By Diana Kuyper, The Northwest Herald, September 24, 2005

Bull Valley- Scot Begovich and Steve Case, owners of Burnham Custom Homes, built their first home together in 1989 while they were still in college.

Both 37 years old, Case, a union carpenter since high school, takes care of the field work and Begovich, with an MBA (marketing and finance), takes care of the business end and works with the architect on the design phase of their projects.

Burnham Custom Homes is one of the nine builders in the Sept. 22 to Oct. 16 Parade of Homes with their entry of a 7,000-square-foot home priced at $1.5 million. It is called the Valbonne Model.

The parade is a new-home show sponsored annually by the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago at a relatively exclusive new subdivision. This year's show is at the 200-acre Sanctuary of Bull Valley a subdivision with a possible 105 building sites.

The subdivision is between McConnell and Country Club roads, several miles east of Woodstock's Route 47. Tickets cost $15 apiece at the gate or $10 online at www.hbagc.com.

The partners have known each other since kindergarten growing up together in Northlake near O'Hare Airport.

They each developed their own talents, forming their custom home building company, now designing and building about 15 homes a year throughout the Chicago area, primarily in Lake and McHenry Counties. Begovich estimates the company has built about 100 homes since 1989.

In 2006 they will expand into Kane and Kendall Counties and participate in the Kane County parade of homes event in Elgin sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Greater Fox Valley.

This year, Burnham Custom Homes is participating not only in the Bull Valley parade that runs four consecutive weekends, but their home was also entered in the Chicago Luxury Home Tour (See story at left) for two weekends prior to the parade.

"We are participating to showcase not only our talents, but our subcontractors and suppliers," Begovich said. "It's a great marketing tool for them because few people who attend are interested in such a high-end new home, but they might be interested in the products and services of our providers. We get name recognition, and they get the business."

Begovich said the home in the Sanctuary was a pet project for their architect, Chris Kisereu from Cornerstone Architectural Group in St. Charles. "It started out as a college project. It has undergone some changes, but it has been his pet project for years," Begovich said, adding that every element of the home has been thoroughly designed to be not only beautiful but functional.

Stone, brick and hardwoods are prominent inside and outside the house. Begovich said the spec home is for sale.

It sits on an acre lot that has been landscaped, and it features three patios, including a trellis-covered family dining patio located off the hearth room. "The setting of the development is beautiful because it includes a great amount of undisturbed prairie. Our lot is adjacent to the preserve area, so in addition to being beautiful it provides for a great deal of privacy. The homes are pretty far apart from each other because of the dedicated prairie space between the homes," Begovich said.

The Burnham Custom Homes entry is based on the style of the early 1900s with a 25 foot high foyer, curved staircase and long grand hall with three custom painted murals of the Tuscan countryside on the walls. "While today's homes tend to de-emphasize the formal dining room, we bucked the trend by making it one of the highlights. "It is curved and accessed by cherry steps, surrounded by columns with a finished ceiling and multiple trays along the ceiling that make it look like four different levels," Begovich said. The 400-square-foot kitchen with a walk-in pantry has custom cherry cabinets, stainless steel commercial appliances with a 60 inch Viking stove with a double oven and a Viking commercial refrigerator. "We used two different granites in the kitchen." "The island has one color of granite, the perimeter counters have another." "We added design elements such as a built in coffee maker and a pot filler faucet above the stove." "The island has two chandeliers and a coffered ceiling that looks like a tic-tac-toe board," Begovich said.

The most memorable area of the home is the lower level, Begovich added. The bar has a keg dispenser, refrigerator, ice maker, 81 inch plasma television, a wine cellar, tasting room, a video arcade, and a family room. The showcase is the home theater, with a 121 inch screen designed and built by Chicago Media Systems. "It is the largest home theater they have ever built," Begovich said. The lower level, furnished by The Rec Room in Algonquin, is decorated with a turn of the century theme but features modern technology. For example, the home theater room has more than 3,500 twinkling stars mounted on the ceiling.

The master suite is located at the top of the stairs to the second floor. "It is like a personal spa. It includes one of the home's five fireplaces in a room that overlooks the preserve. The master bath has a shower that looks like Rapunzel's tower. It has a conical ceiling that has a copper roof visible from the exterior. We used thousands of ceramic tiles that continue the Tuscan theme in the shower room," Begovich said.

The home has five bedrooms, each with a private bath, a bonus room that could be used as a playroom, office, sewing or craft room, a five car garage, two powder rooms, an "arrival hall" with a copper ceiling accessible from the garage and four cherry lockers that make it feel like a country club, said Begovich. The office on the first floor has a granite fireplace, a 42 inch plasma television, floor to ceiling bookcases, a custom made desk, a refrigerator and its own patio accessible from a French door. Nowhere in the home is there a flat ceiling. "There are either tray, vaulted, coffered or barreled," Begovich said. The first floor also includes a 440 square foot great room that has bowed windows and a stone fireplace. The home features advanced technology systems, including security, inside and outside surveillance and a whole-house audio system with 12 locations.