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The Builder's Journal
Northwest Wisconsin Edition

Elegant Lines,  Artistic Design

Your signature reflects who you are. So should your home, according to Linda Sletner of Signature Homes. Linda strives to make each home she builds as expressive and personal as the handwritten name of the person destined to live in it.

When entering a Signature Home, one is met with a sense of warmth and comfort. Unique features and careful detailing come together under an overall sense of style that is very appealing. At least, the homeowners of Eau Claire area seem to think so. Linda's entry in the 2004 Parade of Homes, won the poplar vote in the $403,000-685,000 category.

This is a significant achievement for a builder whose first entry appeared in the 2000 Parade. In fact, Linda started her company only a year before that. As a construction coordinator for another firm, Linda gradually realized she had her own vision of homebuilding that she wanted to realize. Since that time, Signature Homes has completed three to four new homes a year, as well as doing some remodeling work. The company is also an Energy Star partner.

It is not Linda's plan to increase the number of homes she builds, but to "solidify my position as a first-choice builder in the Chippewa Valley." This way, she can continue to "seek out projects where the homeowner wants the amount of planning and forethought I like to be involved with," she says. "you won't find a lot of my homes around town," because "I'm not just duplicating plan after plan. It isn't necessarily a large home that intrigues me, but a detailed home. What I build is not just a house, but a home, with all that entails. A home is more than the sum of its parts. I build for the homeowner who cares about that interplay. I want the people I work with to know they are not going to be just one of many projects. They're going to get my full attention."

As a discriminating homeowner herself, Linda built a Signature Home for her own family. Her husband is Steve Sletner, the owner of TEC Design, an Eau Claire company involved with surveying, engineering work, planning subdivisions, and site development. Linda and Steve are the parents of four boys,  Kyle, Brock, Mitchell, and Logan. Featured in the outstanding photographs by Edmunds Studios, the Sletners' Eau Claire home captures the livable elegance that Signature Homes is noted for.

Among other thoughtful features, this home- like some others Linda has built- has a "pocket office" off of the kitchen. Sensible and stylish, the pocket office is an example of the creativity Linda brings to the building process. "Today," she points out, "we have so many ties to multimedia in daily living. A work space off the kitchen just makes sense."

Linda considers it her "signature" style to build homes that make sense for the families that live there. "Building is all about planning process. Now, everything goes so fast. People can end up building what they think they 'should' have rather than what will really work for them. I interview my prospective homeowners to help them think about what they really want. Some people go with the formal space, for example, while others don't. Once I've interviewed them, I have an idea of where we're going. I get their must have list, and go from there."

Signature Homes was the logical choice, then, for a couple like Curt and Barb Black. A homeschooling family, the Blacks were less interested in "a formal dining or sitting room, which for us would be wasted space," Curt says, and very interested in incorporating an area where their eager learners could develop their skills and talents to the max. Linda helped them create a homeschool room adjacent to the kitchen, featuring a table for work space, storage for crafts and project needs, a wall of bookcases, a wall of corkboard, and a computer desk. "The doorway to the kitchen has no door," Barb points out, "because that way I can supervise lessons and meals at the same time. Linda also suggested a door to the outside, which has turned out to be a really good idea." Barb and Curt also appreciated the professional conduct as well as craftsmanship of the subs and suppliers that Linda works with.

"They were respectful enough to wear shirts, even when the weather was very warm," Curt remembers, "and they did an excellent job." Barb sums up the Blacks' homebuilding experience by saying of Linda with a smile, "We were so blessed to find her!"

Amy Mettler and her husband Jay are another couple whose Signature home reflects their unique vision. The Mettlers were looking for a builder who would help them blend their distinctive tastes into one workable home concept when they signed on with Signature Homes. "My husband is more rustic, and I'm more traditional," Amy smiles. "We turned to Linda to successfully blend the two styles."

One of Jay's ideas was to use, for the ceiling, butternut harvested from the Mettler's eighty acres. Linda elegantly translated this concept into reality. Amy's priorities included things like "little built-ins and display areas in the kitchen, and combining green cabinetry with maple, which looks great. Linda was able to take my ideas and run with them," Amy attests, "and I like it. I like it all."

For all of her homeowners, Linda wants to be "the advocate, the resource person who tailors the process for them, to bring them the caliber of subs and the quality materials that will fulfill their ideas and plans."  She brings in story boards for color, photos of what she's "going for," possible shingle and siding colors, and "then I let them choose from there. There's so much out there, it's like going grocery shopping. I don't just send my homeowners out to sort through everything for themselves. But I don't say, 'I always use taupe vinyl siding,' either. If they don't want to involve a decorator, I'll bring them possible paint colors and additional design and decorating ideas, too," Linda explains.

The approach certainly seems to be working. Know someone who wants to put their "John Hancock" on a home of their own? That person can turn with confidence, say those who know best, to Linda Sletner for a home that fits and flows as well as one's own signature does.