Dream Home: Hamburg home nears completion for a good cause
By Atanas Golev
Photo credit: Adam Brester with A.B. Photo
Lexington family-owned builders DB Homes is working together with St. Jude to build a Dream Home in our neighborhood. The house is being built in the Tuscany Subdivision off of Sir Barton Way and is scheduled to be completed in May. The goal is to raise over $700,000 for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Entrants purchase a ticket to register to win the home. Participating builders from other communities have said they’re not building homes, they’re building miracles.
It all started when a representative from St. Jude approached Drew Brester and his wife and business partner Erin. They immediately said yes to donating the time and materials to build a St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway house in Lexington.
“As parents soon to have three kids under the age of four, we can’t even fathom the struggles we would face if one our kids were to develop a life-threatening disease or condition,” said Brester. “St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the lifeline for families that need miracles.”
St. Jude Children’s Hospital is located in Memphis. It’s an internationally recognized Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Its pioneering research and treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases have ranked it as one of the best pediatric cancer hospitals in the country. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing, and food—all costs are covered by fundraising.
The Dream Home Giveaway is one of the largest single-event fundraisers for St. Jude nationwide, and has raised over $290 million, more than $23 million annually. Thanks to DB Homes, Lexington is now the 30th market in the United States to have a St. Jude Dream Home.
Drew Brester is excited about the project. He admits “There’s absolutely no better way we’ve seen for us to be able to contribute to such a worthy cause.”
DB Homes has donated the time and materials needed to build the home. Lexington residents have a chance to own it. Anyone can purchase a $100 ticket for a chance to win the home. In total, 7,000 tickets will be offered, making up the total $700,000 that DB Homes hopes to raise for St. Jude. The tickets went on sale March 22.
According to Brester, the Tuscany Subdivision was chosen because of its right mix of prime location and the opportunity to build a house with some major “Wow-Factor.”
“By building in Tuscany, we’ve been able to introduce new products to Lexington that haven’t been seen before and still be able to offer a home at a price point that people can see themselves owning and maintaining,” said Brester. “Our target ‘retail’ price for the home was in the range of $475K to $500K – and we believe we’ve accomplished just that.”
The approximately 3,400 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home will include a variety of special features. The living room will have 18 feet of custom built-in cabinetry surrounding a ventless fireplace beneath the TV location. The dining room will include a wet bar sink with glass doors and LED under the cabinet lighting. The kitchen will feature a 10′ x 4′ granite island, a stainless Bosch appliance package that includes a speed oven, and a deck-mounted pot filler.
The huge master suite will include a triple-tiered tray ceiling. It will also have separate 60-inch “his & hers” vanities split by French entry doors into the bathroom, a standalone tub with a Brizo tub filler and tile feature wall, a 2-person file shower with body sprays on both sides and a ceiling-mounted rain can shower head. Last but not least, the master closet will larger than a 1-car garage.
The exterior of the house will be composed of 4-sided brick with stone accents. There will also be a partially covered deck for outdoor living and a walk-out basement.
There are still a couple of months to go until the construction is completed, and it hasn’t been without its share of challenges. The historic Lexington snowfalls threatened to delay the construction over and over again.
“We’ve had guys working weekends in sub-zero temperatures” said Brester. “I’ve lived in Lexington for almost my entire life and I can’t remember two 12-plus inch snowfalls in a two week period!”
According to Brester, the most amazing aspect of the project has been the willingness of Lexington’s Homebuilding Community to donate their time, labor and materials. “After DB Homes introduced the project to our team of suppliers and subcontractors back in September, the response was overwhelming. The commitments to donate filled the sign-up sheet almost immediately. Suppliers shipped product to DB Homes rather than selling it to another contractor for profit. The support from our vendors has been incredible.”
Local businesses have also stepped up to help by offering secondary prizes for people who purchase tickets. Local sponsors have funded prizes including a flat screen TV, an outdoor kitchen suite, and a $2,500 Kroger shopping spree. There will be additional prize opportunities for anyone who tours the house during the open house period (May 16 through June 21).
Brester says that with so much help from the community already, the only other need to be fulfilled by the community is for people to purchase the tickets for the drawing. “At this time, the best way for the Lexington community to help the project is to purchase a ticket, and to share the opportunity with people they know who’d also like to donate to such an amazing cause.”
Although St Jude is located in Memphis, the research collected there is shared freely throughout the United States and all over the world.
And because Dream Home tickets are capped at 7,000 tickets, the early birds will get the worm. Brester says, “I’d be pretty disappointed if I was number 7,001 and I had to wait until next year to get one!”
Ticket info is available at www.dreamhome.org.
ABOUT THE DREAM HOME PROGRAM
The St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway was created in 1991 by Dr. Donald Mack, a pediatric physician from Shreveport, Louisiana. Dr. Mack has relied on St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to treat young patients with catastrophic diseases and was the first doctor to send an out-of-state patient to St. Jude.
The first St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway house was constructed in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised $160,000 for the hospital. Since that first giveaway, the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway in Shreveport has become an annual fundraiser, raising more than $23 million for the hospital.
Today, the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway is one of the largest single-event fundraisers for St. Jude nationwide and has raised more than $290 million.
This year, the program will include more than 30 St. Jude Dream Home Giveaways.
The support helps raise money for St. Jude where no family ever receives a bill from St. Jude for their child’s care.
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This article also appears on pages 10-11 of the April print edition of the Hamburg Journal.
