2003 HOME SHOW MEGATRENDS
By Norma Lugar, Photos by Doug Miller
 Throw Away the Old Rules - Modern Living Has a Style All Its Own
Today’s homes: Call them a reflection of a different world........ ....A place where people live longer, work harder and come in from the tropical climes where they once retired. As the population gets grayer and increasingly vital, empty nesters are coming home to roost near their children and grandchildren, most often in independent, cared-for communities. In fact, the demand for maintenance-free living spreads across the spectrum of age and economic levels, joined together with a few common basics:
The presence of Great Rooms. The absence of formal living areas. A bounty of multipurpose bonus rooms. Effortless ownership that allows people the luxury of two- to three-month travel agendas. Fewer rooms with more uses.
More than anything, however, modern design demands two elements: Usability and aesthetics.
Take a look at all the ways area builders are bringing the two to life.
Usability and Aesthetics
Homes don’t get more beautiful or livable than these. Even historic classics can be modern again through contemporary remodeling.
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1. Great opener. A stone and cedar French Tudor, the Millehans’ 4,200-square-foot Smith Mountain Lake home is punctuated by graceful lines and columns with five arches, plus arched windows in the dining and sun room. As builder Kevin Bowman notes, the home’s special challenges include “fitting the house on the lot so you get the ultimate views of the lake, and, two fronts, the lake front and the street front.” |
2. Ageless beauty. Fresh from a massive renovation directed by Adam Cohen of Structures Design/Build, the 1857 High Street home of Andrea and Scott Sexton is a treasured Salem Historic Landmark. Its makeover included destruction of 800 square feet, including the original servant’s quarters, butler’s pantry and secret staircase, followed by construction of a 2,100-square-foot, three-story addition incorporating a great room, master suite and walk-out rec room. Says Structures partner Steven Strauss, “Our objective was to bring the home into today’s lifestyle while maintaining its exterior integrity.” |
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| 3. Night magic. Captivating at night with its view of Roanoke city lights, the Pickle home at The Northwoods of Ridgewood Farms is one of eight styles giving empty nesters all the luxury of their former homes in a maintained neighborhood. Builder Lew Jamison of Heritage Builders, Ltd., Salem, created the community’s 33 custom homes with gables and hip roofs and an accent on maximum security. |
4. Hollywood glamour. For Michael and Susan Savage’s breathtaking master bath in their Southwest County Colonial, Scott Markwell of Elegant Homes, Inc., pulled out all the stops. Warmed in part by a double-faced fireplace, the area is equipped with dual sinks and lavatories, walk-in shower, whirlpool and oversized mirror. Spanning 4,400 square feet, the home’s original design was modified by Balzer and Associates and executed with such details as aged brick, a soaring foyer, and massive moldings. |
Great Rooms Are Taking Over
Shown here in multiple interpretations of a new “must-have” housing element, the Great Room replaces the stodgier, more structured living room. The newly crowned heart of the home, it is generally open to the kitchen and offers an expanded area for family fun, TV watching and relaxation.
