Since May, Destination Homes has played host to a series of Saturday morning classes featuring local artisans and experts.

Held every other weekend at the Hill Farms community in Kaysville, the Destination Homes Summer Education Series gave Wasatch Front residents an opportunity to attend free courses, ranging in topics from muscle training to making macarons.

Chef Tina from the Harmons Cooking School at Farmington Station Park.

“I really enjoyed both of the (Harmons Cooking School) cooking classes that I attended,” said Liz Helm of Bountiful, Utah. “Not only did I learn a slew of new recipes, but also crazy kitchen gadgets that I never knew existed!”

Nate Kirkland from Sportsplex Gyms in Kaysville.

“The (Sportsplex) class I went to about exercise and dieting myths was very eye-opening,” said Cassidy Goodfellow of Layton, Utah.  “I can’t believe how lose regulations are on labeling foods as ‘healthy’ or ‘whole grain.’”

Caroline Armelle Drake from Armelleblog.com.

Andrea West from Andrea West Design.

In addition to a wealth of new insight, the classes provided both instructors and attendees the chance to meet others in their community.

"It was refreshing for those who attended to meet others who had similar questions and concerns about decorating their spaces," said presenter Andrea West. "I met numerous people who live close to me and share the same interests. It was great."

Kathleen Bloom from Cactus & Tropicals.

Many thanks to our wonderful instructors who made the Summer Education Series possible. 

Saturday, May 31st, Destination Homes kicked off our Summer Education Series at Hill Farms by inviting Chef Tina Jean from the Harmons Station Park Cooking School to cook up some of her breakfast favorites.

Chef Tina, who completed a degree in Culinary Management at the Art Institute of Salt Lake City, prepared a three course breakfast of fresh broiled hash browns, spanish frittatas and cinnamon sugar blueberry scones.

To sign up for Chef Tina's second Summer Series class on June 28th, or to register for other free educational courses, CLICK HERE.

Heritage Elementary Billboard Contest

This April, Destination Homes teamed with students from Heritage Elementary School to create artwork showcasing the meaning of home for a series of new billboard ads.

“Looking at something through the eyes of a kid always offers a fun and refreshing perspective on things,” said Ryan Snarr, Marketing Director for Destination Homes. “We are really excited about the results.”

Using no more than six words, fourth graders from five different classes were asked to define what home meant to them by completing the phrase “The Place…” with an accompanying illustration. Winning student entries will be featured on the 14’ by 48’ digital billboard located at the Antelope Drive Exit in Layton.

“My students loved being creative and seeing their ideas come to life in their advertisements,” said Ashley Saunders, fourth grade teacher at Heritage Elementary School. “They were able to really think deeply about what their home means to them. With the limited amount of words, they also learned how to say a lot with just a few words which emphasized the importance of word choice in writing.” 

Entries ranged from abstract ideas to colorful depictions of the student’s lives.

Lindsey age 9, from Mrs. Heidi Hansen’s fourth grade class, chose to illustrate her favorite room in her home. “I really like my theatre room,” said Lindsey. “That is where we watch movies and hang out as a family.”

Olivia age 9, from Mrs. Suzy Price’s fourth grade class, opted to concentrate on what was most eye-catching. “I used lots of red because it gets people’s attention.”

Once each of the 45 submitted entries were collected, they were created into mini billboards and judged by a panel of Destination Homes employees to determine the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place ribbon winners. A prize of $500 for school supplies was also determined for the classroom with the best entries overall.

On Friday, May 9, each billboard entry was displayed and winners were announced in a gallery stroll at the Hill Farms model home in Kaysville.

1^st Place Ribbon Winner: Samantha, Age 10, Mrs. Saunder’s Class

2^nd Place Ribbon Winner: Olivia, Age 10, Mrs. Saunder’s Class

3^rd Place Ribbon Winner: River, Age 10, Mrs. Saunder’s Class

Additional student entries were also awarded with honorable mention ribbons. Many of these will be featured on the 14’ by 48’ digital billboard along with the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place winners throughout the month of May.

