Introducing...The WeheartDurham Team!

A few posts back I introduced you to Renee, our newest addition to the Garman Homes sales team...she's the one we tasked with taking over Durham in a totally welcome non-hostile kinda way.  That's her in the pic above with Kevin.

I realize I haven't introduced Kevin yet...meet Kevin!  He's integral to our takeover plan for Renee.  You know all those houses Renee is going to sell in Durham?  Well, Kevin is the guy that's gonna make sure all those houses get built.  Because really, what would be the point of selling houses you can't build?  That would be silly.  And frustrating.

So truth be told, this isn't the first time Kevin & Renee have worked together.  They actually crossed paths once upon a time in another builder life.  So now they're like Peaches & Herb...Reunited and it feels so good!

We're so lucky to have these two on our team.  They take great care of our buyers, our agents and our neighbors.  That's why we heart them.  And they heart Durham.

Design Process: Step 4.

Step 4:  Transition from Virtual to Reality.  

At this point in your design journey you've probably flipped through lots of Flickr pictures (some of you may have stayed on there longer than you should have-no worries, we can spot that glazed over 'I don't even know what I like anymore' look).  Help is on the way.

Maybe you've even driven through a few neighborhoods taking note of the colors you liked.  That's all good stuff because you're about to transition to a whole new level...time to pick some stuff!

Your first Design Appointment!  [With a real live actual designer.]
Time Allotted: 2.5hrs
By Appointment Mon-Fri.

First up on the agenda:  Exterior Colors.

We've narrowed down your choices slightly from 'every color in the rainbow' to 'every color we like seeing on a house'.  We refer to this collection of colors as our Exterior Color Schemes.  Clever, right?

We've spent lots of time refining these palettes to make sure we're offering a broad range of colors and the right mix of colors for your neighborhood.  We may even have a few recommendations just for your house and elevation.  We try to be thoughtful about these things.

At this point we should probably also outline a few ground rules on choosing your Exterior Color Scheme...you can't pick the same colors as your neighbor.  Not even if you're building a different house.  It's not that we don't want you to have the color you want, we just want to protect what is special and unique about each house.




Second on the agenda:  Cabinets, countertops and whatever else you have time to choose...

We'll start in the kitchen and see how far we get!  Cabinets, countertops & cabinet hardware, OH MY!
Before you know it your house will start to look good in more places than just your head.

After this appointment give yourself a pat on the back.
These are big decisions and you're making em!
We're proud of you.

Hello. My name is Jim Garman

Hi! I'm Jim Garman. That's me over there. More often than not, I have an iPhone pressed to my right ear and my left hand on the steering wheel of my 2008 Prius. I don't often sit still. Gretchen Mathison must have used a high shutter speed to capture this photo. Love her.

I live in Durham with my wife, Katie, and our two children, Ellie (5) and Sam (2). Katie is a doctor at Duke, she's kind of a big deal. I'm very thankful that she has a "real job." Ellie is in preschool and Sam hangs out during the day at Lakewood Avenue Children's School. I grew up in Kentucky and graduated from Yale in 1998. During college I spent more time on the Habitat for Humanity jobsite than in the classroom...and I have the grades to prove it!

After graduating, I moved to San Francisco to chase a dream with Antony Brydon, founder of the Habitat Bicycle Challenge. In 2000, I moved with a ring in my pocket to Durham, where I promptly proposed to Katie, my college sweetheart.

I spent the next six years working my way up through the ranks at DR Horton, where I learned homebuilding and leadership during the best of times. Oblivious to the pending economic disaster, I struck out on my own in late 2006, starting the first Garman Home in March, 2007.

Since then, our merry band has built over 250 homes in the Triangle.  We are thrilled to come to work everyday and do what we love...build great homes for great people.  As a five-year old company, we are excited to wrap up kindergarten this year and move up to first grade...always humbled by how much we have to learn and how much better we want to be.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Have a question about me?  About us?  Anything at all?  Call me.  My cell phone is the "main company" phone number posted on our website, I'm easy to find.  I look forward to hearing from you!  \JG

Design Process: Step 3.

Step 3:  Search our Flickr  Feed

See that cute little baby in the corner of our photostream?  That's Sam Garman.  Jim is confident that someday Sam will thank him for stealing his identity for our Flickr feed because of the primo yahoo address registered well before Sam could talk let alone type.  Or search Flickr.  

