In the News ...

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"Things that make you go 'Wow' in a house"

"House mixes amenities with an old-time feel"

"Designer builds quality reputation"

"Every Day is Christmas at the Van Ravenstein Home "

"What Makes a Home User-Friendly?"
Adapting a Home's Spaces to a Family's Individual Lifestyle

"Builders Gain Business Advantages, Builder Better Homes With Help From Professional Consultants and Wisconsin ENERGY STAR ® Homes Program"

"Despite tragedy, builder realizes dream "

"Designed for Music, Movies, Muscle and More"

"Today's Garages Taking on a New Role "

"Showcase home combines state of the art with the design flair of yesteryear"

Excerpt from "Ranch Redux"

Things that make you go 'Wow' in a house
By: Terri Dougherty
March 3 , 2007 - The Post-Crescent

When a cabinet leg turned out to be a drawer, I knew I was on to something.

I was on the hunt for ideas, details that catch your eye and turn a home from ordinary to amazing, and John Hofferber's home on Jewel Drive in the Town of Clayton was proving to be a gold mine.

Hofferber, owner of BerHoff Homes of Neenah, never knows when an idea is going to strike. He's hidden screens on a porch, disguised drawers as pillars and been surprised by the effect of a workman's light underneath a sink.

"Sometimes when you're building houses, stuff evolves," he explained.

It's no fun to keep great ideas to yourself so here are some inspirations, from Hofferber and others, that give a home the "wow" treatment:

Hidden drawers: Sometimes clever ideas stem from ordinary problems. Hofferber's fingernail clippers kept disappearing, and he wanted to put them in a place his kids couldn't find them. When working with his suppliers from Valley Cabinet, the idea of hidden drawers came up. "I said, that would be cool," he said. "You don't even know they're there."

In his home on Jewel Drive he disguised tall, slender drawers as supporting posts in bathroom cabinets, and put some in the kitchen as well.

Undersink lighting: A worker from Schommer Electric Contracting was hooking up rope lights under a sink in Hofferber's home when the builder noticed the work light shining through the basin. "I said, we've got to put a light under there," Hofferber said. "It was pure accident we ran across that one."

Main level theater room: When Hofferber lived in a house with a downstairs theater room, he didn't like the way it split up his family. "My son would be in the lower level, I would be in the upper level cooking," he said. When he designed his next home, he put the theater room right off the kitchen.

"I got a lot of resistance to that, but when we ran it through (a home tour) 97 percent of people said they liked it," Hofferber said.

Hidden screens: Childhood memories of the slamming of a screen door triggered an idea for Hofferber. He used screens that automatically roll upward to turn his screened-in porch into an open air deck. "It's nice to have the screen move up and out of the way," he said. "When the bugs get bad you just push the button and the screens come down."

Pull-out towel rack: Keep damp dishtowels out of sight with a towel rack that pulls out of the kitchen cupboards.

Embedded designs: Interior designer Kati Reiter notes that a tile mosaic above the stove, a floor medallion in tile or wood or a tile design around the kitchen table can be an effective focal point in a room. "It offsets the area a little bit and gives you something to look at," said Reiter, who works at Home Interiors Flooring and Design Center, Grand Chute.

Colorful solution: Beige might be the safe way to paint a room, but to add pizzazz go with some color. "When you need something with more of a punch, try brown or red to make it more colorful," Reiter said.

Bump up the trim: There's plenty that's jaw-dropping in a 7,400-square-foot French country style house on Lake Winnebago built by Don Springhetti of Steel Homes by Design, Neenah. Even if you're not spending millions, however, you can still make an impression with wood trim. "If you want grandeur, it has a lot to do with the wood and the size of the trim," Springhetti said. "If you're on a budget, concentrate on things like upping the trim sizes and framing the windows and doors nicely."

Use crown molding: In the living room of the lakeside home, which has a 26-foot ceiling, Springhetti used three-piece cherry crown molding with transition blocks in the corner. Rope lighting sets it off.

Mix wood and tile: The warmth of wood and strength of tile combine for a striking effect. In the home Springhetti built, a crosshatch pattern was used.

Set apart the rooms with columns: Columns in the home on Lake Winnebago define the space between the living room, kitchen and dining areas. The distressed wood in the columns matches the kitchen cabinet accents.

No basement? No problem. A basement wasn't dug for the lakeside home, so the recreation room was added upstairs. Instead of a hallway or small foyer at the top of the stairs, a large rec room overlooks the lake.

Use wood creatively: Pickled ash wood on the ceiling of a guest bedroom gives the room a distinct appearance.

