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Glamor has been injected into the showcase home of the Tampa Bay Builders Association homes parade, but makeovers of the laundry room and garage could be the best selling points.
By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 2003
LITHIA -- This year's showcase home, a highlight of the Tampa Bay Builders Association Parade of Homes, is heavy on sophistication: silk draperies, glamorous furniture reminiscent of the 1930s, a big-city color scheme. Goodbye, beach and British colonial; hello, Hollywood in its heyday.
But it may be the workhorse rooms, the garage and the laundry room, that win buyers' hearts.
The garage will be outfitted as the ultimate Guy Storage Room with Gladiator system of storage walls and containers by Whirlpool. The laundry room, an enviable 10 by 12 feet, will use Whirlpool's new Family Studio line of laundry and fabric-care appliances.
The parade, which opens today, is the first presented by the newly merged Pinellas and Hillsborough builders associations. More than 140 homes in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas will be on display through April 13. See the box on Page 5F for details.
This time the models are farther north, farther east and farther south, reflecting the push to new communities in northern Hillsborough and across the line into Pasco County, up the Veterans Expressway and across State Road 54. They stretch east along the Interstate 4 corridor to Dover and Plant City, and south along U.S. 301 and U.S. 41 to Ruskin and Apollo Beach. Those are the roads to future housing development in the Tampa Bay area. Just 18 of the models are in Pinellas.
The showcase home is the Talon model by Hannah-Bartoletta Homes in the village of Kestrel Ridge at FishHawk Ranch. When FishHawk opened five years ago, it felt "way out there," a long drive out Brandon Boulevard and a long drive down rural Lithia-Pinecrest Road. Now the area has grown up. FishHawk Boulevard connects Lithia-Pinecrest with I-75, opening the community to the job centers along the interstate. The thick, lush trees and lavish landscaping, developer Don Whyte's pride and joy, create an established, settled feel for thousands of residents.
Last year, builders sold nearly 500 homes there, worth close to $100-million, up 30 percent from the year before, making FishHawk Ranch the fastest-selling community in Hillsborough County. Suddenly Lithia is not such a rural address.
The 4,783-square-foot showcase home has four bedrooms, three full baths, two half baths, two two-car garages, the laundry/hobby room, a media room and a study. Price, including furnishings, window treatments, faux finishes and accessories: $767,754.
"It feels like a Palm Beach house to me: open, grand, meant for entertaining," salesman Chuck Hudson said recently as he stepped into the foyer. It opens into a "grand room" 19 feet by 19 feet that flows into a dining room 15 feet by almost 12 feet. Sliding glass doors open to the pool and lanai, where there is an outdoor gas fireplace. Another set of sliders pushes out of sight to open the pool area to the family room, 23 feet by 21.
"It wants to be a house that's entertained in," with its big rooms and wine cellar, said Matt Long of All Interior Furnishings in Brandon, who furnished and decorated the house. He toured models "from Polk County to Pasco" to see what others were doing and to come up with something out of the ordinary.
That's why he chose colors, finishes, furniture and fabrics "that give a whole different feeling from the usual Florida/West Indies look you see a lot of," he said.
Against a background of tans and taupes he used shots of red and black; metallic wall coverings and fabrics, such as the master bath's red silk draperies with painted silver bamboo leaves; and the grand room's shimmery silver silk swags over tan silk shantung draperies "that evoke an off-the-shoulder feel" of a haute-couture gown.
"I'm taking my cue from high-style evening dresses," Long said. "My window treatment maker is going absolutely crazy."
For furniture he selected the new Bogart line from Thomasville Furniture, designed in consultation with Stephen Bogart, the son of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It's all sinuous 1930s-style curves and Art Deco influences. "I want people to walk in and expect Lauren Bacall to come around the corner," Long said.
Bacall likely will not be spending much time in the laundry room or the garage, but the rest of us might, to check out what Whirlpool has been promoting heavily in print and broadcast advertising.
The laundry room's Family Studio appliances include the Duet front-loading washer and dryer, the Personal Valet clothes-refreshing closet, the SinkSpa with water jets for hand washables, the ImPress ironing station and the DryAire drying cabinet.
"Builders have used this flex space for a variety of things, whether a hobby or game room," Whirlpool account manager Dave Acker said. "Now they can make it into a hobby and high-end laundry room."
In the garage -- "the last bastion of male space in the house," Acker said -- the walls are lined with tongue-and-groove racks from which a variety of shelving and hooks can be hung. The Gladiator items include a workbench and rolling gear boxes, and drawer systems and racks in several sizes and shapes, all in an embossed diamond-pattern metallic finish "that's real striking and durable. Very Tool Time," Acker said.
Later, Whirlpool plans to add to the line an under-the-counter refrigerator, a compactor, a "freezerator" with a small refrigerator on top and a big freezer below, and an industrial-look floor mat.
The Family Studio and the Gladiator lines are sales opportunities for builders, who have had little opportunity to offer anything special in their laundry rooms and garages. In the garage, for example, Acker said, "there was a garage door and an opener." The Gladiator and Family Studio systems are ways to make outfitting those spaces a revenue source for the builder and a convenience for the buyer.
Many of the components, building materials, furnishings and accessories in the showcase home are donated by builders and vendors. Sale of the home benefits the builders association and the Circle of Friends program led by former Bucs tackle Jerry Wunsch and his wife, Melissa. Circle of Friends supports recreation programs for children with cancer and blood disorders.
WHAT: Parade of Homes sponsored by the Tampa Bay Builders Association, a showcase of more than 140 model homes in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties.
WHEN: Today through April 13. Models are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: At sites around the three counties, marked by blue and white signs. The showcase home is in the village of Kestrel Ridge at FishHawk Ranch in Lithia. From Interstate 75, take Exit 250 and drive east 7 miles on Boyette Road, which becomes FishHawk Boulevard, and follow signs.
DETAILS: A magazine with maps, floor plans and descriptions is available at the models.
INFORMATION: Call the builders association weekdays during business hours at (813) 873-1000.