Flickr is how we catalog our houses.  It's our portfolio (we know, fancy word for 'database' but we had to veto that word on account of it being just too boring and not worthy of describing our awesome collection of house pictures.)

Your time on Flickr will be well spent...we recommend the following searches so you're well prepared for your upcoming design appointments.   Think of it as fun house homework.  We promise, this is fun homework.

Search #1:   Exterior colors

We've labeled each picture with the paint colors, roof shingles and trim colors so you'll know the exact colors you like (and in some cases, don't like).  This will help tremendously when you're faced with the task of picking colors you like from a collection of samples that are way smaller than the size of a house.

Search #2:  Kitchens, Master Baths  & any other spaces you have a vision for...

We love the search feature in Flickr.  Type in kitchen and you'll get transported into every kitchen we've ever built!  Type in Master Bath and it's instant access!  You can even type in your neighborhood name and see what all of your neighbors houses look like.  It's so fun.

Enjoy!  See...we told you homework could be fun.

Design Process: Step 2.

Step 2:  A is for Appliances.

It may seem like an odd place to start the design of your home but appliances are our first stop for a few reasons.

Reason 1:  Shopping for appliances is fun.  And you have a credit.  Don't you love to go to stores where you have a credit?

The base price of your new Garman Home includes a credit towards appliances at Sears in Crabtree Valley Mall.  They offer us special builder pricing that we pass right along to you.   It's a sweet deal. We'll help you schedule an appointment with a Sears appliance expert who will help you choose which appliances are right for you.

Reason 2:  Depending on what you choose, appliances can affect the layout of your kitchen cabinets.  30" appliances vs. 36" appliances...gourmet vs. non-gourmet kitchens...it all affects your cabinets.  And kitchen cabinets require the longest lead time from order to installation.  So if we want your cabinets to be on time for your construction manager (and trust us, you want them to be on time)...we need to get you to Sears quickly so we can get to work on your kitchen cabinet layout.

Ok...I think you're ready for Step 3.

Design Process: Step 1.

See this kitchen?  Isn't it pretty?  Do you want a kitchen that looks like this?

Or this?

Or maybe this?

Maybe you have something entirely different in mind.  That's cool, we can help you with that too.  But first, you gotta help us, help you.  Not to go all Jerry Maguire on you but there really is no better way to say it.  Other than you had us at hello.     

Step 1:  Admit you have a house to design

Admit that you have a lot of decisions to make and then reassure yourself that you have the capacity to make good design choices.  You may not have your own show on HGTV but trust your own sense of style.  You will be able to design a home that is uniquely yours.

Now, remind yourself you will have help.  Our designers are fantastic at what they do.  We hired them because they love helping you pull together all the small details that will turn one of our houses into your new home.  Think of them as your design sherpas.

Ready?

Ok...move to Step 2.

Meet Renee!

Hey Everyone...this is Renee!

We just hired her to take over Durham for us...(in a non-hostile totally welcome kinda way.)

Renee will be selling Garman Homes in Fairfield and Amberly and a few other neighborhoods to be named at a later date.

She's kind of a big deal and we love her.  We can't wait for you to get a chance to work with her.

So here's what you should know about Renee:

1.  She's never on time, except for a buyer.

2.  She'll never tell you what you want to hear...she just tells the truth.

3.  She loves Durham.

4.  Her home could be mistaken for an animal shelter.  Seriously, she has 2 dogs and 4 cats.  She's got a thing for saving animals.

5.  She's not Mac savvy just yet but she's trying real real hard.  Real hard.

6.  She said her favorite part of her job is meeting the people...the buyers.  That might sound cheesy but when she left her last community, the homeowners threw her a party.  And she regularly hangs out with her buyers.  That's legit.  2legit2quit.  HEY HEY!

Nice shoes, Kendall!

Ask Kendall what she did to deserve these shoes.  

We are the World - Real Estate Industry Bands Together

Two years ago we produced this video...just for fun!  Obviously, we had some time on our hands back in 2010.  Thank you to the hundreds of people who made this happen, what a great memory!

Hi Mandi!

