There’s still a month before the Homearama houses make their official debut to the public, but some of the homes already have buyers.

With a little more than a month until the official opening of Homearama, several of the featured houses have opened their doors to hundreds of visitors for a sneak preview this weekend.

Justin Kauflin, a jazz pianist from Virginia Beach, was in an eye doctor’s waiting room when he got the call that invited him to join the elite ranks of jazz players. At that moment, last month, he also was being filmed by a camera crew for a documentary.

The Tidewater Builders Association is opening up the Homearama houses and inviting the public to get their shoes dirty at the Dusty Boots open house.

Interior design students Chad Krikorian and Rechelle Palacios fiddled with a lamp, mirror and console.... They moved around tufted ottomans and a sectional sofa...They laid out wallpaper and paint colors. And they never broke a sweat.

In addition to the Justin Kauflin house, Homearama will feature eight other expansive homes, many of which have specially designed themes, such as one home inspired by ideas suggested by the builder’s social media friends and another designed for ultimate organization.

As construction of Dick’s Sporting Goods continues in Harbour View East, two additional retail stores are being built next to it in the shopping center on College Drive.

Even as participating builders get geared up for construction on the homes that will be featured in the fall Homearama at The Riverfront in North Suffolk, the Tidewater Builders Association is looking for more contractors to take part in the event.

Lew and Karen Hendricks looked at just one neighborhood when they decided to move to Hampton Roads three years ago. That community, The Riverfront at Harbour View, had them hooked from the start.

This week, the city of Suffolk took up the task of redrawing its borough boundaries to reflect a dramatic change in its population in the past 10 years. The shifts have brought more people, power and prosperity to the north at the expense of older urban and rural areas to the south.

The Tidewater Builders Association announced Friday it will hold its fall showcase of homes at a community in northern Suffolk.

Suffolk News Herald, Friday, February 25, 2011– Homearama, the twice-yearly showcase of homes sponsored in Hampton Roads by the Tidewater Builders Association, will return to Suffolk this fall, officials announced on Friday. The Riverfront neighborhood in Harbour View will host the event for the second time, making this the third visit to Suffolk by Homearama... Continue Reading

East West Partners Foundation is now accepting applications for the Bill Jessee Memorial Scholarship. The deadline for submission of scholarship materials is April 30, 2011. Applicants must be a graduating high school senior residing in the City of Suffolk, Isle of Wight County or James City County, enrolling as a full-time, first year student at... Continue Reading

SUFFOLK, Virginia (July 27, 2010) The official motto for several years has been “It’s a good time to be in Suffolk…”, and now it seems like others have found that to be true, as well. Suffolk has been named as one of America’s 100 Best Small Cities to Live for 2010 by CNN Money Magazine.... Continue Reading

Brett Arends of the Wall Street Journal discusses why he thinks now is a particularly good time to buy a home. Enough with the doom and gloom about homeownership. Sure, maybe there’s more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare “Owning a home may no longer... Continue Reading