Dream Home

Metro Omaha Builders Association

Each year the Metro Omaha Builders Association hosts the Street of Dreams, enabling builders, designers, and vendors to showcase their talent and creativity. People walk through the Street of Dreams looking for ideas and inspiration for their own homes. For Thomas David Fine Homes, their showcase home in this year’s Street of Dreams at Windgate Ranch in Elkhorn included many of the elements that current homebuyers want in a house—a home that’s built for functional living and entertaining.

Launched in 2004 by Dave Tewes and Tom Shafer, Thomas David Homes focuses on higher end luxury homes primarily in West Omaha. Tewes grew up helping his father remodel homes, his grandfather was a homebuilder, and he has experience in commercial construction. Thomas David has built several other Street of Dreams homes and is invested in the section of land in and surrounding where Street of Dreams was held with about 30 lots available between all the areas.

This home is their expanded Tahoe executive ranch. It’s over 3800 sq. ft. with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The main level includes one of their signature gourmet kitchens, complete with Bosch stainless steel appliances and a waterfall style countertop on the oversized center island. “People often want double ovens, a microwave/convection oven, and warming drawer,” Tewes said. Rather than remove cabinet space to accommodate all that, we designed a large walk-in pantry and placed the second oven in there since it’s not used as often.”

The basement includes 12-ft. ceilings and features what Tewes called the game day package. Rather than a separate theater room with one large screen TV, the main area of the basement includes a wall with a low fireplace and room above it for multiple TVs plus an adjacent wet bar. For this particular home, they also installed a golf simulator and putting green. “We are increasingly asked about that kind of amenity with our executive ranch buyers,” Tewes said.

They incorporated extensive LED architectural lighting throughout the home, which Tewes describes as strongly transitional. “Our clients are gravitating toward that look from either a purely traditional or extremely contemporary home,” he said. They also designed the home to be a split bedroom ranch, with the master located on one side, next to the kitchen, utility room, and garage, and the off bedrooms on the other side of the house. “The homeowners’ primary entrance is the garage, so we put all the main living space next to each other for convenience,” Tewes added. “That way you don’t have to walk across the house to reach any of your rooms.”  

The outdoor living space, designed by Pam Johnsen with Lanoha Nurseries, combined a number of hardscape materials and created all hard angles, including a rectangular gas fire pit and an L-shaped wall for built-in seating. A mixture of more than 25 trees line the property, and the angled theme was carried through to the front including oversized pots to hold plants. “The entire exterior is designed with a Mediterranean/southwestern look with stone and stucco, a lower roof line, and wide eves,” Tewes said.

The home received very good feedback from those who visited during Street of Dreams, and Tewes pointed out that it’s located in the desirable Elkhorn South school district. He also noted that many homeowners don’t want a huge house, but they do want it to be well appointed with high end finishes. “There is a strong demand for new home builds, which is why if you end up being one of our clients, then you end up being friends with us,” he said. “We treat people right and do a good job for them.”  

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