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Builder lays foundation in Hillsborough

By JUDY STARK
Published July 30, 2005

Everybody talks about buyers from Pinellas and Hillsborough heading south to Manatee County. Now a longtime Manatee builder is moving north across the Hillsborough line.

Bruce Williams Homes of Bradenton has bought 16 home sites in the village of Lagomar in Andalucia, on U.S. 41 in Apollo Beach.

"We've been pushing further north within Manatee County anyway, and this was a nice entree for us to move a little further north," said Peter D. Mason, vice president of sales and marketing. "It's a great way to get started" in Hillsborough, where the company is seeking other property.

Bruce Williams Homes built the Placido Bayou, Renaissance and Riviera Bay subdivisions in St. Petersburg before its founder, the late Lloyd Williams, moved the company south of the Skyway in 1985. It is the largest locally based home builder in Manatee County, building about 350 homes a year.

Mason said he expects to break ground on two models at Andalucia by the end of the year. They will be in the range of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet, and prices will start at about $600,000. Eight of the 16 homes have dock access.

Information: www.bwhomes.com By phone: 941 748-8834.

The bathroom is "the me-only space," and its occupants "are consumers of power. There are never enough outlets" in the bathroom, architect Robert A. Koch of Fugleberg Koch in Winter Park said at the Southeast Building Conference in Orlando this month. He suggested building countertop appliance garages to house the blow-dryers, curlers, electric razors and other plug-in paraphernalia. They would be like those that builders often put in kitchens.

He shared the dirty little secret that those gorgeous "vessel sinks" that look like bowls and stand slightly above the countertop "gather a lot of crud underneath" and are a pain in the neck to clean.

Koch and interior designer Marc Thee of Marc-Michaels Interior Design in Winter Park offered these suggestions:

Move the medicine cabinet away from the countertop, where it's all too easy for kids to climb up and start sampling from the pill bottles. Position it on the wall opposite the countertop, where its mirrored door functions as a rear-view mirror when you're blow-drying your hair.

Create a candle niche in the shower, a recess where you can place a candle sheltered from the water for a romantic glow.

Use opaque glass in cabinets to hide the contents.

Bring light into a windowless bath. Thee is enthusiastic about a translucent panel called Lumicor (www.lumicor.com) which may encapsulate textiles, metals, foliage or paper. A panel of Lumicor in the wall between a windowless master bath and the bedroom creates an interior "window" that draws light into the bath. Other alternatives: shutters, louvers, screens.

Look to the kitchen for bathroom luxury. Build a set of spice drawers into the cabinetry to provide storage for small items. Warming drawers (to heat towels) and refrigerator drawers (to chill beverages) turn the bathroom into what Koch calls a spa: a place that provides "sensuous personal attention."

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 09:02:04]