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Follyn Builders | Chicago and Northshore Custom Home Builders

Chicago and Northshore Custom Homes and Renovations | Luxury made simple.

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March 29, 2018 By Admin

Cost Per Square Foot

How much will my new home cost per square foot? I want to add an addition on to my home, how much will it cost per square foot? I want to gut this whole place and rebuild it from the inside out, how much will it cost per square foot?

We get multiple phone calls per week asking how much a new home costs per square foot. Or how much renovations cost, per square foot. And you will find some websites that will tell you the cost of construction by the square foot, by market. I am here to tell you they are are full of baloney.

There is no accurate, fair or reliable way to give a cost per square foot. So much of building new custom homes “depends”. Finish selections (tile, appliances, cabinetry, etc) will swing a price hundreds of thousands of dollars. And every single person we have every talked to over 20 years of building homes wants middle of the road, nothing fancy. And then they spend $5,000 of their budget of the kitchen sink alone. If you want that kitchen sink, by all means get it! But your cost per square foot goes right out the window. So does that mean the homeowner should forego those items to keep that almighty cost per sq ft in order? Heck no.

If we could figure costs that easily we’d have every home estimated in 10 minutes. It just does not work that way. I do not care what you saw on HGTV – the cost for a home cannot or maybe more accurately SHOULD NOT be calculated on a per square foot basis.

When you truly price a custom project, each line item from lumber to doorknobs should be looked at, evaluated and assigned a value. Before beginning your project, have an idea if you want a high end $20,000 oven or a standard $3,000 model. Can you change your mind? Of course! When you are looking at a true cost model and not an arbitrary cost assigned to the whole project without any detail, you actually have more freedom to make choices and then change them.

Moral of the story? Cost per square foot is not an accurate reflection of the cost to build YOUR house. Find a general contractor that prices your project based on your project, not an imaginary number that may or not be correct! You’ll be happy you did when you want that $5,000 sink!

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: chicago custom homes, Chicago new home builder, chicagocustomhomes, chicagonewhomes, chicagorealestate, construction, custom, custombuilder, customhome, customhomes, design, finehomebuilding, generalcontractor, homedesign, luxury homes, new construction homes, new home builder, Newhomes

May 25, 2017 By Admin

Insta DETAILS

I like instagram because I can post little snippets of a tiny piece of a small detail on very big job. We are building high end luxury homes – they are a massive undertaking and take months to complete. Or we are orchestrating massive complete guts of old historic building and making them ready for 21st century living. It is big, messy, labor-intensive work.

But along the way, there are tiny little details that will probably never be noticed by the homeowners. But we notice. Because details matter. Doing it right takes a little longer but it looks a little better. Doing it right is not fast or easy, but it is always worth it.

So, when you salvage a 100+ year old beam from the basement of an old greystone and then use it for a fireplace mantle, you also salvage some old square nails to finish it. Because lets face it, this is super cool.

Chicago Luxury Historic Home Renovations
Attention to small details leads to an elegant finished product. When finding a Chicago new home builder or experienced home renovation expert in Chicago or the North Shore suburbs, research the details!

Oh and then you leave in all the bumps and scrapes and gouges because that is all part of the story. And oh what a story this one will tell. Stay tuned!

Follow us on instagram (it makes me happy):  https://www.instagram.com/follynbuilders/?hl=en

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: chicago builder, chicago home builder, historic home renovations, home renovations, luxury construciton, luxury home renovations, new home builder, new homes chicago, north shore homes, north shore renovations

March 7, 2017 By Admin

A custom home – what will it cost me?

It happens more than you think. We get an email or a phone call or a text – I am thinking of building a new home.  Can you give me a ballpark price? The short answer? No, we really don’t have a ballpark price. Because sometimes we are talking about 2 very different ballparks, hell sometimes we are playing 2 completely different sports! There is such a huge variety of options and finishes and designs in building a truly custom home you have a few hurdles to clear before you are ready to build your new dream home.

First of all throw away every preconceived notion you have about new construction pricing. $80 a square foot does not happen in the Chicago market (yes, we have gotten inquiries with that number in mind!). I don’t care what Google tells you or what report you read – it does not happen. Yippee for the lady that built a whole house with YouTube tutorials, $25 and some duct tape, in the real world, that’s not happening. For the most part – $100 or $150 per square foot for a custom home does not happen in the Chicago market.

