Welcome to the Valley house that John built

Published 6:45 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – If a picture is worth a thousand words then what would be the value of a 4,000-square-foot home?

According to John Day, owner of John Day Homes, it is priceless.

“It’s hard to sell a product when you don’t have a product to show,” he said.

So when he was looking to move the company’s main office from his home to a more visible location, East Second Street in North Bend was the perfect place.

The huge corner lot formerly housed Second Street Gardens. Owners Karen Lee and Don Haviland decided to shut down the small gardening center in December 2002.

“We realized that a mom-and-pop business is a tough go these days,” Haviland said of their nursery, which opened in 1996. Lee is now a sales representative for a gardening products company and Haviland plans to open a landscaping business. The couple, however, still manages to sell plants out of their new home in Port Townsend through word-of-mouth contacts.

In place of the nursery, Day is constructing a two-story, 4,000-square-foot house that will double as John Day Homes’ office and showroom. Entering through the front door will be like walking into a model home, Day said, since he wants potential customers to know exactly what they’ll be buying. The offices and selection center (with samples of cabinetry, flooring, colors, etc.) are upstairs. The building is anticipated to be finished on March 12 and will be open by appointment only.

John Day Homes began operations in 1987 as Middlefork Development Corp. and was renamed a decade later. Since then, the company has built more than 600 homes for individuals and in communities such as Middlefork Park and Forster Woods. And the numbers keep growing because the group begins constructing about one house a week.

The houses built by John Day Homes have a traditional style to them where everything is balanced, Day explained. For example, the front door is located in the middle and is flanked by windows.

“We’re building the style that Seattle builders were building 100 years ago,” he said. Updated trends can be seen in the cabinet colors, flooring and other hardware choices.

There are 14 floor plans to choose from and each comes with a variety of options. Because of an efficient and organized construction schedule, it takes only about six to seven months to build a home, not including the permitting process.

A benefit of working with their company, Day said, is that customers know up front exactly how much the house will cost to build. So the company – not the consumer – absorbs any additional costs that might arise.

“We know the final costs because we’ve already built the plan,” he said. “We have an excellent process that’s dependable, and excellent customer service after we deliver the product.”

John Day Homes is located at 126 E. Second St. in North Bend. Its Web site is www.johndayhomes.com.

Don Haviland of Second Street Gardens can be contacted at haviland@cablespeed.com.