Corvette or Minivan?

Let me be frank: I don’t think that there is a more inappropriate measurement of a home’s value than dollar/square foot.  This is especially true of a custom home.

At Jenkins Custom Homes, our typical budget for a single home is over 300 line items.  The factors that affect each line item can be varied and numerous.

Take roofing material as an example.  Is a clay tile roof imported from Italy the same cost as a 20 year shingle roof, or even a concrete tile roof?  I can assure that it is not.  The import cost alone is more.  Not to mention the necessary framing changes to accommodate the weight of the tile, the numerous flashing and underlayment options, etc.  Which do you prefer, two layers of 30lb. felt or ice and water shield?  Maybe you need a combination of the two?  A lot to consider?  You better find a Designer / Builder that knows what he’s doing.

I digress.

Do you see my point, though? Just within this one line item – roofing materials – there can be a variety of alternatives, each of which has a ripple affect on the rest of the budget.

Allow me to illustrate further.  Here is an over-simplified example.  Let’s say these are the costs for two different homes – House #1 and House #2.  Both homes are 10′ x 10′ or 100 square feet (SF).

Now, before you decide which house you are going to purchase, look carefully at the difference between these two homes.  House #2 is a whopping  67% more for the exact same 100 SF!  What a rip-off, right?

Well, House #1 also has no windows.  Meanwhile, House #2 has windows on all sides, a nice covered porch, better appliances and an extra 1/2 bath.  Still want the first house?

My point is that if you multiply those cost differences by 300 different line items, pretty soon the two houses start to look really different even though they are the exact same size.  My suggestion?  Find out what all is in the house before you decide what the true value is.

After all, have you ever called a car dealer and asked him for the cost per seat of a car you were interested in purchasing?  Of course not!  And if you did, wouldn’t it make sense for the single cab F150 Pick-Up to cost the same as a Corvette?  They both have only two seats!

Then again, if that were the measure of value, we would all be driving minivans, wouldn’t we?!  Or… would we?!

By: Shan Jenkins, Jenkins Custom Homes

Top Remodeling Tips

Remodeling your home has become all the rage these days but before you turn your playroom into a home theater, here are some things to consider:

Prioritize

When you begin to dream about all the projects you would like to tackle in your home, they may all seem like top priorities.  However, if you write them all down and give them time to settle out, some will naturally rise to the top of the heap.  The same is true for your spouse – there are some things that he or she would rank at the top of his or her list that may not coincide with your list.  In the end, though, it makes sense to make sure that the top priorities of both partners is represented.

Budget

Once you have your plans clearly mapped out, price the entire project.  You may be surprised at how quickly it becomes cheaper to build a brand new home than to remodel your existing home!  But by planning it all out ahead of time, you can be careful not to let the cost spiral out of control.  And remember – when pricing the project, think past the drywall and paint and consider what you will need to decorate the room when it is finished.  Include this in the cost so you don’t end up without the necessary draperies or furniture to complete the room.  Also, by doing the leg work in advance, you can research cheaper alternatives.

Phases

Sometimes, it makes sense to divide the project into separate phases so that it is more manageable.   By laying everything out on paper, then breaking it up into smaller projects, you can save yourself a lot of hassle and better manage the overall costs.

When considering a remodel project for your home, think about your budget and weigh that against what’s most important to your family. Once you are confident that the project or projects you have chosen represent what really matters to you and your spouse, relax!  Making decisions is the hardest part, but taking your time and working everything out on paper first will save you time and money – and heartache – in the long run.

Interview With Shan Jenkins, Part Two

Recently, I caught up with Shan Jenkins, President and CEO of Jenkins Custom Homes.  This is Part Two of that interview.

Shan, you’ve told us how you got started in the business.  Now tell us a little about what keeps you inspired, what keeps you challenged after all these years.

Several years ago, I was on a trip with my father-in-law and saw for the first time the famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis.  My design philosophy is similar to that of Eero Saarinen, the mastermind behind the Arch.  While my design prowess is light years behind his, I share his philosophy that I am more about solving our client’s problems than being a slave to the classic textbook rules of design. I want to answer the needs of my clients with unique and special ideas. I also believe that my clients are my co-creators. Between their lifestyle, their lot, and their vision, the greatest shapes can emerge, and most importantly, they are the shapes that the ‘creators’ best relate to and thrive in…not what someone told them had to be.  Building and designing, just the creative part of it, it’s a passion.  That word gets thrown around a lot, but it really is and it has to be.  I have to be passionate about what I’m doing because the client is passionate about it.  For them, it’s a statement of their life’s work, what they’ve achieved in life.  We think the house is not just a place you live.  We’ve never had a client come to our office and say “We need a roof over our heads.”  Because really what they want is a lifestyle, a place where they can raise families and create memories, nurture themselves, so that they can achieve even greater things.  There’s nothing better than when a client says, “this is a dream come true for us.”  There’s just no better feeling as a designer and builder than to hear those words.

Those are pretty lofty goals, but you claim to consistently achieve client satisfaction.  What is the secret to your success?

