We just finished up a stamped concrete patio in Douglas Hills. It’s one of many projects we’ve been doing in Douglas Hills. So if you’re in Douglas Hills, Plainview, Owl Creek, Town Creek, Foxwood, Hurstbourne, Willowood or Anchorage and are looking to add-on or remodel; we’d love to help. If you’ve deciding against selling, moving or buying then maybe we can give you a fresh look without breaking the bank.

When pricing your new “custom” home with a builder, make sure you know what you’re getting. Not all builders price the same way. Some methods are just plain scary. Here are a few examples of ways builders price a home.

1) Legal pad and pen:

Something as complicated as a custom home needs more detail than a legal pad with some numbers, unless of course you want to be off budget and in an argument in the middle of the project.

2) Cost Plus:

Another questionable way of pricing homes is what’s called “cost plus”. This means the builder says we’ll buy whatever materials and pay for whatever labor are involved and we’ll add our percentage to the bottom line. Seems transparent. Seems fair. Nice gig for the builder, and sometimes the customer thinks it’s good for them. Here is the problem. No accountability to a budget. That $375,000 home just came in at $450,000. Whoops!

3) Options, Options and Options

Nothing really wrong with pricing this way, but it really shouldn’t be lumped in with custom building. I’d call it semi-custom. You can get a great house this way, but you won’t get a custom home with the little nuances and intricacies that were so important to you in the dream phase. You also will have a tougher time staying on budget not knowing where all the dollars go for each individual decision.

4) Price per Sq Ft

This one can be as bad as the legal pad and pen. Because it seems more quantified and you hear the terms thrown around very loosely. What do we mean? Well let’s say for example you and I are trading homes. We base a fair trade purely on the square footage. I have 3400 sq/ft and you have 3400 sq/ft. Deal? You suddenly are filled with questions right? Does your home have double hung windows, mine does? The windows alone can add $8 to $10 cost per sq/ft. What about granite tops? Is there custom cabinetry or just stock cabinets? How many HVAC units? What area are you located in? Is your exterior siding, hardiplank or brick? Still want to trade? Still want to rely on a price per square foot estimate?

5) Our way!

Get a detailed estimate that breaks down the costs for every line item of the home. You may care less where all the dollars go, but this approach creates total transparency from the builder fee all the way down to the price of a splashblock. It also allows you to easily add and subtract upgrades and options while still knowing where your budget stands.

We provide a detailed cost estimate, and you receive a complete set of specifications, allowing you to see what is going into your house, from the foundation to the final cleaning.

See a sample screen recording of our estimate here.

We found out a while back that we had received the 2009 Remodelor of the Year award from the Home Builders Association of Louisville. We received the award by submitting two remodeling projects we completed in 2009. We’ll post a follow up to this post with some pictures of those projects. If we can round them up of course.

The article ran in this month’s Louisville Builder magazine. We are very honored by the award. We do a lot every day to make sure our work stands up to quality standards and to meet our customer’s expectations. This helps solidify our hopes.

Here is a really bad picture of a very nice award.

If you know of a better way to take a picture of a glass object, let us know in the comments.

We get a lot of questions about our advanced estimate. We get questions from customers, from subcontractors and from other builders.  We’ve been teaching the Advanced Estimating class at the Home Builders Association of Louisville for several years partly because of our estimating program. This quick video gives you a glimpse into how we use our estimate to drill down to every area of a custom building or remodeling project.  We’d love to answer your questions about our estimate. Leave them in the comments below or feel free to use our online contact form. We’d also love to estimate your project, but I’m sure you knew that already.

You can enlarge the screencast tutorial video by clicking the bottom right button to full screen mode. You can exit by clicking the esc button.

In this weeks video, Perry Lyons walks us through a job P.L. Lyons Inc is getting ready to begin. The project is in the Douglas Hills subdivision, near Middletown in Louisville KY. P.L. Lyons Custom Building and Remodeling has done quite a few custom projects in the Douglas Hills area over the last 5-6 years. Perry built many of the homes in this area early in his custom building years. Some of the recent projects have been additions, others were kitchen remodels, while some involved the complete reworking of floor plans. This particular project is an exterior remodel. It involves some work on the front elevation for both enhanced curb appeal and more importantly to correct some drainage issues.

