History and Details About the CMS

A look back to the start of the Internet for us

Back in 1999 the whole Internet thing started to role, and people began to call to ask if I needed a web site. Of course I was intrigued and moved forward with what was at that time a one page site with some added content you gave to the "so called developer" of your website.

Only having one page frustrated me right from the start, because websites had very poor quality graphics and looked less attractive than a typical handout brochure. The pull to the Internet was that it was new and you could call someone on the phone and tell them your URL (company domain name).

I also remember that everyone was hurrying to find the smallest domain name that spoke of their company. Abbreviated, like snad.com for Steve Nyhof Architectural Design. Well, they had very little meaning except to their owners. Later when Yahoo.com and still later Google.com and others came on the scene, most indexes were sorted alphabetically. So someone like AAA builders would be on the top, so some changed their names or just wished they had.

Google has now come a long way to filter out the closest matches to the keyword phrases people use to search for products and services, and what is in a company website to offer them.

As things began to standardize and web developers understood more of what was required of them, they scrambled to their places to offer more than the next guy, charging thousands and thousands to build a website. I think my first site was about $500.00 and hosted for $59.00 per month - for one page!

Time to do it myself

It didn't take but a month or so before I realized because of my programming background that this was something I could do myself. Back then, it was typing in code, uploading the file(s) and seeing the results live. Over and over the testing to something nice was painstakingly slow.

Our first site (that I created) went live sometime in the months that followed. I remember very clearly and still think of this today, it didn't take long for the new web site to get old. Other developers were doing great work and so the competition began, but it was slow and not easy to understand as computers and the Internet were changing so fast.

It took several years while we were developing our local database to store house plans and contacts, that the thought came to me to upload the plans to the Internet. Clients could login and view their plans on their own time. Well, as our builder base continued to grow I thought it would be nice if my clients, and the builders themselves could login to view, print, email the plans to their subs. This was the beginning of the understanding of the power of the web.

The beginning of Database technology and the Internet

Over the next several years we perfected the database and how it connected to the Internet. Back then it was a MS Access Database that we had automatically updating while we drew house plans. Every several hours, if new plans (pdf files) were generated, the plans would upload to our home builder websites, and emails would be sent out with links to log on and access their plans.

While there were large company's developing these types of systems for anyone with documents that wanted anyone who wanted to login to give bids on a given project, we were developing something more tailored to the home building industry and more specific for our clients.

This system became a hit for a number of our builders who were willing to expand their services and offer a more technologically advanced approach to more clients that demanded these types of services. Technology was changing so fast in fact, that there was hardly a time when when anyone was amazed at the new services, but just expected them. I began to realize that most of the people looking to build a home were working for company's that were moving faster than I was to advance the way they were operating their company's.

Taking a new step forward - Free House Plans?

Up to this point I was not really focusing on marketing the home builder websites. They were used mostly for the hundred plus builders that we drew house plans for. That was the connection, and it worked well.

Well, I though if I could sell websites to home builders across the nation that that would open up a door to my home design company, selling and designing plans for builders everywhere. Win some, loose some. This really did not work as I had expected, yes a sold a few plans here and there and still do have builders across the nation that I draw plans for, but in this slow economy there isn't much home design business.

We have more than 500 house plans, ranging from 900 square feet to over 4000 square feet. I have over 5000 plans in our database, but was focusing on offering only those plans that are simpler and more affordable to build.

While you can imagine, as the turn to 2009 was just ahead that I was entertaining the idea of offering all my house plans as a free service to any home builder who wanted to have them as part of his or her website.

It is now the end of March, 2009 and I have decided that I am in fact going to offer my house plans for free to our home builders who own or want a home builders website.

But I am getting ahead of myself - lets go back a little...

Back to the Home Listing System and more

We began to learn about SQL databases and the PHP programming language, so we began to develop a system that would show off homes that builders had for sale. These types of systems were showing up on high end builder websites that were being custom written and owned by the builder.

We were busy for well over a year developing this system, but before it would go live I wanted the system to offer more. We needed to do more. At that time I hired an outside source to help me realize my plans. I spent more than I wanted of late nights and hours helping in the development of the home listing system, and then later the House Plan system.

Another year would pass before I would connect it to many of the builders we did business with. As we continued to develop the system it would include many more features including an options system where site visitors could select a home or property, add a home and options to their selection and price out the property and print out a report, much like buying a car on-line.

Well, that too is great for production builders, but that is not what is happening in the economy today. While I believe there is a place of this system with options, we have turned a corner and decided to concentrate on custom home builders and home remodelers.

The Bidding System

That is when we moved forward with the bidding system. While most of the front end is completed where sub-contractors login and upload and add their bid costs, there is still some work on the administration side that needs to be completed.

To be continued...