https://youtu.be/f_MDMg4U2-w It was with mixed emotions that I recently attended my first Grandparents Day. There are few things better than being a Grandpa. The innocence, wonder, hue and cry of little ones running through the house once again is like drinking from the fountain of youth. But I have to say, I don’t...
Trick or Treat! Halloween is right around the corner. Kids are making their final, final decisions on their costumes. Will there will be any ghosts out there looking suspiciously like old bed sheets with eye holes cut in them? How about shiver me timber pirates with burnt cork instant beards? Or mummies oozing copious...
We all knew it was coming. The local Kansas City weather folks could hardly contain themselves. January 11th, 2019: My wife and I walking home that evening after visiting with neighbors and it had begun to snow. A silent night and all is calm, the snow falling through street light beams and the warm window...
We have arrived at that time of year when many, many people are asking, “What exactly was that flu shot supposed to do for us?” Every other person on the planet seems to be hacking, sneezing, and generally feeling miserable. Healthy folks feel like they’re trapped in an episode of the Walking Dead, the inflicted...
Veterans Community Project Fundraiser vlog Transcript Here, recently, Bickimer Homes participated in a fundraiser for Veterans Community Project. The idea was to design, build and auction-off playhouses during this year’s Kansas City Home Show. The fundraiser was a huge success, raising $25,000. Thank you to our participating subcontractors and suppliers, and especially all of you...
https://youtu.be/b6EeMrPn2XY What it Means to be a Home builder Vlog Transcript My wife, Mary, and I started Bickimer Homes in 1982. Our youth was probably the most valuable asset our company had at the time. Thirty-seven years later, we are blessed to see Bickimer Homes in the extremely capable hands of our son, Tommy, and...
A Three Deep Hole and Inconvenient Truth Vlog Transcript Hello Everybody, Tom Bickimer here, and today I want to talk about Climate Change. Now hold on, I hear the groans out there, but I promise to be at least as interesting as Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and not nearly as long. So,...
Independence Day Vlog Transcript “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Once again it’s time for our nation to celebrate Independence Day. Independence Day. You don’t hear...
Packing up the Things that Matter Vlog Transcript Hello everybody, Tom Bickimer here, and today I want to talk a little bit about moving. It’s been almost a year, now, since we moved my mom into an assisted living facility. While there was no way around it, this was still a bittersweet moment for mom...
Summer Nights in Johnson County, Kansas Vlog Transcript Hi everybody, have you noticed? The locusts are back. This, their time between the Fourth of July and the beginning of school, when the days are too hot to go to the pool, when lawns turn brown, when we wait in our air-conditioning for the locusts’ all-clear...
School Days Vlog Transcript Well, a new school year has begun, and for some weird reason I hear Hank Stram, the old Chiefs head football coach, urging his Super Bowl team to “Keep matriculating the ball down the field!” In one fell swoop, Hank re-defined the word “matriculating” from that of studying at a...
Bickimer Homes is privileged to build beautiful new homes in the nicest communities in Johnson County and Kansas City Metro. Building New Homes in Kansas City Recently we happened upon a construction site in one of those communities that reminded us that the homes we build are meant to be more than just Kansas City...
Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Memory of Ray Hamilton Vlog Transcript My father-inlaw recently passed away. His name was Hugh Raymond Hamilton: “Hugh,” a given name inherited from his father, and like his father, a name more foreign than familiar. “Raymond,” a formality reserved for only his mother. Mostly, though, it was, “You can call...
Our Thanksgiving Table Vlog Transcript Hi everybody, this is Tom Bickimer, and I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to sitting down to a Thanksgiving feast with my family. In some respects, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Commercialism has yet to figure out how to ruin it, although the black Friday...
An Infant’s Cry Vlog Transcript Their marriage had come as a surprise to nearly everyone, including themselves. There was talk. He was, after all, a confirmed bachelor. She, soft-spoken, a beauty wise beyond her youthful age. An odd match, was the consensus. They were taking their first trip together, and as it happens during...
Do you have an all-time favorite TV Commercial? One so memorable that 30 or 40 years later you can still recall it? How about those “Where’s the beef” commercials Wendy’s ran in the 1980s? The ones with the little old lady asking that question in a voice not unlike the sound of a jackhammer. How...
