[Times photo: Dennis E. Wilson]
Custom-designed copper gutter brackets for bungalow homes are the handiwork of Dennis E. Wilson. They accommodate half-round gutters.
Every summer the Southeast Building Conference attracts builders, architects, interior designers, subcontractors and suppliers from 12 Southeastern states to Orlando to talk about what's new in the industry, meet and greet, see the latest products, earn continuing-education credits, present awards and maybe play a few rounds of golf.
On the trade show floor last month, 770 vendors offered 10,700 showgoers the chance to spin a wheel of fortune, putt a golf ball, toss a ball and win a handout. They baked chocolate-chip cookies and cinnamon buns in the new speed-cook ovens. Showgoers picked up takeaways that ranged from pens and sticky notes to the two gotta-have items: tiny, flashing red-white-and-blue stars from First American Title that twinkled from collars and name tags all weekend; and sleek four-sided black yardsticks from Labor Finders that looked like light sabers from Star Wars.
At the Mannington floor-covering booth, the obligatory builder-special white vinyl in a fake-tile look was on display, but the real attraction was a realistic leather-look vinyl in rich colors: dark-red rawhide, putty-colored suede, off-white nude. Even this, the most expensive vinyl, is "just below base-grade ceramic tile," a spokesman said, and worth a second look.
A few rows away, Beacon Products of Sarasota was showing its decorative street lighting (it supplies the street lights for downtown St. Petersburg). A company called Wave Wireless was using one of the Beacon lights to demonstrate its wireless security camera, enclosed within the light pole and monitored from a central security office. "It's more aesthetically pleasing," spokeswoman Melissa Imparato said. "There's no ugly camera on the street, and no need to dig up the pavement to lay cable," an expensive undertaking, she said.
The wireless security system is aimed at master-planned communities, municipalities, campuses and port authorities - places where greater security is an issue. The eye that's watching you is invisible, hidden inside what looks like a sweet old-fashioned gas lamp.
First-time vendor Dennis E. Wilson displayed his custom-designed copper gutter brackets for bungalow homes. These miniature works of art, a real blend of art and craft, accommodate half-round gutters and eliminate the need to cover rafter tails with fascia boards, as some existing gutter hangers require. All the folks in Historic Kenwood, Seminole Heights and other bungalow neighborhoods around Tampa Bay need to visit www.bungalowgutterbracket.com The brackets - some look right out of the Greene & Greene bungalows, some are very Frank Lloyd Wright, some evoke Charles Rennie Mackintosh - start at about $40 each. Home designer Jim Zirkel of Home Design Services in Altamonte Springs took a break from his own booth to talk about the trends he was seeing. "A lot of old-world architecture," he said. Foam interior architectural elements that carry out that old-world theme - beams, brackets, columns - "are so sophisticated now," he said. The floor was dotted with metalcrafters who make mailboxes, lamps, railings and door hardware. There were dramatic entry doors with mahogany on one side, maple on another and stained-glass inserts that meet the Miami-Dade County hurricane codes.
The latest thing in hurricane protection, so new it's not even in stores yet, is Fabric-Shield Storm Panels from Wayne Dalton. These are translucent woven fabric panels, coated with PVC, that block wind, rain and storm-driven missiles. They attach to the structure with grommets. They can be folded, rolled or stacked up for storage and weigh far less than metal panels or plywood. They pass the Miami-Dade testing, too.
At the Evans Group booth - they're the Orlando-based architects who design many master-planned communities and houses all over Florida and across the country - close scrutiny of a floor plan revealed this tidbit. A single-car garage was labeled the "play toy garage." Imagine that, dedicating one whole garage to stuff: bikes, pool toys, golf carts, storage, the barbecue grill, the Segway, all the stuff that crowds the cars out. The design showed a separate two-car garage for, well, the cars.
"Or you can have an SUV garage," senior designer Kyle Paxton pointed out on another plan, showing a single-car garage that was both taller and wider than a typical garage to accommodate an SUV.
It may be just a matter of labeling, but it's a problem-solver.
And here's your lightning round, the top colors, from interior designers Kay Green and Tamara Tennant: (1) Tuscany red, the color of power that stimulates appetites; (2) orange and coral ("the intelligent color," Tennant said); (3) sapphire (calming), watery blue (1940s, soft and comfortable), aqua (nature); (4) green, "the new neutral," Tennant said, a sign of renewal and growth; (5) gold, "a sign of better times to come," she said; (6) aubergine, "rich and royal, it encourages creativity and daydreaming"; (7) pink and peach ("sophisticated and calming"); (8) brown, "the color of mocha, cappuccino and latte; I love what UPS has done with brown"); (9) neutrals: bisque, white and stone; (10) animal prints; and (11) gold and silver.