As I said before, I have to give credit to our team.  Because of the quality of our staff, we can confidently give a prospective client an estimate that is guaranteed to be within 5% of the final cost.  We can also be confident that each home will be built with precision.  I take great pride in the attention to detail that’s put into every home that carries my name. True quality is as much unseen as it is seen, from structural integrity to energy efficiency to quality control. I also know that no one will be happy in a home that’s well built behind the walls, but doesn’t show the same precision in the finish-out.  For us it’s all about getting it all just right, how our clients expect it, from the flow and layout all the way down to the details on the cabinetry.  It is that precision that makes a Jenkins home stand apart and have that comfortable “feel” from the time you walk in the front door.

Tell me a little about yourself.

Well, I’ve been married for 20+ years.  My wife is also my business partner, and she has impressive business credentials of her own.  We have 3 children, one in high school, one in middle school, and one in elementary.  They keep us busy, just like most people, with school activities and sports.  In many ways we feel we can relate to our clients best because of our experience living in one of my homes with our children.  There are always new products coming out, and we often evaluate them based on how they would work for us and our family.  It’s especially helpful that my wife is able to provide insight from the perspective of a mother and, really, just the female perspective.  We often approach things from a very different vantage point, she and I, and it is useful to talk through how a new product affects both male and female homeowners.  Obviously, she likes products that relate to convenience and safety that I often haven’t even considered.  Anyway, we enjoy discussing these things together and then with our clients so that we can provide as much information from both perspectives.  We feel that the key to good decision making for our clients is providing them with the right information for their situation.  Since you don’t always know everything about someone’s situation, you try to provide both the pros and cons so that they can measure that against their own knowledge.  We often get accused of being too impartial, but that goes back to what I said earlier about approaching building more as a science.  While we are not without an opinion on most products, we like to provide our clients with data and information rather than opinion, unless asked of course.   That’s just always been my approach.

Interview with Shan Jenkins, Owner & CEO of Jenkins Custom Homes

Recently, I caught up with Shan Jenkins, the owner and CEO of Jenkins Custom Homes, and asked him a few questions.  This is Part One of his interview.

What made you want to become a builder?

Primarily my uncle got me into the business.  He owned a roofing company.  When I was in 6^th grade, my parents decided I couldn’t stay at home during the summers anymore and that I needed to get a job.  So I went to work for my uncle and basically worked with him through High School.  That’s when I wanted to get into the building business, as an architect, primarily.  I went to Texas A&M and became interested in the construction side, and graduated with a degree in Construction Science.  I was in commercial construction until when, in 1998, I left Brown & Root to come work with my dad in this company, which he started in 1992. But the bottom line is that I love architecture and construction.

What do you believe sets you and your company apart from other custom home builders?

Well, we have a great team, and in some regards, it might be unique in this industry, for a couple of reasons.  We put a big emphasis on the science of construction, the science of building.  We have an estimator – purchasing manager.  We’ve got three superintendents, and then we’ve got two on-staff residential designers.  Beyond that, we are a design-build company.  90% of the projects we do are custom so they are all very unique.  We have a copyrighted system that we use.  We call it the Lifestyle Analysis.

What is the Lifestyle Analysis?

Really, the client designs the house – they just don’t know that they are designing the house.  While they are communicating to us through our Lifestyle Analysis, they think they are just answering ordinary questions.  The initial visit is basically a synopsis of our program – what we do, how we do it, and who the team is.  Then, we do a conceptual design and give them a detailed cost estimate with that.  So it’s kind of like a feasibility study.  They know, with a very small investment up front, what they can have for their budget.  So we take what they tell us, and we put it on paper.  Of course, we add our 15 years of experience on to it (or whatever) and then from there we move into design and construction.  So it’s a pretty well-thought-out process, and we think clients like knowing in advance these are the steps that I have to take, this is the blueprint to get me to the end result that I’m after.

In Part Two of our interview with Shan Jenkins, we will discuss his design philosophy!

HGTV’s “Million Dollar Rooms”

Jenkins Custom Homes has just been selected to be filmed for HGTV’s latest hit, “Million Dollar Rooms“.  The producers of the show contacted our offices yesterday to inform us that they would like to send down the film crews.  “Million Dollar Rooms” is an hour long special that just aired on HGTV to huge ratings.  This production company is owned by Carter Oosterhouse, host of “Carter Can”.

Stay tuned, and we will post again when we have a definitive date.  We would love to hear your thoughts about which one of these rooms would be a good candidate for the show:

Or one of the other rooms in this same home:

Click here to see it.

Or another home:

Click here to see others.

2010 Parade of Homes™

The Home Builders Association of Greater Austin has chosen Rough Hollow in Lakeway to be the site of the 2010 Parade of Homes™.  The event, held in October, will mark the second time in three years that Rough Hollow has been chosen to host the Central Texas region’s most prestigious home event.

Jenkins Custom Homes, 2009 Custom Home Builder of the Year, will again be participating in this years’ event, with a home that is just finishing the pre-sheetrock stage.  This Tuscan style home (pictured in the artists’ rendering above) will feature many exciting and innovative new design elements as well as some that are tried and true, like the “Jenkins arch” which has won the homebuilder many previous awards.  This arch will form the divide between the kitchen and living room, like the one shown below.

With a wall of windows overlooking the back of the property and an expandable door system that allows the home theater room to become part of the outdoor living space, this home will take full advantage of its unrivaled view of the beautiful Central Texas hillside and Lake Travis beyond.

Stay tuned for more pictures and details as this home takes shape!  And make plans to attend the 2010 Parade of Homes™ if you are in the Austin area!