Selecting a Builder

"When one has finished building one's house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know -- in the worst way -- before one began."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche


There are literally thousands of advice articles on the Internet about how to choose a contractor for your custom home. We followed none of that advice.

TAB Premium Built Home house in Morehead City; courtesy of TAB Premium Built Homes

Pete and I lived in two houses in Virginia and extensively remodeled both of them. We were very lucky with our contractor, Harold Leff, and worked with him on both houses starting in 1990. It was a sad day in 2017 when he removed the lockbox on the front door of our second house! We appreciated the quality of his team, his eye for detail, his creativeness, and how easy he was to work with. He wasn't going to be the cheapest contractor in town, but you get what you pay for. We wanted to find another Harold when we built our North Carolina home.

We turned the upper half of a two-story sun room into a screen porch overlooking the treetops; personal collection

And added a foyer to the middle of the house by using the recessed front porch; personal collection

We chose TAB Premium Built Homes because they were a member of the Southern Living Custom Builder Program. The program is a network of high-quality home builders throughout the south. Builders were selected because of their commitment to great architecture and craftsmanship. We thought this might be the best way to "find another Harold."

I first contacted TAB in 2015 right after I retired and we thought we'd move to New Bern immediately -- before I got the "bright" idea to ease Pete's weekly Albany, New York, to Virginia commute by moving to New York. Andy talked me out of two house plans for very good reasons and taught me how to look at a plan with an eye to cost.

We re-engaged with TAB in 2018 and it took a few months to get through all our questions and contract negotiations.

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