Homes For Our Troops Acquires Queensguard Home Site from Atlantic Builders

Homes For Our Troops has just acquired a lot in Atlantic Builders’ Queensguard community in Stafford County, Virginia. Atlantic will be acting as the general contractor for construction of a home for Sgt. Jude Recendez. The home will be similar to the home Atlantic Builders completed for Sgt. Steven Kiernan in June 2010.

Sgt. Jude Recendez suffered the loss of both his legs while deployed to Baghdad, Iraq in October 2006. Sgt. Recendez is an active outdoorsman who enjoys mountain biking, road cycling and kayaking. He is a Fine Arts student who enjoys ceramics and pottery and aspires to own his own workshop and studio upon completing his education.

Homes For Our Troops plans to complete over 30 homes in the US for severely injured veterans and their families in 2010, and as many as 40 in 2011. With the help of Atlantic Builders, Homes For Our Troops plans to complete at least one additional home in Stafford County in 2011 for Sgt. Kenny Lyons. Lyons is currently Sgt. Steven Kiernan’s roommate. According to David Brandon, Land Acquisition Specialist for Homes For Our Troops, “ There are probably over 1,000 severely injured veterans who would qualify for our program.”

Atlantic Builders and our trade partners were able to complete Sgt. Kiernan’s home thanks to the donation of all the labor and materials. “To complete the next two homes here in the Fredericksburg area, we will need other regional trade partners and suppliers to chip in so that we can continue to build the homes as close to 100% donated as possible,” says Gene Brown, Vice President of Production at Atlantic Builders.

If you are a trade partner who wishes to provide labor and/or material, please contact Gene Brown at gbrown@atlanticbuilders.com .

For more information about this project please visit www.homesforourtroops.org/recendez

To make donations of time or funds please call 866-7-TROOPS or email info@homesforourtroops.org.

Adam M. Fried
Chief Executive Officer
Atlantic Builders

Atlantic Builders Welcomes Melanie Edwards Back To The Team!

Atlantic Builders is thrilled to welcome back Melanie Edwards as Design Director. Melanie rejoined our team on August 30^th.

As Atlantic Builders president Tom Schoedel noted, “ It is fantastic to be a part of the modest turnaround in new home sales in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area and to be able to bring back our first full time hire. Everyone – customers, trade partners, and fellow team members – loves working with Melanie”.

Like most of our tight team here at Atlantic Builders, Melanie is a great multi-tasker. While her primary responsibility is to coordinate our design center (now located at the Breckenridge model home), she is involved in almost all facets of our company.

“What I do touches every piece—not just floor plans, brochures, optional features selections, and design selections, but takeoffs, purchasing, and marketing,” Melanie pointed out. “I get the biggest kick out of putting all the little pieces into a gracious living experience,” she enthused.

Melanie manifests a rare combination of talents that includes a great sense of color and design flair, amazing people skills, and tremendous attention to detail that makes her formidable at helping homebuyers make the best design option and color selections for their new homes. And as Atlantic Builders’ sales continue to increase, she will provide superior service to customers in the design center, while allowing our sales team of Michele Gillenwater and Charlie Baity to spend to spend more time with prospective and newer customers.

Melanie has devoted much of her life to helping the disadvantaged, the homeless and the disabled as part of her deep faith. During her short “sabbatical” from Atlantic Builders, she amped up her community service work by helping Hope Tree Family Services to conduct in-depth needs assessments and to create a database about the people with intellectual disabilities who live in that organization’s Fredericksburg area group homes. She has also spent countless hours with the people served by Hope Tree providing TLC.

Melanie has also been heavily involved in helping the over 100 children born in refugee camps in Rwanda/Burundi who have relocated to Fredericksburg in the past few years. She has helped organize day camps and ESL preschool for children mostly from Tanzania, and has worked for years with the Fredericksburg Baptist Church providing spaghetti dinners weekly for the hungry and homeless.

Melanie enthusiastically recommends the book Same Kind of Different As Me (especially page 104) by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, about the authors’ shared experiences in a Ft Worth homeless shelter.

Melanie feels “it is important for us to build relationships and families and not just homes”. A little wistful about becoming an empty nester, Melanie has just seen her daughter off to James Madison University. And she has a lighter side, too: She is a “very heavily weaponed assassin” called Bella Donna in Mafia Wars on Facebook.

