OOOPSY….I was wrong! In my last blog posting, I said to watch for my appearance this Friday on Channel 4 televsion. I will not be on that show until NEXT Friday, not this one. Sorry, my mistake.   

If you have read any of my blogs, I hardly seem go very long without mentioning our most exciting project in years, our HYBRID WONDERHOME. This is most literally a new “invention” in home designs. I hope that does not sound too much like me blowing my own horn (I know how to do that too) because while I say this is a new “invention” I am NOT saying it is a great or even a good invention, just “new“. The public will tell us whether I have designed something worthwhile or something worthless.

     At any rate, good or not, we will be finding out in just under 30 days when our HYBRID Wonderhouse, and two other nifty Miracle Homes, open to the public in Richfield’s Reflections Village development. In case you have not heard, Reflections Village is the main(if you judge by number of homes being built)site for this years 65th annual edition of the Metropolitan Builder’s Association’s Parade Of Homes. The way I see it, what better venue than the MBA Parade to showcase any new home “invention“.  There’s that word again.  For you newbies, let me explain this “invention” designation.

     In the World of home designs, there are several basic types of home categories. The short list includes 1-Story homes(ranches), 2-Story homes, and split level homes(that includes bi-levels and tri-levels and such). There is also the story and a half also known as the Cape style homes. This style usually puts the master on the first floor  and other bedrooms  upstairs(I have seen this reversed however), but NOT always.  Our HYBRID home falls  into none of the existing categories, which is what makes it somewhat of a new “invention”.  It  takes the master bedroom and, like many a cape design, puts the Master on the first floor. If this was a story and a half Cape, having a 1,500 square foot first floor would usually mean , when the upstairs bedrooms/bathrooms/halls, are added up, you then get about a 2,100 to 2,200 square foot home. If you were to finish the basement, you would get a home likely over 3,000 square feet in TOTAL finished area.

    This HYBRID , with first floor master simply puts the other two bedrooms/bath/halls, into the basement. Technically, by the current way that homes are judged, this HYBRID home would have to be appraised as a ONE bedroom ranch, since they would not likely count the basement bedrooms! Taking this another step, we have plans for a second HYBRID which puts all bedrooms in the basement technically making the home appraise as a NO bedroom home!

     Why would someone want such a home? Why would you want your secondary or ALL of your bedrooms in the basement? The answers are interesting and, I dare say, persuasive to most who have toured(by special appointment) the home.  If you want to get all the answers and a special tour of the home, you could stop on by this weekend from 1 to 4 at Reflections Village Miracle INFO DECK to make a “instant” appointment to see the home (to buy the home? It is for sale you know) or call our office any time to schedule a time to view the home.

     Another way to get your personal 3 or 4 minute mini-tour is to join me as I will be a guest on Channel 4 next Friday (not THIS Friday)morning on the Morning Blend Television show at 9 am. Yesterday, I was out at the HYBRID, video taping some footage for my appearance.  I will be making 3 such appearances in the next few weeks to show you all the progress AND on the final appearance the Friday before the opening(it opens Saturday August 21)  I will have a most special surprise that you and your family will not want to miss. It is “top secret” and a whole lot of fun only for this first grand opening weekend. In both Parade and Miracle Homes history, I guarantee,  we have never seen (or even heard of ) this before, so PLEASE stay tuned for this (kinda) major (and did I mention ,   secretive)announcement.

    As for today, we finally got the drywall sprayed and painted at the HYBRID and, humidity pending, we start hardwood floors tomorrow morning!  The exterior is coming along great and it is STUNNINGLY different from any home I have ever seen, mine or otherwise. Again, this is not to say BETTER, but I hope you will say it is. Every creative thing I have ever done leads to, allows the door to open to, the next creative endeavour.  The Grand Bay ranch we built several years back was a home that people saw as hard to beat creatively speaking. Our basketball court home in Oconomowoc was another home folks saw as a creative highpoint which was hard to beat. 

     I had visitors to our last years Parade offering, The Little-Big House (Ixonia) , that came in the front porch saying they didn’t think the Little-Big Home could beat the basketball(Park Bay) court home. When they came out of the home, they usually said that we had topped ourselves. I have a confident feeling that the HYBRID WONDERHOME is one that may top them all!

     Funny thing, whenever we do one of these “fantastic” type homes, folks inevitably ask what a “normal” version of the home would cost and where they can see one. The reality is that builders usually do not have the funds to produce a fancy and a not so fancy version of any single home, so the public is forced to try to imagine the fancy home without all the over-the-top creative thrills and frills. This year, we are not only producing 3 spectacular MBA Parade homes, we are also producing all three of these home in the more “normal” versions so you don’t have to guess. In fact, these homes are having their Grand Opening celebrations to coincide with the same dates as the Parade so if you like a certain one of our 3 Parade models, you can travel just 10 minutes away to see the normal versions!

      I think that is enough revelations for one blog entry. I hope you will take a golf cart tour of Reflection’s Village with me (I like to do the driving) this weekend or any time by appointment. Just call or , as I said, stop on by our special INFO-DECK right on site. Don’t be shy, it will be a blast!

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

Hello All,

      As I write, I have just came in from the “field” (I have spent most of my waking hours this week seemingly in that same “field”) of overseeing our 3 homes we are building in the upcoming MBA Parade Of Homes.  I am exhausted and excited at the same time. I am now rarely going to bed before 2 AM  and I am still usually up by no later than 8 Am for meetings out at the Parade.

    As tense and as exhilarating as it now may seem, it will only get more rapid paced as we enter the final 5 or 6 weeks approaching our August 20 opening. One of our homes is now completely drywalled and has about half of the finish carpentry completed. Our second MBA Parade home  is almost ready for counter tops and carpet. We will be doing the landscaping starting late next week.  Our third MBA Parade home is just finishing the drywall and won’t be ready for finish carpentry to begin until the end of next week at the very earliest.

