LifeStyle Homes Family Enjoys a Party!

Melbourne, FL – Last evening, we renewed a longstanding tradition that is very important to the LifeStyle Homes family. We got together for our annual Christmas party at the home of our late founding partner, John Luhn. Our employees and spouses enjoyed too much fabulous Italian cuisine, lots of adult beverages and our annual exchange of funny gifts. Needless to say, a good time was had by all!

Mike Vittitoe would up with an honest-to-goodness white elephant! Won’t that look nice in your home, Mike? 

In addition to being a top notch home builder and building company leader, John Luhn was all about gathering his friends together for a good time. It was always John’s party, so it will always be John’s party.

In the midst odf all the merriment, we paused to hear some serious and seriously thankful words from John’s son, Jake Luhn, CEO, Tom Nathan, Master Builder and Larry Hufford, our other founding Partner who thankfully is hale, hardy and ready to rock. It was Larry who recounted how all the people in that room have hung together, worked together and, at least last night, played together to make it through another trying year in the homebuilding business. But, we did better than make it through this year. Thanks to our suppliers, trades partners and most of all our wonderful customers, we have triumphed through this year.

In the last twelve months, we have watched with sadness as more of our former competitors have closed their doors. Good people – hard times doesn’t do justice to their substantial accomplishments nor to the pain they have endured.

Larry also reminded us how pivotal was our decision to pursue energy efficiency as a factor in our success. Our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes and our remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes have encouraged forward-thinking people to do something hugely positive for themselves and for our environment by asking us to build a home for them a time when many people have been waiting for something to happen. 

If LifeStyle Homes had waited for something to happen – the housing market to rebound, for instance - likely we would not have had the opportunity to celebrate our good fortune together as we did last evening.  Our decision to strike out in a bold new direction has meant everything to us as a home building company and as a family of individuals working together to build homes for families.

Perhaps there is a message in this. The only way we as a nation will ever rise up from our present challenges is if a whole lot of us decide to stop waiting and start moving ahead instead.