Our Story

When we set out to build our first home, it became pretty clear how overwhelming the whole process could be. At one point I think we selected cabinets, flooring, countertops and paint colors all in one day, just rushing from appointment to appointment hardly remembering what we had selected at the previous appointment. As we started our first build, we realized that there were certain decisions that had to be made very quickly at each stage or we would miss out. The worst was scrolling on Instagram or Pinterest to see a great idea that someone posted and realizing that we had just completed that phase of our build and couldn’t implement that idea too.

By the time we started on the process of building our 2nd (and forever) home, we felt like we were more prepared but with it came new challenges like trying to figure out how to build a home that would suit our needs over the next several decades. In the beginning we were faced with decision paralysis, we worried we’d make a “wrong” decision on something that we would have to live with forever. So we decided to wait and sit on the land we had purchased for a couple of years. In the meantime we compiled all the information that we possibly could before starting the building process. Gathering information can be daunting. There were countless different websites, social media groups, communities, and online authorities that we were constantly checking to get recommendations and the most up-to-date information.

While all of the information online was helpful, what we really needed was a source that not only had the information but outlined it in a way that aligned with the building process. Someone who understood the order of each phase of construction and what decisions needed to be made and when. Someone who could give us information on which decisions were “reversible” later and which ones would be way too costly or impossible to revisit in the future. Someone who could give us context on which ideas were expensive and which ones were surprisingly affordable. And Someone who could make suggestions about things we may want to plan for in the future like an addition, workshop or pool.

You may think that the person described above would be your builder. Unfortunately, builders are busy people and they can’t always give you every possible option while building. Also, their priorities while building your home are different from yours. They are incentivized to build your home as quickly and as cost efficiently for them as possible. If they do have ideas, they will most likely be ideas that will add to your overall budget (because they make a percentage of the total cost). Or ideas that reduce complexity, for example, laying tile in a simple pattern vs. a more complex pattern. They value efficiency. It just isn’t in their best interest to make sure that you get every little detail perfect, so they won’t always inform you about certain options that might make a world of difference in your build.

After finishing our first build, we found a lot of our friends and co-workers were coming to us to ask questions about building or to get recommendations. I’ve done everything from reviewing floor plans to helping friends pick out bathroom tile. I quickly developed a little cheat sheet of our top tips for building that my husband or I could quickly email out to those that asked. I started thinking maybe I could help more people through this process. I did some additional research and realized that most of the people offering help online were coming from the contractor, manufacturer or real estate perspective, and not the consumer perspective. And many were only giving out information that benefitted them in some way and all of the truly helpful tips, tricks, and ideas were scattered all over the internet.

I genuinely enjoyed the research process involved with building a custom home so I set out to aggregate all of the best tips, tricks, hacks, and money-saving ideas from YEARS of scouring and put them all in one place – mycustomhome.com and developed a system that would help you through the home building process step by step. I hope that the information on this website helps you avoid the anxiety and fear of “getting something wrong” in your new build so that you can actually enjoy the process. Happy Home Building!