Add a mural: A mural over the laundry room sink gives the room a lakeside effect, even though it's on the opposite side of the house from the water. A nature-themed mural in an upstairs bedroom follows the arch of a bank of windows.

Pitch the roof: If you've got the financial ability to do it, give your home a steep roofline. "On the exterior, it's typically the pitch of the roof" that gives a home impact, Springhetti said. "The steeper it is aesthetically the more wow factor you're going to get. The more you do this the more grandeur it gives you."

Raise the ceiling: Again, if you have the spending power, higher ceilings will make a bigger impression. "Twelve to 14 years ago it was a big deal to have 9-foot ceilings," Springhetti said. "Now it's 10-foot ceilings. It's 10 that takes you to that next level."

House mixes amenities with an old-time feel
By: Terri Dougherty
January 27, 2007 - Post-Crescent

The challenge for builder John Hofferber was to make a new home look old.

Not old as in crumbling or dilapidated, but as in stately, regal and old-world. This home would be an estate with the aura of a splendid mansion, and all the comforts of a 21st century dwelling.

"We tried to create that old feeling," said Kurt Wismer, who works with Hofferber at BerHoff Homes. "We looked at how they did the old processes, we looked at the type of materials available."

The result is a 10,148-square-foot home, with an attached guest house, seven fireplaces, nine bathrooms and an exterior that looks like it was built with stones from nearby fields and smeared with mortar.

Inside are hand-scraped floors and old brick walls, but also a heating system that uses the latest in geothermal technology and an automated lighting system. The house in the town of Clayton is part of the Winter Wonderland of Homes from the Valley Home Builders Association that begins today.

Hofferber chose 1893, the year his grandmother was born, for the home's target year. The vintage look meant using wide moldings, deep colors in the wood and some planned imperfections.

The lower level walls are lined with reclaimed Chicago brick, purposely laid off-kilter. Some areas of the wall are made to look as if they once held windows, and there's a Guiness beer can embedded near a doorway for a bit of atmosphere.

"The wall is very crooked but it gives you that old feeling," said Hofferber, the founder of BerHoff Homes.

In the two-story great room, windows on the second floor look into the upper-level rooms, to give the appearance that the house has been enlarged. That feeling is enhanced by the brick-lined hall to the master bedroom, which looks as if it may have once been an exterior entry.

"We're trying to pull off the look that it's been added on," Wismer said. "Typically a house that old would have gone through renovations. We devised the look of an addition to create a little bit of that."

In the kitchen, the apron sink and range hood have a dimpled hand-hewn appearance, square nails accent the hand-scraped floor and the distressed white cabinets under the butcher block island look well-worn and well-loved.

The house is old-fashioned only in its style, however. Bundles of wires and tubes in the basement attest to the extensive technology employed in its infrastructure.

There's a security system, and a geothermal system that incorporates a backyard pond to heat and cool the home. In addition, all the home's lights can be programmed from a central area.

But from the floors to the light fixtures, the house evokes a sense of stylish comfort, which is exactly what owner Penny Sutika was after when she envisioned a home built in an Old-World style.

"I want to have a house where people can kick back," she said. "It's definitely going to be a house to be lived in.

"We're going to have grandchildren one day, and we don't mind if they scuff up the floor. I want you to come in here, grab a blanket and curl up and read a book."

The home has plenty of areas for entertaining. There's a lower level pub, with a bar, pool table and home theater, as well as a wine cellar and smoking room. Under a beamed canopy in back is an outdoor bar area, and an outdoor kitchen is in the plans.

Sutika, her fiance and three children take hosting to the next level, however, with a guest house and garage that are connected to the main house.

The mood in the guest house is vibrant and upbeat. The brightly decorated cottage has its own kitchen, bedrooms and bath enclosed by walls of lime green, bright yellow and salmon.

"We both have large families and want them to be comfortable," Penny Sutika said. "We want to have our families come visit."

In the main house, she envisions setting up a long table in the hearth room, connected to the kitchen by an arched doorway, so relatives can gather for a meal.

On Friday nights, she expects her teen daughters will invite their friends over for pizza. It won't be the frozen or takeout variety, however. They'll be getting authentic homemade pies baked in a wood-fired pizza oven.

"Every Friday night is pizza night," Sutika said. "Usually the girls get a handful of friends together and we make some pizza."

It's taken almost a year to take the home from the planning stages to completion, and Sutika is more than ready to move in and start enjoying.

