People ask the price before anything else, and they should. Here is ours, with the reasoning behind it.
A custom home from Harris Home Builders starts at $450 per square foot of finished space. A modest home of about 1,900 square feet lands near $850,000 for the house alone. Most of the homes we are asked to build are larger and more detailed than that, and most land well above it. Land, site work, and the things that sit outside the walls are extra. We say all of this early because it saves everyone time.
What is inside the number
The square-foot figure covers the house itself: foundation, framing, roof, exterior, windows and doors, mechanical systems, insulation, drywall, and the finishes you choose. It assumes materials selected to last rather than to hit a bid-day price. Solid wood where composite is cheaper. Real masonry where veneer is cheaper. Standing seam or copper where asphalt is cheaper. Finishes you select yourself, from any supplier you like, rather than a short list of what a contractor has on hand.
It also covers the thing that most builders do not price: the planning. Forty to sixty hours of pre-construction work goes into every home before we sign a construction agreement. We draw it in 2D and 3D, write a scope of work for every line item, get current pricing from every trade and vendor, and produce a budget that is a ceiling rather than a guess.
What moves it up
- Size. The obvious one, though bigger homes are often slightly cheaper per square foot because the expensive rooms, kitchens and baths, do not scale with the house.
- Complexity. Roof lines, corners, cantilevers, vaulted ceilings, and anything that asks framing and flashing to do something unusual.
- Finish level. Cabinets, tile, flooring, fixtures, and millwork can double the cost of a room on their own.
- Systems. Radiant heat, heat-recovery ventilation, whole-house filtration, and the wiring practices that keep bedrooms low in electric and magnetic fields all cost more than code minimum.
- Outdoor work. Decks, patios, pools, outdoor kitchens, and landscaping are priced separately and can be a project of their own.
What sits outside the walls
Three costs are separate from the house and are easy to underestimate.
Land. In the Farmington Valley a buildable lot is a real expense, and a lot that looks buildable sometimes is not. Wetlands, setbacks, and water tables decide what you can actually put on it.
Site development. Clearing, excavation, the driveway, the well and septic where there is no municipal service, utilities, grading, and drainage. This is the largest unknown in any build. On ridge lots in Avon, Canton, and Farmington the drainage work is heavier than code minimum because the storms are heavier. On valley-floor lots in Granby and Simsbury the water table decides whether you get a dry basement. Our budget carries a visible contingency for site work because we would rather you see the risk than discover it.
Soft costs. Survey, engineering, permits, and the architect or engineer who stamps the drawings.
Why the house will cost more than it appraises for
An appraisal measures what the market pays for square footage in your town. It does not measure a roof that lasts sixty years instead of twenty, framing that stays straight, or air that does not make you sick. Those show up later, as the repairs you never make and the replacements you never buy. Our clients are the ones who do that math, and they are usually people who have owned a house built the other way.
How to know your number
Do not rely on a free ballpark. A ballpark is a range built on assumptions, and every undecided item in it carries a cost that shows up later. The only way to know what your house will cost is to design it, select the materials, price every line with current numbers, and set a guaranteed maximum. That is what our pre-construction phase does, and it is credited back in full when you build with us.
If the numbers above are in your range, start with the questionnaire. If they are not, we would rather you know now.