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Name Dropping!

We learned a lot on a recent historic home tour. Read more...

You never know what you’ll hear, if you just keep your ears open.

Recently a Quincy group that promotes historic preservation of homes held a Spring Home Tour.  Even though we are builders in the 21st century, we are always interested to study the styles, materials and methods used by the craftsmen who worked in our town 100 years ago, or earlier.

As we toured a home in Quincy’s Historic District on a warm Sunday afternoon, we were following along with small clusters of people as the groups were shepherded from room to room.  In this particular home, the current owners had done some extensive remodeling - maintaining the “historic” feel of the home, but using modern materials and style in a few spaces.  The 2nd floor master bathroom had obviously undergone recent renovation, and it looked beautiful for all the guests taking this home tour.

As we followed a couple ladies up to the door to peak in the bathroom, the woman standing directly in front of me turned to her partner and said, “That’s really nice.  It looks like a Koontz project.”

Immediately a huge grin spread across my face.  I couldn’t resist making a comment and so as she turned to allow me to look in, I said to her, “You only said that to make me feel good - didn’t you?”  Her eyes were as wide as saucers as she quickly asked me if I was one of the Koontz family.  I assured her that I was; and that in fact, we had NOT been the ones to renovate this particular bathroom, but I agreed it was well done.

This unknown admirer went on to share that she knew some people for whom we had recently built a new home, and that some elements of this bathroom reminded her of that home.  That’s why she was quick to associate our name with the project.  I thanked her for the compliment - even though I told her we couldn’t take the credit in this instance.

Best of all, though, was the chance to get a little unsolicited and honest feedback about what our name means in our community.  On this day I learned that if you see a project well done, with style, someone might just say, “It looks like a Koontz project.”