We’re wrapping up 2011 having just completed a new home in Shakes Run Subdivision, six bath/kitchen remodels, three basement finishes, three sun room additions, three commercial office build out/renovations, several entry door and window replacement installations, and several other major types of renovations.

Currently we are carrying over into 2012 an addition for A Winning Smile Dental Center located in the Highview/Okolona area, just broke ground on a custom home in Shepherdsville, a contract to build a custom home in Finchville, and working on two more custom contract houses, along with some remodel projects to start.

We look forward to a great 2012 as we continue to design/build new custom homes, design/build basement finishes, decks, sun rooms, and almost any type of renovation—residential or commercial—in Louisville Metro and surrounding counties.

If your 2012 plans involve a new home, residential remodel, commercial build out or remodel, basement finish, or other property improvements; contact us for an estimate.

Wishing you a healthy and prosperous 2012.

Christmastime is here! Can you believe this year is almost over? Every December we pause to reflect on the passing year—areas where we succeeded and areas where we can improve.

We also like to take this opportunity to let our employees and our clients know how much we appreciate them. The people we work with really are the life of the business, and we have the best. We are grateful for the loyalty of both our employees and our clients, and we look forward to continuing to build those relationships as we enter the New Year.

Hopefully the excitement of the holiday season will linger awhile as we enjoy time with family and friends over the next couple of weeks. 2012 holds the promise of a happy and successful business year ahead.

From everyone at PL Lyons, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Take some time this week to count your blessings.
Take some time and relate with your family and friends.
Take some time and be thankful for your freedoms.

Guys get your share of football.
Ladies get your share of shopping.
Everyone get your share of good eats.

Enjoy the change in seasons. Some people never get to see a leaf fall, a snow flake, a bloom in spring, or a sunny July day.

If you spend any of your time off working on that honey-do list, you might find last week’s post helpful about winterizing your house.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This time of year, just as in the spring, we experience several calls about outside faucets leaking. That usually means someone has forgotten to disconnect the hose on the nights we have a light freeze. Why does this happen? First of all, most faucets are not designed to allow a hose to remain connected during a freeze. Even a “frost proof” faucet is not designed to have a hose connected during freezing weather. A “frost proof” faucet is designed to allow the water to drain out of the faucet when turned off. The stem is usually 6″ to 8″ back in the wall, allowing the water to drain out. When a hose is left hooked up, it allows the water to siphon back into the pipe. The water freezes and the pipe expands, usually causing a split in the pipe. Many people don’t realize the hose was hooked up for just one evening, and always tell us there was no hose hooked up. We know otherwise, as the faucet would not have frozen and split. SO DISCONNECT THAT HOSE EVERY TIME YOU USE IT.

• Meyer Plumbing

It’s a good time to have your furnace system serviced and your fireplaces serviced. Nothing worse than realizing a small amount of preventative maintenance could have saved an uncomfortable evening and an expensive service call for a replacement part.

• Chapman Heating and Cooling
• Prudential HVAC
• Energy Control

All fireplaces should be checked to make sure they are in good working order and are safe to use. Even the engineered gas fireplaces should be checked and serviced.

• Fireplace Distributors

We also recommend the electric panel be looked at yearly. Why? Where the main wire feeds enter the electric box and are inserted into a lug, these can work loose over time, as the wire can expand slightly and contract slightly, allowing the lug to loosen somewhat. This can lead to an unsafe situation, and can allow for the main breaker to get hot and burn out. It sometimes leads to the entire panel box needing to be replaced.

• Crider Electric

Sump pumps occasionally get a breather in the winter months. However, if the water table rises, and we have a wet fall and winter, it still has to do its job. We recommend you test the sump pump(s) every 30 days, allowing you to know it is in working condition.

• Meyer Plumbing

This is also a great time to check your septic tank if you are on a septic system. The growth over or around the septic tank is more easily accessed this time of year than it is in the spring. It also gives you the opportunity to make any repairs if required, and get any areas ready for seeding in the spring.

Find a HBAL member who can help. www.hbal.com

Having just changed our clocks to EST, change those batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

If you have any questions concerning the above, give us a call at (502) 244-0114, email me at perry@pllyons.com or fill out our handy Ask a Question Form. I might even write a blog post to answer it!

For updated information concerning industry related issues and comments, follow us on Twitter.

Question:
I am looking at buying a developer-owned lot to build a new home on. The lot is sloped and I will plan on building a half basement. I was talking to a builder three lots from mine and he said that he had to remove excess fill dirt to get to the sub grade to pour foundation. This was an extra cost to the homeowner. Does the developer have to disclose if a lot has been filled in with fill? If not, should I get a soil impaction test prior to buying the lot?

Answer:
Most developers will disclose any information they have concerning lots. However, the detailed construction drawings will show lots that are filled with soil and or debris. The construction drawings may not show rock formations and or subterranean soil problems that may require additional monies for building.

As an individual buying a lot, it is ALWAYS best to have a builder or his engineer inspect a lot before purchasing. They usually can inform you if the lot requires additional costs to build.

It is customary to do the additional requirements ie: rock removal, additional fill for poor soil conditions, hillside construction, etc. on a cost-plus basis, as it is usually more cost effective to the customer to do it that way verses having an engineer test, estimate rock removal and or fill, and then do the required work after he has included his fees. In some cases, an engineer’s report is required.

As a builder, we have purchased lots knowing there was fill on that lot and it would have to be removed for the building process, and we include an allowance or a fixed cost for that work, adding it to the cost of the structure. The same has been done with rock removal. However, we have built on a lot that had sub soil conditions that were not known by the developer or his sales team, and it was deemed the responsibility of the purchaser to either move on with the project or abandon plans. Because of already incurred costs, they moved on with the project.

