Inspiration from "You've Got Mail"

This scene from You've Got Mail echoes in my head every day.  Thank you Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan for reminding us that business is inevitably personal. 

- Jim Garman 

My Favorite Kitchens

  

White Cabinets...check.

Furniture Style Islands...check.

Custom Granite Slab selection...check.

My Favorite Kitchens we've EVER built...check!

I need to get me one of these.

Your Name Here!

Aren't these letters cool?  Know what?  These are shapes from homes we have built over the past 5 years.  Jill Booth (Alpha Mama Art) has been photographing our homes to build her database of letters.  And now, we are starting to roll out framed art for our customers.  Exclusively with letters photographed from our homes. 

Thanks Jill Booth! 

PS - Robert & Vonda, this one is coming your way!

We have the best buyers!

A part of the Garman culture is to have Rockstars as buyers, I mean there is even a Garman Home owner among us (Kristi Burkett :) ) Building a house takes a long time and if both parties aren't on the same side, it can lead to a very tedious process. This is one of the many reasons we recruit Rockstars!

Our buyers are patient when patience is needed, and have a voice when we need to hear it. We have completely revamped floor plans because a buyer told us it would work better this way. We listen! The relationships we build with our buyers are not only one of the best relationships we could build, but they are the relationships that last!

We love our awesome buyers!

- Kendall Ashworth

Built in Benches...My Fav

Every time I walk into my own home I wish that I had one of my all time favorite Garman Homes signature features: the built-in bench with hooks and cubbies. In my house, at any given time, you can expect to see 5 pairs of shoes, coats, book bags, and purses ON THE FLOOR! My girls and I are obviously not super organized people (yes, we are three girls with lots of shoes) but anyone can keep their entryway organized with a built-in bench. And even if you don't need help with organization, it just looks cool! And every Garman Home has one!

- Laurel Schawel

Whatever you are comfortable in

 So we have a new recruit starting for us in a couple of weeks. We are so excited to have her start! Of course she had many questions about many different things. Some questions included:

How many homes per year does Garman build?
Where will I be building Garman homes?
What makes Garman Homes different?

Etc., etc., etc. Important stuff!

Of course, once we answered those questions among many more, she could not resist coming to work for us.So once she accepted the position, there were more questions. We had more answers.Then a few days later, she called me very excited about starting work and she asked me the simple question, "What do I wear to work?"

The cool thing is I didn't even have to think about it and I answered, "Whatever you are comfortable in."

She said, "Even Jeans?"

And I said, "Even jeans and if it's hot out, you can wear shorts."

She ended the conversation with, "This gets even better."

Of all the important questions that were asked during the interview, the simple question of what to wear to work was not important. But to be able to wear comfortable clothes, especially when we work in an outdoor factory, is very important. There are many companies who tell you what to wear no matter how uncomfortable it may make you while working. We are not one of those companies! We are serious about our work and serious about our customers. We are not serious about what we wear while doing it. If our Build Like a Gilr star can wear a dress to build a house, why can't Gerry?!?! Ha!

- Dan Morse

The Case Against Building Models

We get a lot of questions about why we don't build models.  And truthfully, in the beginning it was just all about affordability.  We couldn't afford models so we didn't build them.  Then the longer we went without building models the more we realized the benefit of selling without them.

If an agent calls us up and wants to show one of our houses and we don't have a finished home to show them, we call up our homeowners.  What better way to show our homes than with actual real live people who built a home with us?

Last week I called up my friend, Jenn Cole , who represented some of our buyers in Fairfield last year.  That's her alongside me at the office-comparing fashionable footwear.  Anyway, I told Jenn we had someone interested in seeing the plan her clients built and what did she think?  Within hours she sent me a text with a time that worked for the homeowners.

We take great pride in showing the homes we've built.  But we take even greater pride in allowing people interested in buying our homes to meet the people we've already built a home.

I don't care what you spend on a model...it really can't compare with an opportunity to reconnect with agents who have sold our homes, buyers who have built our homes and give interested buyers a peek behind the curtain.  What better way to give them a sense of who we really are?

I'm not saying we'll never build a model, I'm just saying I'm grateful we haven't built one yet.

A Referral from WHO?

A couple months ago Brian got a call from Pedro, who supervises the concrete crew we use.  Pedro wanted to give him the number of a lady who was interested in finding out more about one of our houses.  She  drove by while Pedro and his crew were working on the house.  She asked Pedro if he had any information on how to get in touch with us.  So pedro took her number and passed it along to Brian.  Who passed it along to Laurel.  Who sold the house to the woman who stopped Pedro.

There are so many people out there who would not have taken the time to get the woman's number.  And I'm so glad those people don't work on our houses.  And I'm so glad Pedro does.

If you want to read more about why Pedro is the coolest, click here.

How the small details make a huge difference

When I drive through our neighborhoods I can't help but look at all of our signs with the big four colorful squares, the Garman differences of course, and love how much they stick out. (Now if you don't know what the four Garman differences are, pfff we need to talk!) Even on the gloomiest of days you look up and you see color. Although the design of our signs can be attributed largely to Alaina Money (who likes to build pretty) and Jim (who likes everything clutter-free) we have a wonderful guy that helps us bring our thoughts to life on our signs.

