Meritus Homes Offers Showcase Home for Quick Delivery at The Reserve of St. Charles

Buyers in the market for a quick-delivery new-construction home now have the opportunity to purchase a showcase home available for spring 2015 move-in at The Reserve of St. Charles, a Meritus Homes community of semi-custom and custom homes just three miles north of downtown St. Charles.

“It’s always exciting for us to start a new showcase home because it’s an opportunity to demonstrate to buyers the scope of the unique features and design details we can add to a home with our semi-custom building process,” said Brian Brunhofer, president of Deerfield, Ill.-based Meritus Homes. “While we will definitely use it to show off our work to prospective buyers, this home is also a great opportunity for those who don’t have time to go through the typical process of working with a builder from the ground up. Our design team has already selected terrific features and construction is underway, so buyers can purchase this home on an accelerated timeline.”

Brunhofer added that Meritus continues to see strong demand for its quick-delivery showcase homes, due in part to the shortage of inventory available in the current market.

“Our showcase homes always sell quickly, which is not only a reflection of the great features we put into them, but also of the limited choices today’s buyers have,” he said. “There are fewer homes on the market to begin with, much less new homes like this one where buyers can move in quickly and also get all the modern features they want. That’s particularly true in an in-demand suburb like St. Charles, where the resale market is tight and there’s a lot of competition for available homes.”

Priced at $629,400, the showcase home features a two-story, 3,716-square-foot floor plan that Brunhofer noted is among the best-selling designs in the Meritus Homes portfolio. It has four bedrooms, 3½ baths, separate living and dining rooms, a first-floor den, family room, split-bay three-car garage and a full look-out basement with nine-foot ceilings. The home also offers convenient features such as a large first-floor laundry room that doubles as a mud room entry from the garage, a family-friendly island kitchen, and plentiful storage including walk-in closets in three of the four bedrooms.

The home comes complete with the suite of high-end features Meritus offers in all of its semi-custom home packages as a starting point for additional customization, including 10-foot first-floor ceilings, a gourmet kitchen with 42-inch cabinetry, granite countertops and a preparation island, and spa-like master bath.

Additionally, the Meritus design team has added special selections such as a fireplace with a custom mantel and decorative surround in the family room. The first floor also features site-finished 3¼-inch oak flooring and an oak staircase with wrought iron railing.

Custom finishes in the kitchen include designer maple cabinetry; a stainless steel appliance package with a 36-inch cooktop, wall oven and wall-mount canopy hood; and a decorative glass tile backsplash that extends through the kitchen and into an adjacent butler’s pantry.

Upstairs, the master bath also features custom tile work, including decorative tiles with listello borders.
“Because we’re early on in the construction process, buyers might still be able to make some finish selections themselves depending on when they purchase – whether they want to swap out the tile we’ve chosen or make their own choice of stain for the hardwood flooring,” said Brunhofer.

The showcase home also includes a deck that looks out toward a landscaped berm at the rear of the property. The south-facing home site is fully sodded and landscaped, including trees and foundation plantings.

Located amid 56 acres of conservation areas and wetlands, The Reserve of St. Charles offers a scenic Fox River Valley setting complete with prairie grasses, mature trees and walking trails.

The Reserve of St. Charles is less than one mile from St. Charles North High School, one of the top public high schools in Illinois according to U.S. News & World Report. The community is served by the highly acclaimed St. Charles Community Unit School District 303.

The Reserve of St. Charles is located on the west side of Route 31 between Red Gate and Silver Glen roads. An on-site sales center, located at 745 Reserve Drive, is open Monday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (630) 549-6486 or visit www.MeritusHomeBuilders.com.

About Meritus Homes
Meritus Homes was founded by homebuilding veterans Brian and Karen Brunhofer. The couple has more than 30 years of combined homebuilding experience, during which time they led teams that delivered more than 10,000 homes to the Chicago area. Meritus Homes has built homes in many of Chicago’s most sought-after communities, including St. Charles, Long Grove, Park Ridge, Wilmette, Winnetka, Northbrook, Inverness and Naperville.