Boeing announced yesterday that they will relocate more than 800 engineering jobs to their Oklahoma City campus. The jobs will transition here by the close of 2013, when combined with their current employment and the jobs still moving here from Long Beach, the Oklahoma City facility will have approximately 2,000 employees.
Boeing and Oklahoma City have a long and successful history, and our competitive business climate meets their operational needs. We have been working with Boeing over the course of many months to understand their business objectives, and we are ready to help them grow.
Once Boeing made a cost-driven business decision to close the Kansas facility, we believe state and local incentive options and our positive business climate played an important role in Boeing’s decision to choose Oklahoma City as the location for these positions over competing cities. Our ability to maintain this strong business climate and cost environment that supports our incentive programs is critical to keeping and growing companies like Boeing.
Thank you for your hard work in creating a competitive business environment that makes expansions like this possible. For the full Boeing announcement, click here.
Roy H. Williams
President and CEO
Greater Oklahoma City Chamber
Bungalows for Books
Dec 18
Falling Sky Drive? Leaves of Grass? Road Not Taken?? You may be snickering “What were they thinking when the McCaleb Homes group named those streets!?”
Actually, there was a reason for our madness (this time). Our Bungalow Collection floorplans are all named after famous American Authors. (Louisa May) Alcott, (Ralph Waldo) Emerson, (Ernest) Hemingway and so on…And the street names in Arbor Creek were named after parts of their literary work. Some are famous poems, some not-so-famous books or lines from a piece of literature.
To celebrate the literary education, McCaleb Homes started a program called Bungalows for Books. For every brand new Bungalow home built in Arbor Creek, we’re blessed to donate $1000 to a local elementary school library. This week we’ll be visiting 2 new schools for their end-of-the-year assembly with big surprises. Oh, seeing those kids light up in excitement when they hear that they’ll be able to buy $1000 worth of brand new stories! There’s nothing more inspiring than that.
Merry Christmas,
Jennifer Hodgens
Safety First
Nov 21
There’s no getting around it: construction can be a hazardous job. We say “can be” because professional builders respect those hazards and equip and train their workers and subcontractors to mitigate safety issues as much as possible. By doing so, professional builders protect their businesses and their clients from liability.
The federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) provides specific guidelines and regulations for homebuilders and contractors regarding the prevention of accidents on a residential job site. The penalties for failing to comply with those rules range from hefty fines to shutting down the job until violations are corrected.
Professional builders not only comply with those regulations, but also often take extra steps to help ensure a safe working environment on every project, and to help keep everyone out of harm’s way.
Inspection. As directed by OSHA, professional builders continually inspect their job sites for potential hazards, and may even have a safety manager that regularly visits each site. Common hazards may include ladders or scaffolding that are unsecured or set on uneven ground, unmarked trenches, or an incomplete or missing first aid kit.
If violations are found, they are quickly reported and remedied to get the company back into compliance. And, they are corrected for the next job.
Education and Training. It is critical to continually educate workers, to train and equip them to recognize and avoid construction job site hazards and accidents.
In addition to a written safety and health program required by OSHA, professional builders often conduct what’s called “Toolbox Talks” on the subject of safety, perhaps showing a video, presenting a report, or (even better) showing workers a real-world example of a common hazard and how to remedy or avoid it.
Builders who are dedicated to safety also equip their crews with the latest in safety gear, from guardrails on ladders and scaffolding to hard hats, gloves, eye protection, and personal harnesses — and keep that gear in optimum working order. These builders also require their trade partners to follow these same safety procedures with their employees.
Incentives. Smart builders often use incentives to help ensure safety. A worker who reports or remedies a job site hazard may earn a bonus, time off, or some other reward that recognizes his or her initiative and sets an example for the rest of the crew.
Builders may also track and publicly post job site safety achievements, such as the number of days without an accident or time lost to a job site injury. Those accomplishments may earn the company recognition from OSHA or acknowledgement from the company that insures the builder against liability and worker’s compensation — lowering the builder’s overhead costs and enabling them to be more competitive for future jobs.
Including Owners. Savvy and safety-conscious builders know that their homeowner clients will want to occasionally visit the job site to see progress, make decisions and discuss concerns. Safety is no less a priority for those instances.
Homebuyers can go a long way to keeping themselves safe on the job site by following the same rules and procedures as the crew. We encourage them to wear hard hats and safety goggles and avoid visiting and walking through a house under construction without supervision, after hours, and on weekends, as they may not be aware or are unprepared to avoid hazards.
Porches at Arbor Creek
Nov 21
McCaleb Homes is excited to announce our newest project in Edmond. Land is being cleared and plans are underway for our newest community, Porches at Arbor Creek.
Porches will be part of the Arbor Creek development just east of I-35 on Second Street.
This community will feature a clubhouse with a workout facility to include a yoga room and aerobics machines. The clubhouse will also feature a spacious entertaining area with two living areas, with a stunning two sided fireplace, cathedral ceilings and a large kitchen open to the living areas. Guests will enjoy entertaining on the outdoor party veranda complete with a cozy fireplace perfect for hosting events anytime of the year.