"The day the parade closes at 5 p.m., we're moving in at 5:01 p.m.," Sutika said. "We're all going to let our hair down and have fun."

"Designer builds quality reputation"
By Judy Waggoner
May 14, 2006 - The Post-Crescent

Who: Those who have worked with Chas Reuter the past 25 years — homeowners and builders alike — seem to appreciate his spiritual qualities as much as his home design work.

"He has the same characteristics that you see in an artist; he does an excellent job of pulling together the art form of home construction with functionality," said John Hofferber, builder and owner of BerHoff Homes LLC. "It's a unique combination."

Hofferber has built about 20 homes with Reuter in nearly four years, but he has "followed his work in the Parade of Homes for the last 10 years."

What: In 1980 Reuter formed Reuter Design Associates. In 1987 built his office in Neenah.

Jim and Debi Bashleben contacted Reuter in mid-2004 because of "his strong reputation and recommendations from folks who had worked with him before," Jim Bashleben said.

"We had a home in mind that we wanted him to design," the retired co-founder of Alta Resources said.

After one session with the Bashlebens, Reuter created a floor plan for a 5,000-square-foot lake home in Door County that "exactly met our needs," Bashleben said.

"It was amazing; he is an incredible listener."

Why it's important: Reuter says 95 percent of his business is custom residential design, working with individuals and a cadre of eight to 10 builders. At any time, he has about 22 projects in process.

Reuter estimates that he has about 10 meetings with homeowners during the design process. In many cases he explains what makes for good construction and what options are available for components such as windows and insulation.

"I send my clients to him when they need their ideas put on paper," said Don Springhetti, president of Steel Homes by Design.

Reuter shuns organized church, preferring a more personal faith through Bible reading and prayer.

His invoices include a scripture text that he says characterizes his 25-year-old business.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves," from Philippians 2:3.

The 53-year-old Greenville resident has learned lessons in more than two decades of designing homes, including "you can't rest on what you know today; this industry changes quickly."

For more information: Reuter Design Associates, 2365 American Drive Neenah, 920-734-2494. Web site: www.chasreuter.com.

"Every Day is Christmas at the Van Ravenstein Home "
by Mary Birling
November 22, 2005 - Women Magazine

Some people love the Christmas holidays so much that they never want them to end. Kathy Van Ravenstein of Neenah is one those people. She's been lucky enough to have the holidays year 'round with a "Christmas Room" built into her new 3,600 square-foot home.

The room includes a Christmas tree, hundred of pieces from the Department 56 Dickens Village Collection, and shelves custom-built for all of her Christmas collectibles. Kathy also has a Christmas tree in the sunroom and great room and a lighted Christmas candle in every window. There is a separate closeted light switch for each Christmas collection; one switch turns on all the candles sitting on the windowsills, one turns on the Christmas tree lights, and another lights the village pieces. Yet another switch lights up the outdoor decoration, which the couple plans to make quite elaborate for their first Christmas in the home.

The home was designed by Architect Chas. Reuter and built by BerHoff Homes, LLC, Neenah, to the Van Ravenstein's specifications, including places for Kathy's year 'round Christmas collections. Several arched wall niches throughout the home hold more of Kathy's collectibles.

Kathy and Dave share their"holiday" home with their two dogs, Rufus and Chester. Kathy is a nurse practitioner at Urology Associates of Wisconsin, Neenah, and Dave is in sales with J.J. Keller in Neenah.

"What Makes a Home User-Friendly?"
Adapting a Home's Spaces to a Family's Individual Lifestyle
by Mary Birling
September 13, 2005 - Women Magazine

Today’s homes not only seem to have a “wow” factor, they are being designed to fit the way the family lives. When selecting your contractor, make sure you pick someone who is up-to-speed on building products and who you trust to give you solid advice regarding the investment you’re making in your home. Consider it your “job” to gain product information so that you make smart choices. Knowledge is power.

Homes being built today have a contemporary, open look with lots of architectural flair, sustainability and energy efficiency. The great room and kitchen are the heart to the home. Big TVs and video equipment and sound systems are completely recessed or built in. Three car garages allow for more storage space and consistently ranks high in the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) surveys of consumer preference.

Kurt Wismer, BerHoff Homes, Appleton, sees a few new things on the horizon. “I am seeing (and we’re starting to push) a change in media rooms. Our home theater rooms are becoming less dedicated to the theater,” Wismer says. We’re basically going through and putting that into a more open space where people can have an overview of the bar area. It’s a place where people can congregate, socialize and watch the movie. If you go into home theater rooms that are completely dedicated to viewing a movie, you basically walk in, sit down, turn off the lights and watch TV. That’s it.

