After debating for 5 years about whether to build a “senior friendly” (wide doors and all necessities on the main floor) new home, we finally decided building was the best option as we near retirement. We had rented a beautiful home with a loft when we were on a vacation trip out West, and wanted our “dream home” patterned after that vacation home. We found a floor plan on a website that was similar to what we were looking for, and contacted several home builders to ask if they were able and interested in building this home for us. After meeting with each builder, reading reviews and talking to friends connected to the building trade, we chose Schmidt Homes to build our new house. Steve Schmidt is very patient, detailed and comprehensive in explaining cost, options, what to expect, and how many times we will meet to finalize decisions. This was our first (and probably only) new construction house, so we had a lot to learn. After we tweaked the floor plan, Steve sent it to his architect for the complete plan, and excavation was ready to begin. The Schmidt team started moving dirt in early December, and the final inspection and our final walk-thru was in early June – pretty much right on schedule! The four qualities that were important to us in the building of our home include: quality of products & workmanship; design that reflects our rural MN prairie site; functionality of all aspects of our home; and of course, staying within the budget we outlined. Steve and his team asked the questions to really understand who we are and what we wanted in our new home – and ensured that our new home reflected our needs and preferences. Steve, Emily, Sara and the Schmidt team were good communicators, keeping us informed on progress, and also on when we needed to make selection decisions on siding, lighting, plumbing, countertops, etc. They were detail-oriented, ensuring everything would look like it was designed to fit together. Did everything come together without a single problem? Of course not. In our experience, even a holiday dinner usually has an issue or two, so obviously a project with the magnitude of building a new house will have a few problems arise. Similar to working at a large company, you always want to have people with problem-solving skills on your team. And Steve, Emily (Designer), and the team are problem-solvers – if they don’t have the answer, they reach out to colleagues with specific expertise and get the answer. We love our new home. We get many compliments – and we expect that friends will politely say nice things. It really amazed me when a UPS delivery driver stopped recently, rang the doorbell as he dropped off our package, and quickly headed back to his truck. I opened our door, and called out a “thank you”. Even in his haste, the driver spun around and called back, “You have a beautiful home!” That warmed my heart. Thank you to Schmidt Homes!
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