Winchester Homes - In The News

Winchester Homes Opens Up New Era of Homebuilding in MD & VA

New Lifestyle & Luxury Homes Bring More Open Space & Light into Flexible, Functional Living Spaces

Building on more than 25 years of experience in the Washington metropolitan area, Winchester Homes has literally opened up a new era for local new home buyers by introducing two new core product lines that provide flexible and highly functional living spaces with plenty of open space and natural light. The company also announced that it is expanding into several new markets.

"The new Winchester is exciting not only when you see the flexibility, functionality and grandeur of our new floor plans, but also when you see us expanding our home offerings into entirely new markets that allow us to offer homes in a much wider price range," said Larry Burrows, president of Winchester Homes.

According to Burrows, new market niches that are being addressed by Winchester include smaller sized single family homes and, in the near future, two-over-two floor plans. Complementing these smaller products is the luxury Camberley Homes division, plus a new Active Adult division to be launched later this spring.

The foundation of the new Winchester is a "completely retooled core product line," says David M. Watters, Winchester's Design Development Manager who guides the company's product design and development team. According to Watters, Winchester "has succeeded in developing exciting new floor plans for our core products that bring more natural light and open space into living spaces that have the flexibility and functionality demanded by today’s on-the-go new home buyers."

During the next eight to 10 months, the "Lifestyle" series will introduce seven floor plans ranging from 2,550 square feet to 3,600 square feet. The "Luxury" series will offer eight floor plans ranging from 3,700 square feet to 5,984 square feet.

With Winchester's signature Your Home. Your Way. customization program supporting these new core product lines "as strongly as ever," Watters says area home buyers have "a unique opportunity to move features around to suit their specific needs." Your Home. Your Way. (YHYW) is one thing that hasn’t changed in Winchester's new product series, Watters emphasizes. "This is the core value that continues to distinguish us from the competition," he points out. "Your Home. Your Way. also continues to bring us repeat buyers, because when customers move up they continue to request YHYW customizations."

Watters notes that the "Lifestyle" and "Luxury" product lines reflect the latest home design trends found on the West Coast, Gulf Coast and South Atlantic Coast. "In other areas of the country," Watters says, "ceilings are higher and sight lines go all the way to the rear of the house. Exterior elevations take a fresher approach with more color and texture."

In the Washington area, Watters admits, new home buyers tend to have more traditional design preferences. But, he says, "We felt it was time to take a fresher approach to the standard two-story, center hall colonial. Our two biggest design challenges were creating more open space and bringing in more natural light." As a result, the new "Lifestyle" designs feature nine-foot ceilings on the first and second floors. In the "Luxury" series, 10- and 11-foot ceilings are the rule.

The retooled Winchester designs, says Watters, have "a tremendous amount of flexibility and functionality built into the home. We’ve been able to capture more personal living space through sitting rooms, home management areas off the kitchen and finished offices. Garages are much larger and we’ve also made sure to include additional functional touches such as ample mud rooms and generously sized pantries."

When it comes to kitchens in the new designs, notes Watters, the Winchester approach is "bigger is better – definitely. We know that when people come over for a party, most of the time they tend to gather in the kitchen. That is why all of our new models feature kitchens that are proportionate to the house size."

The Your Home. Your Way. customization program gives buyers the added flexibility to reconfigure kitchen designs to suit their lifestyle or cultural preferences, Watters adds. Gourmet cooks, for example, can use Your Home. Your Way. to add prep kitchens, presentation kitchens or larger cooking surfaces. Expanded storage areas for spices and gourmet cookware is another kitchen customization possibility.

While flexibility and functionality are two of the hallmarks of the new Winchester products, Watters says Winchester's design team has not overlooked the importance of bringing beauty into the home. "We know that 21st century home buyers are looking for more functionality," he says, "but they still want grandeur and the 'wow' factor. That's why we've made it a point to build multiple memory points into every home. We think there is a treat around every corner in our new designs."

 In the long run, Watters says the home buying experience is all about warmth. "Whether it's a small house or a large house, somebody has to come home to it at the end of the day," he concludes. "Our challenge as designers is to address those things we know customers want and the things they didn’t even realize they want. We think we’ve met that challenge in our new 'Lifestyle' and 'Luxury' series homes."

About Winchester Homes

For more than 25 years, Winchester Homes, Inc. has provided home buyers in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area with the Your Home. Your Way. design customization experience. During this period, the company has built more than 17,000 homes in suburban Maryland and Virginia. Winchester Homes has 11 single-family and townhome communities in Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland and 12 single-family and townhome communities in Loudoun, Fairfax and Spotsylvania counties in Virginia. Winchester Homes was named 2006 Builder of the Year by the Maryland National Capital Building Industry Association. For more information, visit www.winchesterhomes.com.