As home builders, we spend a lot of time focusing on exterior design and interior layout and leave the details, like interior design, to the home owner. It makes sense, of course. How people choose to furnish and decorate their home is entirely up to them, and it’s a big part of what turns a house into a home.

The U.K.’s Times & Star recently published an article covering the five main interior design styles. A synopsis of the newspaper report is below. Of course, we’re not limited to these styles or required to adhere strictly to only one of them. Let us know with a comment which style most closely matches your home’s current design and which style you’re tempted to incorporate at your house.

CONTEMPORARY/MODERN DESIGN

Colors: Black and white.

Key elements: Recliner chairs, luxury electrical items, stylish lighting, complementary furnishings, and minimalist overtones.

Primary adopters: Young singles

MINIMALIST DESIGN

Colors: Bright colors to add light, space and depth.

Key elements: Recessed lighting, eye-catching yet functional design styles typically seen in smaller spaces to give the illusion of a larger living area.

Primary adopters: Young couples

RUSTIC DESIGN

Colors: Natural earth tones, including simple browns, greens and yellows. Natural reds and orange colors used sparingly to provide contrast.

Key elements: Plenty of wood in the design of the furniture, leather chairs, large wooden dining tables, and plenty of houseplants.

Primary adopters: 30-somethings with families

COUNTRY DESIGN

Colors: Understated color schemes with bolder colors in select pieces of furniture.

Key elements: A feature wall to add color, farmhouse kitchen design with brass pans, traditional dining area, a welcoming couch, thick carpeting, and a feature fireplace.

Primary adopters: A wide range of adopters, leaning toward older couples and retirees.

ECO DESIGN

Colors: A combination of minimalist color schemes and earth tones.

Key elements: Upcycled furniture (i.e. a large electric wire spool used as a wooden table), organic cotton and hemp fabrics, and recycled wood countertops. Flooring made from bamboo, reclaimed wood, cork or recycled rubber and glass tile.

Primary adopters: Young couples and city dwellers

The title of this blog entry is also the opening headline of a new floor-plan book highlighting our Generation Ranch line of modular homes. Like it says not far from that headline, the single-story designs of the product lineup “feature distinctive architectural details and spacious, open floor plans that are ideal for modern family living.”

The Generation Ranch line includes 32 different designs ranging from the 1,512 square foot Villa Maria to the 2,760-square-foot Afton Villa. An assortment of homes from the line is featured below. Feel free to check out the entire floor-plan book on our website.

The modular method of construction – building something in large pieces that are then assembled either in a factory or at an off-site location – isn’t limited only to houses and other buildings. Lots of things are built modularly and often reap the same benefits of modular housing construction (efficiency chief among them).

A classic example of modular manufacturing can be seen in automobiles – a collection of large parts that can be swapped out in order to upgrade the vehicle without having to upgrade a lot of other parts to accommodate the change. The engine can be removed and replaced with a different one. The tires can be replaced easily. Interior options are easy to modify, too.

Modular construction can also be used to make swimming pools – built in sections, transported to a location and pieced together to make a backyard oasis in much less time than it would take to build a pool on-site. Like modular homes, customers even design their own pool (in any shape, to fit any location) and can have it delivered soon thereafter.

Is there anything the modular process can’t make better? We’re hard-pressed to think of something, but then again, we’re probably not the most objective source.

A few weeks ago, Mod Coach posted a blog entry about the importance of testing your company’s website to ensure that it fulfills its intended objective: serving as a valuable resource for visitors hoping to learn more about your company and its products. It’s a topic near and dear to us here at Excel Homes because we’ve gone to great lengths over the past few years to improve our website and make it the best possible resource for visitors.

The challenge for us – and for just about any modular home builder – is to make sure our website caters equally to two related but very different audiences: modular home builders and prospective home buyers. Accomplishing this objective doesn’t have to be difficult. In our case, there’s plenty of content that speaks to both audiences, but we’ve also taken the time to create distinct sections of our website specifically for builders and home buyers.

Mod Coach recommends testing your website by observing how people navigate and interact with it. It’s a simple test, and one we plan to try in the near future. We currently test our website by paying close attention to the feedback we receive from builders and home buyers, and our website is constantly evolving based on that feedback.

With that in mind, we’d like to issue a formal request for feedback with this blog entry. Whether you’re a builder or a home buyer, please take a few minutes to visit ExcelHomes.com and let us know your thoughts, either with a comment on this blog entry or in an email to experts@excelhomes.com.

We’ve asked for feedback before, but we’re always hungry for more. What did you like about the website? What didn’t you like? What did you find helpful? What would you like to see more of? We like praise, but we like good constructive criticism even more, so don’t be afraid to give us your brutally honest opinion.

On any given day, at any given moment, there’s a lot going on at our Liverpool, PA, manufacturing plant. This photo captures just a few of those many activities.

Floors are being built in the upper left (this entry provides a closer look at that process). In the upper right of the photo, we see a roof under construction. Those are walls standing at the ready in the upper center of the picture. And, of course, we can see some Excel craftsmen hard at work in the middle of the image. Like we said, there’s a lot going on at our Liverpool plant. Feel free to check it out for yourself at our upcoming Second Saturday factory tour on October 8.