If you have a remodeling project in Douglas Hills give us call or contact us through our online form. We’d love to come out and discuss your unique project. We’ve worked for a lot of your neighbors and they’ve been happy with the results. If you’d like to speak to them we can probably arrange that as well. Along with Douglas Hills we’ve done a lot of work in Eastern Jefferson county subdivisions like Owl Creek, Plainview, Foxgate, Anchorage, Forest Springs and Lake Forest just to name a few.

One last video in this series on Covered Decks and Porches in east Louisville. On this video Perry talks about how you can also add a cover to an existing deck. If you enjoy outdoor entertaining and want to look at an affordable way to improve your home, these remodeling projects have been very popular lately.

Often times when we think of a custom remodeling project we get stars in our eyes. We think of the complete kitchen or bath remodel, the finished basement or the addition. Those are great projects and we like doing them, but sometimes if you don’t have the budget starting simple is the way to go. Add things incrementally over time. Below is a list of ideas for simple remodeling projects that won’t break the bank but that will add some freshness to your home.

1. Adding a deck
2. Adding a patio
3. Adding a Gazebo
4. Adding a covered deck
5. Opening up the family room to the kitchen
6. Opening up the family room to the sitting room
7. Adding a window to a room
8. Adding a new doorway to a room
9. Adding a mud room or laundry room
10. Converting a porch to a laundry or mud room
11. Adding some built ins around the fireplace for an entertainment center or library
12. Adding French Doors to turn a sitting room into an office
13. Adding some shutters or a new door to spice up the front elevation
14. Adding a closet to a room
15. Adding wainscoting to a formal dining room
16. Adding window seats to a bedroom

Hope this gets the creative juices flowing. Check back for more ideas for custom building and remodeling projects in Louisville KY. Most of the work we have done in the past 35 years has been in neighborhoods like Owl Creek, Douglas Hills, Plainview, Hurstbourne, Beckley Woods, Lake Forest, Anchorage, Winchester Acres and Fox Run.

If you have any ideas or simple projects you’ve done leave them in the comments below. We’d love to hear your ideas. This blog is about you not us.

This weeks video was shot in Fox Run Subdivision in Eastern Jefferson County. Custom lots are available for new building but this particular project was for an existing home we built in the past few years. The features included: a custom built-in entertainment center and wet bar, recess lighting, surround sound, a lower level bedroom, walk in closet, custom bath with granite counter and a beautiful tile shower.

If you’re in the market for a custom basement finish, then contact P.L. Lyons Custom Homes today. We’ll get you a firm estimate, finish it in a timely manner, pull the appropriate permits and make it look great when it’s finished.

Stay tuned for next weeks video. We’ll either be shooting a covered deck addition or a customer testimonial.

A doctor we built for had us build a second house and a medical office after that.

One family had us build 4 houses as their family grew, and we recently finished a commercial build out for their new company, Babyology.

Another family had us build, starting with the family patriarch, and we have built for one of his son’s and daughter’s.

A doctor in Anchorage had us build his first house, and we did 5 remodels/additions to his house. H later referred us to build a house for his brother in law.

Another client in Anchorage is still in their house we built in 1980, and we have done 4 remodeling projects at that house. We recently did a major remodel to their kitchen to accommodate the grandchildren, and we have completed 4 commercial remodels for their business. We are now working for two of their children, currently remodeling 2 projects for them.

We remodeled and built a new corporate addition to a dental office, and continued to build/remodel 5 additional offices for them, also building a new house for one of the dentist partners.

We built a home in Douglas Hills only to come back 20+ years later to do an addition and remodel.

We can only tute our own horn so much, but when our customers tute theirs it speaks volumes.

In the market for a custom home, remodel or addition? Just starting dream, that OK too. Contact us today for a free initial consultation.

Well it’s been a big part of our life for the last 6 to 8 months. We’re proud of it and wanted to show it off a bit. We’ve also used these two videos (Part 1 and Part 2) to educate potential customers about our process and our true custom experience. We take you from “Concept to Completion” and really make a friend in the process.

The homeowners of this beautiful custom craftsman ranch home have offered to share a testimonial in the near future. So be on the lookout for that as well.

If you’re interested in turning your dream on a cocktail napkin or set of generic plans into a custom home in 6-8 months, within budget, then contact us today for a free initial consultation.