Each year, the St. Tammany Home Builders Association’s “Raising the Roof for Charity” event raffles off a house built by the association’s outgoing president. This year, the 2012-2013 president, Bobby Hurley of Hurley Homes LLC, was responsible for building the raffle house, located in Covington’s Maison du Lac subdivision.
STHBA immediate past president Bobby Hurley takes us through the process of building a raffle house entirely through donations.
“I started my residential home building company in 2003,” Bobby says. “Before that, I worked for commercial contractors. I like both sides of the business, commercial and residential. My dad was a residential builder, but in college, I studied the commercial side. Eventually, I migrated back to building homes after getting a feel for both types. What I like about residential building is that I can be involved in the day-to-day process, whereas in commercial, I was in an office, doing more administrative work. My business is a smaller operation, so I get to do a little bit of everything.”
Bobby joined STHBA in 2003 and has since served the organization in several leadership positions. He says building a house strictly through donations is no easy task. “First, you work with a designer to determine what to build, and then it’s time to start soliciting donors. That’s the hardest part—getting enough donations of products and services to create a beautiful home and have money left over to give to the chosen charity groups,” Bobby says. It may be hard, but STHBA has certainly found ways to do it, gifting more than $4 million to various organizations in the past 17 years through the raffle house program!
For the Maison du Lac home, Bobby worked with designer Sharon Ripoll of Designs by Sharon. Details included custom gas light fixtures from Bevolo, custom cabinetry from Milltown Cabinets and an overall palette of ivory and grey that is sophisticated and soothing. The lucky winner of the custom home was Tara Hunter, a Coast Guard Lieutenant from Slidell.
This year, STHBA and its partner charities worked together to sell more than 6,200 raffle tickets at $100 apiece. This revenue covers any hard costs associated with the home, plus the charitable gifts. “We have some great contractors working with us. For some, it is just too expensive to do the work entirely for free, so they do what they can to help,” says Bobby. At the celebration for the opening of the house, several contributors said that of course they had donated, adding, “Who can say ‘no’ to Bobby Hurley?” It is a fitting commentary about a man who has given so much of his time and talent to his industry.
The raffle house event is only one of many STHBA activities. Bobby says, “I believe the primary goal of STHBA is to advocate for our industry. We fight for things that matter to us and try to protect our interests. Nothing that we do as a group is more important than that. We are constantly monitoring issues at the local, state and national level, and we maintain good working relationships with our elected officials.”
Bobby grew up on the southshore and graduated from Louisiana State University in 1996 with a degree in construction management. He and his wife, Ranie, live in Mandeville with their two boys, Colin and Carter.
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