How many times I have heard that!! Many builders will talk about it all starts with a good foundation; however if you start at that level you have a lot of catching up to do. You probably will need to go in reverse before you can move ahead. Actually a foundation signifies you have already made the decisions that comprise your dream home. The process then is ours to manage for you making sure the decisions you have made happen as planned.

We believe the process starts when you take the first step and call us asking for a consultation meeting. It’s a no obligation meeting that will help you discover if custom homebuilding is right for you first of all. If we agree that building a new home is right for you then the next step is deciding if we are the right builder to manage your project. Either way there is no obligation at that point.

Science or art?

Actually it happens to be both. Most have learned to draw from concepts like the kitchen triangle for reaching the appliance and sinks, or open floor plans that have some structured teaching. The newest concept is called Universal Design which makes a home visitable for all people who may use the home. Some of your relatives like elderly parents need to ease of access, an entrance without step handrails and maybe a bath room that accommodates their physical limitations. At holiday and family gathering they are much more at ease and most of all able to go anywhere in the home that the other members go. The best part is that you would not ever notice these features are there, just a more comfortable environment to live in. Most of our home feature this type of design style and have a really open and roomy style. It was interesting that we built these homes with the 55+ family in mind and found that even 1st time homebuyers liked the feel and spaciousness of the entire home concept.

The art part of Design comes in the details and the parts of a home that are unique and make the home pop with color and symmetrical or asymmetrical ideas and concepts. One of the things that I used to do was tell our customers that we would include one unique feature that a no charge we would include. Sometimes we envisioned it at the Design and planning stage, sometime it came at the home during construction. This specialty is one that really made the home special and unique to that customer. We have always involved a professional home designer to help tweak the color, texture and find just the right floor materials to make it work. They are there to make sure the designed product exceeds your expectations, its just one of our many free services.

Selections are a big part of the design as well. Most think when the plan is done that its time to move ahead with construction, however we believe that most of the selections of products are done before the foundation is ever poured. That’s why we have a customer control center so our customers can make selections on line in their free time, which many of us do not have much of that. We assist you personally with advice to make the correct decisions but with the online selection center you can thing about what would be best for you without being rushed.

As Design/Build Contractors most of us have developed a style in the homes we build which make them unique to us, but we can and have build all types of homes including Traditional, Craftsman, Prairie, English Tudors, and contemporary. As a designer you have to spend the time to understand the process and the reason for many of the features that each of those home have. You can’t just see a plan and thing you can just whip something up. It will show.

So as you can see design takes on many facets that most would not put together. There has to be a real understanding of the customer, their desires, style, and how they live. It's hard to put a beginning and an end to the design process because it does not end for us until the project is completed and we hand you the keys. And then you take over the design process from there from landscaping decorating window coverings and your accessories.

That is how we have come to think of custom home building as a process that never ends. One that we are with you and feel we put our name on the home as long as it exists. One that endures and produces value for all who eventually live there. It's what we like to call…..

Sometimes everything just clicks and we have a design close to what you are looking for and the process starts there to message the plan to get it to meet your exact specifications that suit your family needs and desires.

Other times we basically start from a blank sheet of paper and design your project from our mutually agreed upon goals. We have a check list that we use to help get the ball rolling, we have done this many times before and most customers have never had the experience.