“Well, that’s not the way a lot of people watch movies – they’re always doing other things. So we put one (home theater space) in a rec room. That way you have the functionality of closing it off and watching all the movie. But you also have the opportunity of sitting at the bar, or socializing so it works out really well. You pull the home theater room more into a living space. We’re going to continue to push that further – push that right off the kitchen, because everybody ends up in the kitchen anyway. We’re going to continue to push the envelop,” Wismer says.

BerHoff Homes believes that you have to sit down with a customer and ask them how they live and how they want to use their space. That way they can create rooms around function and necessity. The trend is for a large open space that is a lot less formal – a great room, dinette and kitchen that all open to one area.

Three-car garages are now the norm, says Wismer. Most people have that to house two cars and have room left over for storage. That way you have a nice clean usable space and still have room to store a garden tractor and the kids’ toys.

Dave Hickman, owner of Usable Spaces in Oshkosh is the area’s Gladiator Garage Works dealer and installer. What he sells, designs and installs is a system to put a home’s spaces into the most usable arrangement and organization.

As Wismer points out, the garage door is the place where you come in and out of every single day. “When you come in and out of the garage, it should be just as gorgeous a view as coming through the front door. Wismer designs a “drop center” by the door for mail, car keys and phones.

The first step for Usable Spaces comes before you get inside, to clean up and organize the garage area. First step is to identify the problem. “Usually you have a garage with stuff laying all over the place,” says Wickman. “I’ll come to your home and take a look around, measure things and hear about what you want to do. I then give recommendations, draw up some plans to show the customer what it will look like. You can do it yourself, but the bottom line is, it never gets done.”

Wickman offers a complete system. If someone wants the entire garage done, he can do the floors, wall storage, overhead storage – he can do everything floor to ceiling.

The biggest advantage is that a clean, organized and finished garage will increase the value of your home, with flexibility to add things and move things. It also makes the garage an extension of your house, with a warmer atmosphere than the garages of days gone by.

Scott Ellison at JMW Construction says many of his customers today are updating and upgrading, but the main thing they want is a house that’s impressive. “They don’t want a huge house with huge rooms. They want a house that their friends and family will be able to come over and not only feel comfortable but give them praise,” says Ellison. He has quite a few customers who have “edited” their houses. One has three small, active children right now and she wants to take the basement and develop it into playrooms and entertainment systems designed around the kids, while at the same time utilizing that space as the children grow older if they want that space for their bedroom/living space. Planning for just your immediate needs is a disaster scenario, says Ellison. He says you must plan for future needs.

Ellison says a lot of customers are putting their businesses in their homes. “There are a lot of people re-accommodating their home to do that,” says Ellison. (JMW Construction is the perfect example of that, as they work out of the house.

“New technologies have increased the enhancements of the bathroom, from being smallest room of the house to a bright, functional room,” Ellison says. The biggest change he says is the bath/shower combination. People are transitioning over the garden Jacuzzi-style tubs and having another bathroom with shower and the low-rise showers with handicap accessibility and less “toe stubbing.” The biggest trend, says Ellison, is going to more functional faucet heads. The goose neck sink – you see it in kitchen or bar sinks transitioning into the front of the sink – people are saying, “WOW! I want that.”

HOW ABOUT A CHRISTMAS ROOM?

When it comes to new or unique of homes, Wismer of BerHoff Homes just finished a home that has some very unique use of space and rooms. The customers are avid Christmas lovers. “We built her a dedicated Christmas room in her new house. She will have a Christmas tree up all year long as well as significant display space with custom cabinetry for all of her Christmas villages. The house also has special electrical wiring throughout for all of the Christmas lights that will be on display. It should be very dynamic. We also created an entire workout room because she is a marathon runner that exercises three to four hours per day. I feel that the home caters to their lifestyle,” says Wismer.

"Builders Gain Business Advantages, Builder Better Homes With Help From Professional Consultants and Wisconsin ENERGY STAR ® Homes Program"
by Tim Wirtz/Christopher Thiede
June 21, 2005 - Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Press Release

The Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program was developed to improve new homes in Wisconsin, giving homeowners peace of mind by providing homes that are tested and proven to be more comfortable and energy efficient.

The program also provides significant benefits to builders by giving them assistance in building high quality homes as well as distinct marketing and business advantages. Builders get these benefits by working with Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program consultants, independent professionals who provide help throughout the building process.

