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UNICOI HOMES

Custom builds

Beyond the library.

The library is where our discipline pays you back the most — five proven plans, priced to the dollar. But some land, and some families, genuinely need more house. For them we take on custom builds, from 3,000 square feet up, run with the same discipline as everything else we do.

Custom doesn't mean open-ended here. It means the same fixed-price honesty, pointed at a house that's yours alone.

How it works

Three steps, in writing.

  1. We design it together.

    It starts at the kitchen table with your land, your list, and a pencil. The plan gets worked out with you and drawn for your specific lot — sun, slope, driveway, views. No catalog, no starting template you have to fight.

  2. The plan gets a fixed price.

    When the plan is settled, we price it — fixed, in writing, built on the same included spec as every Unicoi home. Not cost-plus. Not an estimate that grows a percent a month. The number is the number, same as the library.

  3. One interior allowance, your priorities.

    Inside the walls, a typical custom contract carries a dozen little allowances — tile, cabinets, counters, lighting, appliances — each its own line, each its own argument. We combine them into one interior allowance. Care more about the kitchen than the third bath? Spend it there. It’s your money; the pool moves where you point it.

Why one allowance beats a dozen.

Line-item allowances exist to protect the builder, not you. Every one of them is a place where the contract says "about this much, probably" — and every overage lands as a change order. Rolling them into a single pool does two things: it makes the total honest on day one, and it hands the trade-offs to the person they belong to. You. We'll tell you what things cost and what we'd do — the spending order is yours.

And the pool settles square, both directions. Need to go over the total allowance? That's a change order — priced and agreed before the money moves. Come in under it? We cut you a check for the difference. The slack is yours, not ours.

It scales up, too. Want to go past our standard — wide-plank European oak, marble, a whole-house lighting system? The allowance doesn't care what you point it at.

Site development stays in its own bucket — driveway, clearing, well, septic, power, grading. That work belongs to your land, not your finishes, so it's handled the same honest way as every Unicoi build: typical ranges up front, real numbers after we walk your lot. Same structure as the library.

Custom work

A few we've done.

Delivered on the corridor — real houses, standing on real land.

Placeholder for a rendering of a completed Unicoi custom build
A recent custom — where it stands, what made it interesting
Placeholder for a rendering of a completed Unicoi custom build
A recent custom — where it stands, what made it interesting

Not sure you need custom? If your program fits under 2,000 square feet, look hard at the library first — proven plans, published prices, a faster start. Custom is for when your land or your life needs what the five plans can't do.

Next step

Custom starts with the land, too.

Walk your lot with us. We'll talk about what it wants, what it will fight, and whether custom or the library serves you better — straight answers either way.

Schedule a free site evaluation