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.