CB March 2007

After a six-year absence, I'm back and couldn't be happier about the opportunity to once again serve this wonderful industry.

Custom Builder Magazine presents the winners of the 2006 Best in American Living Awards.

In a way, custom builders have always had an advantage over their peers in the production or semi-production home building business. A custom firm depends almost entirely on client referrals for future success, so clients often get the royal treatment. Reputation is everything. Over the past decade, however, custom builders' clients have changed.

Upon an unpolluted tropical property overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, architect Guy Peterson of Guy Peterson Office for Architecture in Sarasota, Fla., designed this modern home as a frame for the sunset.

Kids' bedrooms have undergone a makeover. No longer a box for sleeping, homework and dressing, they've transformed into whimsical, fantasy-driven or bigger-than-life retreats for your littlest custom clients. We've included six ideas you might want to consider the next time you're building for a client with children.

Custom builders face a dizzying array of products and choices, all changing at a rapid clip. What to do? Utz Baldwin, a speaker at the 2006 Custom Builders Symposium, along with fellow technology experts and builders offer 10 technology trends for custom homes. 1. Home Theater/Media System Nothing has captured the attention of the custom market like the home theater.

Lightolier Lightolier recently introduced the Alcyon, part of its Lytespan one-circuit basic and radius track lighting system. Each fixture is suspended from a narrow, wireless blade-like stem that allows line-voltage heads to rotate 365 degrees. For FREE information, visit http://cb.ims.ca/5323-128 In My Own Words "We have tried other recessed fixtures and find the versatility and variety from...

 Hardware or High Art? Galleria Hardware's latest Signatures collection includes seven designs in a variety of finishes inspired by fashion trends…

 Windows for the Architect in All of Us Mahogany, Alder, Douglas Fir and Pine are the latest offerings in Pella's Architect series. The Mahogany (…

 A Garden Door That'll Grow on You Made with the company's Rain Shed weather stripping, the Botanica Garden Door from Fen-Tech has a multi-hollow…