Thoughtfully Designed
By Kimberley Wray
Standing out from the crowd of talented builders in the Triad isn’t easy. Darren Burke does it by being something of a mind reader. He and his wife Sherry combine a deep love and understanding of style with an uncanny ability to figure out what their customers want…even when the customers may not yet know it themselves.
Darren’s insight into want people want stems from his major in Sociology at UNC-Charlotte. His ability to understand peoples’ needs, coupled with a life-long passion for architecture, enables him to consistently produce homes that reflect their owners’ vision. Each is marked by a cohesive, flowing style, and is invariably perfectly sited on the property. Sherry coordinates the home’s interior.
As a team, the Burkes have a desire to continually create something new. “When we finish a home, we derive a tremendous amount of satisfaction from knowing that we created not only a great architectural structure, but also a place where someone is going to raise a family and make memories,” Darren says. “That’s very rewarding.”
Gerald Deschenes of Pfafftown still loves coming home to the Darren Burke spec home he and his wife purchased in Timberfield two years ago. “I love driving up to the house because it’s very distinctive in both its style and the way it sits on the property,” he relates. In making it uniquely theirs, “Darren really brought a lot to the table, suggesting things that we never would have thought of,” Deschenes says. “He recommended wainscoting and a single brick wall for the bar area in the finished basement, for example which makes it look kind of pub-ish, and extending the wood flooring that we have in rest of the house to the basement. The detail and the level of craftsmanship in the woodwork, coupled with his follow-through were just wonderful.”
These days, Brookberry Farms is the focus of Darren and Sherry’s efforts. “The builders in Brookberry Farm have been selected from the top builders in the area, and we are fortunate to be a part of that,” Darren says. “Success is built on success. A lot of people are transferring into the Winston-Salem area, and they want to live in a place where they feel confident that property values will remain high and continue to stay that way.”
Indeed, Melanie Caserta says she is thrilled with Brookberry Farms and her Darren Burke home. “We looked at a lot of homes before we decided to build, and a couple of the homes that we liked were built by Darren. So we interviewed him along with other builders and were really impressed with his overall demeanor. But right after we decided to build, we found out we were having a second child. Not only was he personable and easy to work with, he did a great job of managing our time and budget constraints and actually kept everything ahead of schedule. We really had fun working with him and with Sherry on the selection process of all the materials for the home.”
