Making It Work

Your new home needs to work no matter how busy, crowded, changing and complex life becomes. It has to work as well to get the family out the door in the morning as it does to celebrate a holiday with the extended family or to welcome a houseful of guests for an important party. "It all comes down to enjoying your family and your guests in your home," said Granite Ridge's Jenny Nelson. Granite Ridge Builders is the leading builder in the 2014 Parade of Homes and Lifestyle Show, presenting one home and two villas. Most of the decisions that make all that enjoyment Nelson describes possible are practical, and they are made by the designers with the builders after careful consultation with the homeowners. Granite Ridge's Kayla Hoffman knows what the goal always is: "In all of the homes, we have made sure there is no wasted space." Nelson agrees. "Everything is something and does something. I like the emphasis that laundry rooms aren't just laundry rooms any more. They've become functional rooms, also mud rooms and transitions into homes and places to put things that transition into homes." Drop zones (they go by lots of different names these days) are found in lots of new homes these days, but Slattery Builders designer ReAnn Donaghy is proud of the practicality of their drop zones with lockers and storage baskets plus seats and outlets for charging devices, paired with nearby laundry rooms and other transitional spaces as appropriate for each home design. Slattery Builders is presenting the All-American Cottage Style Big Brothers-Big Sisters Home No. 3 in the 2014 Parade of Homes and Lifestyle Show. No wasted space is the mantra, all of it functional. Donaghy calls Slattery's walk-in closets unique thanks to a clever, space-saving innovation, high hanging rods for out-of-season clothes storage in space that is left unused in so many closets. The emphasis on functionality is bringing tech into more areas of the house, too. Nelson said tech areas are not just in offices any more, as, for example, Granite Ridge homes are likely to have an iPad stand in the kitchen so the cook can easily read recipes from the device. The classic, the trendy, designers' ideas about what should work and what the homeowners say they want all need to come together to make a home work, which means the designers and builders become skilled listeners and observers of what people end up really using and appreciating in their homes. Home automation is a good example. Given all the jokes about finding a 10-year-old to explain how to send a text message, a lot of people assume they're not going to be able to control their home thermostat, let alone a security system, from their smartphone. But home automation has come a long way, said Jason Spuller, Granite Ridge marketing director and information technology director, who talks about how the Internet of Things is arriving in our homes. "Full home automation is a reality," he said. "It's easy to use." Hoffman says she fields "a lot of questions about 'what can I do when I'm away from home and still access it on my phone'," as does Abby Slattery, office manager for Slattery Builders. Even the most basic, everyday concerns, like "does a material or finish add to or minimize home cleanup routines?" are part of the Making It Work analysis. Homebuilder Don Fischer, of Hickory Creek Homes, takes the Making It Work idea a step further into making the Country French-style Lutheran Health Network Home No. 8 he is presenting in the 2014 Parade of Homes and Lifestyle Show comfortable to live in socially and emotionally. He puts high priority on maintaining privacy, for example, by ensuring the entry into the master bedroom suite is conveniently off the foyer but its entry space is managed so no one can see into the suite from the foyer. And he has carefully thought through what people want to see when they look out each and every window. His windows are arranged to focus attention on the Forest at Foxwood lake and not on the surrounding homes. "When you walk in, you see the pond. You have a sense of openness but that sense of privacy," he said. "Nobody wants to look at the side of another house. Obviously." Fischer made two other observations that became design decisions in his Parade home this year. The stairway is located close to the kitchen because, he reasons, where do you go first after coming downstairs, no matter whether you are a child or a guest? "It's the kitchen," he answers himself. "By the same token, it's also off the foyer with its own arched opening with open stairs, so you still get the open staircase feel in your foyer." The reality of what people actually use in their homes changed the master suite bathroom design. "Everybody wants a walk-in shower," he said. "Nobody wants to get into a tub and sit there. Most people tell you they never use their bathtubs." Abby Slattery says their approach to bathroom design has evolved based on experience with customers, who are tending to have larger families lately, she said. Slattery Builders is designing and building upstairs bathrooms with more sinks for more children, three sinks in a bathroom or possibly four, she said, instead of the customary two. It's all part of paying careful attention to the homebuilding customer and being the expert designer and builder but putting yourself in the homebuyer's place to envision how the home will really be lived in. Slattery can clearly see how a Slattery Builders drop zone room works, as she says, "so when you head out the door, you can grab your coat, your purse. It's all there."

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	Granite Ridge Builders  by Granite Ridge Builders
	Hickory Creek Homes  by Hickory Creek Homes
	Slattery Builders  by Slattery Builders