A quick Google search yielded a national average of about $125 per square foot for new construction.  Like all things, location matters and those numbers are not realistic in a hot Chicago real estate market. If you ever want a hope of selling your house you have to provide finishes commiserate with your neighborhood. You cannot build a basic Chevy house and expect to sell it in 5 years for Maserati prices just because your neighbors are getting top dollar for their houses. If they put the money in, they may get the money out. If you put in less expensive finishes, you will not get top dollar. In today’s market where everyone can look at every property available for a 100 mile radius and see 75 pictures of each, a house with less expensive finishes will not stack up. It just doesn’t work that way.

Price per square foot is a favorite in the industry but does not translate well to new construction custom homes. While it may be a great tool to look at overall national trends in construction pricing, it is a poor tool to measure costs in a custom home. For instance, a house that may be 3,000 square foot in Roscoe Village versus a 3,000 square foot home in Portage Park. Both are in Chicago, theoretically, both should have the same cost per square foot to build. The old adage of location, location, location is true in custom homes too. The finishes in that $1M+ Roscoe Village home are going to be more expensive than that $500K home in Portage Park – and that is ok. You just need to know your neighborhood.

The really big problem is all of the averages used to compute “price per square foot” for construction are just that — averages. And with averages come lots of situations that do not apply to our market.

For instance, those averages take into account big old housing tracts that build 1,450 identical homes on acres of land somewhere. They call them Shady Acres or Rolling Glens and you can “customize” by picking out window color or upgrading to blue siding. That is not custom. In those instances when the same house is built over and over with only a change in siding color, the price to build is much lower. That is great for someone looking for a ready-built neighborhood pretty far out of the urban core, it is a completely unrealistic, almost comical comparison to a true custom home in a sought after location.

Tract homes are not all that possible in Chicago. There are still a few areas that open up when old factories close down in a neighborhood and larger parcels of land become available, but in the really “popular” neighborhoods, we see more individual older homes going on the market (or being sold before they ever hit the open market). The majority of these old homes a tear-downs and are sold for their land value alone. With this, the custom home process in Chicago begins.

Finding an available “lot” (a.k.a. tear-down) in a hot neighborhood in Chicago is a competitive business. If it is a great neighborhood, on a great block it is going to sell and sell fast. If it an oversize lot – get ready for a bidding war! A standard lot in Chicago is 25’ wide x 125’ deep, anything wider or deeper in a great neighborhood is going to be in demand and sell for a premium. If that is something you want, have your checkbook ready and your loan pre-approved!

So the moral of the story? Your location matters. Your location will affect your price per square foot in construction AND in resale. Your home is your biggest investment; build something that reflects that investment. Don’t under build for your neighborhood (but don’t bother over-building either). Do your homework, be ready and then the process has a lot fewer surprises.

Next up, financing and architects and designers (oh my).

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: chicago custom homes, Chicago new home builder, Chicago new homes, chicaog custom home builder, custom home building, design build, general contractor, home builder, luxury homes, new construction, new construction chicago, new construction homes, new home builder, new home building, roscoe village new home builder

March 2, 2017 By Admin

All the BITS AND PIECES

The biggest pieces of a custom built home or a large scale renovation is often the littlest stuff. Door hardware and faucets and baseboards (Oh my!). A truly high-end luxury home caters to every detail, and every detail is yours. You are limited only by your pocketbook – some things ain’t cheap but boy they are pretty!

Not a big fan of oak treads and painted risers? Dream a little bigger and design a stainless steel staircase with open risers that spans 3 floors. A spectacular centerpiece (literally and figuratively) in this custom single family luxury home in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood (GO CUBS!)

High end plumbing fixtures can turn an ordinary master bedroom into your own personal spa.  This large scale tile and super modern plumbing fixtures combination keep this Wrigleyville custom home practical and elegant.
Custom millwork is a true indicator of a luxury custom home. This custom paneling was designed built and installed onsite by John at Follyn Builders and one of our talented team of finish carpenters.
Sometimes a finish is chosen not so much because a homeowner loves the item – but because it fits the overall feel of the house. Exterior light fixtures fit into the category of easy way to dress up the outside of your luxury custom home.
Every little detail counts. This custom home in the Lincoln Square neighborhood is solid masonry on a corer lot. It only needed a little piece of railing to fill this spot – but again it had to fit the feel of the rest of the house. As there were a lt of clean lines in this house – no curly wrought iron here.
Completely opposite to the simple wrought iron above – this house needed a little oomph on the exterior. And Follyn Builders delivered with a detailed, intricate and curly whirly wrought iron fence worthy of  New Orleans. Would this work everywhere? No it would not. Does it work here. Oh yes, it does!
Unlike the elaborate stainless steel dramatic staircase above, this house was more about clean lines and simple design. But simple does not have to mean boring! THis newel post tied in with the updated arts and crats feel in the Lincoln Square new home.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: 2-flat to single family, chicago custom homes, new construction, new construction chicago, new construction homes, new home builder, new homes, new homes lincoln square, roscoe village new home builder

January 25, 2017 By Admin

The TRUTH about new home building

The truth about building a new home? It is not quick, it is not neat and it is not easy. It cannot be done in 48 hours or even 6 weeks. It s not a reality TV show, it is reality.