Guess that means that working with Melanie is an offer that nobody can refuse!

Adam M. Fried
Chief Executive Officer

Now is The Time To Buy!!

The Wall Street Journal ran an article July 24, 2010 pointing out how record low interest rates and low home prices “are presenting unusual opportunities in the housing market these days—even for so-called underwater borrowers.” Some intrepid homeowners are intentionally taking a loss on their current house, and writing a big check to retire their old mortgage IN ORDER TO BUY TWICE THE HOME FOR NOT MUCH MORE MONEY.

This is a great time to buy a home in the Fredericksburg area. Northern Virginia is one of the top new homes markets in the US now. Prices for homes in the Fredericksburg area have bottomed and are starting to move up. As The Wall Street Journal noted, one family bought a new home because they “expect better price appreciation in their new home.” With a young daughter and plans for another child, they needed more space anyway. “We don’t want to wait for the market to come back. We wanted a better quality of life now.”

Atlantic Builders is ready for buyers who want to move in immediately to a new home. As of August 4^th, we have begun construction on seven unsold new homes and have permits ready for many more. This way, buyers can more quickly take advantage of the values in the market, as well as historically low mortgage rates.

Of course, we are ready if you want to build a new home exactly your way also! Please visit our website at www.atlanticbuilders.com or call 540-891-0001 or 540-295-4284 for more information.

Here is a link to the Wall Street Journal article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704421304575383490870014662.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews

Sgt. Kiernan's House is Complete!!!!

Sgt. Kiernan’s house is complete and is ready to deliver to him.

The key ceremony is this Saturday, June 12th, at 11 AM. Directions are on our website(www.atlanticbuilders.com) – just follow the Homes For Our Troops button in the lower right hand corner of the home page.

100% of the cost of the home was donated by the subcontractors and suppliers who worked on this project. We can’t thank you enough for what you did.

We would like to thank everyone who donated to this amazing cause!!

Carpet House – flooring install labor and materials

United Granite – kitchen and bath countertops and sink

MidSouth Building Supply – cabinet install labor

Quality Cabinets – cabinets

Big Al’s Landscaping – yard grading, sod and landscape package install labor

Noah Turner Turf Farms – sod

Commonwealth Irrigation – irrigation system

Automatic Overhead Garage Door – garage door and opener materials and labor

Gotta-Go Porta Potties – portable sanitation services

TAC Tile – ceramic tile materials and labor

Railing Systems – wrought iron rail materials and labor

Cary Quality – shelving, insulation, bath hardware, and mirror materials and labor

Virginia Gutters – gutter materials and labor

Mitchell’s Septic – yard grading and septic system installation

Dynasty Cleaning – cleaning services

GE Appliances – appliances

Virginia Water Conditioning – water treatment system materials and labor

John L Danielson Jr. Well drilling – well

Franklin Electric – water pump and system

Ferguson Enterprises – bath and lighting fixtures

Best Buy – flat screen TV, surround sound system and TV stand

Bruce Hardwood Flooring – hardwood and install materials

Hartwood Volunteer Fire Dept. – sod watering

Ingleside Plantation Nursery – landscape package

Mitchell's Septic Service - clearing, excavating and grading

Sullivan, Donahoe, and Ingalls - site engineering

White Oak Equipment - equipment

James River Equipment - equipment

Sisson Company - containers

Hirschler Fleischer - legal

Timm Engineering - architecture

Stafford County - permitting and inspections

Dominion Soil Services - soil services and inspections

NoVA Blue - printing

Luckstone - stone

VAMAC - septic equipment

CC Carpentry - framing labor

Stock Building Supply - wall panels, windows, doors, trim, and lumber

Structural Technologies - roof trusses

Rent A Crane - crane,

Bradco - shingles

Archer’s Exteriors - roofing labor

Mid-South Building Supply - siding

Napco - siding

JH Kim & Associates - siding labor

First Choice Heating & Cooling - HVAC labor

York - HVAC equipment

Southern Spotsylvania Plumbing - plumbing labor

Ferguson Enterprises - plumbing material

KL Rowlands Electric - electrical labor

Ferguson Enterprises & Rexel - electrical material

Patriot Sound & Security - low voltage labor and material

Build a Home for the Brave

“Build a Home for the Brave” was the title of an article in the February 2010 issue of the Fredericksburg Area Builders Association newsletter. As I read the story, I somehow knew we were going to do just that. Now, four months later, the home is complete and we await the key turnover ceremony from Homes For Our Troops to Sgt. Steven Kiernan.