       The two big side projects that are seeming to consume a lot of creative hours is our “Story Tellers Lounge and our virtual reality in-home nightclub called “Club Wonder“.   In Club Wonder we have several sensory things happening at one time and they all need to be interwoven into a timeline to happen automatically. For example, we are projecting one curved 30 foot by 6 foot high video image around 3 sides of the room. The effect is to make you think you are sitting on a blue beach or in a green forest , or in an orange dessert, or in a purple hued city at night.  Each video scene is realistic (not unlike reality since it wraps around the viewer and is nearly in proportion to the audience. and changes to the next scene every 7 minutes. 

      When the scenes change, that means the color of the image (blue for the beach scene, for example) also is complimented by the lighting in the room substantially changing to that same (blue) color. The room seemingly changes color every 7 minutes. At the same point, we have different smells which are introduced into the club as well.

     The music in the club is being done both with a baby grand piano and alternating (without the piano) using recorded orchestrated music.  The color changes effect and video images, smells, and even the counter tops(which have lights inside them) each change and need to be synchronized to do so automatically. I have done complicated “shows” with multiple stages of action happening at the same time but this one is really touch technically speaking. Today,  I had several meetings with the masterminds involved. The end report:keep your fingers crossed and hope it all comes together!

     The next complicated items in this Wonder Home is the Story Teller’s Lounge. Here we have a simpler set of automation’s where our  Miracle Homes mascot character, Miracle  Mouse, has his own illustrated children’s book which we are bringing to life on a 55 inch flat-screen which begins each show by elevating out of a small stage area, ON CUE(we hope).  There are two other smaller 26 inch television flat screens which are directly over the bigger screen. All three of these televisions interact to “read” our children’s story to anyone who is willing to sit through the 15 minute full show.

     At some point in the show, their is a thunder storm sequence. During that sequence, we want the room lights to dim and the a few strobe lights to flash as thunder and lightening is heard and seen on the screens. One of the three screens has the books words which are highlighted as each word is read. This is a read-along experience. We are trying to blend books and videos together. Using another of this room’s devices, a mother can place  any book under the table camera next to the couch and each page appears on the screen as it is read the good-ol fashioned way.

     The hopes of this home, called our HYBRID WONDERHOME is that guests will have a series of wonderful experiences of which these are definitely two of the highlights. The more we can have our guests enjoy themselves and interact with the rooms, the more memorable their stay with Miracle Homes will be.  After all, as the wise advertising man once said,  folks don’t buy the steak, they buy the sizzle. Likewise, I always found that our real separation from the many other fine builders is that we excel in creating a sense of creativity and a spirit of innovation. This extends into everything we do!

     If you would like to get a preview of these MBA Parade Of Homes , Miracle Homes, we surely want you to see them this weekend. Per the official rules of the Metropolitan Builder’s Association, Parade participants ARE NOT allowed to show the homes in a public open house forum, prior to the offical opening.  That poses the problem however of builders  needing to show their homes in order to sell them . To see these homes this weekend so we might try to sell them , it can be done 2 easy ways. First, you COULD call our office at (262) 628-9091 and arrange a time to see them one-on-one with us. The second way is to come to the site at Reflection’s Village subdivision and go to our special INFO-DECK area. At that area, you can make your  immediate appointment to view these spectacular homes.  We did just such a one-on-one showing today(Friday afternoon) and I believe we had genuine interest in potentially buying one of the models. They sure seemed to enjoy seeing them AND getting a golf cart tour of the whole development with me. If you do visit, you may think your car can drive to see all the development’s sites but you would be really missing a lot. The various wide, paved walking paths are only viewable using your legs, bikes, or our golf cart.

     Don’ t miss the fun this weekend from 1 until 4.  Reflection’s Village is Wisconsin’s ONLY community of it’s kind.  With a pool/club house, extensive walking paths, a shopping district with a bank, shops and eateries, as well as a fishing pond and lush landscaping AND old-World charming homes, where else are you going to find this kind of lifestyle? Come and see for yourself , just off 175 in Richfield, a few blocks South of 167W(Holy Hill Rd).

     Thanks for bloggin’.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

       A  BIG  P.S.    I will be on Channel 4’s Morning Blend this coming Friday July 20 to give you a real pek at the Miracle MBA Parade “magic”! The program starts at 9 am.

     I returned from my California trip late Saturday and captured some nice video of some beautiful sights. As you may know, we are feverishly getting ready for our big 3-home unveiling at the MBA(Metropolitan Builder’s Association) 65th Annual Parade Of  Homes.  It was difficult to justify leaving town for even 1 day while we were installing and creating so many unusual and delightful things all at one time, but my son Sean only gets off two weeks a year with his accelerated college schedule, so we made the time to do the family minded thing and we were not sorry we did,

     There we were, on our way to see the sea lions on the beach and video them. The weather was so gloomy and chilly(yes chilly!) that I did not even shoot a single video clip of this scene. So we decided to head for Anaheim and Disneyland in hopes of at least finding “Nemo” AND the Sun. Sure enough, there it was!  One of the reasons I wanted to go to Disney to shoot video footage was that these creative folks recently opened what looked like the biggest new water fountain show on the planet, called Wonderful World Of Color.

     The show was 26 minutes long and it featured hundreds of amazing lighting, fountain, video screen, laser, and fire effects. The music was bold and exhilarating. The experience of getting to this show, was not. In order to get into the show, required everyone to first get in an early morning waiting line to get your  Disney Fast Pass  tickets to enter the show. This was a 45 minute to an hour long line. Then the day could be spent doing whatever we wished until the appointed hour of 6:45 or so. that was the time to return to the World Of Color waiting line to enter for the 9:00pm showing. In this case however, there was no real line but rather just a huge grouping or mass of standing people who stood behind a rope line with no real direction where the actual entry area would be. Then at about 7:30(as I recall) they released the rope and the mass swarmed over to several poorly identified small entries into various roped off cubical areas.  Just before we got to these cubes, we all handed our ticket/Fast Passes, to gate keepers who could not even look at the tickets due to the huge masses. I could have honestly handed them a business card and they would not have had the time or chance to stop anyone from swarming past them with the crowd’s sheer momentum.