The Home Builders Association of Louisville (HBAL) will be having its annual golf outing at Quail Chase on Monday, September 12 from 11 AM to 5 PM.

This is a very popular event that draws nearly 210 golfers each year. The outing consists of a golf scramble, hole-in-one, closest-to-the-hole contests, and a nail driving contest. Golfers are treated to complimentary beverages and snacks throughout the day and each golfer receives a special gift. Immediately following golf, a free buffet is served.

I’ll be at the event so if you’d like to get a team together, please let me know. Or, you can read more about the golf outing here.

Here’s something you might not know about the HBAL. You don’t have to be a registered builder in order to be a member. They also have affiliate and associate membership opportunities available. You can read more about membership benefits and opportunities on the website, or contact me if you have any questions.

I hope to see you on the golf course!

As children, most of us heard it a thousand times. As parents, we probably even said it ourselves a time or two, especially when we wanted those chores to be completed: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” You may be wondering what that has to do with today’s home building. Well, I’ll tell you.

Home builders are being faced with tough decisions right now. We are being asked to make changes that meet the needs and challenges of tomorrow’s buyers. We need to be aware of what the market is demanding, and how the market is changing. Thus, “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

It is well known in our industry that more than 87 percent of new home buyers (94 percent of buyers age 25-44) have visited a website more than 12 times before choosing the builder they are going to contact. It is important that we have good information for the buyer to review. It is also important to help educate buyers and give them as much information as possible to help them make an informed decision. That is why we blog, share articles and information on Twitter and Facebook, and keep our website up-to-date.

Today’s buyers are much different than yesterday’s, and ten years down the road future buyers will be even more different than now. We’re keeping up with how the market and its buyers are communicating so we can better communicate with them and hopefully gain their trust when they decide to build their custom home.

Check out our blog for an array of information-based topics about the housing industry, custom home building, Louisville neighborhoods, and more. If you can’t find a topic you’re looking for, let me know and I’ll do my best to address it.

Although it’s felt like summer in Louisville for a couple of months now, we can officially say that summer is here! It’s been a busy one for us already so we thought this would be a good time update everyone on the projects we have going on.

We have a lot of current jobs in progress, several bids out, and several more projects that we’ve recently completed.

First up, here’s a list of current jobs that are keeping us busy. Hopefully it will give you an idea of the wide variety of jobs we do. Although we’re a custom home builder in Louisville, we also do small and large remodeling jobs on both residential and commercial properties.

• Basement finish—J-town area
• Screen porch—J-town area
• Sunporch and deck—Middletown/Pee Wee Valley
• Remodeling and repairs—Lake Forest
• Master bedroom remodel—Douglas Hills
• Early stages of a custom home contract—Shakes Run in Eastwood

Current bids out:

• Sun porch—Plainview
• Porch—Middletown
• Basement finish—Crestwood
• Deck—Prospect
• Custom Home on large acre tract—Shelbyville
• Custom Home on a large acre tract—Shepherdsville
• Kitchen remodel—Douglas Hills

Here are a few projects we recently completed:

• Commercial warehouse project
• Water damage repair in basement—Winchester Acres
• Window replacement/remodel—Douglas Hills

If you’re thinking about building, updating, or remodeling, I urge you to contact me to discuss how working with a registered builder and remodelor can improve your experience. You can get in touch with me here.

If you read my newsletter this weekend, you may have noticed that I’ll be attending the Home Garden & Remodeling Show again this year.

The show runs from March 11-13 at the Kentucky Expo Center and is produced by the Home Builders Association of Louisville. Exhibitors at the show will be offering information on any home-related topic you can think of.

I’ll be exhibiting a full booth this year and will be talking to people about custom home building and remodeling. I’d love for you to stop by my booth and say hi. If you have any questions about home remodeling, improvements, or custom home building, please make sure to ask.

Also, I’ll be collecting business cards at the booth. Be sure to drop yours in for a chance to win a prize.

We look forward to seeing you at the show!

P.S. It’s worth the trip out for a famous Ky fairgrounds pork chop sandwich. Also, if you have the time, the Kentucky State Fair flea market is in town.

Sign up for our newsletter!

Like many small businesses, we were late to the game when it came to developing an email list so we’re doing it now.

Sure we had lists. Several lists. A list of emails in our accounting. A list of emails in our old Outlook database. A list of emails in Gmail. A list of emails on rosters from various organizations. Probably a lot of emails in file folders from customers and prospects. It’s a daunting task to organize that information, and as we’ve talked to other businesses, they experience this challenge too.

You used to be able to throw people on a big email list and send away, but with spam laws, this is no longer acceptable. That’s a good thing, but it doesn’t always make sense. You know that many of your customers who like the work you’ve done want to hear from you. They gave you that address during the sales process. They corresponded with you many times from that address. Same goes for friends, family, and associates who wouldn’t care if you signed them right up. Technically though, they didn’t opt in and give you permission to send them an e-newsletter.

So that brings us to the point of this blog post. We have sent some invitations out via email to those who have corresponded with us recently. Many of you opted in, and we are very grateful for your attention. We know how precious attention is in this information-driven world. To sweeten the pot, we are running a contest for the first 100 subscribers—we’re half way there by the way. After we reach 100, we will draw two names who will win home improvement gift cards from Lowe’s and/or Home Depot.

So here is yet another chance to register. It’s a simple process. Put your name in the box, add your email, click submit. Then go to your inbox (check your spam folder if you didn’t get one immediately) and click the confirmation link. You’re done. We plan to start with a monthly update, but we may work in some other key messages here and there. You can unsubscribe at any time.

P.S. This is different from getting blog posts via email. That option has been on the site since the beginning. Sign up for that too while you’re at it.