Don’t Catapult Into A House
With Pre-Drawn Plans

Get A Home Tailored
Exactly For You
& Your Family.

Custom Home Builder Contractor Maple Ridge
Maple Ridge Home Renovation Reno Dream Custom Homes Builder

Building a custom home when you’ve never done it before is daunting.

There are many moving pieces and steps that need to be taken in the right order. If something’s missed, or confused, the home you get won’t be what you envisioned.

Avoid mishaps by working with a team that makes the custom home process wonderfully simple.

Here’s Our 10-Step Process To Getting Your Forever Home

First time building a home from the ground up? Not sure what’s going to happen?

Here’s our process:

You can call or email us to get things moving. This first point of contact is the ‘testing the water’ stage.

Just let us know what you’re thinking. E.g. “I want a two-bedroom rancher with a wraparound porch and a 2-level wine cellar. Painted all in hunter green.”

We ask:
  • How big is your family?
  • What don’t you like about your current home?
  • What do you dream of in your forever home?

We also discuss industry myths and why certain things have certain price tags.
After our initial conversation, we meet on-site so you can see something in progress. Get a feel for the type of work we do.

Camilla, our designer, will head this meeting with you and will ask plenty more questions so we can have a feel for what you’re looking for.
The moment you say, “let’s do this,” we dive into preparation.

Here are some of the things we’ll be asking from you in the very beginning:

  • Pictures, pictures, pictures. When you sift through pages of Pinterest-perfect homes, what features shine to you? Do you want:
    • A cupboard under the stairs? Window seats scattered throughout the house? A kitchen with wooden countertops?
  • What type of outdoor space are you dreaming of?
    • An in-ground pool? A place for lawn parties?
    • How many rooms do you want?
    • What’s your budget?

All of this information keeps us proactive. Important decisions are made weeks, sometimes months, in advance of the actual build of your home.

Okay, now we have every detail and the budget you’ve given us.

The main thing we ensure is that the numbers work. You will walk into your dream home no matter the budget.

Here are the 3 ladies in charge of drawing up your forever custom home:

  1. Camilla – the matriarch of the company, Camilla’s sharp mind and attention to detail guarantees a home design that’s the living embodiment of your dream.
  2. Michelle – another incredible mind that puts her all into your design. She works alongside Camilla to create a budget around your home, from building and hiring contractors to planning materials.
  3. Ella – our insanely talented architect, who’s in charge of creating the constructional blueprint for your design.

Your proposal package includes:
  • A thorough design
  • An itemized material list
  • The total cost of everything (material acquisition, contractors, build)
You have the proposal in your hands. You’ve accepted it. Now it’s time for the really fun part – shopping.

We take you to our wholesalers and show you everything that fits within your budget. You have a specific allowance for each material (which we calculated against your budget).

Now, it’s important to note that you can change your mind about ANYTHING at this stage. If you decide to upgrade something, we simply let you know the change in cost.

Say we budgeted for an average toilet, but you want something fancier. If your original budget was $800,000, and the new toilet puts you to $800,1000 – we communicate this to you. Then it’s up to you if you still want the upgrade or not.

The design isn’t 100% concrete at this stage. As we shop for your home’s materials, you can adjust things as you go. For instance, if the design calls for 3 large lights over your kitchen island but you found a smaller light you absolutely love, we can shift the design so there are 5 small lights instead.

You also receive real-time advice from us as we shop, on your home’s style, how things will fit, and the overall picture that you’re aiming for.
Don’t have the perfect piece of land for your dream home yet?

No worries. We help you find land that compliments your vision.

Your finances aren’t any of our business. The only thing we need to know is your budget. 

However, we know an excellent broker who specializes in custom homes. He’s been a part of our team for over 25 years, though is still independent from us.

Once we introduce you to him, we step away, and you can have a private conversation about the behind-the-scenes stuff, such as where you’ll live during the build (perhaps you’re tearing down your current home for your dream).
Are the design and materials approved by you? Excellent. Time to put our contractors in action and get to building.

After 3-6 months from the first day of building (length varies according to the size and complexity of your build), it’s time for the unveiling. You’re welcome to check on your dream before it’s completed, of course, but we never skip this step – it’s the most emotional and exciting!
Your dream’s now real. It’s built and just waiting for you to move in.

