How we build
Building a house is the largest thing most people ever buy, and most of the stress comes from not knowing what happens next. So here is exactly what happens next.
01
Every house starts on foot. We meet you on your lot, or on the two or three you are deciding between, and look at the things that decide what a house costs and how it lives: slope, rock, sun, wind, the road in, and where water and septic can go.
02
Our designers draw the house for that site and for the way you actually live. You will see floor plans first, then the outside, then 3D views you can walk through on a screen. We keep drawing until it is right, and the superintendent who will build it checks every round for cost.
03
Before we price the house, you choose what goes in it: windows, cabinets, counters, floors, fixtures, the lot. Then we price every line and put one number in the contract. It moves only if you change something, and then only by a written change order you sign first.
04
One superintendent runs your job from the first stake to the last coat of paint, and is on site every working day. Our own carpenters frame and trim the house; the trades we bring in have worked with us for years. Each Friday you get photos and a short written update.
05
Before you move in we walk every room with you and write down anything that is not right. We finish that list first. Then we come back during your first year to adjust what a new house always needs adjusting, and we stand behind the structure in writing.
Questions
No. About half of our clients call us before they buy. We would rather walk a lot with you before you sign than explain afterward why it costs more to build on than you were told.
Yes. We build from outside plans every year. We will review them with our superintendent first and tell you what they will cost to build here, where the frost depth, snow load and rock are not what the plan book assumed.
Recent homes have run from about $310 to $560 a finished square foot, not counting land and site work. The rough range tool on the Start a build page will get you in the neighborhood; a real number comes after design and selections.
Everything in the drawings and the selections book: structure, finishes, fixtures, appliances, permits, cleanup. Site work is priced separately and shown beside it, because rock and soil are the one thing nobody can see until we dig.
You can. We write up the change with its price before any work is done, and nothing happens until you sign it.
We stay within about ninety minutes of Spearfish, so a superintendent can be on every site every day. Farther than that, we will gladly point you to builders we respect.
Step one
Tell us where your land is, or where you are looking. We will set a time to meet you there.
Photo: Clay Banks / Unsplash