Porches will be a gated community and homeowners will be able to experience a relaxing maintenance-free style of living. Each townhome will feature open floor plans with designer touches throughout. Homes will have attached garages, large covered porches and will be energy efficient. Homes will start in the 150′s.
Call (405)-341-1114 or e-mail us at sales@mccalebhomes.com today for more information about our latest and greatest community! Also, be sure to check us out at www.mccalebhomes.com and like us on Facebook for information that will be coming soon, including floorplans and outdoor elevations of the townhomes and the clubhouse.
GREAT NEWS for Veterans – VA funding fees have gone down! This will result in a lower monthly payment for most Veterans since it is normal protocol to roll the funding fee into the loan. The VA loan has always been a favorite of mine to originate due to the many perks it has for the VA homebuyer and now it’s just that much better!
Invest in a family library
Aug 30
The great thing about reading is that it can be for all ages. A family library can be a great learning environment for your kids as they can enjoy reading from a young age. To start a family library right in your own home, pick a spacious room and follow these tips to create a healthy learning space.
Organize your space and genre
If you have a ton of books already, look for a bookshelf that can cover an entire wall. That way you have plenty of empty spaces for new books to come, and it’s a great look for your home. If you’re just starting out and don’t have too many books yet, you can just get a single book shelf that can be added shelf space later down the road when your library grows.
When placing your books on the shelf, think of the layout you want to organize the genres of the books. Each section can be organized according to the type of books you have, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction it’s all up to you in how the layout to be. Kids books should be lower to the ground so it’s easier for them to access.
Create a peaceful room
If you want to read comfortably, you need a peaceful surrounding. That means a nice seating area, whether it’s a sofa or giant beanbags on the ground it’s all up to you. Parents with small children can enjoy a peaceful reading by wheeling in their baby swing or play yard when they are napping. As they get older and start to enjoy books, they will have their own bookshelf space to start their own collection.
A family library can also be a great place to store family photo albums and for kids to look back at the type of books they grew up with. So a family library can be a great learning space as well as a road down memory lane for the whole family
A lot of movie lovers love movies but don’t enjoy a whole lot of visiting the cinema experience. For those who want the best of both worlds can have it all by investing in a home theater. If you have the budget for it, it’s best to have a living room for your regular TV watching, and a separate room just for your movie experience. That way you don’t have to strain your eyes watching the daily news or talk shows. Here are the long- term benefits of adding a theater in your home.
All thrills, no fuss.
Make it a movie night any day of the week. If you’ve been to the theater on the weekends, it is no fun to line up all night just to watch the latest new release. Even if you watch an older released movie, no one enjoys sitting beside a stranger that might talk throughout the whole movie or to have someone behind you kicking your seat every half an hour. Having the theater right in your own home prevents all that, and you can invite those you trust to watch the movie respectfully. For summer time, you can even use the projector for a backyard theater. Pop in an old movie and have an outdoor movie experience with you homemade popcorn.
Save in the long run
Sure you may have to spend on movie tickets still to see the new-releases, but to watch the ready available rentals through your video streaming source (e.g. Netflix) in a theater surrounding is an experience worth paying for. Most households would purchase the basics of a home theater anyways, such as a sound system (speakers & receiver), DVD / Blu-Ray player. All you have to add on top is the projector, blank wall to display the picture and preferably a room in the basement that has no windows. And of course, the most important item of all is the sofa you’ll be comfortably sitting in for the whole movie. Many convertible sofas make great home theater furniture as they allow you to cozy up in different seating positions.
Endless parties
Especially when the holidays come around, there’s nothing like watching a movie together as a family to celebrate the day. If it’s a colder season, the indoor home theater would be a perfect place to enjoy a hot cocoa. When summer arrives, the projector can easily be moved outdoors for a barbecue movie night. There are endless themes to what type of movie parties you want to add to the calendar, and everyone would want to come to your party to enjoy the luxury of your home theater.
When you’re out all day, coming home to a mud room will allow you to keep the dirt and rain away from the rest of the house – hence a mud room! It’s not just a place for you to enter and exit the house from, the design and structure of the room allows ease of travel any time any day.
A place to clean up
It’s a great place to store umbrellas and wet coats, especially when small children can learn to place their things properly when they come home from school. Parents with small children will find a mud room useful to park their jogging strollers and to rinse off muddy shoes. And those with pets will find it useful to wipe down dirty paws before they get to roam around the house. A mud room is made to get dirty so the rest of your house doesn’t have to, as long as you have durable furniture and easy to wipe floors it’s a piece of cake to clean up. Cleaning up often will allow an enjoyable space to prepare for travel or to come home at ease.
Organized space for storage
Using cabinets and hooks will allow your daily going out items to be carefully organized so you can find things easily when leaving the house. Important items such as keys and wallets are easily accessible when they are always stored in one convenient place. Install a cubby and a hook for each member of the family so things don’t get mixed up. Some homes have mud rooms in the same space as their laundry area so dirty clothes can be put in the hamper before washing, and a sink available right when you walk in is a convenient way to rinse off.
Some design tips of a mud room can include several indoor plants to give it a fresh look, and a comfy surrounding can be implemented by a few colourful pillows. Other than being useful in so many ways, arriving home to a mud room will give a comforting feeling as you are welcomed by a beautifully organized home.