As Nina puts it, our experience was very Goldilocks And the Three Bears.
-- One builder was far too expensive
-- One builder was a little cheap
-- One builder was just right
I'm not sure what we would have done if we'd interviewed an even number of builders. Interestingly, there are different schools of thought, from what I've read, on when to interview the builder. We did it well after interviewing architects, finding property, and designing the house. Others, however, would say to interview the builder up front (pre-everything else) and find an architect who can work alongside the builder.
In our experience, selecting a builder after the home was planned made perfect sense because of the architect we hired. Cara is so detailed and precise in her plans that we were able to make fairly accurate comparisons between builders. Also, she was a bulldog when it came to negotiations with them! It was great to have a knowledgable and strident advocate on our side.
Time will tell what kind of fruit our approach will bear.
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| Some of the handiwork of our chosen builder. Note the butterfly roof (our home will have a more subtle version of this). |
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| Another home by Cablik. I really like the orange. |
At any rate, our builder will be Alan Cablik -- and he's someone we actually met over the summer. We are hopeful that with his personal involvement, we'll get a well-built house and one where the roof doesn't leak eternally (like our beloved but soaky old Houston home).
Anyway, here's the website for Cablik Enterprises.
Next tasks: financing and finalizing the city construction permits...