     I was surprised to see that the next stage to this waiting game was to stand inside a roped-off area of about 15 by 15 feet and stand shoulder to shoulder to wait for the show to start. I had hoped for some comfy seats or at very least some hard bleachers but none were to be found.  That meant about an hour and a half wait to stand for the show to begin.  My family was tired and wanted to sit on the concrete, but this was frowned upon by the Disney personnel who were watching the flocks. I tried to get a good location to  shoot the video of the show. One Disney staffer told me that resting my camera on a pylon was permissible, then the next staffer told me I could not put my camera rig resting on any such area.

     I ended up sticking the tri-pod support into my belt top and it seemed to work. I asked the staffer if I could at least stabilize myself by leaning onto a temporary fence-type post which the ropes were attached to. They said these posts would stay intact and that my leaning on them would be fine. I even went so far as to ask a Disney manager if  he was sure I could lean on this post since I was assuming it would likely be removed near the show end to allow the crowds to do their mass exiting. While he said the ropes were going to stay and not be taken down(another Disney manager , who was to follow at 11), sure enough, while I had spent my 26 minutes shooting the show, the final minute they made me move to remove the post and rope so the crowds could exit. That meant that the finale would have  to be re-shot on another night since my camera(and me) had to move for the final moments. 

     The bigger reason for us having to re-shoot the video and re-live the standing and waiting experience all over again was that this how turned out to be a rather wet and misty experience, that made the camera lenses so wet that by the time the finale was playing, the camera view was poor and looking through water droplets on the lenses.  When the first night video shooting was over, I asked the family if the waiting and standing was worth the show and  they all agreed enthusiastically, that the show was worth all the trouble.

     It is always amazing to me that the power of music and images can be so powerful as to make humans feel so uplifted. It is that uplifted experience that makes us forget the hassles and troubles that have transpired to get to the  “goodstuff” in life. We humans seem to have the gift of putting bad or troublesome experiences behind us and move on to enjoy life.  One last “kicker” the Disney person who was in charge of our section told us earlier that when the show was over we would all need to exit to the far left or right. The actual exit turned out to be directly to the rear and center. Oh well, this is a new show and they are learning the ropes. At least they all seemed, for the most part, nice.

     Remember, I intend to bring this footage (in some form or another) to our big 30 foot wide , triple movie screens we will be having in our basement night club at the MBA Parade called “Club Wonder“. I previewed the video footage and from what I could see on my small monitor, the clarity and visuals were excellent!

     At the end of our Disneyland stay, Jacquie and I had talked to our second night (World Of Color) standing neighbors and they told us of a surfing championship being held only a short drive away. While the boys slept , early the next, last morning , of our trip, we set up our triple camera rig on the beach to shoot surfers on the waves. The visuals could have been great since it was interesting to watch BUT, again, the clouds were gloomy and overcast.

    Maybe the lesson is that long lines and waiting at Disney WITH Sunshine  beats beach and surfing or sea lions and docks with NO sunshine.  We did wear sweatshirts most of the time we were in California and I did get some great video of mountains WITH Sun. When we returned, the sun was shining and I was so glad to be back in Sunny Wisconsin where the lines are short, the sights are nice and the gas is cheaper, and now I can get back to creating some very special homes! Life is so good.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

    In the midst of the hectic building of our 3 fantastic(if I do say do say so myself) new homes for the MBA Parade homes in Richfield, I discovered something.   I could really use some more video footage of some exotic setting for our big triple-screen production we are staging at our grandest MBA Parade home model.

    We pioneered the main concept of using three big 10 foot movie screens and placing them edge-to-edge for one big 30 foot long video mural. At last years MBA Parade of Homes, we created our first version which received rave reviews from visitors. We really want to expand on the concept so we have taken the concept the next level.  I won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty details….yet!

     Suffice to say, if last years version made you “feel” as though you were in whatever location we were video shooting, this years version will make you really feel as though you are there. We are using lighting effects, music, and even smell (if we can figure it all out, that is)to create feelings unlike anything we have ever experienced in a theatre setting. In fact, this IS NOT at all like watching a movie, it is more like experiencing real life scenery. I am going to see a few California sights and I am bringing my triple-camera rig along. While I am in the Disneyland area, Disney has an all new major water fountain show called “World Of Color” and I hope to shoot that as well IF they let me.

     If you want to hear about my California experiences, why not stop by and see me at Richfield’s Reflections Village this Sunday.  I  know it is the 4th of July, but  I can still have these 3 homes open AND enjoy my festivities later.  I will be having our 3 wonderful homes open from 1 to 4 this Sunday.  All other locations are closed this weekend for the holiday.

     Blessings,

    Tom Hignite 

As a final added thought to this thread, I just heard of a new ruling which the MBA (Metropolitan builder’s association) has just adopted for their (this) Parade Of  Homes event. They will not be allowing any builder (that would mean Miracle Homes or any other builder  who is in the Parade) to show Parade homes before the event officially opens to the public.  It seems, they will allow private showings however at any time.     I have been given a grace period of this Sunday , July 4 to end my weekend open public showings.  We, of course are abiding by their rules on this matter and I invite you to keep reading my blog for further notice of next weekend at Reflections Village(site of the MBA Parade Of Homes 2010…there are also sites  in Franklin and Pewaukee.) check the MBA website at mbaonline.org for more details.

     If you have ever been in one of my homes, you may see a touch of Disney in some of them. Over the years, I have been asked why I seem to try to use Disney as a theme thread in my homes and advertising. A few years ago, one local magazine even went so far as to try to write a 60 Minute-style expos’e article about me as being sort of a man who is trying to BE Walt Disney. They mentioned that when I was a kid, that going on a trip to a Disney theme park was the “Holy grail” of vacations. Boy, did they get it wrong!

     As a kid, I never actually went to a Disney theme park nor can I really remember even asking to go to one. We were the kind of family who was happier taking a trip to the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee to take in the sights. We even liked  going to the East coast to see the big International Sailboat Show on several occasions, but for some reason, Disney was never much on our radar scope.

    The first time I went to Disney, I was a college aged kid on a trip to Florida, selling (of all things) small boats at a boat show. I thought I would take a bus ride to Disney World and see what it was all about.  My interests were in advertising and art and I loved the way that all the Disney theme park people were so freindly and what a great impression all that cheerfulness made on the visitors.   I also marveled at the great architecture and the wonderful , fanciful art all around the theme park. But, how does this relate to homes?  We’re coming to that.

