FUTURE CUSTOM HOME BUILDER

The most exciting announcement I have to make is the arrival of Mia Pearl Backus on October 9th. My wife, Asia, and I are thrilled to be parents. I can’t wait to get home to our Oshkosh house each day to see if Mia is doing anything new. She’s been a very bright-eyed baby and is smiling (most of the time) and interacting with us more each day.

I’m also happy to report that my new business is going very well and I’m busy working on some interesting custom home projects in Oshkosh, Appleton and Fond du Lac. You may remember from a past newsletter that I was hoping to continue designing and building large custom homes, but also thought there may be some opportunities to work on high quality homes in the 2,500 to 3,000 square foot range.

OHKOSH HOME DESIGN CHALLENGE

My design abilities were put to the test recently when I was asked to re-build a 3,000 square foot home in Oshkosh that had been damaged by fire. The foundation was intact but the rest of the structure needed to be torn down and re-built. The owners loved their home but now had a chance to make some changes. The most significant change they requested was to move the master suite from the second floor to the first where they spend most of their time these days. The kids had all moved away from Oshkosh years ago and health considerations made a first floor master suite a must. The owners also wanted their new home to be comfortable and inviting for their three kids, spouses and grandchildren. We spent several design meetings together creating a wish list. Usually the wish list is limited mainly by budget considerations, but in this case the limitation of building on the original foundation was an extra challenge. After several drafts and a long list of pricing options, the owners and I were able to create a beautiful house that incorporated some of the things they loved about their old house while improving it in many ways.

CUSTOM BASEMENT FINISHING

I recently completed creating a finished lower level in the home of an Oshkosh family whose custom home I designed and built several years ago. As the original builder I set up the the lower level to be finished some day, but having large windows down there was not a priority for them at the time. When we began to plan this project, it became clear to them that they would get much more use and enjoyment out of the space if we could get more light down there. So I excavated from the outside and cut large windows into the foundation wall. Then we used the same stacked-stone they had used for a raised patio in their back yard to create short retaining walls to hold back the soil and let in the light. Their new lower level also includes a beautiful bar with custom floor-to-ceiling cabinets and granite countertops as well as glimmering glass tile backsplash built between dry-stacked stone columns, a sitting area with large flat-screen TV, billiards area, dining/card table, and full bath along with tons of new storage cabinets. Kathy remarked the other day that some of her guests have said “they wish their home looked as nice as her finished basement”!

CURRENT CUSTOM HOMES UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The two other custom homes I designed and am currently building are more typical large, luxury homes with loads of detail and interesting designs. One of them is designed to take advantage of a beautiful lakefront setting near Neenah. The biggest challenge in designing this new home was to create a walk-out lower level on an extremely flat site. The street-side of the home was built up while the lake-side was excavated to create a lowered court-yard type patio area. Special attention had to be paid to engineering for proper drainage as well as to support the necessary retaining walls and patio. Other interesting features include a theater area with tiered seating, a large bar, sauna, elevator, gourmet kitchen, storage area under the garage created using Spancrete, 4 fireplaces and many other special details. As the builder, it has been fun working with the owners to create their dream home.

The other new custom home is currently under construction in Apple Hill Farms subdivision in Appleton. The design challenge for this home was in taking advantage of the extremely sloping, wooded site. I’m looking forward to seeing the “after” picture this spring to see just how different the site looks when it is completed. The front yard will be stunning with the driveway winding across and up between natural looking rock outcroppings. This luxury home also boasts a relatively new and complex heating and cooling system called “Geo-thermal” which uses pipes filled with water buried underground to take advantage of energy derived from the natural heat of the earth.

LEN’S SERVICE REPORT

In my semi-retirement, I am staying busy helping Andy with service calls from past Andrew Homes customers in the Fox Valley. I had two interesting ones in the last few months. In the first case, the current occupant is the second owner who had called me asking for advice. I arranged to meet the original heating contractor and the current owner at the Neenah house to problem solve a certain issue. The doorbell rang and as I stepped into his foyer I recognized this new owner. I had built a different custom home for him 13 years earlier in another part of the Fox Valley. He lived there only 2 years and then moved out of state about 10 years ago. I described the home to him and he confirmed that that was the correct one. Small world! (Ironically, the second owner of his house eventually became a tennis friend of my wife.) Anyway, unknown to me, he moved back to the Fox Valley 3 years ago and bought this different, 12 year old Andrew Home in Neenah. So Doug Brewer, the owner of Brewer Heating, and I helped him with his issue and then I went on my way with another good memory…no pun intended!

The second recent service incident involved a custom luxury home I had built for a couple in Appleton 5 years ago. They actually were living in the UK while we designed and built the house for them back then. (As it turns out, this owner also became a tennis friend of my wife. Boy, it sounds like my wife makes lots of friends and plays lots of tennis!) These owners recently moved out of state and have their Appleton home on the market. Their real estate agent suggested that the Appleton home would sell faster if the owners would make certain cosmetic changes. So I am helping the owners select a Fox Valley subcontractor to make the changes and recently received this nice comment from them:

“I want to thank you for everything you did in originally building the Appleton house and really making Ed's dream house come true. I was not in favor of building a new custom home at the time because I was worried about the hassle of being in another country. As it turned out you builders made it easier to build a new home than to buy an existing house and we will always be grateful for that.”