Palm Harbor Homes, Inc. and its wholly-owned modular subsidiary, Nationwide Homes, Inc. are joining ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for an upcoming build. This will be the first time the popular television program has featured a home built with modular construction during its intense one-week build time.

On February 15, 2010, they joined ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in Pine Mountain Valley, Georgia, to surprise Jeremy and Jennifer Williams, whose son Jacob was diagnosed with Spina Bifida before he was born.

The Williams Family

Then, several years after Jacob’s birth, Jeremy was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  Now, the home Jeremy and Jennifer bought 13 years ago is falling apart around them. In addition to mounting home repairs, the home is too small to accommodate two disabled family members. In just seven days, team leader Ty Pennington, the design team, Palm Harbor and Nationwide Homes, and the entire community come together to build Jeremy, 38, Jennifer, 38, Josie, 8, and Jacob, 6, a brand new, energy efficient home.

As long-time national builders of systems-built homes, Nationwide and Palm Harbor Homes are perfectly aligned to assist Extreme Makeover: Home Edition with this important, time-sensitive task. Building and delivering a high quality home with extreme customization in one week is a routine part of the job for this homebuilder. Because these homes are built in environmentally-protected building centers with constant quality checks and then transported to the final home site, rain and other weather delays do not impact the build schedule. This inherently green construction method and the other green features built into the home are expected to give the home both an ENERGY STAR qualification and the National Association of Home Builders Green Certification. This means that this home will have lower utility costs when compared to a typical home built to accepted state and local building standards.

Over 1,700 volunteer help with the Extreme Dream Home.

This 9-section home is the first modular home built for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

The Extreme Makeover site runs 24-hours a day.

Cranes and Nationwide's experienced set crews keep things running smoothly.

Putting together the pieces on the foundation

Jeremy has been the head football coach at Greenville High School for the past eight years and is currently the school’s athletic director as well. In 2005, Jeremy saw a doctor after having some trouble moving his hand. After three grueling years of testing, Jeremy was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease – a fatal, progressive disease affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord which interferes with the brain’s ability to control muscle movement. Jeremy has trouble walking and will soon be confined to a wheelchair, but he continues to coach his team, has only missed one practice to date, and led his team to an 11-0 season and into the playoffs last fall. His determination and motivation in the face of adversity has given hope and inspiration to the entire community.  But Jeremy and Jennifer are struggling to take care of each other and their family in their cramped and crumbling home. With two disabled family members, the small home prevents both Jeremy and Jacob from being able to move freely about the house.  Because Jeremy is too weak to help move Jacob from room to room, Jennifer must carry Jacob throughout the house and as Jacob gets bigger, that will become impossible. In addition, the foundation of the home is cracked and sinking, one of the lower retaining walls is broken, and their leaking air conditioner has infected their walls with mold. Now, it’s up to the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team and hundreds of local volunteers to build a new home where Jeremy can make the most of his time with his family and Jacob can grow up comfortably and independently. Learn more at www.extremephn.com.

Ron Powell, President of Manufacturing for Palm Harbor Homes, explained, “We love building homes for families, and having this opportunity to make a huge difference in the life of a deserving family is a special assignment for us. We are proud and excited to be the first modular company to work with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in their mission to improve the lives of families across our country. We are also grateful for the outpouring of generosity from our builders, sponsors, associates and many others who have already donated to this wonderful cause without even knowing the family.”

The Williams family will go on vacation to Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte, Colorado, while “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team leader Ty Pennington, designers Michael Moloney, Paul DiMeo, and Tracy Hutson, local builders with Nationwide Homes and Palm Harbor Homes, and community volunteers rebuild their home. The show will be the season finale for the 7th season, anticipated to run in late May.

The numbers being tagged to the horrific scenes are staggering: 1.5 million homeless, dead bodies lining the streets, over half a million children on the island are orphans and unnumbered masses are injured and suffering with minimal to no medical treatment of any kind.

As we watch the media reports, many of us struggle to find something we can do to help. Texting the Red Cross to donate $10 is the most genius use of technology yet. But can one person really make a difference in the face of such an immense need?

To the surprise of few who know him, Mike Wnek, Palm Harbor Homes’s own Sr. Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Plant City, Florida, needed about 3 seconds to ask, answer and act on that question. Mike has had an ongoing relationship with Haiti for a number of years through an orphanage he has helped build and support there. His immediate response was simply a continuation of his habitual acts of care and concern for a people who fight poverty every moment of their lives.

