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.