I just finished visiting our weekend open houses and the market seems stronger every week. Before I go into my creative mode on the couch with graph paper and pencil in hand, I wanted to share a new direction and passion I have recently been spending a lot of  hours contemplating and drawing and re-contemplating. I would be most interested if anyone of you would like to offer your opinion on this new design idea, since I am only guessing it may have an interest to some or (hopefully) a lot of potential home buyers.

      I have always enjoyed designing homes. My designs, whether very big or very small, always try to use every square inch of space. I love exploring and inventing new ways to make homes feel larger and be more dramatic. A few years ago, I hit on the idea of designing what I called our “Little-Big House “ which was a 1,500 square foot ranch.  The biggest problem with designing such a home is that fresh home visitors would often walk around the home then say they were not interested because the home was a little too big. When I would ask what size they were looking for, they would often say something like “Gee, we really are looking for something around 1,400 to maybe 1,500 square feet.” When I tell them that the home they think is too big is really only 1,500 square feet, they just look a little puzzled and eventually just walk away . This always mystified me. My only guess is they must not either believe me or they must be still wanting a smaller house yet.

    This past (most recent past) MBA Parade Of Homes, I designed our Little-Big House 2.0 version. This time, the home was 1,555 square feet. Folks would again come in and either instantly “get-it” or they again would say they want a smaller home and we never hear from them again.

     The same type of thing happened again and again at our flagship Parade home(we had 3 homes in this years Parade) the HYBRID WONDERHOME. Folks would often have their breath taken away by the many marvels in every room. I always try to orchestrate the homes to build in surprise effects as visitors journey from room to room.  The overwhelming comment was that the home was simply much bigger than they were looking for. After all, they were “heading for retirement ” or “looking to downsize“.  This home however was the smallest home in the entire parade and probably the smallest home to be in the MBA Parade in many years. When I would tell that to visitors, they would again kinda shrug their shoulders and move on, never to be  heard from again.

  (PAUSE... Let me stop here to say that with the HYBRID WONDERHOME, lots of people really “got it”. In fact, we had no real trouble getting both serious interest and real offers for this very special home. It is difficult that we only had one of these homes which recieved so many Parade Of Homes  vendor discounts and donations that we can not repeat the home for anywhere near this homes selling price.  I had to sadly convey this message to several folks when we did finally/recently accepted  an offer. If you want to see this magical home, I would suggest you don’t wait too long. But I digress.)

   Back to our regualr blog….  All of this unusual reaction to my smaller homes caused me to conclude that my designs may be in fact very small but the small home consumer was trained to be seeing homes that feel smaller than I was showing when it came to the small home market. In short, since these homes felt so big, my telling them this was in fact a small house seemed to be dismissed by what their eyes were showing them. 

     All of this observing, and contemplating had sat with me for a while and the result was another direction of design for me to explore. If these “Little-Big Homes” were feeling so big, maybe I should explore just how very small of a home could be really be designed.   In the past, I have designed as small as an 1,100 square foot ranch. The home was to be for a government program and could only be 1.5 baths and it never was built.

     I had never really been able to design much smaller than 1,400 or 1,500 square feet since anything smaller would not be permitted to be built in most subdivisions or communities. So, even if I had spent a lot of time and creative thinking to come up with an even smaller home, it would not be able to be built so what was the point.

     A month or two ago, a couple came to me who had started my path on re-thinking this smallest home by revealing that there are in fact, many areas where you might be able to build a 1,000 or even an 800 square foot home.  Vacation homes! In fact, these folks had some lots in Door County and were interested in maybe pursuing these smaller homes. I have spent a lot of time in Door County and my Mother has a gift store in Fish Creek for over 20 years. So I began to explore where some other areas might be that would also allow such smallest homes to be built. I actually have found a lot in West Bend which might allow this. Then I started talking to my industry contacts and they too revealed areas which may allow such a smallest home to be built. Since the feasibility of building such a micro-home might be possible, I then had to explore just how small a home could be designed and still be a home that you might not feel was too cramped to live in.

     Here’s where my early college years living on our family 41 foot sailboat in Door County came into the picture. Living on a 41 foot sailboat is a very large sailboat, and people in warmer climates would easily live on such a boat and feel they had room to spare. Gosh, I know of stories of a lot of warm weather climate folks who live on 30 or 35 foot sailboats and they think nothing of the space being too small. I figured that my 41 foot sailboat actually  had about 30 feet of interior cabin length and the whole boat was only about 12 feet wide and was pointed on one end. The headroom was about 6 foot 6 inches at best.

     Visitors who came into that boat felt this was a huge amount of living area. Yet if I told you that your bedroom would only be 6.5 feet in length and maybe 7 feet wide, you would instantly be repelled by the size seeming this would be  way too small. We, the home buying public, have all become acustomed to working with pre-conceived room sizes. Every home on the Multiple listing service MUST list room sizes. We judge by room size before we even see the home!  The reason why such small spaces seem to work so well on a boat or Cruise ship is that everything is so well thought out and much of the furnishings are built-in.