Randy at Routerxpress not only gets us replacement lot signs after we lose them for ummm the 6th time, but he also helps us visualize what our signs are going to look like. For example, last Thursday I was given the task of ordering a replacement sign for the entrance of Holly Glen. If you have seen our signs before, which I would hope you have and if you haven't look below for an example, they are a clean and not too wordy.

Randy came up with a rough drawing of what we had explained in words. When we saw it we realized that was NOT what we wanted. The simpler the better. After about 12 emails we had settled on the new design of the sign.

Thank you for everything you do Randy!

- Kendall Ashworth

We listen to Realtors

Feedback from real estate agents and buyers is really important to us. When we ask for it, and you give it to us, we take it very seriously. In fact, a few months ago we received feedback from an agent that the light fixtures in one of our homes seemed cheap and looked outdated. We went in that week and removed all of the light fixtures and replaced them with better looking, more updated fixtures.

Wow! It made such a big difference we decided to change the lighting package going forward for all future homes built!

We want to build homes that our buyers love. We build them for you, not for us. So tell us what you think!

- Laurel Schawel

A porch is a porch is a porch. Right?

A porch you say, who cares about a porch?? I mean I don’t get any extra money for it; it won’t count as additional square footage, what’s the big deal? Curb appeal baby. One thing we do here at Garman Homes is a big ole freaking wrapped porch…Yeah!!!! This small addition plays a huge role in giving a house style.

I like to think of it synonymously with Cindy Crawford’s beauty mark. She doesn’t get anything for it, but everyone knows about it and loves it. These little architectural tidbits of Joy can make a lasting impression on a house while at the same time offering hours on endless rocking.

 I guess I wrote all this to say, I love me some wrapped porches. Who’s with me?

- Gerry (G-Dog) Felton

Love me some newel posts!

Okay, so I was trying to decide which one of my favorite things I wanted to write about and I was having a hard time choosing. I kept coming back to the newel posts and I couldn't figure out if that was because I'm getting older and my memory is just that bad so I can only remember the newest thing? But then I realized that I keep coming back to newel posts because it truly is one of my favorite things. It adds just the right touch to "fancy up" the staircase and give it that finished look. I love it!!

- Val Morse

Meet Mario!

This is Mario from MFS Electric. Mario is an excellent field manager with MFS and allows Garman Homes to excel each and everyday! Today we salute you Mario, for you're dedication, commitment, and most importantly your Rockstar personality and attitude!

- John Douglas

Thanks BB&T!

A big shout out to Brian Woods at BB&T...he is the loan officer who handles our construction loans.  These guys picked us up in 2008 after Suntrust and Gateway Bank pulled the plug on construction lending.  Brian stepped in and financed a few homes in Fairfield, then a few more, and since then he has financed over 30 homes for us across the Triangle.   

So often our banking partners go unrecognized...I wanted to take a moment and correct that.  Thank you Brian and BB&T for believing in us helping us build Garman Homes.  We could not have done it without you. 

Wedgewood Back Yard

You never know how the grading is going to shape up...until the grading shapes up.  Brian Russo sent me this yesterday, wow!  This is the back yard of lot 21 Wedgewood looks fantastic.  Great job Team!

Thermostat Issue...Resolved!

I have the pleasure of working with the Garman Homes team and owning a Garman Home. This is one of my homeowner stories.

When we moved into our Pinehurst we found that our upstairs was not getting enough heat. My husband and I talked about calling the Garman Team and asking them to look at this issue. We figured the response would be “you have a two-story family room and therefore it is tricky to heat and cool your house”, and nothing would be done. 

But they proved us wrong and stepped up and found a solution. The problem was that our thermostat was in the hall and therefore getting the hot air that was rising in the two-story family room. The solution was to move the thermostat into our master bedroom where it would get less heat from the family room and it worked!

A few weeks later I walked a Pinehurst that was under construction in my neighborhood and the first thing I did was go to the second floor to look for the second floor thermostat. I expected it to be in the same problematic location - the upstairs hall, I was so impressed to see that it had also been moved to the master bedroom. The Team had decided to make the location change on this house and future Pinehursts to prevent the same issue. What?, a builder trying to prevent an issue...nice, I like that!

Kristi Burkett
Garman Homes '07

Look at the Newel Posts on that staircase!

Ok, I might have a problem.  I've added a few new addictions to an already full roster of time-suckers including Facebook, Pinterest & Houzz. Have you been on Houzz lately?  It's heaven.  Pinterest?  Oh my...I made 3 recipes from Pinterest just last night.  It's bad.

But back to my point...one good thing to come out of all my time-suck addictions is an appreciation for what a difference the details can make...especially in a home.

That was the inspiration behind our new 6x6 newel posts, shown above in stain grade wood.  Delicious, no?  By the way, Newel Posts are those things at the end of a staircase.  No one in the real world calls them that so feel free to throw around that builder-lingo and impress anyone who might be inclined to be impressed by such things.  Sadly, that might be a really small group of people.

Newel Posts are my new favorite things...look how sturdy they look (in an old house sorta way)!  You can't slide down those things either (which is good news in my house were 3 young girls often try to pull off such shenanigans).  I love the impression they make and that's why I've drawn all over most of our plans and requested the architects change nearly all our plans to include these babies.

Enjoy.

But if you prefer the smaller ones, we can do that too.  To each his own...but for me, these things are swoon-worthy.