     Many years later, past this event, after I had gotten into the home designing and building business, I wanted to try to bring that same friendliness and cleanliness(did I mention just how immaculate that Disney theme park was?) to my business. I put on my advertising/promotions thinking cap and tried to find a large business entity that I could strive to emulate as a model for my own business.

    Many business do this. It is part of creating a business model. As I was considering which major successful business was closely aligned with my own desire and motives, I considered what my business was trying to be. First and foremost, I wanted my business to be a creative and innovative place to be. I wanted our products to also reflect this air of creativity . I wanted our place and people to be as friendly and cheerful as possible. It became obvious that the one company who rises to the top of folks minds when you are thinking about creative company’s would be Disney. What Walt Disney  was to cartoons and theme parks was an inventor and innovator. We should strive to be the same to the world of homes.  

     It seemed logical to me that if we were to mentally connect the public’s eye  with the best aspects of Disney’s ability to make folks happy, we would more easily be able to “brand’ ourselves(that is a fancy term for aligning ourselves with something our proposed customers may want to have, or find attractive) and identify ourselves to the public.   Few knew what Miracle Homes was but many knew who or what Disney was.  For this reason, I chose to make a mental connection with the Disney brand, but I did not want to become another Disney by any means. I did not attempt to grow a mustache or wear suits or take up smoking, or move to California, to try to be like Walt.   I wanted to use Disney as a starting point but then wanted to make sure we grew our own distinct identity.

     Then came Miracle Mouse. To be more exact, Miracle Mouse, our little creative mascot character, came before I ever decided to attempt to try to adopt Disney as a brand image. This character is seen by some as a close-copy of Disney’s Mickey Mouse character. I certainly do see the resemblance but here’s the real scoop on why I chose a mouse mascot, and how he came to be.

     I had grown up in a family that enjoyed sailing on Lake Michigan. One favorite sailing magazine was called Cruising World. In that magazine, there was a page that was artfully decorated to show how to build a certain boat project.  In those cartoon-type drawings, there was usually a small mouse somewhere in each drawing page. I thought this was a cute thing and also thought how any other character, other than a mouse, would be too big and not be able to be put into all the various drawings I would do for my homes. This first mouse I saw in that magazine was rather realistic so my first Miracle mouse experience was really me just going to my main home illustration artist and simply telling him to draw-in a small mouse who maybe was wearing a hard hat and suspenders.  He was to be a subtle add-on to each home illustration. I gave little more direction than that. Todd Dakins, an illustrator drew this first Miracle Mouse. I thought, when I have any illustration done for me, I would try to include this little guy somewhere for folks to discover.

     Years later, I  decided we were going to do our first television commercials. I decided to do something clever by trying to have our little creative mascot make a small appearance at the end of every commercial by doing something different as he walks onto the final shot. One time he would walk- on carrying our logo. The next time he would walk-on then trip with the logo. The next time he would parachute onto the scene and his parachute would unfold to become the logo. Each time, he would do something different.

     To get this little guy animated, I went to an animation studio in Racine. When I met with this studio, I gave them my idea of what Miracle Mouse should look like. They gave me a stack of drawings of what the character could look like intead. I had gone to art and advertising school for 7 years (I had the no -degree plan) and I was a pretty good political cartoonist in my high school years.  Suddenly, it came to me. This mouse could further my public suggestion (branding)that we had the Disney-flair for creativity  in home designing/building.  I could design my mouse character to have some distinct items on him that might bring back a mental relationship to Mickey Mouse. I had to be careful as I did not want to copy the character using his round ears or white gloves. I gave him black hands. Micky had a snout, so my mouse could not. Mickey never wore a hat or blue jean suspenders but Miracle Mouse would wear this and have brown work shoes instead of Mickey’s big yellow shoes. I tried to envision  him as perhaps a beaver, or cricket, or muskrat, or badger instead. But none of those animals seemed to roll-off the tongue as easily as Miracle Mouse did.

     Disney never ended his commercials with a tag line about being Christian based, or having his family in the picture, but I wanted our own identity merged with that established Disney identity, not just a carbon copy.  I decided to try to make my place of employment worthy of being a place folks would want to live and work. I (and my wife Jacquie of course) decided to take the whole company on vacations together. We decided to take everyone out to eat once a week. We even decided to give little merit awards and public recoginition for doing nice things. We took managers to Disney University to learn how to please people.  We gave  surprise big checks to workers at our Christmas party .  Some of these checks were thousands of dollars and no one was expecting a dime before we gave those checks.

     I  went the extra measure of creating an office environment where we all were wearing the same Miracle Team attire, and created a large swimming pond in our back yard for the staff to use on weekends or on lunch with their families.  We decided that if we were to be good citizens, we would be generous in giving to our community as well. Everything was working so well and our staff named us one of the top 25 workplaces in Wisconsin!

     We became the fastest growing home builder ever to hit Wisconsin. Our staff grew fast and we soon were building a new facility as we had to move to a larger facility to keep up with our growth to a staff of 70. By this time, I decided to try to produce our own television commercials that were fully animated. The bids to do this were over $110,000 for a 30 second commercial. I thought this was ridiculous and that I could do them myself if I had an experienced person or two to show me how. I decided to try to hire a few ex-Disney artists to be on our advertising and marketing staff. They brought with them an air of creativity and bought us to another level of creativity.

     When the housing market crashed, the new building project was put on “hold” and we layed off most all of our advertising department including all the Disney artists, except one. Today as we get ready for our home for entry into the MBA Parade Of Homes opening of our Hybrid Wonderhome in less than two months, we are working on premiering our read-along Miracle Mouse children’s book in our kid’s bedroom suite. I hope you will come over THIS WEEKEND to meet me and take a sneak-preview of this exciting new home we are building(and two others right next door) from 1 to 4, in Richfield’s Reflections Village development. The feeling might not be exactly Disney , but it is as close as you may come this side of Orlando.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite      

    Than

   Last night was typical of several of my “last nights”, I was up until 3:30 am working on creating new brochures ,and art , and plan revisions for our big current project , for building 3 elaborate Miracle Homes all at the same time. If you have read any of my recent series of Richfield Reports, then you know how this is both an exciting time as well as a time of some intense moments.  This past week, the intense has overshadowed the exciting moments.  Things seem to be coming faster and faster.  I have, unfortunately, not been very current in my blog postings lately, so I wanted to bring you all up to speed.

