Evolution of an Enterprise, Chapter 22: House Dreams

Marti Montgomery took a stride toward making dreams come true when she walked into theworkshop 308 during the first week of July.

She entered the studio at 308 W. Commercial St. that day looking for someone to design her dream home. Meanwhile, Jason Mitchell and Michael Mardis, owners of theworkshop 308, have dreamed of designing a home since they opened in January.

Mitchell and Mardis already have found a niche building business fixtures and unique home furnishings. So far, their biggest projects have been a $4,600 display rack for Staxx Apparel, 331 South Ave., and a $4,700 package of two workstations and a front counter for Prix Tattoo, 420 S. Campbell Ave.

In February, Ian and Rachel VanHover, a young married couple, inquired about having Mitchell and Mardis design a house, but nothing came to fruition. Money could have been an issue for the VanHovers, who are in college and had an $80,000 budget at the time.

Those factors don’t seem to be a hurdle this go-round. Montgomery, a 63-year-old woman who works as an attendance adviser for Springfield R-XII School District, already owns the land the house would be built on, and she has a $150,000 budget, which is more than enough to build what she wants, Mitchell said.

“It was very serendipitous,” Mitchell said of meeting Montgomery.

Earlier this year, she was introduced to theworkshop 308 through Springfield Business Journal’s Evolution of an Enterprise series. She began to follow what Mitchell and Mardis were doing and thought they could be of service.

“I just thought, ‘Well, by golly, I’m going to go over to theworkshop 308.’ So I wandered in there,” she said of that early July day.

Montgomery’s pursuit of a house, though, began in 1976.

‘On the same wavelength’

Thirty years ago, Montgomery and her husband, Monty Montgomery, bought 47 acres in Webster County between Northview and Rogersville. The land overlooks James River, and the couple considered building a house there.

“That plan just kind of went down the hill,” Montgomery said. “You get involved in raising children and just living.”

The couple divorced in 2005, and Marti Montgomery got the land in the settlement. That’s when she rekindled her quest to build her dream house.

Montgomery began to scour magazines and the Internet, looking for a contemporary, environmentally friendly house plan she could use, but nothing seemed to fit.

“When you start talking about corrugated metal siding or concrete-block fireplaces, people just kind of rear back and wander off,” she said of some of the “green” features she’s interested in incorporating. “But when I went into theworkshop, (they) knew everything I was talking about. (They were) right on the same wavelength, immediately. That just blew me away. I mean, it was just comforting, from the very beginning.”

Charting a course

Montgomery has met with theworkshop 308 guys five times, including twice on her land.

Initial plans call for an 1,800-square-foot, two-bedroom house that might have a basement. Among the environmentally friendly technologies or practices they’ve discussed are radiant-heat flooring, geothermal cooling, concrete block walls, rainwater collection or diversion, the use of sustainable materials and the preservation of shade trees.

They haven’t hired a builder yet, and Mitchell and Mardis will help Montgomery with that process. Also, a timeline hasn’t been strictly established yet.

“We’re approaching this pretty methodically,” Mitchell said, adding that they should have a “cohesive plan” some time this fall.[[In-content Ad]]