If you’re serious about building a custom home, the first step should be to schedule a Custom Home Investment Study. The home you’re going to build has never been built before—and no two 2,500 square foot custom homes ever cost the same. It’s custom. Every single detail is different, every single time. If you’re serious about building a custom home in Western Washington, begin with a Custom Home Investment Study.
After an initial discovery meeting, you’ll complete our Architectural Survey to help us capture more detail about your vision for your custom home. What’s your style? How will you use the spaces? We ask, you answer.
Based on your survey response, we provide initial cost scenarios for the custom home you are planning to build. We want you to know the total project cost range, so we include a thorough overview of: “sticks and bricks”, taxes, permits, and site development.
If the project cost range is aligned with your budget, then we meet with our Construction Manager at your property. Experience tells us a lot before we dig the first dirt. We tighten up your total project cost range based on what we see.
Whether or not you have specific plans, once you’ve determined you can build your custom home for your budget, we begin our award-winning pre-construction and design phase. As we work together to get every detail on paper, your plan, selections, and specifications are going through a rigorous quality planning process. This quality planning ensures that every detail is meticulously accounted for, budget is on track, and every issue uncovered before any building begins or any product is ordered.
Ultimately, our process saves time and money by reducing mistakes and waste.
There are three primary cost drivers to keep in mind during this process.
1.The Site. All sites are not created equal, our site development experience helps us provide a total project cost so you have the whole picture.
2.The Design. Our design and build approach enables us to accurately advise you on what you can build for your target budget.
3.The Specifications. As we work together to select features and fixtures (the specifications) for your home, we’ll provide budget updates along the way.
A difficult site (steep slope for example) can raise the cost of your site development work by as much as 30% and require extensive work with the City or County and specialty trade contractors (like septic designers and installers). Our Custom Home Investment Study includes costs for site development (septic design, installation, well drilling, road building, tree clearing, etc), permits, and utilities as well as how the site will affect the construction schedule.
Your design concept will be developed (architect provided when needed) with your budget target in mind based on current and accurate building costs.
Among the most important design variables are your home’s structural complexity and footprint. The more complex the structure, the more it will cost to build. Imagine two homes with the exact same square footage and 9-foot-high walls. The home with a complex roof and several wall bump-outs will cost more to build than one with a rectangular footprint and simple roofline. It’s custom, you choose. We’re here for you to lean on us for our experience and guidance on options.
You will most likely consider different alternatives for each part of the house – granite versus quartz countertops for example – and we provide comparative prices for each.
Material selection can also impact labor costs. The time and expertise it takes to install shingle siding, for example, is going to be much higher than that of horizontal clapboards.
When the planning is done, we provide you with a final guaranteed quotation. You know the cost of your new custom home before we excavate for your foundation.
