Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. A Custom Home of Your Own

A Custom Home of Your Own The city of Portland is in the middle of a housing explosion. I was about to say crisis, but that depends on your perspective. People have in-fluxed, in large numbers, from out of state. Home rental and purchase prices have increased dramatically along with demand. I’ve always enjoyed looking at houses while I’m walking. With new construction going up all over the metro area, I find myself wondering what – exactly – I might want in a home if I were able to create any kind of house I wanted. Isn’t that a fun thought? I’ve made sketches of my dream home and collected magazine pictures for collages, but when it came time to rent or buy a home I’ve always looked at apartments or houses which were already built and picked one. In reflecting on this idea, into my head popped the name of a custom home builder I’ve known since 1987, shortly after I moved from South Dakota to Phoenix, Arizona. That name is Jim Steg. But Jim wasn’t building custom homes when I first met him; he was working in Corporate America for a well-known shipping company. After 19 years in that world, Jim built his own home in 1997, saw custom home building could be lucrative, and realized he enjoyed home-building and real estate. I left Arizona for Oregon in 1990. Jim and I reconnected on social media recently thanks to mutual friends; but we hadn’t talked in over 20 years when he graciously agreed to a phone interview. Much has happened in both our lives since the last time we saw each other. I’d been engaged and called the wedding off one month before it was supposed to happen. I was later divorced after 12 years of marriage…just as my eldest step-child, a 21-year-old Marine, was killed in Iraq. Jim’s life hasn’t been without struggle on the road to his dream, either. He asked Theresa, a delightful woman I got to know before leaving Phoenix, to marry him…and they are still married. Yet somewhere along the way, after finding business success early on, Jim realized he’d become an “asshole”, and that the daughters he’d trained to become great athletes “hated him”. That his two top priorities were making money and working out.

Nearly losing his marriage and family was a huge wake-up call. Jim’s personal development path was dramatically impacted by “Wake up Warrior”, an intense course for married business men led by Garrett White, who incorporates Navy Seal training into his warrior weeks. But, I digress from the topic at hand, which is building your dream home. Here’s how the custom home business works in Arizona, if you are working with Steg Custom Homes. It all starts with the lot, the piece of land on which the home will be built. Some subdivisions only allow certain kinds of “theme” homes. Each theme has different characteristics, such as exposed wood, stone, the slant of the roof, etc. Jim makes a point of laying out realistic costs early on, as many of his customers have been low-balled at the start with progressive costs added. This doesn’t make for a happy relationship with the contractor, as you can imagine. Jim invites his potential clients to shop other builders, which can lead to losing clients in the short term. But in the long run it gains him business. Most clients come to Jim with a good idea of what they want already. The questionnaire he sends solidifies their desired characteristics, choices, and helps Jim provide a low to high budget number. For example, the “Ranch Hacienda” would be $350/square foot. Jim gets paid by drawing a fee from each project, and each design must be approved through the Design Review Committee of the community the home is being built in. Every Steg Custom Home is designed by lot to afford the best possible views, and to best accommodate the homeowner’s lifestyle. For example, a pocket door might work perfectly with one particular great room…or the view on deck may command a wine chiller and fireplace overlooking the pool. The featured image above is from the Carey custom home, one of Jim's clients. Jim takes every client under his wing and walks them through the process, step-by-step. Upon a signed contract, Jim receives a 20% deposit to cover up-front costs. They meet weekly in the architect’s office as clients often want to change or add details as the beams go up. It takes four to eight months for a series of plans to go through the design review committee. Once final approval is received, they need to get a building permit from the city, which can take three months for a large home. Jim keeps an ongoing photo-log for all of his customers with a decision making schedule for everything from bathroom fixtures to cabinets. Listening to Jim describe his custom home building process in Arizona inspired me to contact my father about his process building the home I grew up in, on a farm 10 miles northeast of Raymond, (population 50, as of the 2010 census) South Dakota. For a farmer on the plains, building was all about location, but not necessarily the view. The house was built on the side of a hill so they could look 40 miles to the southwest and be able to build shelterbelts on three sides for protection from the hard winds. The next step was to find a well. They found somebody to do water witching (AKA dousing) and drill a well. The well had plenty of water. Then they struck out a place for a shelterbelt. They knew they needed storm doors and found the design in a house plan book, possibly at a lumber yard. The number one priority was to come in from the garage and go straight down to basement.  Everything seemed to lay out after that – a southwest living room with large front window to see the countryside. In the back, an area to plant trees and be sheltered from the wind, with the shelterbelt on three sides. Jim Forest dug the basement with a backhoe and truck and put in cement blocks for the basement. Merrill Hurlbert, carpenter and part time postal carrier, put up the sheetrock. The first lumbar was laid on Memorial Day of 1966.  The house was completed in February 1967. Every nail was pounded with a hammer. Four men built this house with hammers, nails and ladders. Grandpa Handke, Merrill, Uncle Glenn and Dad. Merrill charged $2.75 per hour for carpentry. Mom cooked dinner for all the men at the small house, while baby-sitting me. Dad did all the painting, with a roller, and all the varnishing. Dad did the heating and plumbing, having done copper soldering in the little house. Dad says they built this house for $16-17,000, because they didn’t have any money. They also laid the cement for the driveway, sidewalk and steps to the front door.

Custom homes are still going up in South Dakota; some private carpenters have more business than they can handle. Yet it’s a very different climate (weather-wise and economically) than what Jim Steg deals with every day in a more affluent area and drier conditions. Jim says if you want to build your dream home but don’t have the funds just yet – figure out your budget first, and be realistic about it. People tend to under-estimate what the home will cost, and you don’t want to align with a builder who low-balls you at the beginning and then keeps tacking on costs as you go. Familiarize yourself with the big picture and all of the accompanying costs. And remember it could take a couple of years before the home is even completed, so don’t be afraid to find a lot and start dreaming right away. In your current home, remember, “It’s just a roof over your head. There are so many things you can do to make you happy with where you live, to make it rewarding.” Paint can change the whole theme of your living space, along with cabinets and flooring. Jim says, “I enjoy leading and helping people through the process of creating and realizing their dream home, from a piece of dirt to the finished product. I love being able to see the happiness in their eyes, to be giving back while making money. It’s awesome.”

Theresa, Jim, Rylie and Kayla You can reach Jim at jim@stegcustomhomes.com. Have you thought about building, or have built, your dream home? Tell us about it on the blog. If you found this post helpful, please share it with your friends! Authentically Yours, Laura