Rebuilding the dream with all-American homes

• Anders Lewendal came up with the idea of building a house made of all-American products in 2010.
• An Oregon builder used 234 products from more than 200 companies in 30 states to complete one house.
• Several websites hope to serve as a hub for finding American manufacturers and sharing information.

For most Americans, being able to purchase a car and a home has defined the American Dream. In recent years, some of us have experienced some restless nights because we had invested dearly in that dream.

But, now, as the economy is slowly showing signs of recovery, the American Dream as we once knew it is being re-imagined. From the wood trim on front porches to the studs in roofs and rafters, our dream is again being built from the foundation up.

And it has everything to do with building all-American homes.

America has always looked to the housing industry to help build it out of recessions. However, during this recent recession, when that traditional recovery route stalled, Anders Lewendal, a builder in Bozeman, Mont., began thinking about how to re-energize his industry and

help stimulate the economy. One night almost two years ago, Lewendal, owner of Anders Lewendal Construction, came up with the idea of building a house made of all-American products.

By morning, he was on the phone to his subcontractors, checking the viability of his idea, and within months, he was building the All-American Home.

The house, completed in December 2011, has garnered a lot of media attention and inspired other builders across the country.

Lewendal says he used more than 120 American-made products from more than 33 states in constructing the home.

Elsewhere, Titan Homes in Kennewick, Wash., had a patriotic July 4 debut for its all-American home. The company is using the 2,200-square-foot house as its model and office, and owner Aaron Sullivan says it continues to get attention from potential homebuyers.

"They are very happy that we did a project like this, especially with living in a global society where a lot of stuff comes from overseas. They appreciate the difficulty and appreciate the end result," he says.

After seeing a segment featuring Lewendal on ABC's Made in America, friends sent a link of the show to Westlake Development Group owner Gerald Rowlett of Oregon, telling him he had to see it. "I was dumbfounded. Why aren't we doing this?" he thought. He wanted to get started immediately and approached clients Toniya VillaLobos and Larry Kitchen, whom he had just pulled a permit for, about applying the all-American home concept to the building of their new home in Lake Oswego, and they enthusiastically agreed.

VillaLobos says it makes her feel good that her home provided work for her neighbors and didn't require shipping products long distances. "We have a horrible economy, and I (feel like I) am contributing something positive," she says.

However, when she first began shopping and asking local flooring and tile suppliers for American-made products, she became frustrated when they couldn't tell her where individual products were manufactured. All the salespersons were excited and supportive but didn't have answers.

Rowlett turned to a local interior designer to help research and guide the clients through selections, and that partnership was so successful, the homeowners expanded the project to showcase American-made furnishings for the open house.

"A lot of us, for a long time, bought into the idea that European-made products were better than what we have in our own backyard," VillaLobos says. Now, fancy European appliances no longer have cache for her. She is bragging about her American-made appliances and kitchen.

She says the house was a labor of love, not just for her, the builder and the interior designer, but for every subcontractor and supplier. "Everyone knew it was a made-in-America home. I feel they put their heart and soul into the project."

The Made in America segment on Lewendal went viral, and other builders got on board and a movement was born. There are now all-American homes in Florida, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Inspirational expansion

Lewendal, a former economist, says buying local keeps your neighbors employed, and they in turn purchase products that employ other people. This "multiplier" effect adds up to a stronger economy. He says if every American family re-allocated 5 percent of their purchases to American-made products, the country would have 3 million new jobs. "You can get complicated about number-crunching and percentages, but in the end, buying local can fix our economy," he says.

Though Lewendal's clients were willing to select from a smaller group of products in keeping with the made-in-America theme, they asked if he could build the house without increasing the budget. He wanted to make sure they had selections that were of equal or better value, and though he had to research to find the products, he says he paid the same price for 99 percent of the products in the All-American Home as he did for the foreign-made products he used in previous projects.

Since many American companies have overseas factories, Lewendal's research involved calling the manufacturers to find out which specific products were made in the U.S. When he had a hard time finding U.S. fasteners, he even went so far as to call the manager of one of Senco's Illinois factories to ask him to ship several boxes of nails. "Otherwise, I couldn't have proved they came from here," he says. He credits his subcontractors and suppliers for similar research and documentation.

Rowlett started with the list of the products Lewendal posted on the All-American Home website. Though he completed the Oregon house using 234 products from more than 200 companies in 30 states, he says "over 75 percent of the money for that home stayed right here in Oregon."

Sullivan says using American-made products added 7 percent to the cost of the house he built. The most difficult American-made products to find were door hardware, light fixtures, ceiling fans and microwaves, he adds.

Dudley Powell, a Florida manufacturers' representative, took Lewendal's list, added other sources and created buildtheus.com, a website he is hoping will be a hub for homeowners and builders to find American manufacturers and share information.

Southern Traditions Development contacted him about building a home near Orlando, and he, the builder, an architect and an interior designer have recently completed the design and plan to break ground soon.

Powell is hoping to build a series of these homes to inspire other builders and build momentum for the idea.

Rowlett just signed a new client for a high-end $1.2 million home for a Street of Dreams tour and looks forward to the challenge of finding upscale made-in-America products for this family. He is hopeful that this movement will generate enough business for American manufacturers and that it leads to "in-sourcing back into the U.S."

Lewendal is happy that his project has inspired so many others to follow his example, and plans to build one All-American Home in every state.

This article was excerpted from USA TODAY's HOME magazine, available now on newsstands or through USA TODAY's online store. The special magazine features articles on home improvement, décor and entertaining.