Among those who attended Friday was Saunders, whose class won the overall prize for participation and $500 for school supplies.

“It really was all on them. I presented the material and said, ‘ok go,’” said Saunders. “We talked about how this was what people do everyday for their jobs. We looked at billboards online and tried to think about what would make ideas stand out from the rest.”

According to Saunders, the experience was not only enjoyable for her fourth graders, but also eye-opening.

“It stretched their thinking and they were able to make real world connections through this project,” said Saunders. “A student mentioned that he thinks it would be fun to work in advertising when he grows up.”

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL STUDENT ENTRIES

Best Of State!

Destination Homes is being recognized by the Best of State Utah Awards with the 2014 Best of State for Residential Home Builder Award!

The Best of State Awards are chosen by a board of fourteen local business professionals evaluate the Best of State Awards and determine which nominees are the most outstanding in the their division. There are three basic judging criteria used by the judges, and each has a different weight. The judging is based on 100 points, which are assigned in the three following areas:

• 50 points are possible based on the overall excellence, superiority and quality
  
• 30 points are possible based on the creativity which nominees display to differentiate themselves from their competition.
  
• 20 points are possible based on the nominee's accomplishments to improve the quality of life in their community and state.

It is thrilling to be recognized for such a prestigious award for our 2013 year.  The team at Destination Homes has been amazing as they have come together to help build such outstanding homes.  A huge thank you to our trade partners for their fantastic team work and dedication to helping us build beautiful homes in lasting communities.  

And a special thank you to our homebuyers for the trust that they placed in us to build their dream home.  

We are overwhelmed with appreciation by the team of people who helped make this award happen, Thank you!

Is Your Neighborhood Backward? 5 Signs It Might Be.

Destination Homes has recently been highlighted on KSL.com, take a look!

Destination Homes' mission is to build exceptional homes in lasting communities. Working with world-class architects & skilled trade partners, Destination Homes aims continually to be a product leader in community design & residential architecture. There are a few things in life that are better backward - like The Beatles songs that reveal cryptic messages when played back, or roller coasters that get just a little scarier when they lurch into reverse. And don't forget the excellent benefits you give your quads when you (carefully) do a little backward running. But do you know what's not better backward? Your neighborhood. If you're not sure how topsy-turvy your own community might be, we'll give you a few tell-tale signs.

The cars (and garages) are the stars of the show
Have you ever seen a house that seems to be "all garage?" Not overly appealing, right? Your neighborhood may have been designed poorly (dare we say backwardly?) if your cars seem to be getting better architectural treatment than your family. Giant garages that monopolize your home's curb appeal and commandeer your lawn space with their oversized driveways are not designed with family living in mind. Your home should be taking center stage - not your garage (that prima donna)

It cuts you off from your community

Picket fences are nostalgic and picturesque. But if you've got a monstrosity of a gate that's turning your Craftsman-style home into a medieval fortress, you may be living in a poorly designed community. Privacy is always a bonus, but you should also feel connected with the community that surrounds you. This includes a better view than the wood planks that make up your mile-high fence. Don't get me wrong, a fence serves its purpose but shouldn't keep you from enjoying what's around you. It also means that your home should be facing the world of the living, not a concrete barrier, frontage road or other unsightly "feature."

You feel like you're living in "Mario Kart"
It's one thing for your kids to encounter crazy traffic with Mario and Luigi on the Wii, it's quite another for them to have to deal with this in front of your home. High-volume roads with intersections tend to make your sanctuary a little, well, less than idyllic.
Communities built on heavily trafficked roads are not designed with homeowners and their families in mind. Families want safety at the forefront of their neighborhood planning. Besides safety, many could use fewer barriers to hurdle to when the desire strikes to visit neighbors, get to church, or go to the local park.

