Family

future custom home builder My daughter Mia is 18 months old and growing like a weed. She is beginning to say a few words and seems to understand everything we say. She is a girls’-girl and loves shoes, purses, dollies, dancing… and her doting, semi-retired grandpa, Len… who baby-sits 2 full days per week!

Some of you knew my sister, Barbara, who handled Andrew Homes’ marketing and service coordination. Barbara is living in Whitefish Bay with her husband, Aaron, and works in downtown Milwaukee in the marketing department of a successful architecture firm. One of her firm’s memorable projects is the Milwaukee Art Museum. Barbara is pregnant with a little boy whose due date is my birthday, July 26th!

Oshkosh Parade of Homes
I am proud to be showing a beautiful custom home in the upcoming Winnebago Home Builders’ Association “Parade of Homes” April 17-19 and 23-26 and I hope that you will come to see it. Tickets are available at each of the homes. My home features over 5,700 sq ft of elegant finished space that was custom designed for the owners. If you are interested in getting ideas for a future home or a remodeling or addition project this home certainly has lots of great features for inspiration. The following are just a few of them:

  • Impressive brick and stone exterior
  • Large 4-car heated garage with stairs to lower level
  • Elegant foyer with maple custom stairway and unique plaster arch details
  • Study featuring built in desk and maple beamed ceiling
  • Gathering room features custom maple built-ins, marble fireplace, wall of windows
  • First floor master suite with huge plaster crown molding detail and large custom shower
  • Gourmet kitchen with tons of cabinets, granite countertops, beautiful tile backsplash
  • Interior stone wall with arch separating kitchen/dinette and sunroom
  • Sunroom features large maple exposed trusses
  • 10’ ceilings on first floor with 8’ tall birch doors
  • Cedar screen porch
  • Wonderful lower level with daylight windows, bar, theater area, exercise, bedroom, bath

    • The home is located at 3059 Pine Ridge Rd. in the Town of Algoma. From Hwy 21 at Hwy 41 (Oshkosh), go west for 2 miles to Oakwood Rd. Go north to Pine Ridge Rd and turn left.

    It’s a Great Time To Build

    Lately I find myself talking with potential custom home clients, friends and family members about the reasons it’s a great time to build (and to be a builder). Although the total number of homes being started in our area is down compared to years past, the high-quality design/builders are keeping busy while the lower quality, unprofessional builders are falling by the wayside. The subcontractors and suppliers that I have always relied on to help me create beautiful custom homes are less busy now which is a positive for me as a builder and for custom home customers for the following reasons:

  • Subs and suppliers are competing tooth-and-nail for jobs, resulting in extremely low mark-ups - the lowest I’ve seen in many years. My mark-up is the lowest it’s ever been too.
  • Subs and suppliers will do whatever it takes to ensure that they get the next job with me. I can’t remember a time when salespeople, installers, administrators and owners have had a better attitude towards me and my customers. (Attitudes were great in the past, but now they’re like little angels.)
  • Because they aren’t busy, scheduling has been working like a well-oiled machine. Projects are finishing much quicker and with virtually no lost days.
  • I have a great pool of subs and suppliers to choose from and now I have the ultimate flexibility in selecting the best of the best for every job - best quality, best price, best schedule, best attitude.
  • Parade home owners are receiving huge discounts from subs and suppliers. The last 2 parade homes I priced resulted in an average of $20,000 in parade discounts! Call me if you would like your next new home to be in a future Parade in Oshkosh, Appleton or Green Bay.
  • Interest rates are low.
    • International Home Builders Show

    This past January I attended the International Home Builders Show in Las Vegas for the first time in several years. It was great to be back. I attended the show many times over the years with my Dad starting when I was probably 14 years old. The show is made up of one of the largest product trade shows in the country along with a huge selection of seminars, model homes and featured speakers. It’s great to get a chance to talk to some of the top people from the companies who manufacture the products I use in my homes and pick their brains for better ways to use their products. I always find a couple new products that I look forward to using on future homes. One of those products this year was a type of waterproof flashing tape that I am now using when installing windows and doors.

    One of the main topics I wanted to learn more about this year was “Green Building”. I attended several seminars on the subject and was thrilled to come to a conclusion that I thought I might. I have been building “green homes” for years now. The high-quality materials and attention to detail with which I’ve been building result in extremely energy efficient homes. Also, many of the products I have been using are made with recycled materials or materials which are produced or grown in ways that are considered green. I have also been enrolling the homes I build in the Wisconsin Energy Star program, which involves expert inspections of the home at several points during construction along with mechanical testing to ensure minimal air-leakage and maximum energy efficiency.

    Remodeling and Additions

    I’ve really enjoyed expanding the remodeling and addition aspect of my business. Many of my recent remodels and additions have been for homes previously built by Andrew Homes, Inc. This has worked out very well because of my intimate knowledge of the materials and practices used in the original construction. On the other hand, I am currently working on a 100 year old farm house with log construction and stone foundation walls 2 feet thick.

    Finished basements continue to be popular along with master suites, mudrooms, sunrooms, garages and bathrooms. One interesting project involves adding an elevator to a home I built years ago. I had to re-design and re-locate some of the hallway, closet and bedroom spaces on the second floor to make room for the elevator shaft, which drops into the garage and through the Spancrete garage floor into the basement. Cutting and supporting the 12” thick garage floor was an interesting engineering challenge solved using a large custom-welded steel bracket. The next challenge was the design of a waterproof pit dropped 8” into the basement floor to allow the elevator floor to stop level with the existing basement floor.

    I enjoy designing and building custom homes from scratch, but some of these remodels and additions have been really fun challenges!

    future custom home builder

    © Fine Homes by Andrew, LLC