A Passion for Building

Vern Palmer was part of the first Tour of Homes in Central Oregon in 1989, and he’ll be part of this year’s edition, too.

He remembers when the tour included a dozen homes in the early years and when it reached 82 homes in 2007.

He recalls the days when wood shake roofs were common and vinyl windows hadn’t fully caught on.

And he also remembers an 11th-hour challenge he encountered when trying to finish the home he was putting on display for that first tour.

The carpet layer with whom Palmer had contracted was overbooked. As the days and hours dwindled and the tour approached, Palmer was desperate to find a replacement.

“It looked like I wasn’t going to be able to get my carpet in in time for the show,” recalled Vern — co-owner, with his wife, Gretchen, of Palmer Homes. “So I had to really stretch and find somebody that I could keep awake all night to get my carpet in before the show opened.”

A charter builder in the Tour of Homes, Palmer Homes is believed to be the only builder that participated in the first version and is still a part of the tour. A project of the Central Oregon Builders Association (COBA), the tour this year runs July 15-17 and July 22-24.

Much like the building industry in general and Palmer Homes in particular, the Tour of Homes has undergone significant changes through the years, changes that have had as much of an impact on Gretchen and Vern Palmer as perhaps anyone else in the industry.

They started their business small and nurtured it as it grew. Both Gretchen and Vern served as presidents of COBA and the Oregon Home Builders Association. They had to watch as the recession whipsawed their business — and the industry. And after all of it, home-building is still a passion.

“Their starting back up again speaks to the fact that they love the industry,” said Tim Knopp, executive vice president of the COBA. “They love what they do and they want to continue to do it as long as they can.”

Started as modest business

When Palmer Homes started in 1979, it was a two-person operation: Gretchen and Vern. As Bend boomed, Palmer Homes’ business grew to where there were nearly 50 employees.

“They essentially started with nothing around 1980,” Knopp said. “By 2007, they were probably one of the top five production builders in Central Oregon, building probably about 100-plus homes a year.”

“And then during the recession,” Gretchen Palmer said, “that all changed.”

Gretchen said Palmer Homes did not participate in the Tour of Homes for five years, beginning in 2010. “And last year we were back in,” she said.

“We have nine employees and aren’t looking to become another 50-employee company,” she added. “But we are certainly back in the building business and enjoying it very much.”

The Tour of Homes has evolved similarly. In 1989 when the event began, the price range of homes on the tour was $60,000 to $250,000, with several in the $60,000 range. The home that Vern and Gretchen had on the tour that year was a 2,501 square foot, three bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home for $184,900. This year, the range (not including tiny homes) is $330,000 to $2.4 million, with 12 homes priced at more than $1 million. Palmer Homes has two homes in the tour this year, with one in Bend that is 2,233 square feet, three bedroom, two-and-a-half bath at $399,900; and one in Redmond that is 2,302 square feet, with three bedrooms and two baths listed for judging purposes at $460,000.

The homes involved have ranged from about a dozen — all in Bend — that first year to the peak in 2007 to this year’s 60-plus homes from 40 builders.

Gretchen, who worked for COBA for about five years, said the tour has reached Madras, Prineville, Redmond, Sisters, Sunriver, Crosswater and La Pine. This year’s will include homes in Bend, Redmond, Sisters and the resort areas of Eagle Crest (near Redmond) and Brasada (near Powell Butte).

Gretchen Palmer and Knopp agree that a tour featuring 80-plus homes was excessive.

“It was just overwhelming for the public,” Gretchen said.

“The average over the years has been about 40 homes,” Knopp said. “At 40, you see people try to complete the entire tour. Once you get past 40, you think about it, (seeing all the homes) in a couple of weekends is really hard to do.”

The Palmers can recount other changes about the homes in the tour. The efficiency of appliances such as air conditioning units and furnaces has improved by orders of magnitude. More durable materials have replaced wood siding and roofing shakes. High-efficiency windows are the norm.

“I think that today, the builders are a lot quicker to react to the change in taste,” Vern said. “Thirty years ago, 40 years ago, the builders here had grown up with a Skil saw and handsaws and planes. It was a hands-on thing, where today so many more things that you use are manufactured. And the materials you use are different. The look of the house is totally changed.”

Showcase for builders’ products

In other industries, manufacturers and retailers display their products in a showroom. That wouldn’t work well for homebuilders, which is why something like the Tour of Homes benefits them and consumers.

“The builders tell me it’s the best opportunity they have to connect with the public and show them what they’re doing,” Knopp said. “And they’re using it as an opportunity to introduce [the public] to their building company and the way they build homes and what type of materials they use, the quality of their construction.”

“If you want to be a player in this economy,” Vern said, “you have to have your product available for people to know what you’re selling.”

And, he added, “It’s a lot of fun.”

Even more so, of course, when he has a carpet layer he can count on.