The Role of Estimating and Value Engineering in Planning Your Home
We’ve noted before that almost all our clients have two questions very early in the design/build process. They want to know how long their custom dream home will take to design and build, and how much it will cost. The answers to both questions are “it depends” and “it depends,” but part of the way […]
How We Track and Communicate Every Step of Your Home Build
Our clients hire us to build their custom dream homes. For most people, a home is the single most expensive thing they will ever buy. The stakes in these projects are very high. Fortunately, Dotty Brothers has been following our design/build process in the Brainerd Lakes area for over 30 years. And one of the […]
It’s the most common phrase in real estate: “Location, location, location.” It makes sense, because location is a major factor in the value of most homes. So choosing a great location for your home is critical. Most of the custom dream homes we build in the Brainerd Lakes Area take advantage of one of the […]
Homebuilding has evolved a great deal over the decades, to the point where the type of dream homes we build in the Brainerd Lakes area are now much more air-tight than houses used to be. To be clear, we’re not here to slander home builders of the past. They were skilled, too! But materials, tools, […]
Smart home construction principles remain mostly the same as they ever were: strong foundations, straight walls, well-insulated, built to last. But these days, a “Smart Home” is one that leverages the internet and modern technology to put control of your home’s features on your smartphone. Any home can be made into a smart home using […]
When you think about building your dream home, it’s easy to get hyper focused on the inside: the various rooms, potential layouts, surface finishes, interior design, all that good stuff. But spare some space in your imagination for the outdoors as well. Modern custom homes--especially here in the Brainerd Lakes Area--are as much about outdoor […]
Thirty years. It takes a long time to reach it—three full decades, for those who are counting—and that’s how long John Dotty of Dotty Brothers Construction has been building custom dream homes in the Brainerd Lakes area. John is from the Brainerd Lakes area and has lived here for 44 years. It’s easy for him […]
Custom dream houses don’t just pop up overnight. Or overweek or overmonth. If they do, they’re not custom and they’re probably not anybody’s idea of a dream. Custom houses take time. They take time to design, time to build, time to craft. You can’t build a dream home without making time for dreaming: imagining what […]
Storage. It’s the one thing no home can ever seem to have enough of. It almost seems like a human impulse to fill up the space we have, so even in places with enough storage space, we feel like we’re constantly on the verge of running out. While the best solution is probably a vigorous […]
Interior design and home décor can be a big source of anxiety for homeowners. Many of our customers work with interior designers to help guide these choices. But there’s a fair amount of preparation that you’ll want to do even if you hire an interior designer. Those efforts can go a long way toward helping […]
Your home is built by loyal Dotty Brothers craftsmen — not an assortment of subcontractors. We’re skilled artisans who live by one motto: "Build it as if it’s your own." That mindset shows in every detail, from foundation to finish.