     Using my long time Passion for yacht design and now my long time passion and experience in home design, I was able to design a wonderful , (I think) very large feeling, 900 square foot home. This home has 2.5 bathrooms and three bedrooms. One bedroom has a built-in queen bed, one bedroom has a bunk bed, and one has a king sized bed. The kitchen is not just a galley mini-kitchen but a wrap-around full fledged kitchen. There is storage in a big  pantry, a cleaning closet, a front and back hall closet, lots of windows, and even an optional basement. The master bath has a  privacy doored  toilet “room”, the kids bath has a 5 foot tub and a linen storage area in the bathroom as well. The great room fits a full sized couch, a love seat, and a large chair/recliner. There are built in book-cases, a fireplace(which can heat the whole house for about 20 cents an hour of natural or LP gas), and their is even a first floor laundry room. This is not lacking in style either. I have all sorts of dramatic little touches which you might expect only to find in the highest end homes. The exterior is refined, classy and old world. In short, this is a very cute , completely livable home. If you need a fourth bedroom, the basement has a design which has a rec-room(or den) and yet another queen sized bedroom. I have designed a 1 car attached garage(bigger is optional, of course). In short, it all works and it all feels most livable.

     Because it is a small home, you can load up the features such as granite counters, exotic hardwood floors, solid panel doors, fancy everything ! Because you are building so small, you can put in all the best because you are using so little of each product!

     If you could (and you can) get a small lot for $10,000 to $20,000 , you could in theory have a all new home, for a package of well under $125,000. I would even go so bold to imagine a way to bu8ild the whole thing(a few less high end items) for under $100,000!(!!!)

     If any one would like to see the initial plans for what I am endearingly calling my “Yacht Series” of micro-homes, please drop me a line or give me a call. Now I am going to head for my happy-place (the couch) to continue my work a little “yachting” magic on a ranch version.

     I attended another Green Building/Energy Star building day of seminars this past week. I can’t wait to share with you a few mind-blowers I learned about being “green-washed”.  HINT: If everything is “green” then nothing is “green”.

    Until next time, I do hope you will weigh in on the Yacht Homes idea. It may be just me but….

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

I have not written to you since before the MBA Parade Of Homes opened several weeks ago. Now that the Parade is about 3 weeks behind us, I wanted to give you some scattered thoughts about the Parade and other related items.

     I think we had an excellent Parade in ways of both attendance and homes sold. Last year, the Parade was nearly as big in attendance , except we had the added issue of it being so “off the beaten track” in Ixonia. The weekend after the Parade ended, so did all the attendance. I think the weekend after the Parade, we had less than a dozen visiting groups come through our Parade home. Contrast that to the HUNDREDS of visiting groups who came through the weekends following this Richfield located Parade!

     As my wife Jacquie put it to me after we closed today(Sunday), “getting such big numbers does not mean much in home sales”. She is right except that it sure beats having a dozen visiting groups. There is more likely going to be one buyer in a hundred visiting groups than 1 buyer in 12 groups. Sales , by and large, is a “game” of numbers and it all begins with having people visit the homes.

     Something interesting happeneda couple of Friday’s ago. I wrote a brief e-mail to radio talk show host Mark Belling about what I feel is a challenging situation currently happening in Richfield. The Richfield powers-that-be have decided that they want to closely regulate and limit  home builders who may wish to put a model home in Richfield. This may be in large part due to our Miracle Tour Of Homes event which we had held in Richfield many years ago. Some fo the neighbors did not like the visiting group numbers.Richfield now wants to  regualte Model homes  to the extent  that, in reality, they are in fact prohibiting building any model home in Richfield. That is a pretty big problem since we just built 3 model homes in the Richfield Parade Of Homes subdivision, Reflections Village. Beyond our 3 homes, other builders have also built their models in Richfield not suspecting their huge investments would be in jeopardy of not being able to be actually utilized as the “models” they intended them to be. Now that the Parade is over,  Richfield builders are expected to immediately ONLY use these homes to sell these select homes. The way the regulations are currently written, Parade builders can not pass out or explain any information about any other homes or properties other than the precise home which is open.

     If this sounds confusing, stay tuned.  After 20 years of living in Richfield, I can tell you that the town board is usually a pretty good bunch of level headed folks who have the best interests of the residents in mind AND want to promote business and residential growth as well. I know they are talking about refining the currently(recently) adopted rules, so as I said, …stay tuned!

     As for the 3 homes we currently have in Richfields (now former) Parade Of Homes site,as I said,  I think the response now a few weeks after the Parade is PHENOMINAL!  Folks, if you have not yet been out to this Parade site, I invite you , I implore you, do  not  miss seeing these homes.

