EDGY CARR DESIGN
Deer Valley Estates is the latest edge for longtime homebuilder
Microwave ovens were space-age technology found only in a few highend custom homes when Dave Carr started building houses in 1978.
For nearly 40 years since, he’s always tried to stay on the edge.
Of course, when he started out, the edge was lined with laminate.
“We used a lot of vinyl and laminate on the floors, very little tile — almost no tile at all because at that time the cost factor was just too great to use anything else,” he said.
Carr, 79, said just about everything in a newly constructed house has changed, from floor to ceiling — beyond, actually, because attic insulation is better than ever.
Recently, Carr and his son, Michael, 40, walked up to another edge: land development.
Their Deer Valley Estates is north of NW 150 on the west side of Rockwell Avenue, across from Deer Creek’s new Spring Creek Elementary School.
“This is the first development we’ve ventured into. We’ve been builders in other subdivisions. We thought we’d venture out and put our own development in,” Dave Carr said.
The small addition — just an eventual 63 homes in two phases — has homes starting at $175,000. Dave Carr Construction and Michael’s Carr Custom Homes build under their parent company, Carr Quality Homes.
“It’s different,” Dave Carr said. “This is our development. We welcome other builders in, as well. But we wanted to have our own development. Our houses are just a little smaller than what we’ve normally been building in the past, to make it more affordable.”
The houses don’t necessarily seem smaller, though, because of their open layout,” Michael Carr said.
“There’s nothing breaking up
the living room, dining room and kitchen. It’s all open, and so it feels larger,” he said.
Carr homes are a far cry from the ’70s versions.
“When I started building, it was a very simple kind of wall-towall type house that we built,” said Dave Carr, whose wife, Linda, is the designer for Dave Carr Construction. “There wasn’t anything fancy or elaborate in them.”
Walls? Treatments have been more, then less, then more elaborate over the years. Bold colors came and mostly went. Textured walls came and linger.
Wallpaper was hot in 1997, when new papers, patterns and borders were the focus of a Dave Carr model that was the New Products House for that year’s Parade of Homes. Papering ceilings was the hot trend in ’97.
From the late ’70s, windows evolved, thanks to concerns over energy conservation and cost.
First came doublepane windows enclosing gas (most commonly argon) to slow heat transfer; then double panes of low-e glass (low emissivity), coated to reflect almost all radiant heat; then to all of the above in an aluminum frame with a thermal break, a polyurethane insert that separates exterior metal from interior metal, stopping even more heat.
The 1997 parade home also featured a new line of faucets with smooth, rounded handles, and cast-stone entry and fireplace accents meant to resemble marble.
A whirlpool tub was in every bathroom — and the master shower had a steamer “so you can have your own sauna right at home,” Dave Carr said at the time.
Ten years later, in 2007, a Carr model home had tapped another set of emerging trends: real granite counters and window sills, not something resembling it; the return of transom windows; hugely spacious walk-in closets; and extra space, for a sitting area, in the master bedroom.
The kitchen had a 7-foot-long island and an extra shelf that slid out from under the microwave oven.
Granite is still popular for counters, kitchen islands and window sills, but in 2017 quartz is coming on strong, coming in more colors and styles from more manufacturers. Quartz looks like natural stone but is made in a factory from ground quartz mixed with polyester resins and other materials.
As for kitchen appliances, microwave ovens are as revolutionary as “The Jetsons.”
Now, everything is being redesigned meet to meet millennial buyers’ demands — and that means operable by smartphone, for starters.
Changing times
Smartphones have made other once-commonplace extras obsolete.
For example, intercoms are just about over and out.
“Anymore, it’s a rarity that we do that. They kind of faded out. Anything that you want you can get on the telephone now, and you don’t have to have that sort of system,” Carr said.
Television went from consoles to big screen to flat screen to theater — with commercial-quality seating in special rooms — over Carr’s career.
Standard ceiling height jumped from 8 feet to 9 and above.
Lighting went from “simple little lights in each room” to elaborate fixtures, and bulbs have gone from fluorescent and incandescent to LED and, most recently, halogen, all in answer to demands for energy and cost savings.
Security systems were for the movies and TV shows when Dave Carr started building; now systems including motion-detection lights and cameras are the norm in custom homes, he said.
Storm shelters were rare with new homes 40 years ago, mostly because they added so much to the cost of construction.
Especially deadly storms, such as the May 3, 1999, tornado, created demand that spawned new shelter makers and installers, making them affordable. Carr said shelters he puts in now cost less than half of the first ones he installed.
Staying on the edge of innovation is important, he said. He attends the annual International Builders’ Show as many years as he can. Sometimes, he said, builders from here who bring back what they see at the big exhibition are leading the edge, not just keeping up with it.
“It takes awhile for (new) concepts because you’re talking about an international builders’ show and that’s exactly what it is: international. Products come from all parts of the world,” Carr said. “It takes a little bit longer for those products to reach the heartland of the United States — Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas — but eventually you start seeing some of them drift in.”