Part of the attraction of going to the beach each summer – something many of you do – is to soak in the soothing colors.

Blue water. White sand. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could be surrounded by those soothing colors yearround, without having to leave your house in Shreveport-Bossier?

You can if you’re the winner of this year’s KTBS 3/St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway.

“It’s a staycation home,” said Myron Griffing, who owns Space: interiors and designed the inside of the house. “Every day, you get to come home, and it doesn’t matter what mood you’re in, this palette is so soothing that the minute you walk in you’re like, ‘OK, worries at the door. I’m home.’” The house at 744 Smokehouse Loop – in North Bossier City/Benton’s Kingston Plantation subdivision – is the third St. Jude Dream Home of which Griffing has designed the interior. This year’s theme – Coastal Modern – came from a project he recently finished. Not coincidentally, a project at the beach.

“I just redid a condo in Destin (Florida),” Griffing said. “I loved it. (The colors are) very relaxing, very soothing. It’s like a vacation at your home. It’s a very simple palette of a bone white, a light, light gray, and then the ceiling in the main public spaces is a really pretty sky blue.”

Rodgers Homes and Construction built the four-bedroom, three-bath, 3,100-square-foot house.

“It just flows,” said Jenny Rodgers. “The floor plan is amazing. It has a big upstairs. The master bathroom is gorgeous. You could practically live in the master closet.”

Rodgers and her husband, Philip, know a thing or two about building the St. Jude Dream Home – the centerpiece of the annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. This is their 29th home – they or their family have built every Dream Home since the program began locally.

“We’ve done the farmhouse. We’ve done the New Orleans-inspired home. We’ve done all these different things. We just wanted something that didn’t look like the last five years and something other builders aren’t doing.”

Something else that other builders – or most anyone – aren’t doing is building a house for free. With only a few exceptions, everyone – builder, designer, sub-contractors – donate both materials and labor. But before construction begins, the Rodgerses must have a place on which to build. A place someone is willing to donate.

“We’ve got to find a lot,” Rodgers said. “We’re trying to get people to donate lots, but land in desirable areas is hard to get – especially for free. We just have to ask people for lots and see what we come up with. That takes a long time.”

Speaking of a “long time,” 29 years is a long time to do something and not get paid. But for the Rodgerses, the reason for the work is more important than the cost of the work.

“Kids are dying of cancer,” Rodgers explained when asked why she and her husband have given so much of their time. “It’s hard. It’s a lot of work. It’s asking people to do stuff for free. But there are kids in Memphis and locally that are treated by St. Jude that are still dying from cancer or that are having to go through hard cancer treatments, so it’s kind of easy to do our part.”

“Our part” includes organizing fundraisers to help cover the cost for material and labor which are not donated.

“We threw a massive fundraiser last year at The Stage and raised $40,000 that went to St. Jude. This year, we have raised $30,000 for the house cost.”

While the Rodgers family has been fortunate not to experience St. Jude as a patient, they do know what it’s like to be away from home and facing medical expenses. Their 5-year-old son, Aiden, suffers from a heart defect.

“At St. Jude, it’s absolutely free,” Rodgers said.

“But everywhere else, it costs a lot of money. We had to go to Houston for treatments, so we were four hours away from home for five months. At St. Jude, they would put you up in a place and take care of you and give you money for groceries and food. They don’t do that anywhere else.”

Tickets to enter the KTBS 3/St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway are $100. To buy a ticket, and to learn more about the Giveaway, you may visit www.stjudge.org and search for “Shreveport Dream Home Giveaway.”

St. Jude Vendors & Suppliers

Acme Brick Company
* Barrett Appliance Distributors
Builders Custom Cabinets
Builders Supply
* CAM Home Services
Cooper’s Irrigation
Corner Collection
Creative Garage Solutions
* G&S Electric
* Custom-Bilt Cabinet and Supply
* Henson Carpet One Floor & Home
* Henson’s Lighting & Hardware
Hoogland’s Landscape
* La Rain Pros
* Marc Gibson Photography
Milling Around Interiors
Payne Company
* Peace Plumbing Company
Quality Shades & Shutters
* Rodgers Homes & Construction
Royal Plan Service
Salley Construction
* Sheppard’s Countertops
Shreveport Security Systems
* Tommy’s Specialty Hardware
Triton Stone Group of Shreveport
* Twin City Exterminating
Tubbs Hardware

* = advertising in this edition of 318 Forum