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| Both are a matter of taste. Side-by-side neighbors at The Northwoods of Ridgewood Farms, the homes of Lois and Bill Powell and Janet and Bill Pickle are examples of individual plans shaped to fit homeowners’ personal tastes and preferences. Built with such options as sun rooms, all homes in the community, which is predominately selected by the 55-to-70 age group, have a common feature: screen porches that make the most of mountain and town views, as well as fireplaces treated to different interpretations, according to family style. |
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| 3. Fit for the family. An important part of the new addition to the Sexton home, the great room adjoins the newly remodeled kitchen, with its original 19th-century windows and tile-framed fireplace. Covering a 20'x35' area, it is set off with a graceful arch which frames the outside window and is dramatized by built-in book shelves and window seat. Other pluses to the project, executed after multiple design plans by Structures’ Adam Cohen, are the coat closet to one side, half-bath on the other, and, in the middle, comfortable gathering space for the seven family members. |
4. Easy living. Geared to today’s way of relaxing and entertaining, the great room at the Harold Bayne home in Salem’s Innsbrooke Estates is part of a 26-foot area that also incorporates an open kitchen and breakfast nook where family members can be together while involved in a variety of tasks. Set off with a corner fireplace and gas logs, the great room adjoins a sunroom to one side and master suite on the other. Prices at the community, being developed by a trio of builders including Don Brown and Robin Dent of Brown & Dent Construction, Inc., range from $164,950 to $214,950. |
Retiring but Staying Close
It used to be Florida or bust. Fortunately, today’s retirees have learned it’s best to be near family and friends, especially when there are options that allow for extended travel while their homes stay snug and protected. One big factor in the swing back to the region is the wide choice of housing locations, amenities and price ranges in maintenance-free living. Those factors not only work for retirees, but for young professionals and single parent families, too, since few communities include age restrictions. Actually, many believe neighborhoods blend well with a mix of many styles and many generations and one basic thing in common: partial or complete first-floor living accommodations.
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| 1. Lifelong comfort. Twenty-two homes will make up the Woodbridge Village patio home community, set at the quiet cul-de-sac in an established Salem neighborhood, when the project is completed. Currently with seven finished homes, Woodbridge Village was launched a year ago by developer Luke Waldrop and puts a high priority on resident mobility. Two floor plans offer unique handicap features: high garage doors to accommodate vans holding handicap equipment, one level, no-step living, 30-inch-wide hallways and doorways for easy wheelchair or walker traffic, lowered light switch plates, levered door knobs, extra bathroom supports and oversized master showers. Models, which contain two and three bedrooms, two full baths and double-car garages, are priced from $184,950 to $198,000 for 1,680 to 2,160 square feet. Because homes require no painting or wood staining and the public street is maintained by the county, association fees are just $45 a month. |
2. Something extra. Set in a convenient Salem location and blessed with a panoramic view of the valley, Innsbrooke Estates puts a premium on quality touches in its 26 homes planned for a five-acre cul-de-sac. Priced from $164,950 to $214,950, the community is being developed by three separate construction companies, including Brown & Dent Construction, Inc., and gives the consumer six models to choose from. Exteriors are either brick or stacked stone and vinyl, while interiors are designed with such appealing extras as easy-tilt windows, crown moldings in foyers, dining rooms and master bedrooms, two-piece chair rails, fireplaces with non-vented gas logs, nine-foot ceilings and pre-wired security systems. The exterior is notable for two-car attached garages and the lack of outside maintenance on beautiful landscaped lots. Square footage spans 1,440 to 2,318 square feet, and homes are available in two, three and four-bedroom versions and one or one and a half-story designs. All have two bedrooms and two baths on first floor.
Homeowners Fee: $80 a month.
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| 3. Serene and secure. Aimed at the 55-to-70 age market, Lew Jamison’s Southwest Roanoke County community, The Northwoods of Ridgewood Farms, understands that empty-nesters often have the travel bug and may go roaming several months at a time but always want the assurance that their property is safe. For that reason, Jamison created Northwoods with an eye to special safeguards – solid garage doors that never reveal the absence of cars, cul-de-sacs that discourage through traffic, lighted common islands, individual walkways and mailboxes that give the streets an at-home look. For all those features, plus total exterior maintenance, association dues are $105 monthly. Homes run from $325,000 to $425,000. |
All the Extras
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House Beautiful
Scott Markwell’s rendition of the Savage home takes full advantage of special effects with a 20-foot ceiling in the breakfast area, where the back of the house has been opened with triple doors, triple windows and upper picture window to take advantage of the view.
