Home and Garden Show Draws Homeowners To Bryce Jordan Center

By Zach Berger - March 14, 2015

Community & Entertainment | Life Entertainment | Local News | State College | StateCollege.com

One family could be seen stepping into an Amish man’s greenhouse shed.

Another group relaxed in a patio area, sitting around a wine barrel that was converted into a fire place.

The sounds of a garage door opening and an electric drill whizzing could be heard.

It might come as a surprise, but all of this activity is taking place on the Bryce Jordan Center arena floor this weekend. The 2015 Home and Garden Show, hosted by the Builders Association of Central Pennsylvania, continues through Sunday.

At the event, 116 vendors set up booths ranging from small tables to full landscaping displays with waterfalls — to show off home improvement services to attendees.

For local homeowners, the Home and Garden Show is the perfect opportunity to compare options and find inspiration for home remodeling projects. Grayson and Suzanne Evans, who own a State College home, came to the show with children Mason and Sadie for some Friday family fun.

“We’re just here to look around,” Grayson Evans says. “Our son is competing in the Lego home building contest right now, where he his to build his dream house. It isn’t exactly our house, it’s something with an airplane and a car in it and a bunch of stuff like that.”

He adds that the event is very important for businesses to show off new products on an annual basis.

“This is an extremely important event,” he says. “As technology changes very quickly these days, it has a big impact on these businesses, so it’s great that they can display the changes on their end for everyone to see at the show.”

One of those businesses is the Bellefonte-based Remodelers Workshop, a home remodeling service. At its massive booth, the company had built what was essentially a small home, complete with a beautiful, high-end kitchen.

“We’ve had a very high turnout, a lot of very interested people stopping by to check out what we offer,” says Clay Main, an employee.

“It’s important for people to be able to see and visualize what they’re going to put in their home before they make an official decision. It’s a great event. For the businesses, it puts your product right in front of the consumer. And for the consumer, it allows you to gather information and make comparisons.”

For Dan Despot, a Bellefonte native who is building a home in State College this summer, the show isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Despot says that he stopped by to shop around for cheaper options instead of going through his contractor for everything.

“It isn’t quite as big as I remember from past years. It’s nice to have everything together in one place so you don’t have to shop around,” he says. “But unfortunately, a lot of these places just have representatives that can’t give us pricing and say they have to call someone first, they aren’t the final decision makers. So that’s the one thing I’d point out that they could change here.”

While it may not have been selling any products for homeowners, the State College Area School District’s building construction engineering program certainly had some decision makers at its booth.

Chris Warren, the district’s instructor for the program, showed off its drilling competition. Attendees could test their speed, drilling five screws into a piece of wood. The fastest driller at the end of the weekend will take home a $400 electric drill, donated to the booth by Your Building Center.

“We like to get people interested with some good, interactive, family fun. It’s just a light-hearted competition for the families who come out,” he says.

Last year, the school district’s chapter of the National Association of Home Builders was named the best student chapter.

“We call them the future builders of America and that’s exactly what they are,” he says.

One of those future builders is Caleb Rogers, a high school senior and president of the chapter who wants to go into building construction engineering. Rogers will attend Penn College in the fall, but this weekend, he’s spreading awareness about the program at the BJC.

“This is a great opportunity to make people aware of who we are and what we do. We’re not just a bunch of people who swing hammers,” he says.

Rogers smiles as he recounts the program’s 2014 project, where students built two 8×10 bathrooms, designing them on their own. That may have drawn interest from Bellefonte couple Nathan and Courtney Karmelita, who checked out some bathroom remodeling options at the show on Friday.

The Karmelitas loved some of the options for cheaper bathroom walls, like acrylic material that is more affordable and easier to maintain than the usual ceramic tile.

“It’s just so much nicer here than going into a Home Depot or Lowe’s, everything is much higher quality,” Courtney says. “I also think that supporting local business is really important, so this is a great way to do that.”

See all the details in the Central PA Home & Garden Show Guide