Allen’s custom home builder.

You’re going to live with the decisions made in the first sixty days for as long as you own the house. That’s where I spend my attention.

The foundation is the part of your house you’ll never look at and never stop depending on. In this part of Texas the soil is heavy clay that swells when it rains and shrinks when it doesn’t, which means the slab is designed for movement rather than pretending movement won’t happen. That means real engineering, correct moisture conditioning before the pour, post-tension cable laid where the drawings say and not where it’s convenient, and drainage that carries water away from the perimeter for the life of the house. Skipping any of it saves money in month three and costs a great deal in year eight.

Utilities, access and grade are the three things that quietly set your calendar. I’d rather tell you in week one that the drive is going to be a project than surprise you in month four.

Most of what people think of as builder quality is really trade quality. The framer who keeps walls plumb, the plumber who thinks about access before he thinks about speed, the finish carpenter who cares what a return looks like from four feet away. I don’t rebid those relationships every job to shave a percentage point. The trades on my sites have been with me for years, they know the standard I’m going to hold them to, and they know I will pay them fairly to meet it. That isn’t sentiment. It’s the only reliable way I know to make good work repeatable.

If something goes wrong, you hear it from me first, and you hear the plan to fix it in the same conversation.

It costs a little more attention up front and saves a great deal later.

Every job has something go sideways. The difference is whether you find out from the builder or from an inspector.

Change orders aren’t inherently bad. They are how a house adapts to what you learn while standing in it. What is bad is a change order you find out about after the work is done, or one priced as a favor and settled at the end. Mine are written before the work happens, with the cost and the schedule impact stated, and you sign them or you don’t. That’s it. It keeps the conversation about the house rather than about the invoice.

Roof geometry does more work than almost any other decision. It sets the massing you see from the street, the volume you feel inside, where water goes, how much attic you have and what your framing costs. A complicated roof photographs beautifully and introduces valleys, which are where roofs leak. I’m not against complexity, but every plane should be there for a reason you can name. The simplest roof that gives you the rooms you want is almost always the one that ages best.

Soil testing is not optional here and it should not be a formality. The geotechnical report drives the foundation design, and a design built on an optimistic assumption is the most expensive kind of savings. I want a real report, from a real engineer, before anyone prices a slab.