The Colony’s custom home builder.
Lots where soil, drainage and orientation decide the foundation before anything else.
Talk to Aaronor call (972) 528-5668
Building a house in The Colony
A house in The Colony gets designed around the lot it sits on, not dropped onto it.
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.
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.
Soil moves here. Drainage decides where water goes for the life of the house. Orientation sets what every window looks at and how hard the west side works in August. Those three get settled before framing, because they can’t be fixed after.
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.
Nothing gets covered up that I wouldn't want to look at myself in five years.
I have watched the alternative, and I’m not interested in it.
The trades on my jobs have worked with me for years. That isn’t sentiment, it’s how the work stays good.
Mechanical, electrical and plumbing get coordinated before anyone cuts anything. Where the ducts run, whether the trusses can carry them, where the panel sits and how far the longest plumbing run has to travel. Done early, on paper, it costs a few meetings. Done in the field by whoever shows up first, it produces drilled structural members, soffits nobody planned for, and rooms that are colder than the rest of the house for reasons no one can trace.
A custom home is a long relationship with whoever builds it. You’ll talk to me more in eighteen months than you talk to most people in your life, and a good portion of those conversations will be about things that didn’t go to plan. That’s normal. Weather moves, materials arrive damaged, an inspector reads something differently than expected. What matters is whether the person telling you has a plan attached to the news, and whether the same person is still answering the phone a year after you move in. One family has brought me back for a fourth project. That only happens if the earlier ones went right.
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.
Work from around here
Each of these homes has its own gallery in the portfolio.
The Colony and the rest of Collin County
1The lot
First visit is boots on the dirt. I want to see where water goes in a hard rain, which trees are worth keeping and how a truck gets to the back of the property.
2The plan
Design happens against the real site, not a generic rectangle. You see the envelope, the constraints and the honest cost of the choices that are hard to reverse.
3The numbers
You get a breakdown you can actually read, with the unglamorous items priced rather than buried in an allowance nobody explains.
4The dirt
Clearing, cut and fill, drainage structures and the slab. Nothing here shows up in a photograph and all of it determines how the house ages.
5The frame
Structure goes up and the house becomes real. This is when I want you on site often, because changes are still possible and still cheap.
6The finish
Millwork, surfaces and paint. The phase that takes the longest per square foot and the one people remember when they walk in.
7The keys
Handover, punch list and the first-year calls that come after. A builder who disappears at closing was never really building for you.
Drop in any time. During framing I'd rather you came twice, because a change then is a conversation instead of a demolition bill.
What the site tells you
Dirt, drainage and structure from real jobs. The unglamorous phase that decides the house.
Questions I get asked
Do you build in The Colony?
Yes, and I have worked in and around The Colony enough to know how the ground and the review process behave here.
What is different about building in The Colony?
Lots where soil, drainage and orientation decide the foundation before anything else. That shapes the foundation and the footprint before anything else.
Do I need a lot first?
Not necessarily. I'd rather look at a lot with you before you buy it than inherit a site that fights the house you want.
How long will it take?
Ask me once I have seen the lot and the plans. I would rather give you an honest range for your build than a number off a brochure.
Do you handle the permits?
I do, including the architectural review some neighborhoods require before a shovel moves.
What happens if something goes wrong?
I bring it to you early, when it's still cheap to deal with, and I bring a plan with it.
Thinking about a build in The Colony?
Bring me the The Colony plans, or bring me the lot. Either is a place to start.