     If you have ever been to Disney World or Disney Land, and have seen the old fashioned Victorian-styled main streets that greet your entry, this is as close as you will find in any community to a real working village of that style.  If you have ever dreamed of living in a Disney-styled community, take one look at the beautiful bank being built in the town square andyou are just seeing the first glimpse of something VERY special. If you have seen on paper or photographs any of the three homes I designed for our Parade homes, you won’t really understand the detailing and attention to painstaking finishes until you can see and touch them for yourselves. We are open this weekend(I will be at the HYBRID WONDERHOME myself) from 1 to 4 and Monday and Wednesday nights from 6 to 8.  We have had visitors from as far away as Sheboygan and even Door County who enthusiastically comment it was worth the trip.

     One thing I always get a kick out of is hearing the comments and often just over-hearing candid comments from guests who tour these fantasy-like homes. I have heard it all but I seem to hear the HYBRID  most often referred to as being better than our basketball court home from the (Park Bay) 2004 Parade. Just as we had with that home, the HYBRID is now having many repeat visitors who are making this a special trip to bring more of  their friends and family to see this home.

     If you do visit, remember to stay at least 8 minutes in our lower level “Club Wonder”. That timing is what it takes for you to see the entire nightclub-styled room change colors. We have 4 colors ranging from blue(water scenes), to red (Disney scenes at the parks), to Green(forest scenes), to Purple(Milwaukee scenes of the city). Each time the scenes change, the counter top colors change, the wall colors change, the rope lighting color changes, and even the baby grand piano music selection changes to suite each type of scene. If you have a good nose for detail, when the colors change to blue, smell the air. You should notice we are putting the smell of ocean sea mist into the air. When the Green scenes of the forest come into view, take a whiff and see if you smell the scent of Evergreen pine and Redwood bark. HINT: The smell machines are located behind a wall art which is slightly elevated away from the wall to allow the smells to be fanned out from a secret hidden alcove.

     One of my biggest worries for the Parade was the high likelihood that getting three huge 10 foot movie screens to align to show a half-circle type projection may not line up convincingly enough. If the video screen images did align well enough, the worry was whether we could match the music to the changing scenes, and whether the lights would be synchronized with the changing images and music. Then the smells and lighting effects could easily not match therefore detracting from the sense of wonder we were trying to capture.

     I can tell you that after running the “shows” in Club Wonder for anywhere from 5 to 10 hours a day, everything went off without as much as a minor glitch! That was perhaps our biggest Miracle of all  that it all just worked! 

     I am not much on predictions but here is one I will go out on a limb to offer. The HYBRID WONDERHOME is very likely to be sold in the next several days. We have several(as in more than 4)  very interested parties who seem to all be coming closer at the same time.I can say that I will be heartbroken along with the ones who do not get the opportunity to live in this marvelous home.  The realization for some of the interested parties is that this home truly can not be repeated at (or even very near) the same price. We have received so many discounts and donations for this spectacular home that the price is likely $100,000 or more lower than it would cost us to repeat it. In this slower housing market, that is great since everyone is looking for a bargain, and this is a big one. $649,000 is a bargain opening  price  for this one of a kind, rare ,  home.   If all goes as I suspect, don’t let this home become occupied without you seeing it first. I believe it’s days left to be open are numbered.

     I don’t want to ignore our other two Parade homes. They too have recieved some drastic parade-only discounts and those two are also stunning in their exteriors and unique styled interiors. I have heard(more than once) that our two- story model reminds people of the train station at Disneyland.  I just had such a ball and joy designing and building these living fantasy homes and I hope it shows.

     One more detail before I leave , for now. When you do visit these homes, look in the upper windows. Two of the homes have what appears to be second floors from the street view. Once inside, you will see these have no second floors. You will notice we didn’t just put some closed curtains over these upper windows or paint them black. We constructed “faked” walls with old-fashioned striped wall paper effects and completed them with hanging wall pictures and even some old table lamps which appear to be sitting on a desk or dresser. This is all fakery to set the impression that  these are livable homes. This too, is much as found in the second floor windows at Disney’s main Street buildings.  I have seen folks stand at the curbs at night and examine the 4 windows I am referring too.  Oh, if you do come at night, our HYBRID has authentic gas lanterns(coach lights) across the entire front of the home. They actually need to be hand lighted each night. When I light them, I feel like I am stepping back into history,  what fun! We also had several of them converted to electric bulbs so the lights we need to use for driveway safety are matching the gas lamps. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

     I have been delving into a new creative WILD IDEA in home design that I would love to tell you about. I will do that in the next few days time. Thanks for reading the blog and I will try to keep this a more regular thing now that the Parade is in the rear-view mirror.

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

Hello everyone. Long time, no blog. I have been as busy as I have ever been trying to build our 3  MBA Parade Of Homes Models as well as take care of all the advertising that comes with that. We layed carpet today at our final “HYBRID” model in Richfield.

     Tomorrow morning, I hope you will visit me on television when I make my second recent appearance on channel 4, Morning Blend, at 9 am. Too Tired to say more, it’s late!

     Blessings,

     Tom Hignite

  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