Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301260124
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: EC-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CUTTING CORNERS MAKES NEW HOUSE REALITY
When Bruce and Vickie Thomasson look back on 1992, they'll remember it as the Christmas they gave each other four new tires and brakes for the family Subaru."I've been through an entire life in a year," sighed Bruce Thomasson, an advertising account executive for The Packett Group in Roanoke.
Instead of looking at the economy and deciding to shut down, they decided it was a time to take advantage of low interest rates and build a new home.
That was only the beginning of what might be called an adventure.
When they started talking with contractors about what they wanted and how much they had to spend, Thomasson says, the economic situation forced them to make several serious decisions.
First, Thomasson would hire a builder but purchase all the materials himself, buying directly from the supplier to avoid costly markups.
Then, he, his wife and their two toddler-age children would move in with her parents for the six-month building process.
Living with your in-laws and building your own home has all the makings of a situation comedy - especially, as Thomasson points out, if you're no Bob Vila.
If building a house by reading books sounds like a high-risk proposition, Thomasson says to consider the world of advertising.
"The advertising agency business is never 100 percent reliable," Thomasson said. "There's always the potential for losing a big client."
Overall, he doesn't feel he was hit as hard by the economy as some. And although advertising is a cutthroat business, he felt comfortable with clients that include businesses such as Grand Piano and Furniture Co., Carilion Health System and Cox Cable Roanoke.
`'We knew there weren't going to be any big raises or bonuses," he admitted. "As a family, we just spent more judiciously."
By cutting out the middleman and shopping around for bargain prices, Thomasson figures he saved up to 25 percent of what the house could have cost.
He ordered the wallpaper from an outlet listed in Southern Living magazine. The family pitched in and helped him paint and hang the blinds. And until the electricity was connected, they worked on weekends and long summer evenings until the sun went down.
Now, Thomasson can laugh about the things that went wrong.
Like when the carpet arrived from Georgia and the truck driver couldn't get up the driveway.
When Thomasson asked the driver what he was going to do, the driver told Bruce it was his problem. The driver just dumped 980 pounds of carpet, wrapped around a cardboard tube, on the side of the street.
"We just prayed it wouldn't rain," he laughed, shaking his head.
Ultimately, it took 10 to 12 men, the builder's crew, to carry the 1,000-pound roll of carpet about 75 feet up the steep driveway to the garage.
What got them through the experience was seeing their house progress.
They moved into their four-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot home in Salem just three weeks later than expected.
But it'll be awhile before they replace the family wagon with its 98,000 miles. And even longer till they get the basement finished.
"Unless manna falls from heaven," Thomasson said.