Throughout a well run home building or large scale renovation project there may be 5 or 6 different contractors all working at the same time. I was at one of our projects in Bronzeville last week and counted the following contractors at work: the interior doors were being delivered, the tiler setter was laying tile, the painters were stripping old wood work and the carpenters were working on the 3rd floor. And I was there to deliver about 20 ponds of grout in various colors. And the GC, he was walking around consulting with every one of them.

My Point? A lot happens all day, every day and that means it sometimes it looks like chaos. But a good general contractor is what keeps it all moving. A good custom home builder makes sure every job is getting done well and getting done completely.

And here is the true secret — timing maters. If you delay your final decision on your tile by a week? You set back the plumber and the trim carpenter and could add up to 3 weeks to the job as a whole. Deadlines matter.

It is a ton of decisions – from doorknobs to tile borders to cabinet doors, it is a lot of decision making. But the end product? Worth every sleepless night about hinges and anxiety attack about paint colors.

Building a new home (or renovating your exiting home) takes more time than you thought and costs more than you thought and you will love it so much more than you imagined.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: Bronzeville new home, Chicago new homes, custom home building, Hyde Park new home, new home, new home builder, new home building, new homes

March 11, 2016 By Admin

Doing it right.

Ok, I am now going to unabashedly and shamelessly plug our business. Because you see, this is what you get when you hire a quality general contractor. Someone who goes around to every vent and return in your house and covers it with a furnace filter.

Why?

So dust and debris from the ongoing construction is not sucked into your vents and eventually mechanical systems. Necessary? Nope. A sign of a little something extra? You betcha.

So this is what that little something extra looks like folks. It looks a lot like all the stuff that will never be seen – not like your fabulous cabinets, amazing tile or funky wallpaper. No pictures of this stuff is posted on Houzz or Pinterest. It is not corners cut. It looks like that little bit extra during construction. Stuff nobody else will ever see, talk about or quite frankly even notice.

But you do it anyway.

When you do it right, you do it all the way.

Quality Construction
Construction is messy, insuring the cleanest, healthiest possible jobsite should be a priority for your home renovation team.
Quality Contractors
Ensuring a quality finished product means ensuring quality construction throughout the lengthy home renovation process. Quality renovation work throughout means a quality new home for you and your family.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: 2-flat conversions, chicago builder, chicago homes, chicago north shore builder, luxury builder, luxury construction, new home builder, new homes, quality builder, quality construction, remodel, renovations

March 5, 2016 By Admin

Paint picking (better than other kinds of picking)

So things are moving along pretty quickly and now the fun stuff starts. THE FINISHES!!! You know, trim and tile and light fixtures and door knobs. But first comes… the paint.

The thing everyone loves to hate. Picking out the perfect paint color.

Walk into a paint store and hyperventilate from all the color choices. So, first step? Take a breath.

Next step, narrow it down.

Eliminate all those oranges and yellows and baby blues that are just not going to work for you. If you know you love a neutral gray – head for the grays. Now think about undertones. Blueish gray? Or beigeish gray? Or whiteish gray? That will help you narrow down the possibilities in a big hurry.

Now take your 2 or 3 contenders and bring the samples home.

Do not paint a 2 inch x 2 inch square on the wall and run with it. Wrong!

Paint multiple big patches – like 2 FOOT x 3 FOOT swatches. Now label that patch (you think you will remember, but you won’t). Now do the same thing in 2 other places in that room. How the color looks will change even in the same room depending on proximity to windows and lights and other furnishings.

Now, pick the color you love best in EVERY location and get painting.

See? Easy. Now do that in all the other rooms and we can move on! It is your custom home – make it your custom colorsa (or wallpaper, I am loving wallpaper).

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: 2-flat deconversion, 2-flat to single family, andersonville gray stone, andersonville new home, Andersonville new homes, chicago custom home builder, Chicago new home builder, Chicago new homes, chicaog custom home builder, custom build, custom home builder, custom homes chicago, design build, follyn builders, new home, new home builder, new homes chicago, new homes lincoln square

March 2, 2016 By Admin

LEAPS AND BOUNDS (and cabinets)…

WOW! I have been away from the blog for a bit…but work has continued on the custom home in Andersonville despite my absence! Since last I updated we have worked on electrical systems, HVAC systems, installed tile, installed hardwood floors and added trim throughout the house. But the biggest change of all is the CABINETS!