Our first step was bringing our trade partners in one day and showing them the video Sgt. Kiernan had made with Homes For Our Troops. Each meeting ended the same way. There would be silence in the room as everyone waited their turn to sign up. Three months later, I watched as many of those same people and more lined up to sign a banner for Sgt. Kiernan wishing him well in his new home.

The team that assembled to build this home broke three records with Homes For Our Troops. They earned honors for the most accomplished during a three-day “Build Brigade” – they were done by the end of day two! The home was built within a 24-day cycle time (and was built beautifully, I might add.) And it was 100% donated to Homes For Our Troops.

I knew we could do it, I just didn’t know how well. Gene Brown took this project and executed it perfectly. He will tell you it was my tears that got him involved, but I know better. It was his heart that got him involved, just like mine had done to me. There was hardly a day that went by that I wasn’t awed by someone or something that touched this project. We all gained something, and for me personally it was much more than I gave. To witness the amazing gift of compassion and caring exhibited by everyone involved was priceless. There is a wonderful bond that develops between people when they share in such a rare and special experience.

One example of this came for me about 6:00 pm on the first day of the Build Brigade. We brought sandwiches donated by Chick-Fil-A to the workers who did not want to stop to eat. They had been working hard since 9:00 am with only a short break for lunch. We walked around handing out sandwiches, which they accepted with grateful smiles. (It would have been a great Chick-Fil-A commercial, Gene pointed out.) After we were finished eating, I picked up a trash bag to clean up the leftovers. I had a handful of trash in the bag when I turned to find one of the workers with an armful of trash to add to the bag. One by one they all stopped to pick up trash and the site was clean in no time. We were helping each other help Sgt. Steven Kiernan. That was a wonderful moment.

Homes For Our Troops deserve an amazing amount of credit and support for what they are doing to help our wounded veterans. They have completed 50 homes and expect to have 30 more done this year – changing the lives of so many heroes. In the process, they are allowing the rest of us the opportunity to experience the gift of giving. Whether it was the labor or the concrete or the lumber needed to construct the home, everyone we asked said, “Yes”. I discovered we were all looking for a way to make a difference and show our appreciation. I like to think that we also gave hope and comfort to Sgt. Kiernan and his fellow heroes by showing that people do care and are forever grateful for their service and sacrifice.

Thank you to everyone that contributed and worked so hard to “Build a Home for the Brave.”

Dawn Settle

Sgt. Kiernan's House Is Ready For Construction!!

Sgt. Kiernan's house is cleared and ready for some construction to begin!

Atlantic Builders would like to thank and recognize those that have

already contributed services and/or materials up to this point.

Mitchell's Septic Service - clearing, excavating and grading

Sullivan, Donahoe, and Ingalls - site engineering

White Oak Equipment - equipment

James River Equipment - equipment

Sisson Company - containers

Hirschler Fleischer - legal

Timm Engineering - architecture

Stafford County - permitting and inspections

Dominion Soil Services - soil services and inspections

NoVA Blue - printing

Luckstone - stone

VAMAC - septic equipment

We will continue to recognize the donors to this project as the work

progresses. It's a long list! Apologies if there are those we've

inadvertently left off. If we did, please let us know and we'll fix it!

Tom Schoedel

President

Atlantic Builders Joins Forces With Homes For Our Troops

We have decided to join forces with Homes For Our Troops, a great organization that builds homes for our severely injured veterans at no cost. (www.homesforourtroops.com).

We are building a home for Sgt. Steven Kiernan of the United States Marine Corp who lost both his legs while serving in Irag in May 2008.

We are so happy to be able to do something for a brave member of our military.

Follow the progress on Sgt. Kiernan's house both here on our blog and on our Facebook fan page.

Click on the following link for more on Sgt. Kiernan: http://www.homesforourtroops.org/site/PageServer?pagename=StevenKiernan