“We knew we needed a different house, so we’d been tossing around the idea of either building or buying and had a pretty hard time finalizing a decision. Everything (in every price range) pre-built would still require renovations to suit our taste. Finally, in Spring of 2016, we went to a Parade of Homes and decided a custom build would be the best decision for us. We met Greg Drusch at Cypress and we discussed our ideas. We found the perfect lot in a new subdivision and Greg helped us navigate through the sale process, then we were off and running!

I’m a “planner”, which was helpful to this process. I polled everyone I knew who had built a house and asked them 1) What’s the smartest thing you did? and 2) What’s your biggest “wish I would’ve”? Planning helped things run VERY smoothly, since we didn’t need to take much time to think about details.

I started an ‘inspiration’ album and planned out the look of the overall home, as well as each room. I took the Karalyn plan (as a base) and customized it. Greg took my modifications in stride and updated the official plans. The initial plan required minimal decision making, since Cypress had already incorporated my ideas into the plan.

Examples of our customizations Cypress built into our initial Bid:
• Wool insulation
• Pre-defined choices based on Samples I’d collected
• Paint colors and Low VOC
• Bamboo & Cork Flooring
• Specific Quartz countertop
• Specific sinks and shower doors in Master
• Specific door styles to be used throughout the house, and front entry
• Cabinet and trim style and color
• Buried sump lines

We spent a lot of time coming up with a Wish List before we ever met with Cypress. Our Planning and build process ran VERY smoothly. More often than not, I felt we were all on the same page even before working with the Designer to make on-the-fly decisions.

Not everything went as planned – and I wouldn’t expect it to! Building a house is a huge project and there are bound to be some misses. We decided to roll with some of the mishaps because they weren’t game-changers. A small shelf on the design was missed? It’s fine, we’ll build one out of reclaimed wood and it’ll look great! The pantry goes all the way to the ceiling instead of leaving a ‘plant shelf’ at the top? That’s fine, now we have a place to put our wall clock! You can have your dream home even if everything doesn’t happen ‘perfectly’ along the way.

Luckily our schedules were flexible enough to allow one or both of us to be on-site nearly every day of the construction process. Things move VERY fast and it was helpful to be around for questions and have knowledge of what’s happening. One day I noticed a vent housing was placed in a closet wall. Would’ve been fine except our barn door wouldn’t have been able to slide over it. Because we noticed it early, it was easily moved the next day – BEFORE the HVAC was installed. I loved walking around the site every day to capture snaps of the progression.

I’ve always dreamt of being able to help design our Craftsman style dream home (as eco-friendly as possible) and involving my father in the project. Cypress made it very easy to bring my dad into various parts of the project and kept in touch with us to help coordinate timing needs. We enjoyed so many of the contractors we met along the way, too.

We did have 2 lingering issues that extended into and beyond our warranty period. We had a furnace that clunked, and we had a bay window that had been water damaged and was challenging to resolve. We kept in touch with Cypress on the progress and, most importantly, they stuck with us to make it right.

Cypress helped us build our dream home and we found ~90% of the process to be INCREDIBLY fun! We had so much fun working with Greg! He really took the time to get to know us – to understand our needs, our wants and our budget. Greg was an Exceptional partner on #teammelrosemeadows and we wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. He provided many great ideas, from cost savings to building in creative storage. At Cypress, they know they’re bringing someone’s dream to life and will go to great lengths to help achieve that goal.

As of July 2017, we have the home of our dreams – which includes our own personal customizations, and the handiwork of my dad. Cypress made it possible!”