New House Finish

[Larry]

Went on a new house Parade of Homes tour looking for ideas to use in our house.  Price range of the homes was $200,000 to $2,000,000.  Of special interest to me was wood used for the finish.  I was really surprised by two things...the lack of natural wood used, along with signs of any real craftsmanship.


CABINETS

Fashion has changed again to dark stained oak...some were so dark I really couldn't tell what kind of wood they were made from.  Some of the inexpensive homes had white painted popular which I liked better than the dark kitchens and bathrooms.  Wouldn't surprise me to see a Made in China sticker on the backs of any of them.


TRIM

White popular or PVC for windows, floors, and doors.  Crown moulding was the same.  Wainscoting was paint grade but a lot of color here.
   

DOORS

Painted white MDF or even PVC?  Doors in the high end homes were white MDF but antiqued to make them appear old.  Front door construction was all over the map but all were high dollar.
            

FLOORS

I've heard of scraped flooring but had never seen any until today.  Houses in the $250 to $500,000 range had 5" wide pre-finished laminated floors (glue down).  Houses in the $500 to $1,000,000 range had 5" solid pre-finished floors.  Both products were normally from Lumber Liquidators.  The scrape marks were shallow grooves about an 1" wide and went generally in the grain direction.  Although the floors were attractive I wasn't really impressed.  One house close to  $2,000,000 had an absolutely stunning floor.  This floor was narrow red oak lower grade strip flooring.  Lot of shorts, knots, mineral stain, and even a few bug holes for good measure.  After the flooring was laid it was hand scrapped across the grain.  Few splinters so it wouldn't do so well for bare feet and I imagine it would be hard to clean.  This floor was accented with a strip of walnut flooring treated the same way.  The  floor wouldn't be for most folks...but no denying the uniqueness and beauty of this floor.  All of the floors were on the dark side...with some very dark.


STAIRS

Oak as normal but some had carpet or tile inserts in the treads.  Handrails looked to be painted pine.  Balusters were all iron...some quite fancy.

Wish I could of taken few pics but the builders don't much like cameras.

What are you seeing in your area?

[metalspinner]

What are you seeing in your area?

Much of the same unimpressive things that you are seeing. :-\  Houses in the 300K range I call particle board highrises.
All finish materials are manmade.  I nearly got into an argument with one builder about the laminate floor that he was called "hardwoods." : Intersections of base mouldings all have 1/8" wide gaps that are filled with caulking then painted. Of course, no real wood is visible anyplace but the stair treads.  These are muddied up with a dark stain.
Kitchen cabinets are kind of wierd to figure out.  I can't tell what they are made with. The drawer boxes are like 3/8" MDF with a plastic maple veneer.

I'll take my 60's era rancher over these new homes any day of the week.

[WDH]

Larry,

You are lucky in that you have the ability to create a truly custom home with real wood used in ways that the masses do not have access to.  You can create your own work of art.  I bet your own ideas are better that most of what you get "on the market".  Think of it like this....it is your opportunity to be creative.

"Designs by Larry"  :D ;D

[pigman]

Price range of the homes was $200,000 to $2,000,000. 

Larry, I assume you were referring to the $200,000 homes as the inexpensive ones. To me a $200,000 house would not be inexpensive, but I suppose to someone in Arkansas that is an inexpensive home. ;D

[Larry]

MS, in our area Mexican's have almost completely taken over the building trades because they can provide the builder and consequently the buyer with what they want...cheap construction.  Kathy doesn't have a keen eye for quality but she was able to spot many signs of shoddy craftsmanship.  I think it ironic that Habitat houses, built with directed amateurs, have higher quality than the houses of the rich.

PM, the last new house for less than 100K was seen several years ago and has been confirmed as extinct.  Only a few houses for less than 200K are being seen, and it is expected they will be gone within two years.

If I were to believe our local Chamber of Commerce NW Arkansas has one of the lowest cost of housing in the nation.  If I were to believe the builders, they say the cheapest building lot is 40K and has not fallen in price even with the slump in new construction.  Going a little further they also report that all material, other than lumber, has been rising steadily in price.  Recently lumber has been going up...supposibly due to high transportation costs.

But you are right...none are "inexpensive"...poor choice of wording on my part.

[flip]

We have the full range of junk.  Last really nice house I saw was over 90 years old.  There is a local "mass builder" that will buy a field and throw up 50-100 el cheapo slab homes from about $150-$250.  He can and will do higher end but I think you would get the same quality as the cheap ones.  Incidentally he was in charge for one of the Extreme Home Makeover shows in a nearby town.  I think the new home average in one of the nicer developments is about $40-$60 for a 1 acre lot and another $300,000 for the house.  This doesn't include the new suv, boat or 4 wheelers :

It is getting to the point where we had some good industry in the area and the businesses took care of a good portion of the tax burden.  If you live in the city you really get it put to you now, I don't see how some people can even afford the property taxes let alone mortgage, utilities or insurance. 

But on the subject, the interrior finishes are junk, fortunately we have a lot of cabinet businesses in the area so most of that is local and not Junkinese.  Trim work depends on who you get, there are a few good carpenters left out there.  I don't care for the lam flooring which is what most around here go for because the builders push it.  Don't see a lot of interesting wood work in new homes any more unless some one is into wood working.  Pretty much the cookie cutter painted mdf and stained red oak.

[Larry]

We visited as many Parade homes as possible Saturday and a few more today.  I did find a few homes where craftsmanship and original thinking was quite evident.  One example was in a home built by Gary Striegler...some may recognize the name as he writes for Fine Homebuilding, JLC, and has done videos for Woodmaster.  Gary put his Woodmaster to good use and made all the moulding for one of the higher end houses.  I thought the moulding really set the house apart from the rest, as it was not a stock pattern other builders used.  He also had an idea to incorporate ceramic tile with oak strip flooring.  The inlay stair handrail was quite something to see...I may have to add a second story to our house just so I can use his idea for a handrail.

In another house the builder used a lot of quarter sawn white oak cabinets in the arts and crafts style.  Normally I don't care much for A & C's but I thought this builder did an excellent job combining other materials to tone it down some.  Again craftsmanship was excellent.

I also found a couple of builders that lamented the lack of quality hardwood which I found odd.  In this part of the country there is a sawmill on most every corner.  I did collect some names and numbers for future reference.

[Handy Andy]

  Larry, at least you have a clue when you look at new homes.  When I was building I got so tired of people just looking at floor plans and talking about how much per square foot.  Most were only interested in buying  the "best buy".  In other words, the cheapest per square foot.  I tried to build the best house I could, and others just threw up the houses the fastest they could.  And some idiots acted like the faster it went up the better house it was. Glad I quit building for idiots. 

[ScottAR]

Just a "me too" post...  I've actually quit going to the home shows.   
They're all just sticks and bricks.  I've found I'm more picky even in
the rentals about the finish work than most of the $300k-$400k houses.

I guess I'm not getting paid by the piece.