Dreaming Big with The 2024 St. Jude Home

The 2024 St. Jude Dream Home — a fundraising project that benefits the children’s research hospital — features special touches throughout. Located in Broussard’s Magnolia Trace subdivision, the 2024 St. Jude Dream Home flaunts traditional architecture by Lafayette-based Jarod A. Hebert, Architect. This is the 15th year that Lafayette-based McLain Homes, which developed the boutique gated subdivision, is building the home.

“There will be less than 100 homes total, [and] all of the houses are set close to the street to create a quaint neighborhood and a community garden,” says Jim Van Breemen, construction manager at McLain Homes. “The subdivision is a little different because the HOA takes care of the grass cutting and pressure washes the houses once per year. We do that so the subdivision always looks good.”

The 2024 St. Jude Dream Home features pops of color throughout, including deep green walls and jewel-toned chairs in the dining room.

The 4,600-square-foot St. Jude Home boasts four bedrooms, three-and-one-half baths, an office, a kitchen scullery and gorgeous interior design details. “Out of the last 14 houses that we’ve built, Jarod has drawn about 10 of those houses,” Van Breemen says. “We have probably over 50 subcontractors and vendors who donate labor or materials. Doug Ashy Building Materials is one of the bigger [vendors] who makes a donation of lumber. [Another] big subcontractor is Flooring and Accessories, which donated all of the stone fabrication and installation for the kitchen and scullery. This year’s house would typically appraise for $700,000, [but it will cost] less than $100,000 to build — that’s how much is donated.”

The exterior of the one-story home is constructed of painted brick, lap siding and stucco, while the interior features a mixture of porcelain, ceramic tile and engineered-wood flooring donated by Shaw Floors. The traditional interior design includes plenty of color (in shades of pink and green) by way of paint, wallpaper and plaster throughout. “This year’s house has a lot of color and texture,” Van Breemen says. “The design is going away from an all-white house and white trim.”

Fun interior design touches are also sprinkled throughout the home, such as this unique installation of antique golf clubs.

The kitchen, which has an attached scullery (akin to a second work kitchen where dirty dishes can be stored while entertaining), also features a retractable backsplash that opens between the kitchen and the scullery. Bosch, the national appliances sponsor for all St. Jude homes, has donated two dishwashers, a 36-inch range, a wall oven, two refrigerators, a warming drawer, a microwave drawer and a built-in coffee machine.

The home, open for guests to tour through June 25, was also up for a raffle giveaway. “We have 13,000 tickets to sell, and each one costs $100, so we should raise $1.3 million for St. Jude,” Van Breemen says. “The goal is to sell all of the tickets, [with $1.3 million going] to St. Jude.” The home was given to the winner of the raffle on June 26.

Flooring and Accessories donated all of the stone fabrication and installation for the kitchen and scullery

“It’s important to understand that we have a lot of people who come together to build this house,” Van Breemen adds. “We have a lot of vendors and sub-vendors who want to be involved, and, without them, the mission would’ve never gotten started. It’s really a community effort to be able to build this house for the price that we do.”

Do you want to support the 2024 home fundraiser? Make contributions to Acadiana Dream Home Foundation by mailing a check made out to St. Jude Children’s Hospital to P.O. Box 52222 Lafayette, LA 70505. For additional details and a full list of vendors and sponsors visit: StJude.org/give/dream-home/lafayette.html