Tidewater Builders Association’s Homearamas lure house hunters in search of a new home, but plenty of folks come to window shop and dream. TBA’s showcase of homes is a great place to see today’s innovative products in place, from low-maintenance building materials and energy-efficient systems to tankless hot water heaters and other electronic wizardry.

iPad Courtesy of Apple

This year’s first ever Spring Homearama is not different.  Here is a smattering of the things that may catch your eye May 8-23 at Founders Pointe in Isle of Wight County.

For the technophiles
If you’ve been yearning to get your hands on Apple’s new iPads, you could get the chance at The Music House: A Tribute to Ryan Farish. The iPad is a portable control interface that lets you command virtually any electronic item to do your bidding.

If you missed the whiz-bang coffee table at ABT Custom Homes’ house during the 2009 Homearama at Culpepper Landing, you’ve got a chance to see it in action here. The custom-made interactive coffee table features Apple’s ROSIE Surface, an oversized touch panel and spill-proof table with a protective sealed screen. This slice of Apple is courtesy of Converge, an award-winning company in Chesapeake known for its integration of technology.

In The Meadow Glenn by Norman Miller Builder Inc., you may get a chance to play with Control4, a practical and affordable home-automation product that makes everything from home theater, multiroom music and lighting to temperature, safety and security systems work together through a single platform.

And if you’re into surround sound, check out The River Retreat by Bill Ore LLC where Home Theaters by DAS installed 30 speakers inside and outside.

Floored
Hardwood floors are quite the rage, especially for those with allergies. One of the most striking species on the market today is African walnut, available locally from ProSource. This dark-brown hardwood flooring with blonde coloration throughout can be seen downstairs in The Berkshire Pointe by Newhall Custom Homes.
 

If exotic wood isn’t your style, check out the hand-scraped white oak from Long’s Flooring in Nature Watch by Hohmann Custom Builders.

It only looks like wood
The River Retreat features two products that look like wood but wear better. The trim boards around the windows and doors are from LP’s SmartSide collection. Made from wood fibers combined with durable resins and a zinc borate compound, the products work and cut like traditional wood but weather much better. The window casings on the home recreate a look of a bygone era without all the fuss. The vinyl FrameWorks Picture Frame windows from United Window & Door are available in four designs.

Stone or faux stone?
At least two of the houses are accented with stone or a facsimile.
Bill Ore LLC chose the synthetic Eldorado Stone in Woodlands Bluffstone for exterior and interior accents. The lightweight, man-made stone isn’t load bearing and can be put on a ceiling. Available locally from Batchelder & Collins, it’s so easy to handle that an inexperienced do-it-yourselfer can install it.

Hohmann Custom Builder installed real rock, only in a thin version. Also available from Batchelder & Collins, QuarryCut stone is a veneer that’s been sawn to about 1-1½-inches thick. The all-natural products, which come in a variety of colors and styles, are from quarries in the United States. The accent on the Nature Watch blends two colors, brown and dark, in two styles, ledgestone and squares and strips.
Real stone also can be found in the master bath shower in the Affordable Elegance by Birdsong Builders. Ivory-colored Seaside Beach Pebbles are naturally tumbled smooth by waves and are said to be therapeutic for tired feet. The round rocks, gathered by Coverall Stone Inc. and distributed locally by Morris Tile, come in various sizes and colors.

Whereas several homes feature granite countertops, Sasser Construction has thrown a faux-granite finish into the mix in The Charity House. Designed by Off the Wall, the blue onyx solid-surface countertop in the flex room was created with Aurastone. The architectural coating, which can be applied to most anything with great results, is stain, scratch and heat resistant. It was also used to create the backlit tabletop with blue agate inlays in the living room.

A three-foot recessed dome from RWM Inc. graces the ceiling of the master bath in The Meadow Glenn. This architectural decorative art, made of glass fiber reinforced gypsum, features a limestone finish.

Let the sun shine in

photo courtesy of VELUX

One of the bathrooms in the Nature Watch stays brighter than most thanks to a tubular skylight. This model of the Sun Tunnel by Velux, available from

Solar Lighting of Virginia, meets the federal government’s energy-efficiency criteria and qualifies for a federal tax credit. The geothermal system that heats and cools The Charity House also qualifies for a 30 percent federal tax credit.

Whereas you won’t get a tax credit for a porch, like the one on The Meadow Glenn, you’ll get plenty of use out of the Eze-Breeze porch enclosure from PGT, which lets in the breeze while keeping out those pesky insects. The system comes with lightweight, vinyl-glazed panels that can be raised or lowered, or easily removed, leaving screens in place.

Dodging the draft
To cut down on air infiltration and unwanted noise, Hohmann Custom Builder, Newhall Custom Homes and Birdsong Builders insulated their homes with a flash and batt system. This hybrid insulation system features a thin layer of close-cell polyurethane foam that’s sprayed on the sheathing to act as an air barrier and then covered with fiberglass batt. The result is a much higher R-value.

Green to the core
To take energy efficiency a step farther, the Nature Watch is an Energy-Star certified home and The Charity House is green certified by the National Association of Home Builders.

Sadler Building Corp. also incorporated several green features in The Armistead. The Delta lavatory faucets, for example, are certified to carry the EPA’s WaterSense label. Similar to the Energy Star program, the WaterSense program is designed to raise awareness about the importance of water efficiency. Although the faucets conserve water with a lower flow, they perform well.

Sadler also chose Green Label Plus carpet and padding. The environmentally friendly carpeting components from Mohawk are made from recycled material.

See these innovation features at the eight custom showcase homes from May 8-23. The show will also feature an Idea Center with hundreds of products for the home and garden. It’s open from noon until 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

General admission cost $10 for a one-day pass and $17 for a two-day pass. Active duty and retired military guests and seniors (62 or better) get a $3 discount Mon.-Thurs., and a $1 discount on weekends. Children 12 and under and guests in wheelchairs are free. Ticket sales will stop one hour before closing.

More information and a $3 discount coupon are available at www.homearama.tv.