We are off to an Exciting Year at the Carrell Group!

We have recently made investments in new technology to offer our clients dramatic 3-D renderings of their home designs. Par-ticularly useful for those who have trouble reading or perceiving traditional 2-dimensional drawings, 3-D brings a plan to life and really gives you a great feel for what your home will look like. As in the past, we offer our in-house design expertise at no-charge to our building clients. With over 800 design/build pro-jects constructed to date, and literally thousands of designs in our repertoire, our clients find this service to be not only efficient and cost effective, but an exciting part of the process of working with our team. Call us today to find out more about how this great service works.

We are also pleased to have a large number of new clients since our last issue. Many people are taking advantage of lower building costs while they last, and getting their homes underway. Interest rates are still a great bargain, and while construction lending is more complicated than it once was, qualified buy-ers can get loans. We have a number of lenders that we work with in North and South Carolina that we can recommend if you are looking for construction funds.

Also…we introduce a new logo with this issue…after using our existing one for almost 25 years. We hope you like the new look…and please take a few minutes and look at our new website. This is a complete overhaul of our existing site and offers a lot more information for our clients.

– Bruce A. Carrell

Why should you invest in “Fortified” construction for your home?

We are discussing “Fortified” construction with every client we interact with. In fact, 80% of our current new construc-tion projects are FORTIFIED. Homeowners are clearly recognizing the value of this upgrade. “Fortified” certifica-tion can be achieved in BOTH wood framed homes and insulated concrete form (ICF) homes. Homeowners often think that this is only achievable in our ICF product, but we are currently building two Fortified homes that are wood framed construction. Some key benefits of “Fortified” construction are:

Lower homeowner’s insurance costs. The “Fortified” designation has been approved by both the North and South Carolina Insur-ance Services as a standard credit to insurance rates. This varies depending on your insurance carrier and home location, but we have clients who have achieved over 50% reductions in their homeowners insurance rates. The fortified investment may pay for itself in some cases in a relatively short period of time.
Resale value. Homes that carry the fortified rating will have a selling fea-ture that many homes do not currently have.
Manageable additional cost. Fortified homes do cost more, but typically only about 3% to 4% above the cost of non-fortified new homes.
Peace of mind. Perhaps the best benefit of all. When the next hurricane comes (and there WILL be plenty to come), you can leave your home know-ing you have the strongest structure we can build using today’s technology. Also, with impact windows and doors, there is minimal storm preparation to be done before evacuating.

– Grant Dubose

Design Ideas — Katie’s Corner

I’ve just returned from the High Point furniture market and it is more apparent than ever that furniture companies are listening to consumers and designers. Most of our clients are looking for simple elegance that matches their casual lifestyle and companies are offering quality products at great prices with this in mind. This includes a switch from dark wood tones with heavy carvings to a more straight lined approach mixing dark and light wood tones with distressed and painted applications. These pieces are easily mixed with traditional items you may al-ready own creating a “lived in” look rather then every piece matching from the same collection with the same fabrics.

This has always been my personal approach to design… whether a home, condo or commercial project. The idea is to mix and match pieces, finishes and fabrics while “bringing the outside in” with the use of products like sea grass and wicker or rattan products.

With this approach in mind one of the newer companies I found had me in awe at their display with elegant but casual dining and living room pieces in natural wood tones. On further investigation I found these pieces can be used outdoors with a simple switch of the fabric. This makes their products functional and versatile for today’s lifestyle. Call me for an appointment to learn more about how these great new products will fit into your home!

– Katie Standish
843-497-5670

Does your home need a facelift???

Pictured at right is one of our current renovation projects, and you can see the dramatic changes this home is undergoing. This is a “total makeover”… inside and out. One feature of the project is the addition of an expansive master suite on the rear of the home. This homeowner has a large, beautiful plot of land that they did not want to leave. They also saw great value in a complete makeover of an older home in comparison to the same expenditures for building new. We are excited that they chose the Carrell Group to both design and complete this home makeover.

We’ve raised the ceilings, moved all the walls, built arches instead of square openings, changed all the floors, and rebuilt the kitchen. The homeowner is extremely excited about the way it’s turned out so far and cannot wait to move in! If a renovation project like this sounds appealing to you, please contact us to see if we can help.

– Grant Dubose

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