Mandi Cook, our Builder in Wedgewood

Obviously this is not a glam shot, but I just love it.  This is Mandi.  She is delightful.  When you see her in Wedgewood, say hello.  Ask her about her love of dogs and the 10 acres she is buying this summer as a first step towards a lifelong dream.  

OK, I'm a little proud

My daughter, Ellie.  Her preschool class took a field trip to see a home we are building for one of her classmate's family.  We couldn't resist the kid-size hardhats as a souvenir for the group.  Big thanks to Mike & Aria for allowing us to invade their half-built home with 13 four-year olds!

Garman Supports Go Koman Team

Pick a Color...but save the drama for your mamma.

Michelle's first assignment as Guest Buyer was choosing exterior colors.  A process that should be a joyful expression of color but sometimes turns into a torturous debate over which 6x6 sample of green has too much gray and whether or not you'd like that same 6x6 sample spread over the wide expanse of a new house...it's not always an easy decision.

So in order to protect us from exterior color confusion (ECC for those in the know) I fired up our Flickr studio pictures and showed Michelle some of the houses we've built and the colors we've used.

I could tell almost instantly Michelle was not going to have any problem deciding on colors.  She quickly weeded out the colors she didn't like with subtle hints like, 'ew, not that' or the more cryptic, 'wow...' (eyes wide with disgust)...I love a girl with strong opinions.    

Michelle's vision for a sophisticated gray palette came together easily...our only lingering question...do we select a matching gutter color for a seamless look or do we go for high drama and pick a dark contrasting gutter color?  After much squinting and pensive facial contortions as we surveyed the colors chosen so far (no cameras allowed during this phase) we decided we should go for it!  High drama...black gutters.  Hot stuff!  We knew it wouldn't be the right look for everyone but surely someone would drive up and love this house because of the gutters.  Right?

Maybe.

But a few days later neither of us was feeling the drama as much so we opted for a safer matching gutter color.   And even as I type this I can already hear our future buyer speaking the words, 'I love everything about this house...I just wish there was a little more drama on the exterior.'

Drama, indeed.  We shall see...

  

Michelle and her exterior masterpiece...

Meet Michelle, our first guest buyer...Take Two!

Hi, my name is Alaina.  I'm full of great ideas but I'm not always great on the follow-through.  

It feels really good to get that off my chest.  

Once upon a time...in a land as far away as early May...I had a great idea to blog about my friend, Michelle.  Michelle is our first guest buyer...a title you can read all about below.

I'm re-posting my original post about Michelle for two reasons:

1.  I felt the need to confess my follow-through sins.

2.  Michelle has a great story to share.  And there are many more posts to come.   

This is my friend Michelle.  Everyone, meet Michelle.  Michelle, meet everyone.

Before I tell you why I'm introducing you to Michelle, lemme tell you why I love this picture of her...

#1.  It was taken in Italy.  My favorite place in the world.

#2.  Her shirt says, 'Stay at Home Rock Star.' It doesn't get much cooler than that.

#3.  Happiness is infectious and looking at this picture makes me smile.  We can all use more of that.

Back to why I'm introducing you to Michelle...

Michelle is our very first guest buyer.  Guest what?  What's a guest buyer?  Well...I'm glad you asked, fictional voice in my head.  A guest buyer is a title I made up for Michelle so she could get the experience of building a Garman Home virtual-reality style.  Now some of you quick folks out there might be asking...why doesn't Michelle just build an actual Garman Home?  Why go virtual?

Because Michelle, like most of us, prefers to own just one home at a time.  And she already has a home.  A home she tried to sell so she could buy one of ours in Sunset Oaks.  But it didn't sell.
[insert sympathetic-yet-not-surprising sigh here...maybe some of you have been there-done that.]

When Michelle sent me an email and told me they were taking their home off the market I was genuinely sad.  Sad for her knowing what she would be missing.  Knowing how excited she was at the prospect of building her own home.  I know what a cool experience it is to get to build a home from scratch...I get to live vicariously though each and every one of the inventory homes we build.  I get to pick out all kinds of cool stuff...funky tile, souped-up wide-plank floors and even the occasional custom slab of granite that makes me dizzy with visions of elegant dinner parties dancing in my head.  I am spoiled by the new home experience.  I didn't want Michelle to miss out on that.