In typical Mike Wnek fashion, he went to work as only he can. Within days of the earthquake, Mike had gathered funds from his own First United Methodist Church of Auburndale, Florida, gotten himself to the island, teamed with other religious and Haitian volunteers, “negotiated” the discounted rental of a flat bed truck in the nearby Dominican Republic and persuaded local merchants to donate or drastically discount food, water, clothes and more for the homeless and hurting Haitians he had determined to reach.

Then, with a group of volunteers from Calvary Chapel and a few Haitian natives, this small convoy of hope painstakingly negotiated through the rubble-strewn roads with Mike standing in the back of the flat-bed truck caked in dry red dust. Finally, they reached their destination before most other government or national aid societies had been able to mobilize any type of help whatsoever, and began handing out their desperately needed water, orange juice, clothes and other supplies to the stunned and dazed survivors.

From tampabay.com - (01/18/2010 PETIONVILLE, HAITI) Mike Wnek of Auburndale stops to pray for XXXX, 38, who just had her left leg amputated form the thigh down at the Jimani Publich Hospital. "She stopped to ask me if she was still going to be beautiful," said Wnek. "It breaks my heart. And I really have a lot of questions for God."

According to an email Mike’s Plant City co-workers sent to Larry Keener, Palm Harbor’s Chairman, CEO and President, on Wednesday, Mike is still in Haiti and survived the 6.1 aftershock that took place . However, he does ask for prayers and supporting thoughts as he struggles inwardly and outwardly to meet the overwhelming need he sees everywhere around him.

To read more of this team’s excursion to save lives and other videos, photos and details on the devastation and how to help, please visit the links below and consider what you can do today to help these real people with real pain and real needs. Will you be one who makes a difference?

Info Links:

Polk Man’s Heroic Efforts to Help Haiti – Tempa Bay Fox
Auburndale Man Gets Food, Water to Needy Haitians – The Ledger
Haiti Earthquake: Covering the Tragedy – Tempabay.com

An Easy Way to Consider Helping from Your Desk:

Americans were asked to text HAITI to 90999 or Yele to 501501 and in three days, a million pledged millions of dollars in aid to quake-stricken Haiti using their mobile phones.

To Assist Mike Wnek’s Efforts Directly:

First United Methodist Church of Auburndale

Attn:  Haiti Project

PO Box 636

Auburndale, FL  33823

If donating by check, please include “Mike Wnek/Project Haiti” in the Memo line.

Final touches were added everywhere on Tuesday in preparation for opening the gates.  Traffic through the homes and at the show in general seems to be up from last year and, fortunately, the rain is holding off!

The La Linda is the perfect combination of Traditional meets Contemporary.  The clean design elements and finish out emphasizes the openness of the floor plan and the great use of space throughout this beautiful home.

The Highlander is designed to be flexible enough to work for many different needs and applications. For the show, our Highlander model has been finished out to meet the need for a vacation home on the lake or in the mountains.  From the flooring to the slate to the mirrors, no detail was overlooked in conveying that luxury get-away feel throughout this charming cape.

Here are our first pictures as the Design Team puts the final polish on for the guests.  Check back soon for more photos and show details as they happen.

Mobile Office Trailer

As part of its diversified product offering, Palm Harbor is manufacturing commercial mobile offices and classrooms to a licensed dealer network through its modular commercial construction subsidiary PHN Commercial Structures.  The dealers in this network, in turn, provide the installed product to their end users.  PHN Commercial Structures is currently licensed to manufacture in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Texas.  Every level of government, education, construction and general business currently benefits from these commercial modular buildings, using them for everything from mobile office trailers to school laboratories, complete school campuses and even remote modular camps for oil and mine crews.

Pete Scott is spearheading our commercial marketing and sales efforts, working out of our Tempe, Arizona, building center. Pete’s 28 years of industry experience give him a broad understanding of the builders and the commercial modular business in general.  Since joining PHN Commercial, Pete has set up an estimating system, engineering and licensing processes, and sales and marketing support. These strategic efforts have positioned PHN Commercial to provide the finest in commercial modular product built to the demanding requirements of the International Building Code to a customer base that demands nothing less.

