Express Yourself

Jhonelle Kees, design consultant at Quality Crafted Homes, which built the Rustic Craftsman-style New 95.1 Best FM and Fun 101 Classic Hits Home No. 5 in the 2014 Parade of Homes and Lifestyle Show, knows exactly why she is called in to a project when a client chooses a custom-built new home. "You build new because they can get exactly what they need. People tell us 'I love my house except...' or 'My house doesn't work for me because....' We call it right-sizing their spaces," she said. "We can put the square footage where they need it to be versus trying to make it work." Kees has helped Quality Crafted Homes build the right-sized space for crafts, scrapbooking, a family of ping-pong enthusiasts, special showers for big dogs, garage space for car and motorcycle collectors, sewing rooms and libraries, among others. Homes' exteriors express their owners' interests, too, and people love the Craftsman style today. "Craftsman style is a huge expression people have been building lately," said Kayla Hoffman, interior designer for Granite Ridge Builders and Choice Designs. For example, the Cottage Craftsman-style WANE-TV Villa No. 2 by Granite Ridge Builders in the 2014 Parade of Homes and Lifestyle Show features wood accents "very expressive of nature," she said, with the Contemporary Craftsman-style WANE-TV Villa No. 1 by Granite Ridge Builders "expressing modern style, clean and crisp with white painted cabinets, dark ceramic tile and tons of metal accents." The European Transitional-style Centier Bank Home No. 4 by Granite Ridge Builders directs attention to a different style, European Transitional, and a different lifestyle focus. The home is "exemplary of family and entertaining," said Jenny Nelson, interior designer with Granite Ridge Builders and Choice Designs. "Everything is cozy and open and inviting, where people can be doing different activities but still be all together. That is what we all are striving to go back to." Susan Moran, designer for Star Homes by Delagrange and Richhart, is seeing a combination of what's inside the homes and what's outside of them inspiring the homebuyers she is working with at Star to develop their designs. Star is building a lot of homes in Northeast Indiana's lake country, she said, and it is presenting a home (already sold) in the 2014 Parade of Homes and Lifestyle Show. "People build their homes to revolve around their extended family," she said. "We are opening up areas we used to close off, like the great room, kitchen, dining room are all one great big room now. Everybody wants a view, so taking down all these walls is one way to do that." Moran's design career has included the creation of many "for me" spaces for homeowners, designed right into their custom-built homes. She lists woodworking shops, kids craft rooms with large islands and bulletin boards and dance floors for dance students and lots of theater rooms. Lately she has noticed growth of both the size and importance of kitchens to people building new homes. "Kitchens are huge," she said, and homeowners often arrive at builder meetings with detailed, clearly thought out plans for their kitchens.

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	Granite Ridge Builders  by Granite Ridge Builders
	Quality Crafted Homes  by Quality Crafted Homes
	Star Homes by Delagrange and Richhart  by Star Homes by Delagrange and Richhart