Local talent Erika O'Bar and Jason Baffrey perched on two plastic storage tubs, ready to film a cable-television segment.
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With the call for "ACTION!” O'Bar flashed a camera-worthy smile: "We are here in Oklahoma City, where this home's attic space is about to be put to use storing totes, boxes: everything from ice chests and tools to out-of-season clothing and cherished keepsakes.”
When a producer for The Learning Channel's "Designing Spaces” called last fall, Richard Byers did not hesitate to pay $40,000 for a chance to showcase his company's Versa Lift, which is an electric lift that can carry 200 pounds into the attic.
"I jumped at the chance. Exposure. It's all about exposure,” said Byers, who handles marketing for Byers Products Group in Oklahoma City.
The Versa Lift gained even more exposure this week when Byers displayed a slightly-less-than-scale model — the attic floor is about eye level — at the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla.
The Versa-Lift cable segment in three acts may reach more than 80 million viewers of TLC, Women's Entertainment TV and other channels, Byers said he was told by producers. He said the TLC's "Designing Spaces” show will note that the products' companies paid part of the production fees.
But the International Builders' Show provided an important audience to Byers: more than 100,000 industry professionals from around the world, including more than 100 from central Oklahoma.
"It's the biggest builder show of the year,” said Jim McWhirter, owner of Gemini Builders in Choctaw and president of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association.
A particularly large contingent from here attended the industry show, which started Wednesday and ends today.
"Unlike much of the nation, we still are in kind of a building boom here. Whenever the building business is good, people will go to the shows to keep the state-of-art in their homes,” McWhirter said.
The builders show featured more than 1,900 exhibitors, 290 educational seminars and the 25th anniversary of The New American Home. This year the home is a 6,725-square-foot plantation-style house with nearly 3,000 square feet of covered outdoor space, including a kitchen and salon.
In addition, the builders show officially launched the National Green Building Program and a professional "green builder” designation program from the National Association of Home Builders. The program incorporates environmental considerations and the efficient use of resources — such as energy and water — into every step of the land development and home-building process.
McWhirter said the show could help builders stay current on "green” construction.
"It's the best way right now, unless you want to read books. But as far as touch-and-feel goes, that will be the best way to do it,” he said.
McWhirter said the International Builders' Show is ideal for picking up new ideas for all aspects of home construction, including the new kitchen and bath layouts he's discovered and used the past several years.
Builder Jeff Click said he investigated two different home-technology products at last year's show.
"You get to tinker with the stuff. It's a great opportunity to meet the people behind the products. You're able to get so much more information than from paper or from online,” he said.
Click, who owns Jeff Click Homes, checked out one centralized-lighting system.
"It confirmed to me it wasn't the system I was looking for,” he said.
Then he looked into an integrated home system, which he since has installed in several homes, including his own.
The system operates with a touch screen by the front door that controls irrigation, heat and air, security and audio. By using individual user codes, a homeowner can make sure his own music and temperature preferences are operating when he enters the home.
"I can't imagine living without it. There are other amenities I would do without first, like plumbing and running water, but I don't know what my wife would say about that,” Click said.
Caleb McCaleb, who owns McCaleb Homes, said he discovered several new innovations at the builders' show last year, including the microwave drawers he has since included in kitchen work islands.
Thanks to the builders show, McCaleb also is using concrete shingles, which are more likely to withstand weather extremes than their wood counterparts.
McCaleb, who builds in Edmond and Oklahoma City, said that in previous years he has used a polyethylene-wrap system to provide water-vapor protection for the homes he builds.
"The negative was when we would get a 30-mile wind, it flapped around like a broken sail,” he said.
After the builders show, he switched to the Zip Board system, which has a built-in vivid-green water barrier, on the wood used to frame homes. It withstands even the Oklahoma wind, McCaleb said.
It was at the 2007 builders show that the Versa Lift was introduced. Since then, about 250 have been sold, including one to a St. Louis homeowner. She built a split-level Craftsman-style home and installed one to haul groceries from the garage to the bonus-room closet next to the kitchen on the second floor, Byers said.
In most cases, the Versa Lift carries items that are stored in attics, so that the homeowner doesn't have to haul them up or down the ladder.
During a break in the recording of the "Designing Spaces” cable segment, O'Bar, who played the host, said her mother and stepfather recently built a shed in the back yard to avoid the attic ladder, which her mother had tumbled down.
"It's too bad they didn't know about the Versa Lift. They could have saved about $10,000,” O'Bar said.
Stacy Taylor, who played the homeowner, said several years ago a family friend in Oklahoma City was unloading Christmas ornaments, fell off a ladder and died.
Using the attic for storage can be "extremely dangerous,” she said.
But for homes without basements, using the attic for storage is almost inevitable.
"Something I'm going to ad lib is ‘it's like opening up a great new closet,'” she said.
The 6 1/2 -minute cable segment was recorded in a garage of a model home built by Tim Egan, who owns Suburban Homes. The home is at 3104 NW 163 Court in the Regency Pointe addition in northwest Oklahoma City.
Byers runs Byers Products Group with his two brothers, Tom and Art Byers. At the show this week, he unveiled a remote control that can be used with the Versa Lift.
"This is something the builders have asked for,” Byers said. "That's one of our primary market segments. Of course, we want them to include our product in as many new homes as they can.”
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Chris George with Churchill-Brown & Associates demonstrates an integrated home system in a Jeff Click home. The system operates with a touch screen by the front door that controls irrigation, heat and air, security and audio. Provided by Jonathan Youngblood
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