Tom Bickimer COVID-19 Ruminations Transcript Hello, everyone, Tom Bickimer reporting in- not as a homebuilder or a political candidate, but as a neighbor speaking to a neighbor. So, how’s everybody doing out there? All our best laid plans, right? Strange times, these are, times none of us have seen before. This Covid-19 pandemic both...
Play Ball! Vlog Transcript As we slowly emerge from sheltering at home, a world greets us that is both the same and different. We are the same and yet different. We began our sheltering as we said good-bye to the last vestiges of winter and facing a cold reality that we knew not...
The Lumber Conundrum Vlog Transcript Hi everyone, Tom Bickimer here. As much as I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, I think it’s time to talk about something I haven’t seen in my forty years in the homebuilding business. Lumber prices have risen so high and so fast they are threatening the...
https://youtu.be/ehK7BX4WMvA The Perils of Being a homebuilder vlog transcript Hi everyone, Tom Bickimer here. Last month I talked about the housing industry’s struggle with escalating lumber prices. It wasn’t meant to be a pity party for us homebuilders, but more of an infomercial for families considering the purchase of a new home. Well,...
Feel Free to Sell This as a NFT Vlog Transcript Hi everyone, Tom Bickimer here, and today I want to talk about the brave new world of investing. Yes, I’m talking about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, NFTs, GameStop, SPACs and BBQSpecialDerivatives- okay, I made that last one up. Ask Warren Buffet or Elon Musk...
Why Lumber futures are a False Positive Vlog Transcript Hi folks, Builder Tom here, and I’m back to talk about… lumber! People are so excited: Lumber prices are going down! And if lumber prices going down, home prices are sure to follow, right? Wrong. Folks, I’m sorry to say it doesn’t work that way. The...
Homebuilding: A New Olympic Event? Vlog Transcript Hello sports fans, Builder Tom here, reporting live from Johnson County, Kansas with your Tokyo Olympics update. In three of the new Olympic events taking place this year, Carissa Moore of the United States won the inaugural gold medal in women’s surfing and USA’s Jagger Eaton...
The Old Homestead Vlog Transcript Hi, Builder Tom here. Many of you have seen Bickimer’s online videos featuring our customer’s beautiful new homes. I’m reminded of the time when I was a young boy and my family had the good fortune to move into their new home. Today, the two story house has...
Modern Day Pilgrims Vlog Transcript Hi everyone, Builder Tom here, and, my goodness, what a year this has been. Like many of you, Bickimer Homes and its employees have had to cope with the continuing medical and economic hardships attached to the Covid pandemic. If there ever was a year to remind us of...
Christmas 2021 Vlog Transcript Hello everybody, Builder Tom here, hoping you’ve been infected by the spirit of this holiday season and not the flu or a variant of the Covid virus. Funny thing, but the house where the classic movie “A Christmas Story” was filmed is just a few blocks away from where...
40 Years and counting vlog transcript Happy New Year everyone, Builder Tom here, excited to announce that in 2022 Bickimer Homes is celebrating 40 years in business. Yep, 40 years. Think about how much our world has changed since Bickimer Homes opened its doors in 1982. Back then Ronald Regan was president, Michael Jackson’s...
Building Dreams on a Solid Foundation for 40 years! Bickimer Homes culminated a year-long celebration of its 40th year in business by recently hosting a golf tournament to raise funds for our favorite charity, The Promise of Learning Foundation. We invited our business partners to come out for a day of fun while raising money...
https://youtu.be/7l4LaqUCnaY Baby, it’s Cold Outside! While today’s homes are built much tighter and are more efficient than homes of years past, even the tightest homes have challenges when dealing with the extremes in weather that we encounter in the Midwest. Over the next few days and I’m sure during different periods over the next couple of months,...
Whether you care to admit it or not, some of you out there participated in the rock and roll decade of the ‘70s. One of the most successful bands of that era, Three Dog Night, had a big hit with song lyrics that included the memorable line, “Well I’ve never been to heaven but I’ve...
Searching for “model homes Kansas City”? Take a virtual walk through one of our model homes in Kansas City, the Madison 2.5 floor plan! The Madison 2.5 is a 4 Bed, 4.5 Bath, 2-Story home featuring open main floor living with a giant mud room, expansive pantry and a command center that can be used...
Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow on February 2nd this year. What exactly does this mean? According to the folklore, spring is right around the corner. But, before you get excited and start putting away the boots and heavy coats, let’s talk about the winter weather here in Kansas City. According to the Old...
