Mt Laurel Sees Promise in Custom Homes Market

The Pihakis family constructs a one-of-a-kind home with reclaimed materials.

While he is intrigued by the history behind the wood, Nick likes the warmth it adds to the home. “You want your house to feel good,” Nick said, “to have a certain warmth, a richness that feels good and doesn’t feel like a brand new home.” Pictured from left to right: John Freeman Sr., Nick Pihakis, Della Pender and Bryan Phillips.

While the housing market across the nation is slow at best, The Town of Mt Laurel, located near Birmingham, Ala., has found a growing niche in the custom homes market. For the buyer who wants to customize an existing plan or design their own plan, the EBSCO Development Company team of Bryan Phillips, assistant vice president; John O. Freeman, Sr., vice president and general manager; and Della Pender, vice president and sales manager, work with them to make their dream home a reality.

"We have a great team at Mt Laurel," Pender said. "Once we meet and determine the customer"s needs and wants, we meet with our home designer and design their dream home. We are very excited about our "new custom plans," and we will also work with our customers" custom plans."

Of the last eight homes that have been built in Mt Laurel, seven of them are custom homes, and there are prospects for more. "We are very sensitive to our customers" needs and desires particularly when it comes to unique features in their home," Pender said. Nick and Suzanne Pihakis are building a home in Mt Laurel that exemplifies how unique features can be added to truly customize a home to the buyer"s unique tastes. The home will be accented with reclaimed lumber from homes and barns built in the 1800s. "It really is exciting to see how this house has evolved," Freeman said.

The Pihakises chose cedar for their home"s exterior, as well as rock taken from Double Oak Mountain, which is contiguous to the Mt Laurel property. What makes the home"s interior special is the reclaimed timber and wood used in the great room, kitchen and the master bedroom and closet. A fireplace was also built with the Mt Laurel stone, which creates a focal point for the great room and kitchen.

The timbers were taken from a barn built in Pennsylvania in the 1860s — all hand-hewn beams built with no power tools. The wood plank flooring for the master bedroom was in a house on property that once belonged to the famous Civil War abolitionist John Brown.

From reclaimed timber and flooring dating back to the 1800s to rock and stone extracted from the local landscape, the Pihakis" home is warmed by natural tones and textures.

Phillips said, “Building the home for Nick and Suzanne has been a great experience. We have recently been learning as much as we can about environmentally efficient building practices and have obtained our Certified Green Professional designation