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A New Life
Besides stabilizing the Sexton home for its renovation, builder Adam Cohen of Structures Design/Build, transformed three levels of the 5,000-square-foot historic Salem home. Among the most important changes: a master suite with his and her closets, bath and storage space; a new kitchen that retains an original fireplace, tile and window; closets for the bedrooms; air conditioning; a new heating system; and lowering the ground level seven feet to create a walk-out rec room with home theater, exercise and entertainment equipment.
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Baby Boomers Love Bonus Rooms
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 In today’s fast-paced lifestyles with its scaled down living spaces, nothing is more of a treat than rooms that are a bit unexpected, fill many roles and serve as extras in the overall house plan. Sometimes, they’re additions – such as sun rooms or an additional bath – and sometimes, they’re part of the plan itself, such as rediscovered space from a remodeling project or walkout rec room in a new home. The possibilities are endless.
Another fun level. Because of their lake lot’s slope, the Millehans can enjoy more spreading-out room at their lower level recreation room. Here, builder Kevin Bowman opened the space with additional arches and columns, echoing the more formal upper level, which is accessed by a unique one-quarter-turn circular staircase with iron balusters and wood railings in Provincial stain. Bowman and his team designed both columns and staircase for the area, dominated by a massive stone fireplace and providing room for a pool table with a water view. Among the home’s other extras: a modified cathedral ceiling with tray effect, light tray and canned lighting in the living area, deep moldings, faux leather wall treatments and expanses of open living area. |
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| 1. Shape-up challenge. Once a sitting room inside the master suite, the Savages turned this location into a fitness room when they moved their workout equipment from the lower level. Now they can take advantage of home’s mountain views while working out, then relax in front of the fireplace, one of the home’s three, in the adjoining bath or bedroom. Punctuated with arches and a front balcony, builder Scott Markwell’s creation makes use of extravagant moldings as well as two-story ceilings, sunken areas and a large sweep of dramatic decking in back. Markwell also duplicated the great room fireplace from a picture, with parts supplied by Virginia Metal Crafters.
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2. Happy option. At the patio homes of Woodbridge Village in Salem, a project of Luke Waldrop of Waldrop Development, the great room serves as the pulse beat of the house. Shown here at the residence of Diane Kunc, the community, with four exterior designs, boasts features such as this wide-open living arrangement, notable for its impressive dimensions and 15-foot vaulted ceiling set off with decorative fans. Adding a cozy note to the area is the fireplace equipped with gas logs, designed as a pass-through to the sunroom in current models. |
A Multi-Generation Haven
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| 1. Perfect getaway. According to Bill Fandel of Leisure By Town & Country, Rocky Mount, one third of all buyers choose the TEMO sunroom-Marquis spa combination. “Of those who don’t, two-thirds come back in two years and buy the spa,” says Fandel. Sunrooms alone come in a variety of styles: California, Cathedral, Studio, Ventilated Solarium, Victorian Conservatory, Edwardian Conservatory, Edwardian, Victorian, all of which are guaranteed not to leak and come with an owner’s lifetime guarantee. For homeowners who have no deck, the Rocky Mount company will build the deck, a concrete slab or crawl space. Other nicieties: 1/8-inch tempered, energy-efficient glass; wall material that won’t break, scratch or discolor; choice of colors; and heavy insulation. Prices start at $7,000. |
2. All in the family. Builder Joe Miller of E. J. Miller Construction Company, Inc., dubbed his new subdivision Miller’s Landing after the uncle who was his building mentor. Now the younger Miller has begun a different concept in today’s building: 21 single-family homes, all with first-floor masters, and intended for all age groups, but best for young couples, professionals and empty nesters. Situated in Hollins, the project is located on seven and half acres with a circle street that backs up to Tinker Creek. Developed by Miller-Perkins Corporation, Miller’s Landing will offer five plans, all brick to grade with single-car garages, nine-foot ceilings, great rooms, dining rooms, a bonus parlor, office or den and glass expanses for superior interior light. Models come in two-, three- and four-bedroom versions and sell starting in the low $200,000 range. |
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