     The toughest project of the 3 is our all new design called the “Hybrid Wonderhome” (spell-check will alert this  fictional name for sure), which is surely to be one of our most amazing homes we have ever built. This is a home which I have come to self-categorize as being one of our “spectaculars“ (another fictional use of a questionable word), is a home we have tried to take a notable Disneyesque( Help, I am trapped in fictional words and can’t get out!)  slant to it’s presentation. If you want to see the basic “wild ideas” that went into this home, go all the way back to my very first blog ramblings to get the picture on why I wanted to create this unique home.

     Beyond the essential reasoning for the design, this home has something new in every area from the front landscaping to the final exit. As homes go, this one is a theme park attraction “E” ticket ride of a home with an open front porch which allows you to air condition it(and keep out the bugs)  even though the sides have no screens or windows.  Even as we are gathering all the items to make this happen for the first time in any home, we are working on a basement night club where we can mentally transport guests into exotic and fun differing environments via multiple projection screens. This little item alone involves us having to make one part of the basement(I won’t be pretentious by calling this a lower level, …which it is) 12 feet tall!

     Today, I spent most of my morning with an appointment for selecting the 3 home’s doors, patiently waiting me to drive back to my office, which is only 2 minutes away. I was nearly an hour late! The delay was in trying to explain to our rough carpentry crews just how and why they needed to build many unorthodox and unusual things that not blue print could ever adequatly show. One such item was a  bar counter top that could change to fifferent colors on cue to match the rest of the room’s color changes. There we were,as we were sweating a half inch here, and a quarter inch there, so that our guests would all be able to see the unified images on the three 10 foot wide movie screens. When finished, we will have a 30 foot long continuous image which will transport you visually into the exotic or peaceful, or exciting locations.

     Yesterday, I was in active conversations with a music composer I have worked with , who now lives in Nashville , to have him compose the musical score for Club Wonder .  That is the name we are calling this special place. Today, I was on the phone talking to a local Piano shop owner to find out how I can reproduce the piano section of Club Wonder’s musical score , so it can be played live (on a baby grand piano)while the rest of the music plays over speakers to pre-recorded music. Boy, the price is a bit more than I expected but…we will see.

     Last night, I was up, as I said, to early in the morning working on the last details for a full color preliminary “sneak-peek” for this weekend’s opening for Reflection’s Village(The Richfield location for this Miracle-only event) so everyone can get the layouts and concept art in short form at the Saturday/Sunday 1 to 4 event.   As an aside, I will be there along with my electric blue golf cart to take folks on a quick tour of Reflections Village grounds.  This week, I had the cart brought into Milwaukee to get tuned/cleaned so it was ready. Tomorrow morning, I have to get the cart over to our “INFO- DECK”. This is a temporary cedar deck which is at the development with three huge photo-mural signs as a backdrop. Tonight, I was installing the signs and getting some patio furniture so folks can sit on the deck.   I wonder, serving some lemonade or bottled water might be a nice touch…if I can find the time to make it happen tomorrow morning.

     Two nights ago, I was up, again, very late-early , to get at least some form of a web page set up to support Reflection’s Village and this weekend’s kick-off event. The page just went live a few hours ago. Not bad but we can improve it for next week. Please feel free to check out that site.  Yesterday morning, I was out of bed early to the audio studio in Brookfield to cut our radio commercial for this event. This  radio commercial can be heard on our Miracle Reflections Village web page and is running all weekend on WKLH, WISN, and the Polka station WTKM(?). Next week, it will add WTMJ to the mix.

     So much has happened on the 3 homes as far as construction and while I am surely there every day, I am most grateful for our crack staff including office support and our special construction manager Mark Scheel, who has been an absolute God-send. Plumbing , electric, and heating-cooling , as well as audio-video, were all completed on 2 of the projects(Our Little-Big House 2.0 and our Rent-Buster Elite. not the HYBRID Wonderhome ) so we can now insulate on Monday and Tuesday of this coming week. With any blessing at all, we will be dry walling by the middle or end of the week on at least one of the 3 homes.

     This week, we also found the siders and had our ups and downs with this process. If you do not know, the siding on a home is usually done more on the rough or , let’s say, casual side. I don’t care if you are the highest-end or lowest starting builder, the job of siding a home (including all the trim wood around windows and the various posts and vent details) is not usually a job of finishing quality. that is why siding has usually a rougher wood-grained look of rough-sawn cedar. Commonly, large headed galvanized nails are used and simply painted over later. Rarely do you see finishing nails anywhere near a sider’s tool belt. Another thing  is that no sider I have met seems to measure the spacing of those nails since the nail heads can’t be seen from a short distance away.

     I approached this project by drawing an object lesson for out siding crews so they might not forget. I drew a quick sketch of a grand piano and next to it I drew the wooden crate that the piano is shipped in.  The rough constructed crate represents the way most siding today is done. On this home, I went on to say, we are NOT building piano crates, we ARE building the piano.  I went and I did the unusual thing of hiring , not siders, but a more pricey finish carpentry crew.   After a few hours I checked back to see their results. I was amazed to see they were doing a good job of a good sider but not a good job of a finish carpenter. I again explained, we are building pianos but so far, all I am seeing are crates. They said they would make changes and get it right. You see, we are using smooth sanded woods not the common heavy grained woods. We had a tough time special ordering smooth Hardie Plank cement board siding. Lumber  suppliers  don’t seem to stock it.   The look I am going for is the smooth furniture look you might see on an old Victorian home. Believe me, you need to pay a much higher cost to get the look we are trying to achieve. I hope someone besides myself notices. I fully expect many home shopers may just not understand why these homes may cost a little more than the common discount builder offerings.  I have always wanted to build a home with a  highly polished exterior look , hopefully, I will get it.

