PulteGroup’s South Florida Division, suppliers, trade partners roll up their sleeves for Kitchen Makeover at Lighthouse of Southwest Florida

Fort Myers, Fla. --- PulteGroup’s South Florida Division and 12 of its supplier and trade partners took the day off Friday, Sept. 27 to roll up their sleeves, don their hard hats and remodel the instructional kitchen at Lighthouse of Southwest Florida in North Fort Myers. Scott Mairn, vice president of sales and marketing for PulteGroup’s South Florida Division, said 30 PulteGroup volunteers and 10 subcontractors joined the day-long effort installing new baseboards, setting a new tile backsplash in the kitchen, hanging new light fixtures, painting interior walls and trim work, installing appliances, and upgrading the landscaping. Lighthouse of Southwest Florida provides daily living assistance, emotional support and hope to people living with blindness and visual impairments. Their goal is to guide people to live independent lives. “The Lighthouse instructional kitchen is a very important asset where visually impaired people can learn how to manage their own kitchen at home,” Mairn explained. The PulteGroup volunteers weren’t alone, Mairn said. Smokin Pit Barbeque delivered lunch for the crew, and PulteGroup suppliers chipped in with donated materials and labor to upgrade, modernize and rehab the entire kitchen facility along with some landscape upgrades. “It was a team effort and PulteGroup has a pretty formidable team,” Mairn said. Masco provided new cabinetry throughout. Mediterranean Marble donated granite countertops. Tile-It has donated labor and materials for new VTC flooring and a tile backsplash. R.T. Moore donated labor and materials to revamp the facility’s outdated plumbing systems. Seabreeze Electric donated labor and materials to update the electrical systems and install new electrical fixtures. Rice Insulation donated insulation material for the kitchen walls. Whirlpool donated all new appliances for the facility. Prime Painting secured all the paint for the kitchen and most of the common walls throughout the Lighthouse complex. Raymond Lumber donated new baseboard and casing material. Paramount Drywall obtained free drywall from Cemex and installed and finished the walls. Waste Services donated a 30-yard dumpster for the project. And Sunnygrove Landscaping donated plant and mulch material to spruce up the exterior grounds of the facility. “This is really an exciting project, it was a major effort to coordinate, and the day-long work detail was a labor of love,” Mairn said.