Showcase opens doors today
French country style featured
Showcase opens doors today

Kurt Dinnes had a set-in-stone deadline.

That's why a construction crew framed the house at night by generator-fueled lights and the landscapers laid grass sod in the pounding rain.

That's also why the stone-accented French country home, one of two decked-out feature homes in the Southwest Showcase of Homes, is ready today, poised to welcome visitors through its custom iron-steel-and-glass front doors.

The home is at 7400 SW 105 in the Rio de Bella neighborhood at SW 104 and Rockwell Ave.

"For us, it's an incredible honor,” said Dinnes, an owner of SUN Custom Homes.

"We did this in four months and three weeks.

"This will never happen in our organization again. We stressed some folks out, no doubt about it.”

In all, 50 new homes will make up the Southwest Showcase of Homes in Moore and southwest Oklahoma City, said Aaron Tatum, event chairman and president of Aaron Tatum Custom Homes.

The homes range from $150,000 to $580,000 and will be open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. today through July 29, said Jason Schuff, president of the Southwest Home Builders Association, which organized the showcase with the Moore Home Builders Association.

The south Oklahoma City feature home is a tribute to better living with texture: bricks covered by European-style plaster, stacked stone, pitted concrete, upholstered walls, lush carpet, cedar ceiling beams rough with saw marks and iron railings ending in delicate "lamb's tongue” curls.

Highlighting it are more than 90 low-voltage accent lights.

The other feature home, also in the French country style, is 1,900 square feet, at 2805 SE 39 in Moore's Seiter Farms addition, near SE 34 and Sunnylane Road.

Last year, Tatum's company built a more traditional showcase feature in the Rockport addition, selling it for $350,000 in less than 30 days, he said.

After expenses were paid, more than $80,000 was allotted to charities and to the builders' group's operating expenses.

Since the group operates without an office or employees, the expenses are minimal, Tatum said.

Tatum expects an even greater amount to be raised for local charities this year, partly because of a proliferation of donated materials and expertise.

In all, more than 70 manufacturers, vendors, craftspeople and artisans contributed to the three-bedroom, one outdoor-living-room house on SW 105, Dinnes said.

Normally, it would take about a year to build this kind of home, instead of a little more than four months, Dinnes said.

"The subcontractors went way beyond the call of duty,” he said.

The 3,500-square-foot house includes a 700 square-foot game-theater room.

"This is the room of rooms,” Dinnes said.

The house also is replete with smaller elements that make a house a home, including a pot-filler faucet by the stove and six showerheads in the master shower.

Dinnes said "the more sophisticated buyer” will inquire about updated options for the bathroom, but he also likes educating other buyers about their shower selections.

"I love building people's dream homes,” he said.

Despite the slowdown in home sales nationally, the local builders said they still are still building at a brisk pace.

"It almost seems like Oklahoma has the opposite relationship as the rest of the nation with the home-building market,” Tatum said.

But the unusual rain weather has taken a toll.

"I'm so far behind. We are backlogged right now. Several builders around town are. We are selling them like crazy. I just sold one for $1.2 million and several others in the $300,000 or $400,000 range,” said Tatum, who has four homes in the showcase. "We have been working 12-to-14 hour days for the last month.”

Schuff, a builder at Vesta Homes, said his homes are selling quickly.

"I have no inventory. We sold three last week,” Schuff said. "Due to the weather, we just can't get any houses built. Right now, there are several in the stem-wall stage. We joke that they are swimming pools or duck ponds — unfortunately.”

Builder George Schott said the local housing market has changed in the past year.

"It's an odd market now. It used to be you every time you got to the trim stages, you would sell the house,” said Schott, who owns George Hermon Homes.

Schott says he is now selling about eight custom homes to every one home constructed on speculation. The ratio used to be closer to even, he said.

One of those spec homes, at 2612 SW 139, will be in the showcase.

The three-bedroom house includes four sets of "bowed windows,” a series of vertical windows that follow the slight curve of the exterior wall.

The home, in the Cascata Lakes addition, has been on the market for about six months.

"If a house doesn't sell immediately, people might assume it's a lemon. Actually I've had eight or nine (custom) homes sell off of this house,” Schott said.

Schott will be stationed at the home during the Southwest Showcase, partly because he likes getting feedback from home shoppers.

"As a builder, sometimes you wonder if you are building a house people will like. Our ego is in every house we build,” Schott said.

For both the builder and the buyer, "It becomes a very personal thing.”

Dinnes said he also will be on hand during the showcase.

"I will personally be here during all the showcase times,” Dinnes said.

"I want to do all the tours. I don't want to miss any of it.”

Dinnes also doesn't want visitors to miss any of the house's built-in features, including a linen armoire, a tile "rug” in the master bathroom and a wine refrigerator.

In addition, he intends to point out the interior design, provided by Steve Spitz.

Based in Oklahoma City, Spitz works across the country and has a television show, "Living Better with Steve Spitz,” Dinnes said.

The furnishings, sold separately from the house, have been loaned to the fundraising project by Amini's Galleria and Bruno's Home Furnishings.

"I had to buy $400,000 worth of insurance just to cover the furnishings,” Dinnes said. But it's been worth it.

"It's like a magazine. Every page you turn you see something new and different,” he said.

Tatum said he expects about 3,000 people to visit Dinnes' feature home.

"With all the custom-home activity, people will be out looking for ideas,” Tatum said.

"I love building

people's dream homes.”

Kurt Dinnes, owner of SUN Custom Homes "As a builder, sometimes you wonder

if you are building a house people

will like. Our ego is in every house

we build.”

George Schott, owner of George Hermon Homes

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