A lot of companies build houses. At Artisan, we seek to build "distinctive custom residences." Given that you spend so much time in your home, it should be carefully thought-out and executed. A good home has many aesthetically pleasing features, but a great home has many hidden features. We are passionate about providing you with a home-building experience that surpasses your expectations.
Most of our clients do not have a final plan in mind when they meet with us for the first time. Many may be working with an architect, while others may only have a vague idea of what they are looking for. If a client does not have a plan, we work with them to develop a final design. We do provide in-house design services, and we have many great relationships with several local architects and designers in our area with which we form a design build team for most projects. This enables us to provide valuable "experienced-based" insight to the customer from the beginning. This process saves the customer's time, money, and hopefully, frustration. Because the customer has critical budget input at a very early stage, he or she is able to make some very informed decisions about the design early in the project. Usually this process allows the customer to have a manageable construction budget long before excess dollars are spent.
We feel that great homes are borne out of great planning. We do not start by discussing how great the cabinets and trim will be; we focus on the fundamentals:
- Your home should be one of the healthiest places to be since you spend so much time there. Indoor air quality should be a top priority and there are simple technologies that we can employ to assure the owner of a healthy environment.
- Your home should be carefully sited to take advantage of the sun, the light, and views. Despite the fact that there are many technologies available to us to provide energy efficient homes, there are also some "low-tech" ways to provide a 20-30% more energy efficiency in your home by simply being thoughtful about the orientation of your home on the site to take advantage of the sun and natural shading.
- Your home should be designed with advanced energy saving systems. There are a number of ways that we can achieve significant efficiency in a home. Many of our homes are certified to use less energy than homes simply built to meet the current building code. Most of our homes use at least 30% less energy and some are achieving energy savings in the up to 80%. We are an active EnergyStar builder. You can check this program out at www.energystar.gov.
- Your home should be built in an environmentally responsible way. We ascribe to build homes in a way that causes minimal impact on the environment that we all share. We are participating in the U.S. Green Building Council's (www.usgbc.org) LEED for Homes program. LEED stands for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design." The LEED for Homes program is a nationally recognized program that certifies homes for their environmentally responsible features. We are also participating in the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association's EARTHCRAFT home building program.
After reviewing the fundamental issues associated with any home, we then work with the homeowner to focus on the specific characteristics of their unique project. We seek the customer's specifics needs and wants by asking a lot of questions and providing them with data to help them make informed and thoughtful decisions.
Building a home involves a lot of emotional and passionate decisions because a home is not just a place to sleep at night - home is where life happens. We want to help you get your dream house right the first time. We understand the task and we feel that we bring a unique experienced-based approach to the process that is very valuable to our clients.