San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Build the home you deserve with McNair Custom Homes
We work hard to earn our choices in life. Whether selecting a new car, vacation destination, or the neighborhood we live in, it feels good to make positive decisions for our families and ourselves. It doesn’t come easily, but the required focus, dedicated hours, and constant rebalancing of the life-work equation are always more satisfying than having something given to us. Our homes represent the best expression of these efforts, a living environment where we find private sanctuary, family community, and the company of friends. More than one more purchase in our life, we’ve earned the right to create a home that fulfills our exact desires.
The creation of a custom home begins with a conversation, a discussion that reveals the potential of your relationship with the builder. John McNair and his family have engaged in these important dialogs for over 30 years. In doing so, McNair Custom Homes has earned a reputation as a personable familyrun company that creates homes that manifest the unique vision of its clients. The McNair brothers understand that each project represents a unique statement about their listening skills, work ethic, and ability to collaborate with a diversity of clients to design and construct the exact custom home they’ve long envisioned.
“We have been in our McNair Custom Home for eight years and we still love being here,” says Dr. James Henderson. “This is the fourth home from start to finish to post-closing and the service from McNair Custom Homes well exceeded our expectations.”
A look at recently built homes showcases McNair Custom Homes in several San Antonio neighborhoods including Cantera Hills, Pecan Springs, and The Bluff at Dominion, among others. The 2020 Parade of Homes property took full advantage of the 1-acre homesite with an expansive terrace featuring an open-air kitchen and firepit adjacent to the custom pool by Keith Zars. Entertainment space extends inside the 4,864 sq. ft. home with an open kitchen, great room, and a game room with wet bar. Private patio access from the master bedroom also speaks to the home’s customization, a personal sanctuary as well as a welcoming social space.
There’s a definite wow factor the moment we step within the grand foyer of the 4 bedroom, 5,246 sq. ft. Cantera Hills home. A curved, elegant staircase
Many men long for a space they can call their own, apart from the bustle of child rearing and filled with home office space, musical instruments, exercise gear, sports memorabilia or other items deeply personal to them.
Erin Callahan, co-founder and CEO of Some Elbow Room, can provide them with just that. Her San Antonio company builds beautiful outbuildings, man caves, shesheds, granny pods, guest pods, and pool houses ranging from 128 square feet up to 480 square feet.
She was inspired to start the company when her husband built her own art studio in the back yard, she said – the place where she feels most truly “free.”
The company’s most popular model, the Lynda – named for the client who designed it – includes full-light windows, full-light doors, and transom windows across the top, as well as beautiful slatted column on the sides.
“We specialize in finishing these spaces out,” Callahan said. “We put the floor in, we install them, we put drywall up, we install a mini-split air conditioner, [and] we put in electricity and internet wiring.”
Customers building man caves and other structures use them for a wide variety of purposes, she said, and she always enjoys hearing their stories.
“One of our customers has his office on one side and his drums on the other side. One of the customers has a grand piano,” she said. “You’d be surprised by how many people want pool houses and they have their office is in it and it’s looking out over their pool.”
People also install exercise equipment such as Pelatons in their “elbow room,” Callahan added.
Another customer who uses his man cave for wood carving actually carved her a special ring while they were conversing about his structure, and embedded a piece of the copper wiring Callahan’s team had used to electrically configurate the building. “Our customers are really special,” she said.
One of the major demographics who want to build “elbow rooms” as a form of man cave are, of course, men, she said. But women also seek out such spaces.
“I think that everyone needs a place where they can really be themselves,” Callahan said. “That’s it, everyone is just so cramped in and crowded, they just need a place where they can feel safe to do the things that they really just want to do and express who they are without being cramped by anybody or anything else.”
Adding a man cave or any other outdoor structure can also increase the value of your home in the long run, she said.
Some Elbow Room is a “very, very local company,” Callahan noted, with her husband having been born and raised in San Antonio.
“We have lots of aspirations to grow beyond San Antonio and outside of Texas,” Callahan added.
To learn more about Some Elbow
Room or about installing your own man cave or other outdoor structure (pool house, office, teen townhouse, etc.) visit someelbowroom.com to set up an appointment for a consultation, or visit the Some Elbow Room Facebook page.