There are a lot of people who work at Excel Homes, and while not all of them carry a hammer or have a near-scientific knowledge of the physical properties of drywall, they all help “build” – in one way or another – the homes we create on a daily basis. This recurring blog entry will introduce you to some of those people and the tools they use to do their important jobs.

Today’s entry is about Excel Homes Sales Manager Skip Reich. Skip has more than a decade of experience in the modular housing industry and took some time out of his busy day to talk with us about creating opportunities, building good relationships, and the rewards of coaching youth basketball.

NAME: Skip Reich

POSITION:  Sales Manager

DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL DAY AT EXCEL HOMES:

My typical day involves working with all of the various departments, people and builders as well as my sales team. One of my main daily goals is to help my people create new opportunities for themselves as well as for Excel Homes. Those opportunities start by maintaining good relationships with our builders.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?

Helping the sales team and builders create and build each customer’s dream home. There are few things more rewarding than hearing how happy a customer is with their new home, and knowing that you played at least a small role in making that dream come true.

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL SOMEONE WOULD NEED TO SUCCEED IN YOUR POSITION?

Good communication skills are a must. You also have to be good at understanding the needs of the builder.

WHAT ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT – PROFESSIONALLY AND PERSONALLY – IN 2011?

I’m excited about the opportunity to help increase sales and customer satisfaction.

TELL US SOMETHING PEOPLE WOULD NOT NORMALLY KNOW ABOUT YOU.

For the past two years, I’ve coached first through third graders in the Upward basketball program.  It’s a rewarding experience to see the children improve their skills and grow throughout the season.

Like any good company, a good website is a work in progress. Excel’s website is no different. Over the years, we’ve made more additions and updates to our website than most people make to their homes.

One of the most recent changes is to the model browser section of our site, which allows consumers and builders to view the many homes and floor plans Excel has to offer. It’s understandable why we’d choose to keep the model browser up to date and working efficiently, since it’s the section of our website that displays the fruits of our labor.

Several changes were made, but the most significant was the addition of a search function to the main page of the browser (photo above). The change resulted, in part, from the feedback we regularly receive from our builder partners. It’s also the product of our ongoing commitment to turn our website into a better tool for every person who uses it. And when you’re in the business of building houses, having the right tools at your fingertips is more important than ever.

And we aren’t done yet. We are continuously making updates to our website. Check back regularly.

Today’s entry is a simple reminder to mark your calendar for Saturday, October 8. That’s the date of Excel’s next Second Saturday factory tour at our plant in Liverpool, PA.

As we’ve mentioned previously, each installment of this popular tour takes place on the second Saturday of every month, when we open our doors for tours of our 200,000-square-foot facility and our model home. Each home buyer who takes our Second Saturday factory tour will also receive $1,000 in complimentary credit toward the purchase of any new-home options available in our custom home product catalog.

For those keeping track at home, that’s roughly $250 for every hour you spend with us on Second Saturday. Since most people are happy to hang out with us for free, that’s not a bad deal! If the hourly rate sounds like a good deal, we should point out that you don’t even need to stay for the whole four hours. You also don’t need to make an appointment. This deal keeps getting better, doesn’t it?

This month, while we’re on the subject of natural disasters and the various ways modular construction stands up to natural forces better than stick-built homes, we thought we’d take a look at some past attempts to create stronger, storm-resistant homes.

The unusual design below was proposed in a 1939 issue of Popular Science magazine. The home, which rotates on a track, “turns itself to point its rounded end into the wind, defying even gales of hurricane force.” When not spinning like a top in a tropical storm, the dial-like home can be turned to “face in the best direction with reference to sun and breeze.”

According to the article, “electricity enters the building through the inner track, while the water-supply and sewage pipes come in underground at the axis on which the house turns, swivel joints being provided to connect the stationary exterior pipes with those which are attached to the dwelling.”

This design might be unusual, but it’s certainly not practical. We’re also not sure we’d want to live there without a steady stockpile of motion-sickness medication. Of course, the benefits of modular construction and it’s durability in a hurricane is well known and something we’ve discussed here on Modular Musings before. (link “we’ve discussed” to previous entry on the topic) Modular construction is also a much more practical option for those looking for a little extra stability in a hurricane.

The American Dream used to mean landing a good job, getting married, having a few kids and then buying the largest house you could reasonably afford (and a few nice-sized cars for the garage). So it’s ironic that Baby Boomers – the same generation that bought into that bigger-is-better mindset in the 70s and 80s – are now leading the movement toward smaller, more sensible homes like the Excel Homes Linden model above.

Of course, part of the reason they’re downsizing their living quarters is because the kids have all grown up and moved out, but it’s still an interesting trend. For the Boomers (and anyone else opting for a smaller home), outsized dimensions might be taking a back seat, but quality is still number one on the list of expectations.

Said one source: “It isn’t necessary to sacrifice the amenities just because you are buying small.”

The quality over quantity benefit is a good lesson, and one the Boomer generation also knows a lot about.