    It is now about1:30am Saturday  morning and I could write many more paragraphs but I will close with the biggest smile this week for me. Most homes that compare to  the HYBRID WONDERHOME square footage, would take about 10 days to 2 weeks to do the rough carpentry phase. Nothing much else can happen until this phase is done. The builder cost to do this phase is usually between $7,000 to $10,000. The Hybrid’s rough carpentry is still not completed and it is now a a 5 week job at about $30,000(or…yikes..more!). The roughing phase took a dramatic turn for the better in the last 2 days.  

     I saw that since the excellent (I sincerely mean that) crew I had on the job were not yet even started on the basement, and I need this whole phase done by next Wednesday(3 business days from now).  I was sure i would not make schedule. So, I convinced the present crew, and negotiated to have a second larger crew come in and tackle the entire basement. I am blown away by the fast and highly detailed work that is now gracing our basement. No, it is not done yet , but I suspect, they will be done in another day and a half, by mid-Tuesday!  Unfortunately, the basement is a disaster zone as far as being a mess . The crew worked late and did not clean-up.  Since I need this home to show for appointments and our opening Sneak-Peak event tomorrow by 1pm, crews will be coming early tomorrow to stack lumber and sweep up.

     I am so looking forward to letting folks see just what we are up to,  so I hope you will join me this weekend to get your sneak preview special brochure. If you want to see the homes, as I hope you will, You may have to make a “quik-appointment” on our INFO-DECK so you sign a waiver agreeing that this is,  after all , a construction site and you need to be careful in the homes at his point.  If it is not too crowded, I would love to give you a personal tour and golf cart ride through this magical development.

    There I go, getting all excited, all over again!

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

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

     There are some things I know I will only get to do once in my life and others I may only get to do a relatively few times. This item falls under the category of something I will only get to do a few times. Specifically, building a three homes at the same time, in the same neighborhood all of a showcase quality, all with some or many new twists and turns and innovations, ALL will be in the big Parade Of Homes event coming this Summer to Richfield’s Reflection’s Village.

     I have written about Reflection’s before, but Reflections Village is somewhat of a “great experiment” and one that is exciting indeed to think may be possible. A small village unto itself, complete with fishing pond, club house and pool, a central park with band shell, nostalgic-styled homes, playground, extensive lush landscaping, more walking paths and sidewalks than I ever thought possible in one community, and a shopping district, which is starting with a fancifully designed bank building. Perhaps this shopping village area will one day have restaurants, a barber shop, bakery, gift shops, who knows, but ALL in a quaint town square style.

     A few years ago, I had a strangely similar vision to do something like this a few miles away in Germantown. I envisioned a circular town square where a waterway would join the parking lot to the village via a river pathway. Small tour boats would take visitors to the center of this town via these boats. Horse carriages and old 1920’s streetcars would also transport guests “back” into a world which was seemingly cut-off from today’s world by means of high landscaping and berms.

    My dream DID get off the ground. We had done millions of dollars of work on this development having cut in the waterways and a huge pond(almost a lake), and put in most of the infrastructure for this town square of 12 homes and a big main office building. We got the foundation for the 15,000 square foot building installed. We had the land preparred for my personal residence.  The designs were all done and paid for. We got all the septic systems installed. All the major grading was done. We blasted enough stone (and brought in huge stone crushing machines to pulverize the rock into smaller usable stones for the building’s construction) to make the entire 80 acres look more like a stone quarry than the future town square it might become.

    I had envisioned a place where the community could come to see live theatre on our office’s seminar stage. A place to have community fireworks on special events.  A place where we would have a unique mini-golf course, a tethered hot air balloon ride for getting a birds-eye view of the countryside, but mostly, a place to see the very latest home ideas  of all sorts. We would start with two concept homes and one central “castle“(actually a colonial building but at night it’s shape would remind you of a castle)  which would be the client center for selections of home products. There would be music, fun, and adventure with annual art fairs on the grounds and maybe even a restaurant. A horse stable to allow folks to ride the trails in a wooded area around  the pond. Our special guests(those who had bought one of our homes) would have an anytime pass to a video arcade, sand beach, and party villa which could be reserved for functions. The interior of the main building would have historically recreated rooms from famous buildings to serve as conference rooms. It would be a place which would attract home shoppers and fun lovers alike from across the state and beyond.   Much of this had been approved, some of this needed to be approved.

     All of this came very, very close to happening.  Then came 2006 and it’s great and sudden decline in home sales.  At first, it seemed like maybe we could continue this project on a less aggressive , slower path. As the months continued to pass, and sales continued to slow even more, it became apparent that this was not the right time to continue this dream. We pulled the plug, sent the excavators home, having just finished a $100,000 deep water well, we stopped proceeding to install the pumps. We removed the driveway culverts and put everything on ice, awaiting the time to improve and allow us to continue the dream.       Not a week passes that I don’t think about the dream and the hibernation of that dream and wonder how, when, and if we will ever be able to awaken this sleeping giant. With banking circumstances as tight as they have gotten, with the housing market having changed so radically, I just don’t know the answer.

    I do know that God always has a plan and that plan is far greater and more creative than any idea I could ever imagine. This brings us full circle to Reflection’s Village. Strangely , our Miracle Village would have not been exactly like this development but the similarities are definitely clear. At the heart of our involvement with Reflections, will be our most creative innovative ideas in new homes. Better yet, unlike Miracle Village, in Reflection’s, anyone can live in one of our(or other’s) creative homes.

     In my previous post, I gave you a report on our first home of the 3 we are building.  Stay tuned for news on our second home design we are building. It is a stressful time in getting these 3 homes completed, but it is a great time , a fun time as well.

    To let you know how the market is doing, we have signed 4 new home sales in the last 10 days.  I expect we will sign another 2 this week. I keep thinking the home market is back, but I still don’t see the real action in the higher priced homes above $300,000.  Since Reflections is likely in the $300 ,000 to $500,000 arena, I hope with the best interest rates…EVER(?), with banks just starting to loosen their grip….a little, Reflections, as I said, is the “great experiment“. If it works, who knows what dreams may be awoken.

      I hope you all will take a drive out to see the excitement , (I swear I can actually feel the excitement) happening in Richfield. The development will probably hit the airwaves with our radio and newspaper ads in a few weeks. If you do go out there, make sure you pick up one of our full color flyer’s in a brochure box under our big “bill board” signs, identifying our homes.

