It’s been a few days now since the Parade of Homes ended and I’m still dragging a bit.  It’s been a busy time.   I’m not complaining, we are thankful for all the Parade traffic and leads that came along with it.  From a marketing perspective it was a huge success.  The banquet itself was very nice with a lovely venue and a great dinner.  It was great to come together as an industry to celebrate Johnston County’s building successes. 

But. . . I’m going to be a little transparent here, the Designer and Business Owner side of me pouted a few days after the Awards Banquet because even though winning Silver was nice, it wasn’t Gold.  And Gold is my own personal standard.  So to not win Gold in our category was very disappointing.  I’ve actually been a Parade Judge before in other counties and I realize there is no perfect system in place to be completely accurate. There are many variables and sometimes they don’t line up with my own perspective.  And even though I realize all of that mentally, for some reason my mental side is not communicating well with my emotional side.  It’s now a week later, and for the most part I’ve moved on, yet, writing this blog article I realize maybe I’m still not 100% over the disappointment.  When you care as much as we do about every detail, it’s hard to be told you weren’t the best.  Being a perfectionist can be a positive and a negative trait at times. 

So where do we go from here?

The good news, our Parade entry closed on Monday.  And the family that purchased the home absolutely love it.  And at the end of the day, that is what really matters.  And I’m so looking forward to the Peterson family getting settled and getting their fence installed so I can come visit their future minicow.  That’s right, a minicow.  When they first asked us if they could have a minicow,  I honestly didn’t know what a minicow was.  When I went to research online, I immediately fell in love.  They are soooo  cute!  In fact, I went straight to Neil and said I want a minicow.  So for their closing gift I saw this adorable garden flag and just had to get it.  I can’t wait to visit and maybe one day in the near future I can have one of my own. 

During the Parade of Homes, we had over 200 visitors go through the home within two weekends.  As in the past, I set up my voting station that allowed visitors to vote for their favorite feature.  For the most part, visitors genuinely like the option of voting.  Sometimes visitors would mention their favorite feature of the home that I didn’t have as a voting category.  Three features I heard multiple times that did not have a voting jar were:

The Kitchen, The Lighting, and the Front Doors

If you read my last blog, I ended up adding the Fireplace as a voting category as well as gave participants the option of voting for their Second Favorite since people seemed to have a hard time picking just one.

Here’s the results of the voting:

Hands down, the Master Suite seems to be the clear winner.  Visitors commented how much they loved the vaulted ceiling and beams in the Master Bedroom as well as the Double headed shower, the beautiful tile floor, the tray ceiling with chandelier, and the angled vanity cabinet. 

Second and Third place was a little tighter to determine.  The Floor Plan had the highest First choice but overall, the Ceilings and Trim had almost an equal amount of First and Second place votes which seems to suggest an overall favorite.

Results also showed the Use of Color had a much higher 2^nd choice vote than as a First choice vote which I found interesting because I think it lends to the “overall feel of the home” which several visitors tried to put into words with comments such as:

“ I just love the overall feel of being so light and calm”

“Just love how everything comes together with the colors and the light fixtures”

“I can see myself living here” 

Comments such as these are always great to hear from a Design perspective. 

So now that Parade of Homes is over, now what? 

Well, first, I feel like I can breathe again.  Which is a good thing.  I can finally get my weekends back which is also good timing because it’s officially gardening season and I have a lot of weeding to catch up on. But from a Jarman Homes perspective, we are running full speed ahead.  On top of the three current projects under construction, we are about to start 3 new homes in Laurer Ridge, one in Beulah Heights and two more projects on our desk waiting on preliminary plans and pricing.  Not to mention our new exciting Development Project in the works called Buck Ridge.  For a small custom builder like ourselves, that makes for a busy work week. 

If you visited our Parade Home and were disappointed that it was already sold, no worries, we are about to start a new Meadow plan in Laurer Ridge (Wendell) and two additional specs coming soon in Beulah Heights.   See the cutsheets below:

Meadow

Fenley Farmhouse

Westgate Farmhouse

Stay tuned to see what’s next around the corner and if Neil really does let me get a minicow.