Housing Plans

Even with the challenges in today's marketplace, we are consistently finding there to be strong demand for our standing inventory of luxury custom homes in the North Atlanta area.  The biggest challenge for our customers however, seems to be marketing and selling their existing home and still having the borrowing capacity and personal comfort level to purchase a million dollar home.

In the "go go years", the thought of a property swap or contingency contract for new construction was not considered, however in today's evolving market, all parties have to be open-minded to find solutions.  We generally are not open to contingency contracts, but will consider trades if they meet our conditions. 

I would be interested to hear what experiences some of you may have had with property swaps (the good, the bad, the ugly).  While not ideal, the property swap does provide another potential solution for turning product and generating sales momentum.

We held an open house event with refreshments and door prizes at one of our luxury subdivisions today in Crabapple / Alpharetta, The Oaks at Crabapple.  With the help of our agents, we've held these events every 45-60 days over the past six months supported by direct mail campaigns and other online advertising to our targeted demographic for buyers of million dollar homes.

The events have been quite effective at generating a long list of custom home prospects, and despite all the negativity in the local and national media and supporting statistics, I'm happy to report that the underlying interest in construction for luxury custom homes is quite robust.  Today was likely our best turnout yet, particularly given the substantive interest of those who attended. 

From our view, the opportunists have begun to emerge in the market, knowing that many of the larger developers are more willing to make deals on either consolidating lots or offering great deals on existing lots.  Custom home construction is of interest because material costs are down and the availability of prime lots per the earlier point is the best its been in years. 

More to come from this angle of the market.....

Our agents are holding an open house event with door prizes and refreshments at the Oaks at Crabapple on Sunday March 30th from 1-5 PM, an enclave of $1MM+ luxury estate homes in the heart of Crabapple / Milton City, GA.  We as the builder group like to attend these events to reach out and meet our customer prospects and agent relationships in the community, so we hope you have time to stop by and say hello!

There is some existing inventory for sale at the Oaks, but the intent of this event is to offer our customer prospects and agent relationships the opportunity to see our spread of architecture and develop ideas about new custom homes they might be interested in building at any number of different luxury developments in Alpharetta or Milton City. 

With most customer's needing to sell a home before they can buy any standing inventory, building a custom home is an excellent option.  With the custom home construction for a luxury home enduring +/- 12 months, there is ample time to sell an existing home!

The address for mapquest / GPS for the event is 14860 Birmingham Rd, Alpharetta, GA 30004.   We hope to see you on Sunday!

 www.theoaksatcrabapple.com

We are a recent addition to the active rain network and this is first blog post here for our luxury custom home builder group in North Atlanta - Artisan Custom Estates.  After spending a little time navigating through the active rain site, it appears to be a very well designed community of real estate professionals and we look forward to expanding our network through interacting with the community.

We will try and get into a flow of steady blog posts and provide some perspective from the builder's perspective - particularly as it pertains to designing and building a custom home.  We are fairly new at the whole blogging game, so we appreciate any advice on how to get some initial traction and build up our local network!

An expert in electromagnetic fields at Hydro-Québec advises against the use of certain radiant electric floors which could increase the risk of infant leukemia.  <<As children are often laying and sitting on the floor, it is to be avoided, not recommended due to the doubts we have on this>>, declared Jan Erik Deadman, labour hygiene counsellor at the company.  <<It would surprise me if Hydro-Québec recommended (these systems) in daycares.>>

This labour health doctor was reacting to the fact that certain of these heating systems, composed of an electric wire typically installed under a ceramic floor, emit a magnetic field measuring up to 100 milli gauss (mG0) at ground level.  According to nine epidemiological studies, a chronic exposure to an average field of more than 4 mG doubles the risk of child leukemia.  In 2002, this is what incited the International Center for Cancer Research, along with the World Health Organization, to class magnetic fields of 50-60 Hertz in Group 2B as ‘potentially cancer-causing’.  The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation in its Mechanical Equipment Guide for a Clean Interior Environment, that radiant electric floors <<can emit significant electrical and magnetic fields.>>

Four Cancers Targeted

The most solid proofs of noxious effects of electromagnetic fields come from epidemiological studies, explains Health Canada: <<The studies have led to suppositions of the existence of a weak positive association between being exposed to fields of 50-60Hz and leukemia, brain cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer.>> But we cannot exclude that other statistical, environmental or socio-economic factors may be responsible.