Destination Homes 
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Your walkways and trails are "hidden" treasures

Like many people, you're probably thrilled that your community offers walking trails (and your dog likely digs this feature, too). But if your trails are hidden, dimly lit or overgrown, that's a sign that your community likely wasn't designed as well as it could have been. Hidden trails pose not only a safety risk, but they also prevent you from connecting with your community when you take that daily walk (although Fido might enjoy his privacy).

You feel disconnected from the community
There are a lot of benefits to living on an island (mid-morning swim anyone?), but if you're looking to be part of a community, you don't want to feel like your home is centrally located in the Boondocks. Your neighborhood should be designed in a way that connects resident families to their surroundings by strategically designing the homes around parks, community centers and other amenities. After all, the layout of any neighborhood just might be the key to connecting community members naturally.

Design Dilemma?

You have finally taken that leap, by purchasing your new home. You picture the type of flooring, countertops, cabinets, the color of the walls and now you and your spouse are finally at the design appointment.  The question of what type of kitchen cabinet would you like comes up and you want traditional and your spouse prefers modern.  How do you go about compromising so everyone feels satisfied with the choice?

In our Design Center, our Interior Designers, Malia Warburton and Andera West, witness many homeowners wrestling with these decisions.  When couples come together to pick out the design features of their new home, our designers generally find that one person is more involved in the process than the other.  Occasionally, couples will leave the room to discuss certain items or on rare occasions they will debate the choices right there in the design appointment.  Often when these debates happen it is in the form of play banter and teasing, which helps soften the situation even though it is a huge investment. 

Each spouse has their own items that are really important to them, and they are okay with letting the other spouse make other decisions.  When couples have discussed the options ahead of time and communicated them to one another than the design appointments tend to go smoothly.  Here are some tips from our designers that might help you when you are picking out your new home’s design features:

·      Be clear with one another about the budget available for design options

·      Limit distractions, best as possible, during the design appointment (kids, cell phones, etc…)

·      Search for inspiration beforehand (Pinterest, Houzz, Better Homes & Gardens)

·      Bring photos of what you like

·      Determine how you’d like your home to show off your personality as well as cater to family needs.

·      Set a time prior to your official design appointment to browse options in the design center.

·      Take a walk through the model home just to design gather ideas.

·      Create a list of must haves and wants.  Prioritize each list.

·      Budget necessary time for the appointment.  Don’t let yourself feel rushed to make decisions.

Last of all it goes without saying that patience and a sense of humor help in this process. In those moments when you are feeling frustrated during the design appointment and struggling to find common ground, we recommend reading a

fun little article that might help turn your appointment around.

A Little Olympic Fun

Last Tuesday during our company huddle Destination Homes decided to have a bit of fun, Olympic style.  Weber County Ice Sheet and instructors Tim Irish, Ben Womack and Erwin Weil welcomed us at their ice rink to teach everyone about the fun sport of curling.

The morning started at 9:00 a.m. with the team getting used to sliding on the ice, which is more difficult that it appears to be.  The curlers in the Olympics really have to hone 

some strength and finesse skills to do this sport and then to have the smarts to outwit the competition.  Curling is often called ‘Chess on Ice’.  This couldn’t be truer, but of course it didn’t seem a whole lot like chess until we got the hang of throwing the rock and sweeping.

Curling is a lot more of a work out than anyone would have expected.  It takes attention and balance to not fall on the ice and sweeping in front of the rocks works both your arms and legs.  Thankfully, our instructors, Tim, Ben and Erwin were very good at teaching us the safety ins and outs on the ice and we only had a minimal amount of slipping and falling.

It didn’t take long for the competitive spirit to rise and while most of the games weren’t layered with intense strategy we had some exciting tie breaking shootouts.  By the end of our session on the ice the team at Destination Homes were hungry and extremely grateful that Aaron from Academy found us in Ogden and brought cinnamon rolls the size of small planets with him.

Curling is a great team sport. Everyone has specific and very important responsibilities. Success is enjoyed only when everyone works together and performs at a high level.