Help Through All Stages of Construction

Consultants begin working with builders during the design phase. During this time, consultants review a builder’s plans, looking at the design details and specifications, and perform a computer model to predict the home’s performance. During construction, the consultants conduct multiple site visits in order to ensure the homes will meet program standards for air tightness, ventilation capacity and combustion safety. Site visits can occur at the framing and insulation stages and at the completion of the home for performance testing.

The consultants also can act as a resource for information on the latest building products and practices. “They work with us from day one,” said Glenn Christel of Christel & Heiberger builders of Kiel. “They update us on new technologies and pass new knowledge on to us.”

During the construction process, consultants make site visits to verify construction details or pass on details that can be addressed before the next phase. They also can work with subcontractors to help them understand their role in the overall performance of the home as well as the rationale behind the building techniques and products being used. “The site visits help ensure what we planned gets done and customers get what they pay for,” said Jason Jones of Preferred Builders of Waukesha.

Once construction is complete, the consultants perform the final site visit to verify the home’s performance standards.

Builder Benefits

The home building industry is one of the only major industries that does not test the final products put on the market. By working with Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program consultants, builders can offer homes that are tested and proven to be effective. This benefits builders by helping them provide a high quality product, which in turn leads to better customer satisfaction and a distinct marketing advantage.

“(Working with the consultant) has brought a whole new way of looking at the building process,” said Jeff Simon of Madison based Verdian Builders. “It’s building science – looking at everything we do in construction and how all the systems are integrated into the home.” The building science approach has led to increased customer satisfaction, according to Simon. “We’ve always strived for high customer satisfaction. The program helps us deliver that through reduced call backs because we’re building a better home.”

Participating in the Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program – and working with consultants – provides builders a point of differentiation over their competition. Doug Ninneman of Silver Stone builders uses the program to help market his company. “We saw this as a tool to put us above other builders,” he said. “We can sell a house that is more efficient than a builder that doesn’t work in the program.”

The overall benefit that builders get from working with the Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program is that it simply helps them build better homes. By working with the consultants, they are constantly learning about better ways to build and how they can implement more efficient products into their homes. “Every time I build a house, I learn something,” said John Hofferber of BerHoff Homes, LLC. “(The consultants) don’t just inspect, they spend time with the subs, teaching them how to build a house better.”

Consumers Take Notice

Perhaps spurred by rising concerns about energy costs, new home buyers in Wisconsin have a renewed interest in the importance of energy efficiency. Several builders have noticed consumers are embracing the Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program for that reason.

“They are really understanding,” said Ninneman. “More and more clients are asking about the Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program.”

Simon agrees. “I think they are finally getting it,” he concluded. “They understand the value we are giving them.”

About Focus on Energy

Focus on Energy is a public-private partnership offering energy information and services to energy utility customers throughout Wisconsin. The goals of this partnership are to encourage energy efficiency and use of renewable energy, enhance the environment and ensure the future supply of energy for Wisconsin. Since July 2001, the program has helped Wisconsin’s businesses and residents cut their utility bills by more than $61 million – reducing their energy consumption by more than 572 million kilowatt-hours and more than 27 million therms of natural gas. For more information, call 800.762.7077 or visit focusonenergy.com.

About Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes

Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes is one of Focus on Energy’s Residential Programs. New homes are constructed to meet program standards and are, on average more than 25 percent more energy efficient than homes built to Wisconsin’s Uniform Dwelling Code. To date, the more than

350 builders who have partnered with the Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes program have constructed nearly 5,000 new homes. For information about the program, call 1-800-762-7077 or visit focusonenergy.com.

"Despite tragedy, builder realizes dream "
by Judy Waggoner
June 12, 2005 - Post-Crescent - Small Business Inc.

Tragedy often places crossroads into life's path.

When John Hofferber lost his wife of 18 years to cancer in April 2001, he was left alone to raise their 8-year old son Erik. He needed a job with flexibility to accommodate his new role as single parent.

After earning a degree in industrial and architectural model building from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, Hofferber had worked as a project manager for two companies over 15 years but couldn't ignore an entrepreneurial itch.

"I wanted to have my own business and had gone through the Bernard Haldane program to find what you love and it kept coming back houses," Hofferber, 50, said.

Forced into change by a layoff, Hofferber was aided in writing a business plan by his son-in-law, Kurt Wismer, a high school business and marketing teacher. In September of 2002, Hofferber created BerHoff Homes.

"I built my first spec home in October 2002 and my first custom home in July of 2003," he said. "It gave me the flexibility I needed."

Although becoming a home builder is a dramatic career change for Hofferber, he learned the skills early in life.