Also a researcher at the McGill Faculty of Medicine, Jan Erik Deadman is co-author of a historical study published last July.  It concluded that female workers, whose average weekly exposure was at least 4mG during or within two years preceding their pregnancy, doubled their risk of having a child who will develop this type of blood cancer.  Other studies concluded that chronic exposure to a field of 2mG doubled the risk in children.

Should owners of electrically heated floors disable their system or turn it off before entering a room?  <<The risk is considered too weak and too uncertain to change heated floors in houses and daycares, analyzes Denis Gauvin, biologist at the Institut nationale de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) Must the population be informed?  Yes.  If people have the possibility of choosing a floor which exposes them less, all the better.>> Electromagnetic fields are composed of electrical fields produced by voltage (live wires) and magnetic fields from amperage (power consumed)  They are measured with a multi meter which frequently acts as a voltmeter, gauss meter and radio frequency and microwave reader.  The intensity of the field and the degree of human exposure diminish rapidly when moving away from the source, easy if the radiant system is in a ceiling but impossible in the case of a floor.

At one foot from a floor emitting 100mG at ground level, the field can measure 16mG, a level at which very brief daily exposures are, according to a recent California study (Li, 2002), associated with an increased risk of false labour.  These fields are weaker in a house where electrical consumption is lower and if the wires are close together and laid out in parallel, their fields have a tendency to mutually cancel themselves out.
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At last, after 40 plus years of hard work it is time to retire, relax and travel the country.  Now you can do it in comfort and style.    There is also no need to leave behind the mid-life sports car you bought a few years ago,  just store it in the cargo bay of your new motor home for ultimate mobility and freedom.   Traveling to see the grandkids has now become a whole new adventure.

The Volkner offers two different body length to accommodate different sizes cars. The 10.5 meter home will have enough room for a Mini Cooper or SLK. Moving up to the 12.3 meter home will allow you to fit a Porsche 911, Jaguar XK8 Cabriolets, Ferrari F430, Corvette Z06 or other similarly dimensioned cars. Visit Vokner Mobil for more information and to schedule a test drive. Bring your car with you to make sure it fits.

 Want Something Bigger?

Ron Anderson of Anderson Mobile Estates has the answer for you.  These mobile estates trump the competition. While most mobile trailers provide up to 400 square feet of living space, the Anderson Mobile Estates trailers offers 2 levels boasting an up to 1,100 square feet of spacious living. The estates don’t come cheap and are custom built to the owners specifications.

 The Anderson Estate isn’t designed for the owner to drive. In fact these things are so large, a semi is required to move these estates. However, it is the ultimate way to live when there are no 5-star hotels near by.

For most people, discussions on energy efficiency are academic.  They only seriously think about it when paying their heating bills, when it is too late.

It’s during winter that energy inefficiency is most obvious.  In fact, the enormous icicles and ice barrages that accumulate on roofs are flagrant proof of heat loss and an inefficient use of energy.  I am always surprised to hear intelligent people say that this is typically normal for our Quebec winters – just like apple pie is American.  What nonsense!

At the beginning of winter, heat loss through the eaves or the attic keeps the roof surface warm.  As snow starts to accumulate, it stays, even on slanted roofs.  After awhile, snow becomes the insulation and traps the air. The colder it gets, the more we heat the house and the more heat we lose, the more the eaves and roof surface warm up.

Monster Icicles

One day, the roof surface temperature reaches 0 degrees Celsius and the snow next to it softens and melts.  This melting snow transforms into water which slides down towards the edges.  As water accumulates at the roof edges and rain gutters, the water freezes as it contacts outside air which is colder than the roof surface.  Over time, the result is the formation of spectacular icicles – some reach one storey and more!  The greater the heat loss is, the greater the thickness of the ice barrages behind the icicles and the greater the length of the icicles.

