Jeff Seal

 

Going and seeing the Jeff Seal Homes was definitely my favorite field trip we took this year. When people think of Lubbock they think of middle of no where dessert college town with not much to offer. Jeff Seal completely changes this thinking by building big beautiful homes for the wealthy. Him and his team not only designs the structure of the home but also designs every detail down to the finishes and furniture so it all comes out to be one cohesive and beautiful loook.

 

 

The first home we came to see was one done in a traditional tudor style.

 

here is one of the ceiling detail that was done in tudor homes that jeff actually copied off of a place at disney world

 

probobly one of my favorite things of the whole house was the different style chimneys they did. They had tons of them grouped with  different shapes and it added some really cool character to the house

 

heres a picture of some blue prints they showed us of the house.

 

the side of the house showing the backyard and some more of the chimneys. They have a pool going in in the middle

 

Here is the front of the house. I absolutely LOVE that they added the part that looks like a castle.

 

Next, we went to look at the other house they were working on. This one is probobly 3 times the size of the other house, and one of the biggest houses I've ever stepped foot in! This is more of a venetian italian style house and saying it was extravagant is an understatement.

 

Here are two pictures of the entry way right when you walk in

 

there are tons of differnt archways in the house, here is a picture of them where you can see all the way into the kitchen.

 

 

 

then we have the kitchen, which like the rest of the house has a ton of details. The cabinets were drawn up and custom designed by jeff seal and his team. Off to the left they even have a "dog room" which is either really awesome or totally over the top, I haven't decided yet.

 

 

Every room in the house has a different ceiling design which I thought was pretty neat , here are pictures of some of them

 

Last but not least, we went down to the basement to see the media room, which of course was just as extravagant as the rest of the house.

Collins Tile and Stone

 

Collins Tile and Stone pretty much consists of two massive warehouses completely filled with huge slabs of granite. It was awesome to see because I had never really seen granite at this this state, really only on someones counter top.

 

There are some pictures of the slabs of granite and marble they have in house ready to be cut to size for whatever project. There is pretty much every color you could ever think of including pink and green and this one that had tons of crazy colors, almost like a rainbow. I thought it was really awesome that those colors are actually made in nature.

 

They have so much stone they have to keep some outside too!

 

We got a chance to enter the warehouse where they polish all the granite and cut it to shape and make the edges how the customer wants it. It was extremely loud in here and almost impossible to hear the man talking. There was also about 3 in. of water covering the whole floor because you have to have a wet saw to cut stone and then it has to contine to be wet to  polish it

 

here is some of the projects they have been working on that are already cut

 

this man is polishing the stone. He has to wear a waterproof jumpsuit to make sure he doesnt get soaked

 

these two machines are used for cutting the marble to whatever shape needed

 here is a picture of another man polishing the stone in his waterproof jumpsuit, I don't think he was happy that I was taking pictures, oops!

Leftwhich Chapman

 

On this Field trip we attended a Flooring Store called Leftwhich Chapman. Right when I walked into the store I was amazed, even a little overwhelmed by the amount of options they had for flooring.

Here is the carpet section. This section alone has an insane amount of options, and way more than I ever though would be available for carpet. I always knew there were different kinds of carpet but not this many especially since carpet isnt as popular as it used to be! The guy showed us all the different types explaining the differences between some of them. The most expensive and softest kind are made out of wool. There are also ones made of nylon, and other man made chemicals. Although you would think that kind of carpet wouldnt be as plush as the wool, it really has come a long way, and they have developed it to where you can almost barely tell a difference, and it is actually very soft. There are also many colored and patterened ones to choose from for commercial and some residential applications.

Hillary having a good time!

This was one of my favorite displays in the store. These are exotic woods and they come in all of those cool patterns. The one on the left is different squares of wood and they stick out at different heights giving it a 3 dimensional look. I think it would be awesome to cover a wall in it as an accent.

 

 

Here is a picture of their floors. I thought it was such a great idea how they had so many different ones put together so you could actually see what they looked like on the floor

 

Here are two cool alternatives to the basic carpet, wood, or tile options most think of. The black is a recycled leather that actually is very durable, and gives such a cool and interesting look. the other one is a cork material which is also recycled and very durable and a great alternative to wood

 

shows the cork floor upclose

 

Here is a picture of their extensive tile collection. They not only have tile for your floor but TONS of really great backsplash options as well!

 

Here is my absolute favorite thing I saw all day. Ceramic tile that resembles real hardwood floors. This is absolute genius because now you can have the wood look in every room of your home including bathrooms and kitchens if you want without having to worry about the water damage to the wood. Definitely something I'll consider when I buy my first home one day!

 

I thought this was really neat as well. This is actually a gypsum wall panel that is textured. You can place it on a wal and paint it like normal to have a very subtle but very interesting accent wall

here is a picture of some wood laminate. You can't tell as much in this picture but it looks almost identical to what real wood flooring looks like. I was amazed at how authentic it looked because when I think of laminate I think of it being cheap and plastic looking and this definitely does not! it is amazing how far laminate has come.

I really learned a lot from this field trip, I always knew there were many options for flooring but this introduced me to tons of new things that I would have never thought of or never even knew existed.