"In high school, I worked summers and weekends for a Fremont contractor and he taught me the building industry," Hofferber said.

Contractors often incorporate unique features in to their homes in order to set them apart. Hofferber is no exception and he works with Chas Reuter, 52, a Neenah architect to accomplish that.

"John and I are primarily friends, but we're the design arm for the business," said Reuter of Reuter Design Associates.

"I involve owners in the building process more than other builders," Hofferber said.

Hofferber is also a big fan of cellulose insulation, which is made from recycled paper, and all houses built by BerHoff Homes are Wisconsin Energy Star homes.

"I prefer (owners) come before they purchase a lot so we can go through the design, work with the architect and help select a lot that will work for the type of home."

Hofferber "really enjoys electronics." When he built his own 3,900-square foot home in the Town of Clayton, he included three applications of home theater components.

"John is a high energy guy who puts a lot of time and effort into satisfying a budget and helping homeowners get what they want," Reuter said.

Hofferber has completed 11 houses since starting his business, five are currently in process and another 15 are in various stages of discussion.

Hofferber does not see retirement in his future; he simply has too much energy to retire. Looking back, he knows he followed the right path when he faced a career crossroads, despite enduring 18 months with no paycheck.

"If your having fun with what you're doing, you're never working," Hofferber said.

"Designed for Music, Movies, Muscle and More "
by Margaret LeBrun
April 5, 2005 - MarketPlace Magazine - Spring Homes of Distinction Edition

Darci DeMeio and Jim Tibaldo put a lot of thought into the features they wanted in their new home in Neenah. They like music and movies. They wanted a place to work out. They wanted an informal dining area near a small but functional kitchen, and a master bedroom with a large master bath. They toured several homes in the Fox Valley area until they found one they liked. The engaged couple called the builder of that house, but he had coincidently just retired. They bought the plan and brought it to BerHoff Homes, Neenah. Owner, John Hofferber, along with architect Chuck Reuter, helped the couple modify the plan to suit their taste. They moved in last July.

"We wanted someone who would hand-hold us through," recalls Tibaldo, who works as an accountant for Axletech in Oshkosh. "We kind of knew what we wanted, but didn't know how to communicated it."

"We didn't need a huge house, but not a small house either," DeMeio, a Menasha High School English teacher adds. "Most of the houses we saw tried to squeeze three rooms out of one space."

They settled on a 2,800-square-foot ranch with an open, L-shaped great room with a sloping cathedral ceiling. A cozy sitting area with a fireplace lies just off the entry, the dining room beyond the kitchen, featuring oak cabinets from Valley Cabinets, is tucked around the corner. The master bedroom, bath and guest room lie just off the living area. Across the hall from the bedrooms is the office, where a wall-size display case houses DeMeio's full-grown iguana. Walls throughout the main level are covered with textured Venetian plaster, a one-step process that plaster professional Robin Boegh applied by blending the paint with the plaster.

The entire house, even the backyard deck, is wired for sound; their favorite music plays as they take a guest on a tour. "We can stream MP3's wirelessly," Tibaldo says.

Downstairs in the finished basement is a professionally-designed home theater, complete with surround-sound speakers. Sconces on the wall offer a theater effect with indirect illumination. Tibaldo pops "Jurassic Park" into the CD player and the horrifying thumps of a T-Rex rattle the room as he and DeMeio grin.

Through a pair of French doors on the opposite end of the basement awaits the home gym. Berber carpet provides comfort in the room lined with mirrors that reflect a weight bench, treadmill and universal gym. Packers memorabilia adorns the walls.

One of the couples aspects of the house is that it's Energy Star rated. The house, which passed a rigorous audit for the rating, was built airtight, with a spray-in type of insulation made from recycled paper. Humidistat fans in the kitchen and bathrooms keep the house free of excess moisture. Low-E Anderson windows prevent drafts.

"We were one of the top five houses that the auditor has done in energy efficiency," Tibaldo says.

They are pleased with the results of their dream home and credit their builder for making it happen. They especially like the little touches that make the home unique, such as a lighted display alcove near the entry door.

"He likes to try things that other new-home builders would never think of," DeMeio says. "He has new ideas and he's not afraid to ask if he can try them - things that I would have never thought of because I've never built a home before."

"Today's Garages Taking on a New Role "
by Gina Mangan
Spring 2005 - Panache Magazine

His garage, his castle. That's one way to sum up the latest trends in garage construction. They're bigger. They're fancier. They serve way more purpose that parking cars and storing snow blowers.

Many new homeowners are now treating attached garages as extensions of their living spaces, using them for kids' play areas, pet apartments, hobby shops and entertaining, says John Hofferber, founder of BerHoff Homes LLC in Neenah.

While the preoccupation with what goes inside a garage might still be a "guy thing," ladies can take heart too. There's no reason the room can't possess both functionality and pizzazz.

From doors to floors, folks are paying attention than ever before to appearances and, in some cases, comfort.

Garage floors can be sealed with finishes that come in a spectrum of colors and patterns, such as faux stone and brick. Doors are being custom designed to mimic the charm of historic carriage houses. Clutter is enclosed within cupboards. Lighting is brighter. The room is often heated.

Walls are plastered and even painted, and windows and doors finished with varnished trim.

"We just finished a home where the owners even put in wood baseboards along the walls because they wanted the garage to have the finished feel of the rest of the home," Hofferber says.

Those same walls are getting higher, just as the garage space is getting deeper, says Best-Built Garage Builders Inc. president Kevin McCarthy.

"The trend toward very large garages has just skyrocketed," he says.

After all, it's still largely a man's domain.

That's why it' not all uncommon these days to find garages equipped with sound systems, televisions, central vacuum for cleaning out that SUV, and sinks with hot and cold running water for more easy clean-up, Hofferber says.

Hofferber said he's also seeing more camera systems set up in garages, so the owners can view who's coming and going and what the kids are doing.

Some homeowners are also adding rooms above garages for offices, wood working shops, or storage, McCarthy says.

Several companies now specialize in assisting homeowners with designing efficient and attractive storage units, transforming garages into drive-in closets.

The Appleton-based Creative Closet & Storage outfits homeowners with wall-hung rack systems for attaching lawn implements and sporting items. Cupboards and workstations are also popular, says owner Bob Harrmann.

"People don't want a lot of things sitting down on the floor anymore," he says.

That might be because some garage floors look nearly as nice as those found in the home. A variety of materials are now used to finish the floors.

For example, the Menasha-based Robin J. Boegh Plastering uses a cement, sand and acrylic polymer mixture to seal, color and texture any concrete surface, including garage floors. Fluid and dirt can easily wash off the sealed surface.

"You can border your entire garage with a brick pattern, or just hide the cement seams in a design," Robin J. Boegh Plastering Vice President Mark Olsen says. "You might do the entire floor with a solid gray, or you might choose a four-color stone pattern."

Some people even ask to have emblems painted on, including Harley Davidson motorcycles and Green Bay Packer logos, he says.

"It really does look pretty cool," Olsen says.

"Showcase home combines state of the art with the design flair of yesteryear"
by Cheryl Sherry
February 12, 2005 - Post-Crescent

“Streets of Yesterday,” a permanent exhibit at The House on the Rock museum in Spring Green, and the “Streets of Old Milwaukee,” on display at the Milwaukee Public Museum, both recreate life in the 19th century.

Such a showpiece now exists on 6.5 acres in the Town of Clayton. But it’s not an exhibit, nor does it have a name. The approximately 1,900 square foot faux “gallery” is in the basement of the house built by BerHoff Home LLC, one of 62 new homes featured on the Valley Home Builders Association Winter Wonderland of Homes tour, which runs through Sunday.

“They should probably name it,” said Dave Vatland, manager of Audio Video Lifestyles at Sound World, Appleton, of the basement project reminiscent of a museum. Rounding the stairs to the lower level, visitors are met by a faux cobble stone road lit by replica gas street lights and flanked by mocked up shops like Al’s Barbershop, Lee’s Gym, Corrina’s millinery and Boosha’s Boarding House.

Initially called in just to design the home theater, Vatland was inspired by the homeowners’ love of antiques and proposed a project similar to one by his mentor, Theo Kalomirakis, home theater designer and author of “Private Theaters.”

“(Kalomirakis) said, ‘I do these giant homes all over the world and when they move in they have all these collectibles packed away in boxes and put in the back room.’” Vatland explained. “He said he wanted to do more than the theater and decided to follow up. His grand plan was to do this street and put shops along the street.”

Move ahead three years to the release of Kalomirakis’ second book, “Great Escapes,” which showed his dream-come-true project. “There literally is a car dealership front, all glass, with a 1957 pristine car, and offices,” Vatland said. “He has a jewelry store called Kay’s after his wife, where she has wood and display cases with all her jewelry. He has a high-end cafe. He also has a theater and a bowling alley similar to the old Hahn’s Lanes. But his is authentic, not painted-on.”

