Jeff Seal Custom Homes

With an economy that is not at its peak, our communities have become cookie cutter, mass-produced houses. Custom homes are a luxury to have in America right now but no matter where they are located, the cost, or who lives there, these homes are seemingly amazing. Jeff Seal is an architect, who has the privilege of creating these luxury homes in Lubbock.

The two homes that our class got to tour were still under construction but with our imagination we were able to see how amazing these houses would be. The first house was located off of 103rd street and would cost about a million dollars, really a steal for the quality and work of the house. This first house was a French style home and has high vaulted ceilings and brickwork. Every detail in the house was carefully thought out, from the windows and doors being in alignment, up to the lighting and ironwork in the stair railing. This house had four bedrooms and a custom theater, and one guest room had thirteen-foot ceilings, amazing!

The next house we were able to see was not nearly as complete as the first. This house was still in the wood framed stage, but this didn’t hold back our creativity and eye to imagine what the finished product would be. This five million dollar home was massive. Filled with groin vaults, piano rooms, high vaulted ceilings, a prayer room and two master bedrooms this house is going to be heaven.

Jeff Seal has created great homes and a great name for himself, here in Lubbock as well as other cities. Jeff and his team take pride in what they do and they do not skip around the details. These homes served as inspiration to us and gave us all something to look forward to in our future with design.

Leftwich Chapmans Flooring

A recent field trip that we went on was to Leftwich Chapmans Flooring. This is a local store here in Lubbock that sells flooring; anything from hard cork flooring to carpets made from cornhusks, this flooring company offers it all! Mr. Leftwich and Mrs. Chapman have been working together for about 26 years, and have owned their own flooring company for about 9 of those years.

         Hardwood flooring is their number one selling product, the next top selling is carpet. This store is divided into three different sections; hard wood, carpet and tiles. The tour started in the hardwood section, where Mr. Leftwich showed us some amazing wood flooring, high end and lower end. The most interesting and newly developed flooring is the leather flooring, and cork. These floorings come in section pieces like wood flooring does. When the cork and leather floorings were brought up, you question if these flooring materials are durable, well they are! With the sealants and treatments the material goes though, these are very durable long lasting flooring, and can even work better in a space for you then wood could.

         Carpet, which went down hill in sales when wood and tile became a big trend in homes and commercial spaces, has come a long way in the past 10 years. Now being made and cut in many ways such as using cornhusks and different knitting techniques has really helped the sales of carpet. The softest carpet was the one made from cornhusk, very opposite of what you first would think the carpet would feel like being made from that material.

         Next, after the carpet all the girls ran to the tile section, the colors and textures were amazing! This was a popular spot in the field trip because with tile, anything is possible. The combination of color, texture, size, and use are endless; it really Is overwhelming!

The last stop on the field trip was about laminate wood and tile flooring. This flooring look has really advanced from the big hit in the 60s and 80s! Now the laminate is so realistic it’s almost ridiculous to buy the real thing. This flooring is much easier to take care of then any of the others and can be at a cheaper cost for you as well!

         This local flooring company was a great experience to learn a little bit more about flooring, and to actually see it in front of you was very informative. In the end we all learned a few things about flooring but it was also a great day for us to all get together on a rainy morning and be able to get excited together about things ‘us interior designers’ get excited about. :)