Parade of Homes 2012

The rectangular windows above are called clerestory

I am very excited to announce that Mattern & FitzGerald Custom Builders has agreed to enter into the Parade of Homes for 2012.  The Parade is undergoing some changes this year, with the first Parade being held the last weekend in May on Memorial Day weekend and continuing through the next 10 days for a total of 2 weekends.  The thought being the weather will be much cooler for visitors.  The Parade location will be in The Aragon in Dominion, which is the last undeveloped property in Dominion and located near the new 3rd gate near the Camp Bullis exit and TMI.  There will be another Parade later in the year with more affordable housing with time & place to be determined.

We will be showcasing some very interesting architecture this year.  It will be one of the smaller homes in the Parade, but will have some very progressive elements that I think you will find very interesting.  The picture above is not one of our homes, but it illustrates a point of something we will be doing this year.  The small, rectangular windows you see above are referred to as clerestory windows.  They are designed to allow more light to come in and really open up the space.  One effect that we will play off of is to appear to make our roof "float".  It will be a very different concept than traditional big roof plans that you are probably used to seeing.  Over the next few months, I will attempt to explain some of the different elements that we are doing, without spoiling the surprise when you come see us.  Mark your calendars and save the date for what should be an amazing show this coming year.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Amazing Kitchen Remodel in 7 Weeks

I wish I could sit here and tell you this was easy, but I'd be lying to you.  I also wish I could find the before photo of this kitchen and bar because it looks completely different.  When remodeling, the first thing you have to do is start with a clean slate.  That means in this case a week of demo, tying down old electrical and plumbing, and game planning for new electrical and plumbing.  You should see it, we write on the walls, the floor the ceiling- everywhere.  It looks like graffiti and a war zone all at the same time.  Then we patch up the walls, paint, get the cabinet guys in and start measuring for cabinets.  This ceiling and lighting                                                                        is new as well,

and it required some framing and repositioning of duct work to pull it off.  These customers were awesome in the sense that they were living there for a good majority of the project and were very patient and kind.  I love before and afters because you get such a great return on effort in such a short amount of time.  They are not easy, and often you miss things that are unforeseen but they are certainly rewarding when finished.  Check out the cool edge the homeowner chose for the island, probably one of my all time favorites.  If you don't think it's that great it's probably because you're not there in person but it's really cool how the granite company fabricated the edge.

How to Improve the Entry of Your Home

This courtyard is only 1 week old

I love this house for a lot of reasons.  True story, the owners brought us a CD of a resort they travel to in the Virgin Islands every year and wanted to recreate it to a large degree.  They really wanted a focus on the outside.  This home has outside showers, amazing landscaping, a wooden door courtyard entry and custom lights we imported from the Virgin Islands that were hand made.  Really cool and fun project.  I wanted to focus however on the sidewalk and front entry.  When you see your home from the street, I think you have 2 curb appeals going on.  The initial impression, and also the feel you get as you walk up to the home.  My theory is it should continue to surprise and impress as you walk to the front door.  You don't have to go over the top, but you can do little things with landscaping, install a water feature, improve the walk way, add lighting, rocks and the focus on the porch area.  This picture was taken shortly after the homeowners moved-in.  If you look closely you can see that they installed a water feature to the left that runs down the rocks and flows into a small pond area, then recirculates back up to the origin and flows back down again.  These kits are sold at Home Depot and Lowes and have come way down in price.  The stones that were laid were field stones from excavation and supplanted with river rock.  The concrete walk path was stained, which is real easy to do with a bug sprayer and could be a fun weekend project.  Lastly, they installed a couple of outdoor speakers in the front, just to welcome guests or have some outdoor tunes going while they work and play outside.  I admit, this is pretty grand, but it if you take an idea or two from this you would be surprised at how different you can make the walk up appeal of your home.