Some basic differences between HUD product and Commercial include 100-pound floor loading at exterior doors, 2”x 4” lumber under all circumstances and end wall mount H.V.A.C. ducted in the ceiling. Roofing is usually a rubberized product known as EPDM and T-Grid ceilings with recessed fluorescent lights. We generally build to the IBC 2006 code, and all of our restrooms must be in accordance with Federal A.D.A. requirements.

PHN Commercial Structures is taking this proactive step to add product for a customer base that demands a more diversified line card.  Commercial mobile offices and classrooms combine to make a natural transition from manufactured housing to a completely diversified product offering, which gives our customers a valuable business ally in a challenging economy.

Visit the PHN Commercial Structures website.

Click Here to send us a question about modular commercial construction or tell us about your next project.

The Sales Advantage

• Sell MORE with FEWER models.
• Broad product offering targeted to the specific needs and price points of your customers.
• We personalize or customize homes as needed.
• Our ongoing aggressive training equips your team for success.
• Our simplified selling story means your sales team spends more time successfully selling homes and less time specing out homes and writing up orders.
• Palm Harbor delivers the number #1 selling brand name in the United States.

The Marketing Advantage

• Our company web site attracts 175,000+ visitors per month and generates in excess of 3,500 leads per month.
• Palm Harbor and its family of companies routinely market nationally using television, trade publications, regional and national home shows, our own model centers and display models and spec homes that sizzle.
• We can provide you with product brochures, posters and point of sale materials that support the highest levels of professionalism.

The Architecture and Design Advantage

• Displaying our beautiful, eye-catching designs not only increases traffic, but also increases the quality of traffic with higher credit score buyers.
• Our design flexibility allows us to meet the needs of any customer, any code, on any lot with the architectural details and square footage to meet your customer’s desires.
• A home that does not get the consumer emotionally excited will not sell. Our homes deliver the WOW factor. Curb appeal and interior eye appeal abound.
• Architectural, engineering and design services to support your specific needs.
• We build GREEN and can help you with certification for various green building programs – LEEDS, NAHB, Earth Advantage and others.

The SmartPlus Construction Advantage

• We provide the only standard 5-year Protection Plan on all homes – Not an add-on insurance policy.
• Our homes consistently weather the extreme forces of nature.
• We help you create a construction story unique to your market.
• We build our own custom DuraBuilt cabinets for strength and beauty.
• Our years of experience building ENERGMISER® and ENERGY STAR® awarded homes guarantee your customers savings long after the mortgage is paid.

The Gold Key Care Advantage

• We build it. We finish it. We give the keys to the customer.
• Our technicians complete a personal customer walk through and orientation.
• Customers receive our 5-year Protection Plan.
• We provide an 800 number for the Customer to call us for service needs.

The Customer Satisfaction Advantage

• We really want to know the customers’ experience, so we ask!.
• 61% of our internal consumer sales result from referrals.
• Happy, satisfied customers equal MORE sales.

The Financial and Insurance Services Advantage

• Forbes.com Top 10 list in 2007 for our Financial Integrity.
• Publicly traded with strong financials/investment opportunity.
• CountryPlace Mortgage financing services.
• Standard Casualty Insurance services.

Please contact Steve Reyenga, VP of Sales, at sreyenga@palmharbor.com or 800-456-8744 for more information on Palm Harbor builder or retailer opportunities in your area.

The Capistrano - For Sale!

The Capistrano – Green Building Home by Masco for Profession Builder’s Home Show
Approximately 3,432 Square Feet
2 Story, 4 Bedrooms with two bonus rooms upstairs and 3.5 Baths
Featured as the “Green” home in the Professional Builders’ Show Village, this home focuses on reducing energy consumption waste and it’s resulting carbon foot print like never before. It features the latest in green design and products available. 

Slideshow of Capistrano’s beautiful interiors and exterior pictures.

This beautiful home valued at over $700,000 must be moved now! Appraisal will give you instant equity!   

Steve Reyenga

Please contact Steve Reyenga, VP of Sales, at sreyenga@palmharbor.com or 800-456-8744 for more information or to make an offer.  This amazing, once-in-a-lifetime value won’t last long!