Keyed up to get started on your forever home?

Keyed up to get started on your forever home?

Do You Think A Custom Home Is A More Expensive Option?

The Cost Of A Custom Home vs A Pre-Built House

A pre-built 3 bedroom house costs the same as a 3 bedroom home built uniquely for you. 

So why buy something boring when you can live in your dream custom home? 

Here are the main differences between a custom home and a pre-built one

Custom

Pre-Built

Type Of Build
Quality
We design and build a unique, quality home that’s tailored to you.
Spec
Pre-built homes are designed in a spec build, which aims for rapid building rather than quality
Volume
1 Of A Kind
Your design is completely yours – there may be homes with similarities, but none will be exactly the same.
Many Replicas
Pre-built homes are copy and pasted over and over again. They’re all the same, with nothing unique.
Versatility
High

You can change pretty much anything you want with a custom home. 

Sure, some custom options are pricey. But there are so many options out there, we can guarantee we’ll find something within your budget that fits your vision.

None

A spec build sticks to its guns.

You won’t be getting anything different than what’s on paper, not unless you decide to spend MORE money and renovate later.

So, You Know A Plumber & Want Us To Hire Them...

Why We Only Build Your Home Using Our Team

The West Coast Dream Homes team is a finely tuned, oiled machine. We know each other, know how we all work together.

If we replace any part of the machine, things get bumpy. And liability issues crop up.

Here are 3 common things first-time custom home owners say:

I Have An Uncle Who’s An Expert Electrician
& Can Save Me Money!

Unfortunately, he won’t save you money, because a new person stepping into our perfected process slows us down. Time is, of course, money.

Plus, we’d need to look into more liability to cover the new guy, and we’d have to vet his work since we have no clue what he’s like. We want your home perfect. What happens if he messes up and burns the house down?

My Cousin Owns A Drywall Company,
So They Can Do The Drywall

We’ve tried in the past to let client family members join in on the building process.

You know what happened? A huge mess was left behind, which slowed us down. Their subcontractors were only there to toss everything together and didn’t think of quality, which slowed us down even more because we had to fix the work they did.

As a result, the whole build took a lot longer than proposed.

Using our team, and only our team, ensures your home is built on time and is done right

I’d Like To Supply My Own Materials

For a complete list of materials that we’re comfortable with you supplying, please give us a call.

Any material you end up supplying isn’t covered by our builder warranty. We are always transparent, and always tell you what could happen if we use your material (maybe you brought in wood for the beams in your kitchen, and we could tell they were going to warp).

3 Reasons Why
You Shouldn’t Build
Your Dream Home Alone

Codes, Codes, Codes

There are codes for everything when it comes to building a home. Energy codes, building codes, fire codes, etc. We know all of them, and won’t miss a single one.

Trusted Contractors

The amount of contractors out there are astronomical. How do you know who’s trustworthy and who’s not? We take this worry away, since we’ve worked with the same amazing contractors for years.

Material Cost

There are so many types of materials, and the prices are sky-high. When you team with us, we open the doors to wholesale prices that make even more things possible for your dream home.

Curious How A Designer Helps You?

The actual nitty-gritty design of a home is a complicated, multi-faceted beast.
How do you even start on it?

Camilla and Michelle, WCDH’s two talented designers, are keenly aware of all the details a design calls for.

Design includes details such as:

  • Wall thickness
    • Are you wanting a rock wall? If so, the material that goes BEHIND the wall needs to change so it could support the weight
    • Are you going to hang things on the wall?
  • Material uses
    • One material can cause something to be constructed completely different (refer back to the wall example above)
  • Positioning of the home to a specific vantage point
    • Is there a view you want from the living room?
    • Where do you want the sun to be during the evening?
    • Is your backyard going to be shaded?
  • Additional space
    • Do you want a large home office as well as multiple bedrooms
    • Is there space for an in-law suite?
  • Futureproofing
    • How do we deal with times where we are restricted in our home? What can we add to our custom home that ensures we won’t get cabin fever?

 

These are just some examples of the details Camilla and Michelle think about as they design your dream.

Love Your Current Home, But Need Some Big Changes?