Kansas City Home Builder, Bickimer Homes, is offering one of their most popular model home for sale. The home is located at 12101 W 164th St. in Overland Park, KS. It is a 4 Bedroom, 5.5 Bath home with a finished basement! The 1.5 Story, Augusta floorplan has been extremely popular over the last couple...
I am NOT the stereotypical Kansas City home builder of your parent’s generation. Today, home builders in Kansas City are COMPANIES run by highly-educated professionals like myself. These are my Confessions of a Kansas City Home Builder: My business plan was not written on the napkin I used at lunch, and my company, Bickimer Homes,...
Springtime in Kansas City is a great time of year. The flowers and trees are in bloom. The weather is nice; not too hot, not too cold. It is also a time of year when homeowners begin to work in their yards and get them ready for a great summer. Below are some tips for...
The importance of the right floorplan when buying a new home. You hear it all the time in real estate: Location, location, location. This mantra is universally known as the most important aspect when purchasing a new home or a piece of property. You will hear it all the time in Johnson County, KS, in...
These are the top 5 reasons to Build a Home in Kansas City Right Floor Plan for the Right Life– when buying or building a new home, you get to choose the floorplan that best suits your needs. You can have that spacious office, the heart room with high ceilings and the gourmet kitchen. Being...
You just moved into your new home and are getting settled when a doorknob becomes loose. What do you do? You have been tasked with hanging family pictures and pieces that have been purchased and you can’t seem to get them level or right height. The brand new wood floors have a small scratch in...
WHY BUILD WITH BICKIMER HOMES? 5 Perfectly Good Reasons To Purchase Your Next Home From BICKIMER HOMES: HGTV is must see TV for our Staff: Innovation and imagination drive our building designs We Whistle while we Work: Your building experience should be a happy one We embrace Pinterest: Your dream home is our dream...
It’s the age old question: Why buy a new home? People have been asking themselves this question since time immemorial. As a home builder in Kansas City, I have a vested interest in that question being answered in the positive. Below, I have done my best to strengthen the case to buy a new home...
How to Avoid the Builder’s Theorem 13 Predicament We in the homebuilding business have our own unique version of Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong will go wrong). Builder’s Theorem 13 postulates if you expect something to go wrong, chances are anything will go wrong. There are over 40 trades and some...
Is Mr. Warranty Nightmare Knocking at Your Door? Once upon a time there was a home builder whose idea of new home warranty service was to hire the most un-kept, foulest-smelling giant of a man he could find and send him out to deal with his customers’ warranty issues. What’s more, this builder made...
Bickimer Homes began in a time when cell phones were a figment of Martin “Marty” Cooper’s imagination and architects painstakingly drew house plans by hand on vellum paper that were then reproduced as blueprints. Professional pride in the creation of these plans was the rule rather than the exception. It was a...
In the year 1982, Argentina went to war with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album was released, NFL players went on strike, the Royals won 90 games and didn’t make the play-offs, and our nation’s prime interest rate peaked at a staggering 17%. Oh, and in October of that year,...
Trick or Treat? Bickimer Homes enjoys a reputation as one of the top Kansas City home builders largely because of good old fashion hard work. We come to work every day with one purpose in mind: building our customers’ new homes like we were building our own. Honesty and integrity are the most important tools...
Bone cold weary and next meal worry walk the lines. Soup lines and welfare lines, the don’t-feed-me-a-line lines; just, can you lend me a bed, a meal, your time, maybe spare a dime? These are the blessed eight subsisters, the urban trawlers and alley dwellers. Shattered minds falling through concrete cracks in mean-street fields yielding...
The latest data from Kansas City’s Realtor Association continues to show a healthy housing market in Johnson County, Kansas. New homes in the cities of Overland Park, Shawnee and Olathe continue to sell at a brisk clip. Bickimer Homes, a top homebuilder in Kansas City celebrating its 35th year in business, is working overtime to...
One of Kansas City’s top home builders, Bickimer Homes welcomed more new homeowners in 2017 than in any of its 35 previous years in business. Tommy Bickimer, president of Bickimer Homes, attributes much of the company’s success to historically low interest rates and an improving economy, but without a dedicated staff and...
Not to disparage our friendly car dealers out there but, really, who likes buying a new car? Haggling with the salesman and his manager, arguing over your trade-in’s value, calculating the odds of having to use those costly extended warranty options- ugh! Gotta be right up there with going to the dentist. From time to...
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