We’ve all heard the old adage, “Build it, and they will come,” but “Come, and they will build it” seems a more apt description of the way Donna and Tom Hatcher do business. Clients have a way of gravitating to the husband and wife, who operate their 21-year old building and remodeling company T.D. Hatcher Custom Homes, with their son Rick—without an office. Consider the fellow who approached them as they were cleaning a work site with daughters Melanie, Jennifer and Kelly. “He was impressed with that,” says Tom, the company’s president.

Donna, an interior designer with 40 years’ experience, elaborates on the moment, explaining that by doing the cleaning themselves, they can catch any last-minute construction glitches.“ We try to do everything to the nth degree,” she adds. “We take our clients to each vendor whether for plumbing or lighting. We walk them through the process.”

A process that’s much more than constructing a house.

Just ask Alison Bell (not her real name), who was looking for a builder two years ago after moving to the Lewisville area with her family. Having built houses in other metropolitan areas such as Dallas, Bell knew exactly what she wanted: “Newer construction, a minimum of one acre and, of course, quality construction, innovative detail.”

Equally important was finding a builder who could respond to what she wanted. Enter Donna and Tom.

Donna’s idea was to construct a house in a French country style, one of her favorites, owing to a love of history. The Hatchers had built similar structures in Lewisville, one for friends, and another in the town’s BelMeade community, which garnered the Gold Award at last year’s Parade of Homes. All three houses are comfortable and casual, yet elegant. Big, pitched roofs allow for efficient use of use of space so that closets can become laundry rooms, or a nook here, a cranny there might become a sitting room. “Sometimes I just play with the space,” observes Tom. And light will flood that space, thanks to high ceilings, often with exposed beams, large windows and arched doorways. Tom tends to construct walls of 2’ x 8’ thickness with rounded corners, which, he explains, give the house character and an innovative look. Other unusual touches might include niches built into walls—perfect for placing objets d’art—and chandeliers that operate on lifts for cleaning and changing bulbs. Another Hatcher signature? Textured sheetrock, an effect achieved by applying one color over another and then rubbing it away. Depending on the glaze that’s used, walls can literally shimmer.

“Ninety-five percent of what we do is listening,” says Donna. The Bells, for example, wanted to install a stone cast fireplace, a common building feature in Dallas, but uncommon in the Piedmont. Nonetheless, voilà! The Hatchers located Greenbriar Precast that designed and installed one. There was also the matter of 10- to 11-foot ceilings for the downstairs that consists of a home theater, full kitchen and workout room. “We didn’t want it to feel like a basement, explains Alison Bell. So Tom dug deep into the lot and rearranged the land to accommodate the request.

As for the details of the house, says Bell, “Donna sat shoulder-to-shoulder with me, picking out cabinets, or lighting fixtures, and the details of every single room: ‘Do you want this?’ or ‘Do you want fluting? She wouldn’t let me make a mistake.” Even some of the subcontractors, such as the trim carpenter, got into the action. “I’d come home and he’d say, ‘Look what I’ve got for you today!’” recalls Bell with a laugh. This was a creative collaboration and, well, fun.

Sometimes, though, clients aren’t always right. There was the couple who built a large colonial, and wanted 8-foot ceilings instead of 10. Or the upstairs sitting room that the Bells hadn’t wanted initially. Tom’s gentle persuasion convinced them that adding the room would be cost-effective. “You can get a lot nearer to what it costs in the appraisal if you use every square foot of your structure,” he explains. The upshot? “We use all of it!” says Bell. Similarly, the other Lewisville couple nixed the idea of an elevator in their three-story house, only to regret their decision. They are now having the Hatchers install one.

It’s not unusual for the Hatchers to build multiple times for a customer, perhaps, as Donna observes, because both builder and client feel a void when a project ends. “We miss our clients,” she muses, “because they’ve become a part of our lives.” Or as Tom simply states: “They become our friends.”

T.D. Hatcher Custom Homes has experience building houses anywhere from 1,700 to 22,000 square feet. With an Unlimited Building License, the company can build residential and commercial structures in any price range. In addition to custom homebuilding and remodeling, the company has options on numerous building sites in the Winston-Salem area.

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Vendor List:
Counter tops: Rocky Tops, www.rockytopsnc.com / Stone Cast fireplace: Greenbriar Precast, www.greenbriarprecast.com / Faux-finishing (textured sheetrock): Mark Darnell, Ann-Mark’s Studio

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