests a bigger, then even bigger “wow” as they see each new area. The effect, if done right, is that the exiting guests feel entirely overwhelmed and are smiling from ear to ear.
That means my outside front lawn area must match and fit in the whole picture but the next area they see, which is the front porch, must beat the “wow” factor of the front yard. The first rooms must be better than the front porch, then so on and so forth as we proceed to always be trying to create a better impression that the room or area which preceded it. If this was a play, it is kind of like staging the grand finale to have the best impact. The last room or area must therefore always be the grand finale which must beat the “wow” s found in the rest of the home.
SO….back to my front yard plan and method. If someone comes into the home or leaves the home telling me the front yard was the best part of the home, then I have failed. If I had unlimited budgets, I can always find ways to top anything I have done in the early parts of the home. On this home, I began by planning the home knowing my basement bar area and backyard will have the biggest “wows”. I will have a lot of pavers in my back yard and wrought iron as well. This means, I might put a small, very small, suggestion of some pavers and a dash of wrought iron in the front yard. I have a big fountain in the back yard so I want a little fountain in the front yard.
As I plan the landscape, I must also plan the path which I hope the visitors will take to enhance their visit. I hope they will come into an area where I or my staff can first give a brief presentation before they enter. This helps visitors know what to look for and builds excitement. This gives them a chance to put on their shoe covers and get a brochure and find out the little details like how big the home is and what the price is to build the home.
In years past, I have thought of holding this mini-seminar on the front porch area. This year, I am going to try to have visitors enter the garage area and then proceed to a garage door that happens to exit onto the front porch. The rest of the journey is intuitive and logical as they can only get to the basement after they have seen the rest of the home upstairs and then the back yard is only reachable by going through the basement. The exiting is then through the garage again so my greeters can also say good-bye to exiting guests or the guests may chose to watch more of our video presentation now that they have seen the whole home.
My office/home foyer today is full of flower boxes. One of these homes has flower boxes under about every front window. This should be quite a site of nostalgia. I do hope you will consider stopping by and seeing these homes now under construction in Richfield’s Reflection’s Village.
Leave a comment if you have something to say. Until next blog…
Blessings,
Tom Hignite
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:49 am
Hi Tom – I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article. I focused in on your comments about your over the top basement bar area in particular. I guess because I promote quality home bars. But more than that…as a ex Realtor I’ve shown many homes to clients that really appreciate quality homes and decors. One thing that stands out with all aspects in showing homes was that the clients always wanted to talk to their friends about one outstanding asset of the home. I would encourage you to promote that home bar idea as it is definitely becoming a popular trend these days among quality minded house hunters.
Tom Holmes
Publisher, http://www.homebarreviews.com/
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Hi Tom,
I too agree that having something as simple as being able to write in a listing (for MLS or a newspaper ad) that a home has a “wet bar” puts the home above many other new homes which can not say this. Most new spec homes seem to be built as bare as possible. We have found that putting a simple, creative, finsihed basement with a wet bar that seats 6 to 8, is a huge selling asset.
For every good idea however, there is the buyers who do not want such a thing. We found that buyer just last week. We have a beautiful(if I do say so myself) new home in Jackson which has a wet bar. We have the whole home finished except we were waiting for one bar counterop section to be delivered. These nice folks made a good offer and specified they wanted us to remove and carpet the entire wet bar. I was very surprised!
We do have many more folks who have commented how much they really loved the wet bar and this has far overshadowed a single negative incident. To each their own!
Thanks for commenting,
Tom Hignite
P.S. My spell check on comment replys still is a mystery to me. Sorry.