Vatland has been suggesting this type of project on a much smaller scale to customers for a long time, but most people just didn’t get it. “(The owners of this house) got it, and said, ‘This is cool.’”

With the help of Anastasia Visnevscaia, an interior design major at Fox Valley Technical College, Vatland not only installed a state-of-the-art home theater system, he also created the concept for the display areas in the basement. Next, artist Julie Menting, owner of Imagery Creative Textures and Scenic Painting, was brought into the project.

“The idea, layout and display ideas were great, but what they lacked was the actual buildings,” said Menting of the Town of Buchanan. “From that point I looked at local architecture from the period, did research on the proper historic colors to use. And I talked to the homeowners and discussed the reasons for the buildings to look the way they do … And discussing the feel for the buildings and a color palette that worked together that would give each area, however small, its own personal identity.”

The finished product, including the cobblestone road (which took 40 hours to create), took five weeks of painting.

Antique dealer and collector Bob Archer, who also works as a lighting and interior designer at Home Concept, Appleton, not only helped design the lighting in most of the home, he also designed, made and installed all of the theater decor down below, including the proscenium, cornice boards and back cornice boards, all covered in a rich burgundy velvet.

“My influence … was more of a 1910 kind of a Vaudeville movie house motif with carved wood accent pieces, plush fabric and fringe,” he said. “It was the gilded age of the late 1800s leading into the turn-of-the-century when too much was not enough. The age of over-indulgence, I guess. And that’s kind of the vision I had … With the main street shops, turning it into a turn of the century theater was perfect.”

“The owners have been in this tooth and nail in all aspects of the construction,” Archer added. “They did a lot of the legwork in this and were right there with everyone else doing installation work. I was privileged to work with them; they are wonderful people and so open to ideas.”

The home, said John Hofferber, founder of BerHoff Homes, takes attention to detail to a whole new level. “It was fun doing this one.”

Added Vatland: “Why leave the house?”

Excerpt from "Ranch Redux"
Fox Cities Magazine in August 2004
by Anne Atwood Mead.

The house presented by BerHoff Homes LLC is a good one to put on your must-see list. Situated on a two acre, sloping lot on a pond in the Town of Clayton, it features such upscale amenities as video game and home theater rooms, a full wet bar, and, to prove that looks can be deceiving, almost 4,000 square feet of living space. It was designed by Chuck Reuter of Chas Reuter Design Associates in Neenah, who describes the home as "a two-story in reverse."

In other words, instead of building up or out, contractor John Hofferber built down. The sloping lot allowed Reuter to design a ranch home with a daylight basement that is exposed to the backyard, providing Hofferber with a plan for a single-family home that functions like a two-story.

"It is less expensive to finish off a subterranean level than add square footage to the main level," says Hofferber, who plans to live in the house with his 12-year old son after the Parade. And as Reuter explains, "As soon as there is light [in a subterranean level], the boogeyman goes away." Add an in-floor hydronic heating system and you have a basement that is, according to Reuter, "drier, warmer, and way more desirable. It's real easy to live in." And with its high ceilings, large windows, and access to the outdoors, "you have the feeling of being in the upper level," Hofferber explains.

The main level of the BerHoff Home includes a kitchen that is open to a gathering room and breakfast area, a master bedroom suite, and a formal dining room that can double as an office. "There is a trend," Hofferber says, "toward dual purposing rooms."

While the master bedroom is located on the main level, the house's remaining two bedrooms are located on the subterranean level. "You get privacy because of the floor separation," Reuter explains.

In addition to the two bedrooms, a Jack-and-Jill bath, and a recreation room with a pub-style bar, the lower level includes a home theater and a video gaming room by Sound World. "Video gaming rooms are a real trend in California," Hofferber says. "Here in the Fox Valley, we're about four to five years behind."

The home also features tray, drop, and cathedral ceilings. "In a ranch, the sky's the limit," says Reuter. "They ['trick' ceilings] cost more money, but we have the availability to do a lot of fun things."

Other upscale features include Frank Lloyd Wright-style stained glass in the powder room, 19" tile and hardwood flooring, a wall of glass overlooking the backyard, surround sound, maple cabinetry in the kitchen, and wide birch woodwork throughout. Hofferber's son is being treated to a LCD television in his lower-level bathroom, so he can watch sports programming while dressing for school.

"We've added a lot of elegant touches to the open, casual living spaces," Hofferber explains.

"The house is not huge and not small," Reuter says. "By taking a little different approach, you can reduce the size of a house yet build in fun stuff; make it a joy to live in. This is a smaller container with big amenities."