So I decided to offer Michelle the virtual experience of building a new home.  Why not?  As far as reaching your target demographic goes, it doesn't get much better than having someone who would buy your house design it for someone who could buy your house.  And because I work with the best people on the planet, when I first proposed this idea they didn't ask about all the how's, when's and why's...they just offered their full support.  Which, I gladly accepted.  

So to recap:  we're building the house Michelle would have built...but not for Michelle...for someone else...who shall be named later...but Michelle's gonna pick out all the stuff for the house.  And in the meantime, we're going to chronicle Michelle's experience here.  And it's gonna be cool because...well...that's just how a Stay at Home Rock Star rolls.

Mandi makes secret door

The back of the Full House

Cool, right?

G-Team visits

We all know that buying a new home is an exciting, anxious, stressful, and overwhelming experience all at the same time. At Garman, we clearly understand this and we strive to make the whole experience and transition as smooth and stress free as possible!! Nothing relates to this more than our 45 day warranty and our 1 year warranty.

With out a doubt, its hard to catch and grasp the functions of a new home with the walkthroughs we do before the closing date. Obviously, we go over and critique all the measures of a new home during these walkthroughs. Whether it's explaining the HVAC and plumbing systems, or the functions of each applicance, or even how to maintain the granite/tile. We want the homeowner to feel as comfortable as possible upon their first day moving in.

What helps create an even stronger bond, is the assurance that we will be there at the 45 day mark of their closing, to go over any and all questions or concerns they may have. At this 45 day mark, we go ahead and bring in the installers of the HVAC, plumbing, electrical, painting, window/door, etc..... Pretty much every and any outfitter that had a process in building the home. Some might say its overkill, but at Garman, we want that great look of satisfaction from the homeowner as if to say, "this is why I built a Garman Home"......

At the 1 year mark, we again come back and look into any and all issues that may have come about since closing..... This is great because after a full year, the homeowner is even more accustomed to their home and helps build that sense of comfort and reliability to an even higher degree!

Both warranties are a great attribute to the homeowner and Garman. It allows the homeowner to keep their beautiful home as pristine as when they first moved in and it allows us to build an even a stronger bond and also the chance to live up to our already great reputation!!!

- John Douglas

Thanks C&W Concrete!

There are very few things that are not "fixable" in construction. If the framers goof up and frame the door at the wrong height, they take 30 minutes, tear it back apart and frame it correctly. If the plumbers cut a pipe too long, they just measure and cut again. (Measure twice, cut one is great in theory but happens very little in reality). If the electricians forget to put in a plug, they take 15 minutes and put in another one.

There is one thing that is very permanent and costs a whole bunch of money to fix if it's done wrong. It's CONCRETE! It's heavy, permanent, and virtually "unfixable". If it is fixed, then most anyone can see it. It has to be ripped out and replaced. The ripped out stuff has to be hauled away. It's a pain in the butt, expensive to do, and costs a lot of time. That is why it is soooooooo important to have a good concrete trade partner and we have the best! The name of the company is C and W Concrete. Ronnie Chambers is the owner. Scott Chambers is his son and runs the crews. Pedro is the foreman.

I don't want to jinx it, but they just don't make mistakes. These guys are great at what they do and we love them for it. Thank you guys! Our customers thank you, also. Garman Homes is honored to have you working with us!

- Dan Morse

Dan's Favorite Thing...

Plain and simple. My favorite thing about company meetings we have is that they are few and far between. Some companies have meetings everyday and sometimes two or three times a day. Why is that? It's because they don't just talk to each other. It is amazing what happens when we just hang out. We call these informal meetings. Informal meetings are common place at Garman Homes. I am amazed at how many things get missed at our formal meetings and get figured out in our informal meetings. You should try it!

- Dan Morse

Ric Peed from Tri City

Garman Homes isn't the only place you'll find Rock stars - we have some pretty rockin' vendors too. Ric Peed from TriCity Insulation of Raleigh is one of those vendors. I love working with Ric - he's always very helpful and has a great attitude (which is a must when doing anything associated with Garman Homes). These are the kind of vendors that I truly enjoy working with. So thanks Ric for not only making my job easier, but for being a great part of the support that helps us at Garman Homes be the best that we can be!!

- Val Morse