Custom built cabinets that are stunning are really help the space take shape. And it is a BIG space (who knew?)

Also in this kitchen – a custom built in banquette in the eat-in kitchen. The banquette was built onsite. The coffered ceiling is the adjacent family room? Yep, conceived and completed onsite.

Neither was included in the original plans. This my friends is the value of a talented groups of contractors working WITH you.

I will be posting several times this week because there is just so much going on. Next up, paint colors!

Custom built-ins
Large scale home renovations and remodeling are a great opportunity to incorporate custom home design touches. Like this built-in banquette in what used to be an enclosed back porch.
Ceiling detail
When looking for home design ideas – don’t forget the ceilings! Crown molding and coffered ceilings add dramatic detail to home renovations or new home construction.
The organized mess
It looks like chaos but quality home design involves taking things apart before putting them back together. A true quality home renovation professional, makes all the mess worth it!

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: 2-flat conversion, andersonville chicago, chicago builder, chicago homes, gut re-hab, home remodeling, home renovations, homedesign, new home builder, remodeling contractor

January 5, 2016 By Admin

DRYWALL – ok, still not too exciting, but we are getting there.

To date on our quest for a spectacular new custom home in Andersonville: we have ripped everything out, added new walls and sub-floors, installed all new mechanicals in the walls, and sprayed in insulation. Along with about 100 other little projects along the way…and now we have…DRYWALL!

​​
Now those of you with no vision, you know who you are, can see where all these new rooms are going to be. Start imagining all your interior designs, you need kitchen designs and bathroom designs and overall home designs. So now there are walls, all the designs should be well under way. At this pint our homeowners have picked out every piece of tile, all the appliances, every plumbing fixture and piece of trim.

When building (or remodeling) a custom home, there are about 10,000 decisions that need to be made, fairly quickly. Before you start, have a good idea of what you like (or what you hate). I have found a list of “must haves” and a list of “it would be nice to haves” helps when making decisions. Know the items you are willing to go over budget on and those that are just not that big a deal to you. When you prioritize you make decisions a little easier – and there are lots of decisions in building a new custom home!

If you are not doing a complete gut re-hab to create your new dream custom home – what is the one area of your house you would re-do to get closer to your custom dream home? Most would say a kitchen remodel. Or maybe remodeling the master bath. For lots of folks with kids, a basement remodel tops the list. What’s on your dream home list?

 

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: 2-flat to single family, andersonville gray stone, andersonville new home, Chicago new home builder, custom build, custom home builder, custom homes chicago, design build, new home, new home builder, new homes chicago

December 8, 2015 By Admin

Insulation! Ok, not so exciting unless its winter in CHICAGO!

Just in time — insulation has arrived at this custom home in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood. So it is suddenly MUCH quieter and MUCH warmer inside – with no heat on!

Spray foam insulation is newer to the scene that the classic pink fiberglass insulation we all know (Pink Panther has the answer, right?). While the pink stuff has worked great for a lot of years, there is really no comparison to the tight seal and instant warmth with spray foam insulation.

The crew arrives and tapes off all the windows and floors and covers them in plastic. Then they fire up the truck that mixes the actual material, they suit up and start spraying. They fill in between all the exterior framing and up into the roof rafters.

There are 2 kinds of spray foam insulation – open cell and closed cell. Each has different attributes and each is suited to different applications. Here we are using both open and closed cell – closed in the walls, open in some walls and the inaccessible ceilings. Make sure you know what is going where, and why. Some folks only want one kind or the other, but it really should be location driven – the location of the insulation, not the location of your house!

At this point all the rough mechanicals are in – electrical, heating & cooling and plumbing. All the “rough” work – also known as that stuff inside the walls you don’t see but is crazy important to do right – is done. So the spray foam insulation is applied around or on all those rough applications.

When creating a new custom home from an existing 2-flat, it is important that all that stuff inside the walls is done correctly – everything old was ripped out, everything new needs to be up to today’s standards and codes. Once all that nitty gritty stuff is installed and updated and correct – on the funner stuff — finishes you can see!

Next week – DRYWALL!!

all mechanicals are in, insualtion is applied in this custom home by Follyn Builders

getting warm in Follyn Builders custom home


custom built home means

overfill is trimmed off the new insulation in Chicago custom home

every space if filled with insulation in this custom Chicago home

insulation all the way up to the ceiling in this Andersonvilel Chicago custom home

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Filed Under: blog Tagged With: 2-flat conversion, Andersonville new homes, chicago custom home builder, Chicago new homes, custom home builder, general contractor, new home builder

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