     Thanks for taking the time to read the blog. I appreciate comments, but make sure I can tell them from the many  spam comments I get daily by mentioning a  specific detail of a blog entry. I erase sooo many questionable spam comments.

     Until we dream again,

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

     Creative juices are flowing heavy around our offices as we are currently in the midst of doing something we have not done in many years.  We are building 3 model homes , all at the same time!  that means 3 sets of carpenter crews are all working at the same time. That means we have new questions and issues of products ,and measurements,  and colorsthat are needing our constant attention as the builders in the field run into un-clear numbers and engineering situations as each new piece of the puzzle comes together.

     You might think that following a blueprint would be good enough but when we are building new designs or modifications of old designs, new questions are bound to arise. Is an overhang supposed to be 12 or 14 inches? Does the concrete porch with the storage area below it have the most recent stell engineering plan, or is it the one from last week that has been changed? How thick do we really think those window grids should be? What choice of red bricks do I think will work best for which area, and can we find a close enough match for the near-by walk-way pavers?   When you are building one new home at a time, you have a lot of these questions When you build 3 at the same time, the effort seems more than 3 times as much!

     Last year for the Parade, we built a 1600 square foot ranch we called our “Little-Big House”. THis year, we have modified and improved the design and we now call it our “Little-Big House 2.0″. I was going to call it the “Son Of Little-Big House”, or “Little_Big House, The Sequel”, but saying “2.0″ seemed more Generation “Y” which is what Miracle is trying to aim our design sights on to.

     The biggest alteration in this new modified version is that the home is about 2 feet narrower and about 2.5 feet deeper. The exterior is absolutely going to charm everyone.  It will remind you of an older Victorian influenced home of the 1930’s to 1940’s era.  Last years version was craftsman in influence. This year, Virtually every home in the Parade (In Richfield’s Reflection’s Village site), is a craftsman design. When I saw the designs , I thought they were all lovely homes but I was SO happy I had taken a different path as it appeals to me to have something that is not fitting into the “group” and stands a bit apart.

     Victorian styled homes did not have too much in the way of masonry. They did have a lot of smooth painted woodwork. I have to admit, I am a little afraid of doing the woodwork in a smooth look since those rough-sawn siding and knotty boards commonly used in today’s homes provide a lot of hiding space for less than perfect exterior detailing. Since older homes had this smooth , no  knots, no grain, more furniture detailed look, I am going to try to go that route.

     This means, we will have to carefully attend to puttying the wood’s knots and imperfections before we can just start staining and painting. This home is going to be a cute combination of cream-yellow and white.   I have found some ornate looking flower boxes and most windows will have them built-into the bottom of each major window.  We are putting the roofs over each main window hanging over the window and being held-up by ornate carved wood brackets.  The corners all have the look of a fancy square wood pillar with crown moldings on the tops. The garage is somewhat “hidden” as a side entry garage.  The basement is being designed as a sort of separate apartment level complete with a kitchen(bar) with stove, theatre area, big bedroom with attached bathroom and its own laundry room. There is even a space for an extra bedroom or study or exercise room if you desire. Of course, this being a basement, we need to have a pool table area.

      The main floor has a Master bedroom separated away from the other two bedrooms and a big central great room with seating enough for 22. The dining area had seats for 8 to 10 with an additional 6 to 7 stools at the breakfast bar/kitchen. There are so many unique details in the decorating of this home but one of my favorites is the master suite which does not have a door on the main section of the master bath. This is much like a luxury hotel where the sink area is not in the same area as the toilet and shower.

     I also really like the alcove we have made for tucking the bed’s headboard into. We have a second alcove for a tall dresser and a huge 13 foot long master closet with a clothes chute going from this closet into the first-floor laundry room.

    The garage is a larger 2 space size but we added an extra 4 feet of storage area along the entire rear of the garage so you can use this for storage or for a longer vehicle or boat.

     Colors are such a big part of this home as I hope to have this home looking like an older grandma’s cottage complete with white painted cabinets that have a accent was of pewter on the detailing of the cabinets. The doors too will be similar and the hardware a dainty dull-gold. Not your typical black or brushed nickle colors at all.

     If you are in the Reflection’s Village area (Richfield off 175, you can see it from the main hwy 45 just north of Germantown) why not stop by and see how things are looking. We have just erected 2 (of our 3) 8 foot by 12 foot mini-billboards ,(one by each of our 3 homes) at Reflections. They are hard to miss!

     Next, I will give you a heads-up preview on our second home we are building for this year’s Parade. Thanks for blogging with me. I am always glad to read your comments, just emember to mention something specific from the blog so I don’t erase your comments as potential spam.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

I was thinking of how important first impressions really are , not just in homes, but in everything in life. Like it or not, we are born pretty judgmental in nature. We may SAY we should not judge others but what we are really saying is we should not TELL others of our judgements very quickly or easily.

       When I meet someone, I am automatically making a quick opinion from the second I meet someone.  When we see a heavy set person (I verge on that group myself) or a skinny person, we start judging them as either eating too much or eating too little. When we see someone who is not dressed very well or is dressed as a fashion model, we immediatly form an opinion but, well tempered individuals tend to keep their words to themselves.   It is just how we are built and , speaking for myself, I try to gather more information before I ”confirm” what I am already thinking. 

      The other day, I was driving down the street near my Richfield home and saw a modest sedan car of a decade or older age stranded on the side of the road.  It was near a round-about, you know, those new traffic moving , somewhat confusing wonders.  I slowed down to see why this car was on the side of the road. Here is how my mind worked.

     I saw who looked to be an African-American heritage middle aged man pacing quicly next to his car with a cell phone up to his ear. He was dressed in a nice suit with a hanky in his pocket.  I immediately knew there was a gas station about one block away but needed to know why this man looked stranded. I passed him and considered that while I am always busy, my immediate schedule had about a half hour I could spare for my fellow human being, if I “had” too.  I turned my vehicle around and circled back to see if I could help.

