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Connor Homes designs and builds new old homes in a craftsman built kit to be delivered to home sites around the world.

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Building Home Equity in New Hampshire

Dear Connor Homes,

Hope all is well with all of you up there in Middlebury! I have been thinking about you folks at Connor Homes. I think of you every time I look at the dismal news about the economy and realize how lucky we are that we built a Connor Home. I can't emphasize enough how grateful we are. By this I simply mean the following: we knew that we were getting a very high quality product and that the workmanship was superior...we knew that we loved the look of the house, and that we would get endless compliments on the aesthetics of our home...but what we did not know was that it would be appraised well above what it cost us for the land and the building. I'm not sure that I ever thought to tell you that a couple of days after the house was finished, we had an appraiser out...and his appraisal came in at almost 15% above our costs! Certainly we didn't know then that the time would come when real estate market fluxuations would make us doubly glad that we got so much for our money...but here we are...this has been more than a wise "investment" for us.

It tickles us that we still hear so many folks in town saying that they love the way our house looks. One lady, an owner of an historic Inn said "I never thought I would see a beautiful piece of land that actually looks even better with the house on it...but yours does." I still smile as I type this. It makes us happy to own such a pretty place. But more than anything, we feel fortunate at this particular point in time for the added security of knowing that we got so much "extra" value. Thanks to all!

Homeowner, New London, New Hampshire. Built 2007.

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WOOD TRUTHS

Posted by Michael Connor
  
  
  
  
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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.
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