Thoughts from a Home Show

If you follow ideabox, (and this blog), you'll know we were at the recently completed Portland Home & Garden Show. It was a great show, this year being a combined event featuring boats, RV's, and home and garden. A very professionally presented show featuring terrific displays by all the vendors, creative features including a room decorating competition, landscaping displays and plant sales, all surrounded by RV motor homes, trailers, and water craft.

I am always amazed by the amount of talent and innovation found at shows like these. Among the big product manufacturers were weaved landscape design and installation firms, interior designers, craftsman builders, and an ever widening array of new products by the larger manufacturers. There was a display by the ever clever smart car in one area of the show, and not far away an $800K motor mansion on wheels. Something we keyed into and will explore is a prefabricated shed roofed carport with a roof of PV panels - a terrific solution to proper solar orientation combined with a terrific use.

But the real reason for this post is to quickly comment on how positive the audience was. You couldn't help but get a sense of more confidence in the economy - more people searching for solutions, more enthusiasm for doing things, a better feel for where things are going.

Also wanted to thank all of you who came by our little booth in Portland. The response to the drawings of the new house was incredible. (I literally just left the production facility and have to admit "fortino" will be even more special than drawings can depict. Look out Seattle!)