From Basic to Breathtaking
Transformations are a specialty for T.D. Hatcher Custom Homes
by Jo Hunter
ABRACADABRA. Of all the words in a builder’s vocabulary, this isn’t one you’re likely to hear. Yet some would say that Tom and Donna hatcher have a solid track record for working magic when it comes to transforming nice homes into spectacular homes.
Their latest project is perhaps the best example yet. Last fall, a young Florida couple selected a site near Pilot Mountain for the new vineyard they were starting. With the acreage came an attractive two-story home. It was eight years old and in excellent condition. But it wasn’t their dream house.
The completed project has produced a bit of jaw-dropping awe from even the most seasoned subcontractors, including one who just stood in the dramatically renovated kitchen, taking it in, and quietly commented, “That’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
They asked the home inspector to recommend a good builder. The list he provided included T.D. Hatcher Custom Homes. “We talked with the couple, visited the house and immediately the ideas started flowing,” says Donna, whose extensive experience as a designer has helped the family-owned firm establish its reputation for custom details and exceptional creativity. “We knew the couple had also talked with some large design/build firms,” says Tom. “This was happening during the Christmas holidays, and while those larger companies were taking off for the holidays, Donna was working til midnight and faxing sketches to Florida. We didn’t even have the job yet and she was into it, heart and soul.”
That demonstration of responsiveness – and Donna’s ability to capture the couple’s vision in well-executed drawing – paid off. Eliminating the need for an architect, work began in January. “They wanted to be able to move in by June 10,” says Tom. “I look back at the scope of the renovations and wonder how we pulled it off in five months. The clients would come up from Florida every three weeks or so, and just seeing the look in their eyes that their vision came alive made it all worthwhile.”
Only minor changes were made to the front of the house – adding stone, for example, to shift from a farmhouse feel to a European look. Focus of the
renovation was across the back of the house, with special attention to the kitchen, where the clients knew they would spend much of their time. “He used to have a restaurant and loves to cook,” says Tom. “The new kitchen will accommodate that easily. Not only is it beautiful, with state-of-the-art appliances, it’s also carefully planned to be highly functional.”
To provide the needed space, we extended the back of the house an additional 20 feet, providing a wall of windows that look out over the vineyard’s rolling hills with a direct view of Pilot Mountain. The steel beam required to support that two-story extension became a key plan-around-it component.
Donna put her creativity – and her tape measure – to work, turning it into an asset.
“As an architectural feature, the beam had to be balanced by cross-beams, and those had to match up symmetrically with elements like placement of the two 5’ x 12’ islands and even the arched door and custom shelving leading into the dining room. I must have measured and re-measured a hundred times,” says Donna.
That attention to detail – to the nth degree – is part of what brings clients back to the Hatchers for second and even third projects.
“It’s exciting to take the bones of a house and let your imagination take you in a lot of different directions,” says Donna. “I focus a lot on flow within the house. It’s important to really get to know the clients and help them think through their daily life so you can make the interior space work for them.”
Tom, she says, is gifted as far as the choice of a lot and placement of the house on the land. “So often, people will build houses with big walls of windows facing west,” he notes. “They may look beautiful but you absolutely cannot watch TV in those rooms until the sun goes down.” With new construction, he typically advises clients to not commit to a lot until he can walk it with them with the house plans in mind.
Together, the Hatcher family brings a rare combination of professionalism, expertise and down-home friendliness to every building project. Their client list reads like a who’s who among Triad corporate executives – and most have become personal friends during the building process. “We’ve been invited to spend time at clients’ vacation homes. To us, that means we have created something even more special than extraordinary houses – we’ve created extraordinary friendships.”