When there’s a major thaw and rain with temperatures reaching at least +6 degrees Celsius, even in the Laurentians, infiltrations begin.  Frequently though, these do not come from the roof as such, they occur horizontally, from the edges.

In fact, the weight of the accumulated ice in the gutters opens up a joint on the edge of the roof, on the ledge or in the soffit, and the water leaking under the accumulated snow and ice in the roof penetrates to the ceilings.  To the greatest surprise of homeowners, even when ceilings have a slight slope, infiltrations can manifest themselves a good distance from the exterior wall.

It’s Raining in my Bed

To my greatest disappointment, this is what my family lived through at the summer cottage of my in-laws in the Laurentians, following a successful surprise party given for André Fauteux, editor of La maison du 21ième siècle.  Water started dripping from the ceiling onto our beds in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately in such cases many homeowners mistakenly blame their roof while the origin of the problem is the house’s heat loss.

Roofers are called in by panicking homeowners, and repairs are scheduled, even if no one has determined what the real cause of the problem is.  Redoing a roof when it is not necessary is a very costly additional energy loss.

Certain customers have told me that they have had their roof completely redone two or three times in 10 years but the problem has not disappeared.  This is outright robbery by the roofers!

In fact, as unbelievable as it may seem, many Montreal eaves contain only from 0 to 4 inches of insulation.  (Note:  It is generally more advantageous to install from 12 to 14 inches for a thermal resistance of R-42 to R-49, if cellulose is used, it being the most economical insulation for attics.)
(more…)

For most people, discussions on energy efficiency are academic.  They only seriously think about it when paying their heating bills, when it is too late.

It’s during winter that energy inefficiency is most obvious.  In fact, the enormous icicles and ice barrages that accumulate on roofs are flagrant proof of heat loss and an inefficient use of energy.  I am always surprised to hear intelligent people say that this is typically normal for our Quebec winters – just like apple pie is American.  What nonsense!

At the beginning of winter, heat loss through the eaves or the attic keeps the roof surface warm.  As snow starts to accumulate, it stays, even on slanted roofs.  After awhile, snow becomes the insulation and traps the air. The colder it gets, the more we heat the house and the more heat we lose, the more the eaves and roof surface warm up.

Monster Icicles

One day, the roof surface temperature reaches 0 degrees Celsius and the snow next to it softens and melts.  This melting snow transforms into water which slides down towards the edges.  As water accumulates at the roof edges and rain gutters, the water freezes as it contacts outside air which is colder than the roof surface.  Over time, the result is the formation of spectacular icicles – some reach one storey and more!  The greater the heat loss is, the greater the thickness of the ice barrages behind the icicles and the greater the length of the icicles.

When there’s a major thaw and rain with temperatures reaching at least +6 degrees Celsius, even in the Laurentians, infiltrations begin.  Frequently though, these do not come from the roof as such, they occur horizontally, from the edges.

In fact, the weight of the accumulated ice in the gutters opens up a joint on the edge of the roof, on the ledge or in the soffit, and the water leaking under the accumulated snow and ice in the roof penetrates to the ceilings.  To the greatest surprise of homeowners, even when ceilings have a slight slope, infiltrations can manifest themselves a good distance from the exterior wall.

It’s Raining in my Bed

To my greatest disappointment, this is what my family lived through at the summer cottage of my in-laws in the Laurentians, following a successful surprise party given for André Fauteux, editor of La maison du 21ième siècle.  Water started dripping from the ceiling onto our beds in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately in such cases many homeowners mistakenly blame their roof while the origin of the problem is the house’s heat loss.

Roofers are called in by panicking homeowners, and repairs are scheduled, even if no one has determined what the real cause of the problem is.  Redoing a roof when it is not necessary is a very costly additional energy loss.

Certain customers have told me that they have had their roof completely redone two or three times in 10 years but the problem has not disappeared.  This is outright robbery by the roofers!

In fact, as unbelievable as it may seem, many Montreal eaves contain only from 0 to 4 inches of insulation.  (Note:  It is generally more advantageous to install from 12 to 14 inches for a thermal resistance of R-42 to R-49, if cellulose is used, it being the most economical insulation for attics.)
(more…)