Pushing the Envelope: Rex Bost Takes Home Building to a Whole New Level

In 2006 UNC football coach Butch Davis (right), a good friend of Rex Bost, was stricken with lymphoma.

When Rex Bost, owner of Bost Custom Homes, was approached to build this year's Showcase for a Cure home to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, he knew just what he would be getting into. Bost had built the successful Mediterranean-style Bella Casa in 2004, a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society benefit house in The Hills of Rosemont. “That was such a positive experience,” says Bost. “We are very committed to this organization and the work it does. And it was also a great opportunity for exposure in the area for new ideas in home building.”
 
Indeed this award-winning builder's passion for the work of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society hits close to home. In 2004, his wife Brenda's sister was diagnosed with lymphoma (her disease remains in remission) and in 2006, as he was considering his second benefit home, his friend, UNC football coach, Butch Davis, was also stricken with lymphoma. “One of the things that is so important to me,” says Bost, “is that the money that is raised by these homes stays in this community.

Bost views this project as a truewin-win opportunity - a chance to make a significant contribution to a cause he believes in, as well as a vehicle for introducing a host of innovative home-building features to Triangle homeowners. “I really saw this as an opportunity to pull out all the stops,” says Bost, “to showcase a truly different style of house.”

Bost brings the same passion for giving back to the community to building homes that go far beyond the ordinary. Whether it's advancing a not-often-seen in the Triangle construction method, interpreting a distinctive style of architecture, introducing such features as FEMA-approved safe rooms, or exploring ever-more opportunities for reducing a home's impact on the environment, Bost is a builder always seeking the next level.

Building homes in the Triangle for more than 20 years, Bost was one of the area's first builders to forego traditional wood-framed construction for masonry framing. Having grown up in a family of brick, block, and stonemasons, Bost has always had a fascination with masonry, and he has pursued this fascination in his home building, refining masonry framing techniques to suit the unique requirements of the North Carolina Piedmont.

Architecture has also long been a passion for Bost, who collaborates closely on the design of his homes, taking an active role in creating ingenious solutions for space planning. He is constantly exploring fresh ideas, even traveling to Italy to study authentic Tuscan architecture.
 
And Bost has proved himself ahead of the curve when it comes to building environmentally sensitive homes. “Green building is just a different way to think about building a home,” says Bost. "From my perspective, it's just a smart way to build a home.” Bost has pioneered such smart green solutions as his Free-Rain water harvesting system, which captures runoff from a home's roof, its driveway, and even yard, making it available for irrigation and preventing that runoff from flooding storm drains and watersheds.
 
It's no wonder that, year after year, this inventive builder takes home award after award for his exceptional homes.