• Garden Homes’ challenge is to create and provide a new home that suits the needs of a family and transcends time.
• Building a custom home is one of the largest investments you will make. There are very few assets you can own that will actually appreciate in value over time, and your home is one of them if it’s properly designed and built.
• The most basic advice we give our homeowners is that you can have a poorly designed home or you can have a well designed home, but in the end, they will cost the same amount…why not invest the relatively small additional amount of time needed to have your home designed well?

• We take the time to get acquainted with our clients, identifying not only their needs, but also their desires. In asking the right questions, guiding you to identify the elements that will make your home special, we not only create your personal vision, but are equally mindful of building value into your home so that it becomes an asset, both financially and emotionally.
• Innovative architecture and creative homes don’t just happen. They are the culmination of years of experience, tireless dedication and an ability to listen to the homeowner's needs. A considerable part of Garden Homes’ success is in its ability to understand each homeowner and provide a high quality new home. Built to both inspire and provide all the comforts of quality living.

• Design development refines and revises the plan to your needs and wishes, and begins the process of utilizing the CAD (computer aided design) system to further visualize the project.

• All homes have a different set of challenges. For you to fully enjoy the process of design and discovery, we encourage you to allow a generous timeline for reviewing the design. New home design and pricing timelines may take several months, depending on how you review and make decisions.
  At times urgent circumstances may arise causing a “fast track” which we may be able to facilitate.

• We bring the design and construction expertise to the process that is necessary to protect your investment and bring years of enjoyment.
• An on-site visit will help define proper orientation of your home, as well as to identify site assets and challenges.

• Whether you have extensive experience with design and construction or are coming to both for the first time, it can be helpful to ask yourself a few questions. These questions will help to ensure that your initial communications will be clear and productive.
• How will your home be used? Do you have specific ideas on how to translate these activities into spaces and square footage?
• Do you have a site? Or will this also be a subject of discussion?
• Have you decided upon a schedule and budget?
• What are your overall aspirations for the project—aesthetic and emotional as well as practical?

• Would you pay a little extra up front on systems that will save energy or bring other operations savings and pay back over time?
• We will listen closely to your answers, help you solidify your goals and desires, and translate them into an effective building.

• The most thoughtful design build firms are as careful in selecting their clients as owners are in selecting design build firms. Be prepared to answer questions about your home’s purpose, budget, timeframe, and site.
• Don’t be afraid to be frank. Tell us what you know and what you expect. Ask for an explanation of anything you do not understand. The more you put on the table at the outset, the better the changes are for a successful project. As we jointly evaluate alternative approaches to your new home's direction, priorities are clarified and new possibilities emerge. There is no substitute for the intensive dialogue and inquiry that characterize the design process.

• Your new home, the place where you laugh, love, play and rest, should graciously mirror the unique personality of your family. But because your new home is also an investment, it must possess top-notch quality as well as comfort. We at Garden Homes Inc. understand that a new specialty home is both a tremendous investment and an extension of your lifestyle. Garden Homes is committed to delivering dream homes to our homeowners, quality residences that elegantly meet the needs of each and every family. The area’s most discerning homebuyers have come to associate us with integrity, honesty, fairness, and openness to the innovative ideas of our homeowners.

View a short list of Garden Home's Clients

Custom Home Pricing

Determining the price of a custom home is far different from pricing any other purchase a person will make in their lifetime.

How does one price a work of art before it is even created? That is the challenge you face.

Our world is price-oriented rather than value-oriented. From cars to real estate listings to the penny candy (now 25 cents each) to our groceries and clothes virtually everything we buy has a price tag. We use that tag to evaluate our desire and ability to purchase that item and to make a purchasing decision.

Custom homes are different. No one knows the exact price until the home is constructed. Hundreds of price-related decisions will be made during the process.

For some people the comfort level range may be 2-3 percent, for others it may be 5-10 percent. To narrow the range, more information, research and planning need to be done in advance. If you are comfortable with a broad range, the more flexibility you will have as the project unfolds.

How Much Per Square Foot

A custom home can not be priced by the square foot any more than by the pound. Square footage and weight are only two of the items involved. Shape, volume, exterior materials, type of flooring, cabinets, etc. make up the price. Divide that price by the number of square feet and you get the price per square foot.

Factors that significantly affect the price

If a home has 27 corners, 5 strange angles, 20 foot ceilings, a subzero, Jacuzzi, marble, wood interior finishes, 4-foot wide hallways, massive stone fireplaces, covered porches, large glass areas, etc. the price per square foot will obviously be higher than a four corner, two story home. The way square footage is measured varies. If you begin your shopping trip with price per square foot comparisons be sure to limit the amount of weight or importance you place on them. It is simply not a relevant measure of materials or labor costs.

