September 11, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Flourtown remodelers’ home featured in trade magazine
by JENNIFER KATZ

Diane Maneke is pictured outside the Flourtown home she and partner, Dana Priesing have been remodeling. Their work on the house has been featured in the June 2008 issue of Professional Remodeler Magazine. (Photo by Erin Vertreace)

At first glance, the house doesn’t look all that different from the other 1950s structures up and down the street. With the large panes of rectangular windows making up a single front window, sloped roofs and front facing attached garages, the Flourtown neighborhood sandwiched between Paper Mill Road and Bethlehem Pike is a throwback to another era when Tupperware ruled the kitchen and people still drove Buicks.

Yet this suburban community is where Diane Menke and Dana Priesing came to escape a confining Center City house and to expand both personally and professionally. For the past 10 years Menke has worked with business partner Tamara Myers to build Myers Constructs Inc. a design/build contracting firm. Priesing is the company’s controller and Menke’s partner.

““We were living at 21st and Parrish,”” said Menke of the couple’s former digs.

They were aware of the area through Magarity Chevrolet on the pike, where the company purchased and serviced its trucks.

“We wanted more space — a yard,” she said. “And we felt we knew the area.”

Menke also felt they knew enough to turn a 50-year-old split level into a modern masterpiece that recently earned them a feature article in Professional Remodeler magazine, a nationally recognized industry standard bearer.

The June 1, 2008, article focuses on the couple’s residence as an example of speculative remodeling done well. The basic premise for speculative remodeling is buying low, renovating and selling high.

According to Menke, it is not as easy as it sounds or as many people who got into the business during the real estate boom several years ago wanted to believe.

“The key is to buy right,” she said. “The deal comes together at the purchase, not the renovation.”

It is a basic philosophy that Menke believes is why her company has been able to grow even with a challenging economy and real estate market. While Myers Constructs Inc. is solely a contracting company with revenue close to $1 million last year, focused on residential remodeling projects such as kitchens and bathrooms, Menke and Priesing have been able to do just as well with speculative remodeling on their own.

They bought their home in the 200 block of Preston Road two years ago and have been remodeling it ever since. The first thing that is noticeably different about the house from the curb is the sleek lines of the roof, windows and doorway. Where there was once a car park like enclosure between the garage and the front door, there is now a fully enclosed double door entryway where the newly created flagstone patio blends seamlessly into the newly created foyer just inside the doors. With the garage complete with a pair of luxury motorcycles, a Ducati and a BMW, just off to the left of the entrance, the expanded and modern kitchen welcomes guests into the home to the right.

It is hard to imagine what was once there, with walls missing and small nook areas added to create a more spacious open floor plan. The upper area kitchen, dining and living space flow together separated by design elements and furniture. While other areas in the home — a lower recreation room and the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms — are still undone, the first floor beams with promise as to what can and will be done.

As vice-president in charge of production management, Menke is responsible for keeping the projects moving, staying on budget and finishing on time, the latter being a key element to the Myers Constructs philosophy.

“We have a very tight way to get things done,” Menke said. “We do major projects in 12 weeks.”

That time frame however does not necessarily include the design process, which is Myers’ area of expertise. According to Menke, almost all of the six employees at the company have a fine arts background. The benefit for clients, Menke said, is that they get expert design assistance without paying for an architect.

“For people used to working with an architect, we are somewhat more moderately priced,” she said. “But if you are used to a guy in a pickup truck with a dog, then we might be on the high end”

Menke said one reason she thinks the business has not slowed down in the current economy is that the company appeals to people with a little remodeling savvy.

“Our best customers have had a bad experience with either an architect or a contractor,” she said.

So instead of delaying work on their homes, customers are taking their time being more careful about spending and thoughtful about planning and ultimately doing smaller projects at a time.

For more information or to contact Myers Constructs Inc., visit www.myersconstructs.com, or to read the article, “Speculative Remodeling,” in Professional Remodeler, visit www.housingzone.com/promodeler.

Contact Associate Editor Jennifer Katz at 215-248-8804 or jenn@chestnuthilllocal.com.