Custom Home Builder Bruce Peninsula Spring 2019

Are you planning on building a custom home or cottage in the Bruce Peninsula?

You have bought the property, talked to architects and you are dreaming about what it will be like to live in your new home/cottage throughout those wonderful summers and falls.

One problem, you can't seem to find a builder, most of the builders that you find are either too busy for you this year or you just don't like the way they operate. Well look no further.

Email me at greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com and lets talk about building you your dream home.

We have been building dream homes for people all along the lake shores of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron for decades.

We are a family owned and operated company that prides itself on personal service and an extreme level of quality. We believe in dialogue with the homeowner throughout the entire build process, phone calls, emails, text messages and sometimes even videos. We believe that the more you the homeowner know about your build the more you will enjoy the build process.

We are endlessly exploring new ways to build homes that make them more efficient, simpler to operate and allow for a more enjoyable experience to the homeowner.

Every custom home comes with its own unique challenges when they are being built, you need a builder that will not only construct what is on the plans but also be able to make suggestions on how it can be built better and also how to make the function of the home greater for you the homeowner.

If you have your land but you haven't been able to find someone to help you with the drawings we can help organize that for you too. We work with a number of architects, architectural technologists and draftsmen that can help you create any kind of home that you can dream up. We even work with interior designers that can help you with the finishing's to really put your personal stamp on it.

So if your searching the internet looking for a builder for your new custom home this spring then you found that right website. Email us and let us help you get that custom home that you deserve.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Lots of Vacant Waterfront Lots Means Its Time To Build That Custom Cottage On The Bruce Peninsula

With the abundance of vacant water front lots that are for sale now on the Bruce Peninsula it has never been a better time to build yourself a new custom cottage.

If you are to look around the Bruce Peninsula you will find that any cottage or home that is on or near the water has risen in price every year for the past 4 years. The market is becoming expensive as the Bruce Peninsula becomes more popular with tourists and people from South Western Ontario.

The rental market for the Bruce Peninsula has exploded in the last several years, this has slowed the amount of people that were selling their cottages because now they can make money on them even when they are to busy to enjoy it themselves.

All of this is helping drive the resale housing market through the roof, it's getting to the point were it is actually better to buy a vacant waterfront lot and build a new cottage.

There are several things that help make it less expensive;

• Bruce Peninsula has extremely low building fees compared to the rest of southern ontario.
• With a lot of waterfront lots basically sitting on the rock you don' t have to spend a lot of money on landscaping.
• The building standards for the Bruce Peninsula are from the Ontario Building Code, there really isn't anything added that will cost you money like what happens in a lot of communities in Southern Ontario.

What you will have to do is find a good quality contractor that can build you the new cottage that you want and also give you a proper budget before they do it. That is probably going to be the toughest thing that you will find, finding a contractor. There are very few good quality contractors on the Bruce and more people wanting to have cottages built every year. 

When you do find that contractor you should hire them, because there aren't that many to choose from. 

Great Lakes Custom Homes is one of those contractors that can take care of your cottage building needs.

Send me an email and let's see if we can help you; greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

The Most Important Thing You Should Be Looking For In A Custom Home Builder?

Whether it's a custom home you are going to build or a custom new cottage the most important thing you are going to have to decide on is who you want to actually build it.

Hiring your custom home builder or general contractor is more important then who draws the plans or designs the kitchen.

Most people, when they are thinking about hiring a builder to build their custom home tend to think of two things right away:

1. How much is the home builder going to charge me to build the home?
2. How good is the quality of the home that they build?

The sad thing is that it is usually in that order that people think, they think price first and quality second. Here's a little secret, when the house is built and you have paid all the bills almost all successful contractors end up costing you the same amount of money. Regardless of what you have been told at the start about what their fee is or how they will bill you the end cost of the entire project usually ends up about the same amount of money. The builders who are cheaper then all of their competition don't survive because they don't make enough money to cover their overhead, make a living and still give a warranty. They end up to far behind in debt and closeup shop to work for someone else.

Since the real cost of hiring contractors is basically the same then we should move on to the quality of the home. This is where the good builders and the not so good builders separate themselves. When you are a builder of custom homes you are more like a project manager. You pick the people and sub trades that are going to complete the project and then you management how much they get paid, how long it takes them to do their work and at what quality that they achieve the work with as little flaws as possible. If you can manage that then the end project should be a very high quality.

Its not hard to distinguish a quality custom home builder, you just have to see the pictures of some of the projects and that should tell you if they can complete your project to the standard that you expect. This just takes you asking the right questions and carefully looking at their past work.

Since the first two are actually fairly easy to figure out with a some due diligence there is one major thing that people tend to forget when prioritizing what to look for in a custom home builder and that is their attitude. 

A good sized cottage to construct should take anywhere from 6 months to a year depending on the when you start, the size of the home and the level of detail in the home. Your home builder is going to be the one person that you talk too, email, text or meet onsite for 6 to 12 months. A lot of times you are going to have to email back and forth 5 to 10 times a day, meeting on weekends and holidays, having phone meetings, discussing money, designs, plans, options, upgrades and problems when they arise. If you don't get along with your home builder then the wonderful experience of building a custom home or cottage will end up being the worst 6 to 12 months of your life.

Building a custom home or cottage is one of the biggest investments of your life and it should be one of the most exciting ones as well. If you don't get along with your contractor then you should be finding a different one. A rocky relationship between the homeowner the home builder will actually affect the project. When you don't get along with your contractor then you don't communicate well with and them with you, this starts to delay the project because decisions aren't made in a timely fashion and time slips away as the homeowner and the contractor try to ignore each other.

When building a custom home you need to be able to trust your contractor in a way that you can come to them with any idea you have for the home regardless of how crazy it is, their job is to tell you why it's crazy and impossible or if it isn't what the cost is and how it will affect the project as a whole. The whole point of a custom home is that it is custom to you the homeowner and nobody else, if you can't communicate your hopes and dreams for it to your contractor then it ceases to be a custom home for you the homeowner.

Take the time and meet with your contractor, get to know them. Get to know them at least enough to get a feeling of how they communicate and how the two of you get along in each other's company. 

In the last 17 years of building custom homes for people I have been able to get along with them so well that to this day if I see them on the street or in a restaurant we end up stopping and talking about life, family and the weather. We actually never talk about the house that I built them, by the end of the project I end up being more their friend then their builder.

Gone are the days with the rough, tough and gruff builder tells you what you are gonna get in your home and then hands you the bill and walks away. Custom home building today is a shared experience, it should be part learning experience for you the homeowner and part exciting and joyful as well as you see your dream come to life in your new custom home.

Remember that you want to enjoy building your custom home or cottage so take the time to find a builder that you can enjoy it with.

If you have any questions about custom home building or you would like to talk to me about building a custom home/cottage you can email me at greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes