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MILL-BUILT ARCHITECTURE for NEW OLD HOMES

In the centuries old tradition of "Master Builder", Connor Homes has pioneered a new method of building homes that draws from the highest standards of sophisticated site- built custom carpentry, coupled with a variety of off-site design and millwork innovations. This new amalgamation of the very best established building practices and millwork cutting and assembly techniques has forged a building process that defines Connor Homes as one of a kind in the building industry. Connor Homes calls this new systems-built process Mill-built Architecture.

A distinguishing departure from other systems-built processes is that Mill-built Architecture makes no concessions or compromises for quality or design standards from traditional custom design/ build methods. In fact, Mill-built Architecture is able to enhance the already high standards of sophisticated custom design/build methods by incorporating a diverse array of high tech mill woodworking machinery driven by architectural software that not only gives the company the capability of designing virtually any sophisticated architectural concept, but also enables it to reproduce architectural details more accurately and  with better fit and dimensional control than is often possible with the limitations of on-site tools and labor.

While Mill-built Architecture is able to upgrade overall quality of sophisticated design details, the system does it with an efficiency that far outpaces the ability to reproduce the same details with on-site labor, and so the end result is a higher quality product for less cost.

Off-site architectural construction and millwork is not new. It has long been recognized as having the potential to create a better product for less. Indeed, parts and pieces of homes have been built off-site for centuries. But in the past half century or more, systems built homes, for the most part, have focused on cost savings to the detriment of the quality inherent in millwork production technology. With the advent of Connor Homes' Mill-built Architecture system, the "better" side of the equation is successfully married to the "less" in costs, making this a truly new and innovative approach to custom high-end building.

In addition to the obvious benefits of building house parts and pieces with production techniques and machinery, the "integrated" dimension of Mill-built Architecture also include a methodology that melds the often disparate and frustrating related disciplines of architectural design, estimating, materials take-offs and purchasing, scheduling and even financing, all under one roof and one supervision.

Connor Homes has spent decades analyzing the pros and cons of many of today's accepted systems-built processes, and uses the best aspects from many, while modifying and improving, as well as inventing its own approaches to solving the quest to deliver time and tradition-honored quality home construction with efficiency. The Mill-built Architecture system it has pioneered is the result of those many years of study and research, and interestingly, while the system relies on some innovative technology and methods, it also relies on the bedrock premise that the system not only mimics traditional high end custom built quality, but actually improves upon it.

WOOD TRUTHS

As a natural resource, the tree is an absolute wonder. It grows naturally, above ground in a configuration that makes it easy to harvest, it replenishes itself, it exists in some form in nearly every corner of the planet, and with simple manufacturing effort that has minimal environmental impact, is sliced into a valuable building material that will last for hundreds of years. It also has the added environmental benefit that while growing it gives off oxygen while absorbing carbon dioxide. But are we in danger of running out of this amazing resource? Certainly, the destruction of the rain forests that has occurred in the past few decades represents a true environmental crisis that is rightfully being addressed, but the fervor to stop the harvesting of trees in these crisis regions seems to have caused a generalization of the problem so that the public is convinced that the planet is in danger of becoming a treeless landscape. This perception gives rise to the wholesale endorsement of engineered wood products as a proper environmental response to a "diminishing" natural resource. But perception is not reality.

• The United States of America is presently covered by 750 million acres of forestland, essentially the same amount as 100 years ago.
• Forestland in the United States has increased by more than 10 million acres over the past 20 years.
• Four million trees are planted in this country every day, and the annual net growth of U.S. forests is 36% higher than the volume of trees removed.
• The volume of growing stock of hardwood and softwood tree species in U.S. forests has increased by 49% since 1953.
• The three major forest management certifiers in the U.S. (Forest Stewardship Council, Sustainable Forestry Initiative and American Tree Farm System) have certified more than 107 million acres of forestland an amount that increases annually.