Level of Amenities Selected

You can choose "moderate," "high" or "luxury" levels of amenities. Many people choose to mix and match. Perhaps you have "high" levels in the kitchen and only "moderate" in personal quarters or vice versa. Some will go with all or some "low" levels, planning to upgrade them later. This is especially true with things like floor coverings, cabinets and counter tops which tend to date a house after a few years anyway.

The Basic Building System and Materials Type

Most fine custom homes are a combination of site-built and factory-crafted components (e.g. cabinets). The basic building system and type is the most permanent part of the home so it makes sense to invest in higher quality materials. As discussed previously, the more temporary things like fixtures, carpets, etc. can be changed later. The basic structure is there for the life of the house. It doesn't make sense to marginalize the structural, floor, wall or roof systems as replacing/upgrading them later is unlikely.

Site Related and Building Code Considerations

Accessibility, terrain, weather, local code requirements, snow loads, wind loads, power, water, and a number of other considerations that are site and job specific will impact the price of your home.

View Our Site Inspection Form

Time and Money Considerations

If you have unlimited time and money you can have anything and everything you want. Most of us, however, are making compromises to one degree or another. Even a two million dollar home can go over budget and need to be cut back a little. If you are less than candid about your real budget your goal will be more difficult to achieve.

Design Style and Complexity

Even the angles and wall heights mentioned before can be done with relative ease compared to a complex intertwining of roof types, styles and pitches. When you have hips, valleys, gables, dormers and other "interruptions" in a roof line you increase the complexity...thus the amount of design calculations, labor and materials increase substantially. Exceedingly long spans and open areas are also very costly, however, these architectural complexities can make a home unique and wonderful to live in and enjoy.

Business Acumen of Owners and Ethics of Builders

"Low-balling" is the practice of determining what price range a homeowner "wants to hear" and telling them that they can have the home they want for that price. A homeowner has taken a decisive, irrevocable step once he or she is under contract. The change orders, "by the ways," contingencies and unrealistically low allowance items are re-visited. The homeowner faces the choice of downsizing or upgrading the budget. This is an insidious and pervasive pattern that develops over time.

Can It Be Built Cheaper?
ABSOLUTELY!!! Anything can be built cheaper. But beware of the contractor who assures you, "I can do a home just like it cheaper." Cheaper, in the long run, can be quite costly. If a builder says they can build the same home cheaper, find out how. What is the specific rationale? What efficiencies do they have on their method of operation that makes this possible? Claims like these are usually very short on specifics. It is easy to be misled when someone tells us what we want to hear.

Things to Consider

A. Deal with a company with a proven record of trustworthiness and reliability.

B. Understand and agree that your builder needs to make a profit.

C. Be realistic. If someone is cutting prices they are cutting quality or service, unless there is a verifiable economic rationale. If it sounds too good to be true...

Project Partners

Designing and building a custom home is a collaborative effort. Throughout the process you will make hundreds-even thousands- of decisions, and each will affect the time and budget of your project.

A Garden Homes Consultant is dedicated to working with you as a partner on your new home. We don't simply take orders, deliver lumber, collect our funds and abandon you. We work with you every step of the project, from the first rough sketch until you occupy and enjoy your new home.

If you've never built a home, you will find our design service invaluable. If you have experience building a home, you already know why design is so important.

• As a Garden Homes homeowner, we wholeheartedly believe you are entitled to prompt, courteous, knowledgeable answers to your questions. When questions arise about your new home, you will speak with the appropriate individual so the question can be resolved very quickly, in the most mutually satisfactory manner possible. We wish to be accessible and welcome all thoughts and concerns as it affects our relationship. Our goal is to provide all the help we can give in designing, building, and servicing your new home.

• From designer to electrician, plumber to sheet-rocker, Garden Homes teams with an extended family of experts who take great pride in the building of your beautiful new home. We work closely with a select core of quality-oriented subcontractors who uphold guidelines above and beyond any tract builder. Many of these trade masters have worked as a team for decades, establishing solid ties of trust and loyalty. In addition to utilizing high-quality materials and subcontractors, we inspect our workmanship again and again, and back it with an outstanding warranty.

• Although Garden Homes strives for perfection, we are not perfect nor are the manmade and natural materials used in our homes. Therefore, our homeowners are provided with a one-year written Limited Warranty upon completion of your new home. Homeowners also receive a walk-through prior to closing to identify items of concern. We will verify rectification of any previously noted problems. At 60 days and 180 days after move in we ask you to identify any new warranty issues. Finally at one year we will ask you to identify any warranty problem that may have occurred as the home was subjected to change in climate and other natural phenomena. The Garden Homes team is tremendously proud of the finely crafted, breathtakingly beautiful new homes we design and build.

Price vs. Value

"It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money-that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot-it cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."

John Ruskin
English Philosopher
1819-1900