You can also see our photo journal during the show about how we set and finished out 3 homes and a school house in 6 days:

Ron Powell, President of Manufacturing, Palm Harbor Homes, Inc., talks about Palm Harbor’s commitment to strong, efficient, green modulars

• Why has Palm Harbor become a leader in building strong, energy efficient modular homes?

Palm Harbor’s motivation to exceed commonly accepted standards of strength and energy efficiency comes from its foundational belief that that our homeowners deserve homes that exceed their expectations. Most people consider their mortgage, property taxes, and homeowner’s insurance to be part of the cost of home-ownership, while neglecting the very real costs of maintenance and utilities. Palm Harbor has always chosen to focus on minimizing both of these, allowing our customers to own more home than they would have been able to own otherwise. This is our value proposition to our homeowners. Palm Harbor will provide a strong, tightly built home that will save you money on energy costs and repairs so you can use that savings on what homeowners really want – more square footage or customization.

Besides being the right thing to do for our customers, a focus on strong, efficient homes is the right thing to do for the environment. Building to high levels of energy efficiency helps conserve natural resources, while building more durable homes reduces the impact of scrapped building materials on landfills.

• Why did Palm Harbor choose to partner with ENERGY STAR^® in the mid 80’s?

Because Palm Harbor was already building homes to standards beyond code requirements, partnering with ENERGY STAR almost 20 years ago was a natural step. Florida’s hot, humid conditions made our Plant City, Florida, manufacturing operation the perfect location to establish how far we could go with energy efficiency and green construction. Our Division President, Mike Draper, worked with our Vice President of Engineering, Bert Kessler, to make ENERGY STAR a reality for Palm Harbor Homes. Once the process was established, it was rolled out to Palm Harbor manufacturing facilities nationwide.

Given our long-established focus on energy efficiency, Palm Harbor did not have to make major modifications to assembly lines. However, we did make some minor changes to our construction techniques to better accommodate our duct-leak test procedure, but the adjustments were minor and did not necessitate an extensive investment.

• Did Palm Harbor’s ability to customize homes for the modular market make the shift to energy efficient construction easier than for a non-custom manufactured builder?

Because Palm Harbor has always allowed customers to customize their homes, our associates were used to dealing with differences from one home to the next. For Palm Harbor, having a higher energy efficiency as a standard meant that we did not have to sell numerous upgrades. For an assembly line, this makes things easier and more efficient. Additionally, Palm Harbor’s construction as it relates to energy efficiency is standardized. Consequently, no matter what customers choose, the basic process is the same.

Recently, one of our homes received the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) first Energy Smart label. This home, the Bimini out of our Plant City, Florida, building center, is rated at 57 HERS based on the Home Energy Rating System index developed by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET). This 57 rating means that the home is 43% more energy efficient than the typical new home built today and, at 3,644 square feet, the home has an expected average bill of less than $150 per month for electricity and gas. In contrast, an ENERGY STAR rated home has to only be 15% more efficient The home itself qualifies for National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Award at the Gold Level and is expected to receive its gold certificate once the home is secured on its permanent foundation and the lot is inspected.

• Is the market for energy efficient modular homes on the rise?

Currently, it is difficult to name any market that has expanded in raw numbers. However, green building is well established as a concern for a growing segment of today’s buyers. Consumers are feeling the impact of higher energy prices as well as becoming more aware of important issues such as sustainability and conservation. Educated consumers are focusing on the fact that they can minimize the long-term cost of home ownership with a small investment in energy efficiency when they buy their home and help the environment. Recent efforts by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Department of Energy (DOE) are aimed at increasing homebuyers’ confidence in the energy efficiency and durability of the home they are investing in by providing a national standard that homebuilders can adopt and use.

• Will we see more modular builders adopt energyefficiency and green construction as part of their building practices?

In the past, green building has been more popular in areas of the country that offered significant utility rebates to homebuyers who opted for more efficient homes, even when energy costs were lower. However, with energy prices now rising substantially, green building is being demanded across the country. As potential homebuyers continue to inquire about green building, more builders will adapt their homes to qualify for green construction, modular or otherwise.

Modular companies have a great opportunity to lead this effort. The efficiencies offered by a production line and the natural ability to minimize waste by building in a controlled environment give modular a head start toward achieving high levels of green building and energy efficiency.

Click Here to send us a question about modular construction or tell us about your next project.