     I would not have done this if this man and his car had not passed my initial “smell” test. I had indeed formed a quick first impression which needed to be confirmed with further investigation.  I pulled my car in behind his and rolled down my window as he approached my car. My quick question went out of “hey, do you need some help?” He explained he was going to a funeral and had run out of gas and his wallet was left at his Sister’s house in Racine. He had an Illinois license plate. He said he was on his way to Racine to see his Sister again and get his wallet. He also said someone had already stopped to assist him and had gone home to get some gas and was supposedly now on the way back to help him. He also went on to say he was wondering what was taking this would-be helper so long?  I offered to get him some gas and come right back. He seemed very grateful.

    He said he could not leave the car and he did not have money or a gas can. If  I wanted to, he offered to have me talk to his Sister and confirm that he was legit and that his Sister was busy at work but he assured me he would re-pay anything I would do to help him. I went to get some gas.  The clerk let me borrow the stations gas can and moments later, he had enough to get to the station. I already knew I would pay to buy this man some gas. Did I mention, he had a Bible on his back window sill which I saw when I drove back to talk to him with the gas can? I followed him to the station and he requested I let him fill the tank up with $50 or so. Suddenly, the hair on my neck began to raise with doubts.

     I told him I would give him $30 to get him to Racine and that was more than enough to make the trip. As he filled the tank, he was so thankful and I told him he did not have to repay me since I think one good turn in life should be passed on to others. I told him to do a favor for someone else, some other time. As he was coming to the end of his $30 fill, he then asked if he could have at least another $20 cash so he could get some food for his trip back. At this point, I knew I had been “suckered” and just said NO and I moved on as nicely as possible.

     My lesson was that first impressions are not always correct. Was I sorry I helped this man? Actually, I would be dishonest if I told you I did not feel like I was taken advantage of and I was sorry I had  stopped to help him. When I thought more, I think all things happen for a reason and this may be for me to sharpen my judgement skills more in the future. It could be that this man will see my generosity and something in him may change due to it. It could be I just don’t know what good will come from this for many years or ever, or it could be this incident allows me to have a blog subject tie-in.

    So,…how does this possibly relate in any way  to homes?  I will get to it.

A second story. I have gone to Disneyland many times. I once paid for a backstage tour as part of a Disney Institute learning program. I was learning how to “create magical feelings” in business or such. My small class/group entered Disneyland before it opened to the public for the day. We saw main street before the old fashioned music was playing. Before the old fashioned dressed people were driving those old fashioned vehicles down the street. Before the barbershop quartets were strolling or cotton candy vendors were pushing their carts. We saw modern service vehicles on the street. We saw workers polishing their  many brass railings and pressure washers washing down the roads and porches. We saw painters touching up building details, and boxes of merchandise being wheeled into the stores. Some building lights were turned on and some were off. I did not feel the “magic” I usually associated with this familiar place. If this would have been my first impression of Disneyland, I probably would NEVER be able to feel the same way I now feel about this place. I had a strong first impression which continues to stay with me.

     We have all heard the old saying,”you never get a second chance to create a good first impression“. I take this statement seriously. I go out of my way to make sure that others in my organization feel the same way I do.  I , sadly, do not always succeed in making others see my vision.

     When I built my office, I wanted to have happy music playing cheerfully as you entered the grounds. I wanted to have a clean front yard, well manicured grass, bright colorful flowers and not a weed in sight. Folks need to feel as though they are stepping into a fantasy when they enter our grounds. A picture-perfect setting, right out of a story-book. I have not succeeded..fully.   I am trying.   I want my receptionist to always offer a nice greeting and a beverage of choice. I get upset when phones are not answered immediatly on the first or second ring. This is not always possible but I refuse to allow a machine to do this important greeting. I never believed “Your call is very important to us, please stay on the line .”  I want the guest’s name to be written on our lobby board of welcome. I want our messy store-room door ,which is visible from a part of our lobby , to always be closed so no one sees this imperfect area and ruins the illusion of perfection.   I want everyone in the office to be cheerful and the bathrooms clean and the carpets vacuumed.  I want no debris or parcel post cardboard packages in the lobby. I want the coat closet cleaned and uniform clothes  hangers when folks hang their coats.  I want a ridiculously organized and clean lobby and office.  I want a dynamite, pristine  backyard area for guests to wonder into while they await an appointment. I want to make the impression that if someone builds with us, maybe this too could all be theirs.

     I don’t always suceed at creating this first impression at our office or at our model homes.   I don’t want model home visitors to be allowed to simply come right into the home because they have been waiting for a salesperson who was running a few minutes late.   Imagine if Disneyland decided to just open the gates because they wanted to not let anyone wait to enter. Imagine everyone entering the park as I did and there was no happy music, no lights were on, some bulbs were even burnt out!  No candles were lighted, no fireplace was turned on.   Imagine that the carpet had a muddy mark from a previous visitor or there were open toilet lids , or a soiled or maybe even a clogged smelly toilet.   Imagine seeing a candy dish with only 5 pieces of candy left and 3 discarded wrappers in the bowl.   Imagine seeing a garbage can in the kitchen that was overfilled and a basket of torn or dirty booties in the foyer. Why can’t we all see what we are or are not doing to create first impressions.

     Now imagine, this group of visitors who this late salesperson just felt so compelled to allow to enter and any one or three of the above items was to see some of these shortcomings. Once the first impression has been cast  there is simply no possible way to say to them” Now that I have the home properly turned-on and cleaned and quality-checked, and the music and lights are now turned-on, can you please just  go outside and come in again?”  The better way to treat those awaiting guests is to say to them,”Sorry for being a little late. I will go in the garage entry , unlock the hoouse, , turn on a few lights and be right with you. I will make your wait worth it!”.  We only get one chance to create a good first impression. I am sorry to say, I  still see infractions of this from some of my my most seasoned staffers. Sometimes, we just forget to sweat the details like we know we should.  We are however, much better than most in this business, but still not as great as we could and should be.

     If anyone out there ever enters one of my homes (or office)and has a bad or less than great first impression, I hope you will blog/comment  me and let me know.  If you are selling a home or having guests to your home, remember, you must create that great first impression.It does not just happen all by itself.   It is the way everything looks, everything works, feels, and even smells that everything combines  to make the “magic“. That includes  not only the home, but the way the salesperson or home owner presents him/herself as well.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite