S7, E8: Elevated Building in the Wasatch Mountains

SEASON SEVEN, EPISODE EIGHT | TRANSCRIPT

Speaker 1 (00:04)
Did you or someone you love have to walk to school uphill both ways? Then this episode of the Art of Custom is for you. Because today we're headed up the mountain to Park City, Utah, where ski days, lake views, and walking uphill both ways are part of everyday life. We're diving into two custom homes currently under construction in two of the area's most beautiful and desirable luxury resort communities, Sky Ridge and Tuhaye.

Speaker 3 (00:41)
Welcome back to the Art of Custom and our special season 20 Homes for 20 years, where we're celebrating two decades of building exceptional custom homes in Park City and St. Louis. In this episode, we take a look at the building process in luxury resort communities, focusing on the lessons learned and opportunities that have come about during builds in Sky Ridge and Tuhaye. Each home represents a different community and vision, but they share the same goal, building a home that delivers

on elevated living. Enjoy!

Speaker 1 (01:25)
We're stepping into the world of resort style custom building and exploring what it means to create deeply personal, high performance homes in communities where every house is built around a view and every detail matters. Building in a resort community comes with some unique considerations. Balancing architectural guidelines with personal style and communities distinct character makes the approach to building different.

And when it's done right, the result melody is pure mountain magic.

Speaker 2 (01:59)
And I'm really excited about the two homes that we're talking about today, especially the second house, I am chomping at the bit.

Speaker 1 (02:07)
because of the client connection, maybe? I would say that both of the clients in this particular episode have been absolutely wonderful. The first home we're going to be talking about is in Sky Ridge. The couple is from Minnesota, the Hunts, and they've been absolutely wonderful to work with. And that doesn't mean we haven't had a couple of challenges along the way, and we'll talk about that because it's part of the custom building process, as you know. But it's been just a wonderful project.

Speaker 2 (02:09)
Yes, just slightly.

And that's why we decided to do this episode about two homes under construction, because of those challenges and those opportunities. There are some that are unique to that mountain area, but having that fresh on your mind, it's because it's not all sunshine and roses sometimes.

Speaker 1 (02:49)
And we tell everybody when we first sit down, in fact, it's one of our first meetings when we talk to them and we say, don't care if you're building with us or whomever you're building with, just be prepared that you will have, you know, a few, I call them pinch points. There's a couple of other terms that we've used from time to time, but we warn everybody that this house has been designed. It's a one of a kind house. The plans have never been used. This home has never been built.

so you don't know where you're going to run into some problems or pinch points. And we just try to help clients set the right expectations and help them become aware that it's going to happen. Trust your builder, work with your builder, work with the architect, and you can get through things.

Speaker 2 (03:32)
One of the things that I tell people when I'm first talking to them is, I do say interview a couple of builders because you want to be able to trust when those problems that are going to come up, come up that at least it's someone that's going to be able to solve that problem. That trust factor is huge when it comes to custom construction.

Speaker 1 (03:49)
It really is because you're going to be working with your builder team and the architect team for, upon where you're building in the mountain environment, it's at least a three year ⁓ relationship, if you will, because the design phase can take anywhere from the design and permitting phase, I should say, because you have to go through the ARC, the Architectural Review Committee process. It can take eight months or so, sometimes even a year.

And then the construction itself, because of the mountain environment can be very difficult and very challenging to build in, can take anywhere from 14 months to two years. And then you have the one year warranty period. So you can see you're developing a relationship with a builder, with his team or her team that is going to last several years. So you have to have trust. You have to get along with them. And so I love your advice, which I hear you tell people all the time, talk with a few builders, find the one that you're the most comfortable with.

And the one thing that we tell them is when we do run into those pinch points, we are going to come to you with some options. Here's what the issue is. Here are a couple of recommendations or here is our recommendation for you to consider. We just don't want to drop a problem in their lap. We want to have solutions for them.

Speaker 2 (05:01)
If they come across that problem themselves, what is the recommendation? Just know that your builder is probably aware of it too, right?

Speaker 1 (05:08)
can happen because you never know when the builder and or the superintendent might have been on the job site the last. If for some reason they might have been there in the morning and something doesn't develop until the afternoon. So if you do end up on the job site and find something that is not quite right, just know that it's not necessarily that the builder did not see it or understand it. It could be a timing issue or maybe the builder understands it but he's trying to work on a solution before presenting it to you.

So don't jump to conclusions that your builder is not on top of the job. Just know that as a team, you're working together. I would expect your builder to be understanding the situation and working on solutions for you.

Speaker 2 (05:48)
It takes creativity and it takes skill to solve a lot of those problems too. So it's not always the solution isn't going to present itself automatically.

Speaker 1 (05:56)
You're absolutely right. And on this particular home that we're talking about being built in the Sky Ridge area, beautiful views of the Jordanelle Reservoir, beautiful views of Deer Valley and the Heber Valley. We ran into some issues up front where the steel connections were not quite working out. And so we had to re-engage the structural engineer and we had to re-engage the framing carpenter.

and the architect and as a team we all work together to come up with the solution and then we did have to go back to the client and present the solution to them but this was I wouldn't call it major but it was also not something that was an easy fix because we did have to involve the steel fabricator again and anytime you have to re-engage a structural engineer you know you just want to make sure that the fix is going to be done and going to be done properly.

And as a team, we worked through it ⁓ and the home is progressing nicely. As we tape this podcast right now, we're down toward the finishing stages. Flooring is being installed, exterior materials are being installed, and the homeowner will be able to take possession probably in October-ish of this year. So they're really looking forward to it.

I'm going to rewind back to kind of the lot in the area because what was really cool is I was up there with you and Jan when Sky Ridge was just an idea and all of these lots were just kind of plotted out but nothing had been built yet and so that kind of is a unique set of circumstances to build in. The entire thing is brand new.

Speaker 1 (07:32)
It presents many challenge and we'll talk about one of the other challenges we had on this project in a couple of minutes and it had to do with that very fact that the development was so new that some of the information provided the owners wasn't accurate at the time. But no, I happened to be in Park City just last week. I go out there frequently, obviously viewing our project, talking with clients and things like that. And I was talking with Jill Jacobson, who's director of sales for Sky Ridge.

And we were reminiscing back into the, it was like 2019 when, when this whole concept, they started working on Sky Ridge. The first time I went out there, I believe it was probably around 2021. And I started walking the lots. There was no infrastructure. There was no roads. There was nothing there. And so we literally were just walking, you know, through this vast fields and imagining where the different homes were going to be built. So to see it today with probably,

I'm guessing 10, 15 homes now completed, another 10, 15 in construction, and then continuing to work on the development, the clubhouse, the golf course, the equestrian center, the hiking trails. It's just come so far, but it's such a beautiful area. And so it's been exciting to have built several homes in that development, and we have several more on the planning stages. It's been such a pleasure to work with Jill and her team and then.

John Hernandez and the build team and all that it's been a fun project. And when you have clients like the hunts, for example, that's what makes it even better. Earlier in our podcast this season, had Elizabeth was one of the homeowners that we built a home for in Sky Ridge. Her and her family, ⁓ large family are gathering in Sky Ridge as kind of a getaway, a vacation home, if you will. And so just the memories that they're now making in their homes and for us to be able to be a part of it is just very special.

Speaker 2 (09:24)
Was the Hunt Project, is it also a vacation home? Is it a retirement home? of, I know that the days. Kelly Day podcast. Yeah, they built more. This is like gonna be there. I don't have to work and I can enjoy my retirement spot, right?

Speaker 1 (09:32)
So it's going to be virtually the same for the Hunts. That's what their long-term goal is. They're both very active and career oriented right now. As I mentioned, they live in the Minnesota area. Kids are growing. They want to, at some point, be able to have an option of retiring in Sky Ridge at this beautiful home. At a minimum, they want to have this as their legacy home. They want to be able to share it with their friends and their family, but just have a place they can gather and enjoy the many amenities of the Park City area.

Speaker 2 (10:08)
And one of the things that you kind of alluded to earlier is that there were things changing and there was flux coming in. I know that each neighborhood has its own character, but they all have architecture review. So what makes the Sky Ridge community a little bit different? And tell us a little bit about that challenge. I'm interested to hear how it.

Speaker 1 (10:19)
Or as they do.

Yeah, so I don't know that the community maybe not is as different as some of the other communities. For example, we're building in Tuhaye and I know there's Promontory in the Colonies. Red Ledges. There's a lot of great places to build out there. I think what makes them different than building in other parts of the country is how active the ARC, Architectural Review Committee is. Other parts of the country, they're sometimes referred to as ARBs, which is Architectural Review Boards.

And sometimes you might have a municipality, for example, where we build in St. Louis, several municipalities have an ARB that you have to go through. So anyway, I think that what makes it different in this environment is the importance of making sure that that home fits within the community because they do want a distinct style. They want this modern mountain design to fit seamlessly within the topography, within that mountain environment.

And so while they don't dictate what must be designed, there is definitely a feel that you have to have. And that's why when you build in some of those areas, I really believe it makes sense to have an architect who has successfully gone through the ARC process. They understand it. They understand the feel, the vibe, the look that these ARCs are looking for. And it makes the project go much, much smoother all the way through.

you can get through more quickly, you can get onto permitting, which means you can get onto construction. So while I'm generally a big proponent in finding an architect that fits you and your personality and things like that, this is one where I would say that take it a step further and make sure that they have experience in designing homes that are being approved in whatever community you're building in, in those mountain resort areas.

Speaker 2 (12:17)
And I know when we talk about Tuhaye in a minute, you have to actually be an approved builders on their list in order to build within the community. so does it make sense to start with the builder or the architect first, do you think?

Speaker 1 (12:30)
That is a great question because I think it's almost simultaneous. know, if you find the right architect, he or she can refer you to the right builder. If you find the right builder, likewise, they can help you find the right architect. But you're right. Building in these luxury mountain resort areas, they are more strict. And there is a process for builders to be on the approved list. We've had to go through it in the developments in which we're working.

And quite frankly, I get it and I understand it because there are construction standards that need to be met. You're talking very luxurious, large, beautiful, difficult homes sometimes to construct. And so the experience component matters. The team matters. The timing matters. How long it's going to take to build these homes. So there is an approval process that the builders have to go through. Architects have to go through it as well.

So yeah, I don't know that it matters that you find the builder or the architect first, because a lot of times it will also start especially in these resort areas, starts with a real estate agent, someone who helps you find that perfect lot in the perfect development. Sometimes it starts with them. You'll ask your agent, okay, who would you recommend if you were building a home? Who would you recommend if you're designing a home? So it seems like unlike in St. Louis, where we build a lot of our leads are coming through referrals of people that we've worked with.

A lot of our leads that are coming through the Park City area have to do with realtors and architects and even the developments themselves. Once you get to work in the developments and people get to understand who you are and how you work, referrals are coming that way as well.

Speaker 2 (14:07)
In our last episode, we talked a little bit about unique materials that were used in the Alfalahee house. And so there are challenges that come with new materials as well. And so what are some of the material requirements? I know it's like you can't go out and build a white stucco house in these mountain communities. So what are the bumpers in Sky Ridge?

Speaker 1 (14:28)
So there there are many different guidelines that you follow as far as the exterior is concerned of course some of the most popular Exterior materials are natural wood siding stone steel metal roofs and things like that That's not construction we do in St. Louis at all, but we do it out there almost exclusively on every home we build most of the ARC design guidelines are going to dictate as far as how long a wall can span before you have to have some sort of a jog. There's going to be height restrictions, 32 feet, 35 feet are two of the most common. So that has to be factored in because, know, if depending upon what your roof structure looks like, you might not be able to have the ceiling heights you're looking for. So there's a lot of complexity there. We do a lot of steel. We do a lot of glass. It's funny story. I happened to be trading emails this past week with our energy raider.

Every single home we built is rated to a HERS standard, Home Energy Rating Score Standard. It might be the only one, to be honest with you, so we have our home rated because we want to know how that home is going to perform based upon a comparison to a code-built home. So a code-built home has a score of 100. In the St. Louis market, we're routinely building in the anywhere from the 20 to 30, 40 range.

Speaker 2 (15:29)
One of the few in Park City.

Speaker 1 (15:49)
our numbers in the Park City area keep coming back in the 50s and 60s. Now don't get me wrong, those are still great numbers. It's 40 to 50 % more efficient than a code-built home. But I was puzzled why. And so I sent Steve an email and I just said, hey, help me understand. We've got upgraded insulation. We're sealing the house before we're insulating it. We're doing a very thorough caulk and seal job. What am I missing here?

And he came back and kind of was a little bit of a poking fun at me and saying, do you not realize how many windows you all are putting in these homes? And I was like, my gosh, he's right. Because in Park City, it's all about the views, right? Everybody wants the view of the mountain. Everybody wants a view of the lake. Everybody wants a view of the valley. And that's what is affecting our HERS rating, if you will, because of the glass.

Glass is not nearly as good as if you have a solid wall that's well insulated. And it makes perfectly good sense. But if we're still getting numbers in the 60s with all that class, that is wonderful. So, you know, I told him lesson learned and I left him alone for the rest of the day.

Speaker 2 (17:02)
so i can i was but you know that here's all the

Speaker 1 (17:05)
Well, we did the podcast episode and I haven't heard back from you, so that must have gone well.

Speaker 2 (17:09)
So when we're talking about the Hunt House in particular, so you said that there were some changes. What happened through that process?

Speaker 1 (17:18)
One of the other big challenges, we talked about some of the steel components earlier on, the other big challenge we had is when you had mentioned as the site was being developed, they had a master plan and they had done all the surveying for the individual lots. They also had a topographic survey done at the same time, which shows you what our contours are, what our elevations are. And those are very important when it comes to the design of a new home because you need to know how to site the house on the property.

how you're going to grade it out. You wanna make sure water's flowing away. You need to understand wall heights and ceiling heights and roof heights and everything else.

Speaker 2 (17:52)
And that's not just in Park City.

Speaker 1 (17:54)
It's It's everywhere. But what made it more challenging on this project is we were originally given a topo survey that was done early on in this development. It was done before a lot of the road work was done. So guess what happened when they started doing the road work? Some of the excess dirt from the roads was then piled on top of the lot.

So we found out after we were in the middle of excavation, and the surveyor was absolutely positively wonderful about how they handled this because they kind of realized what had happened and they absolutely took responsibility and took care of the situation. So kudos to the surveyor, but what happened, Melody, is when we got into excavation and we excavated out to where we thought we should be at grade for the foundation, we were still several feet high.

And what had happened is during the development stage where they were cutting in the roads, some of that dirt got put on top of the lot. The survey did not reflect that. The survey reflected the original topography. So it caused a delay, obviously. It caused more excavation, more trucking, et cetera, et cetera. We got through it. But it's challenges like that that you just don't expect. So these one-off builds, the custom builds, it just goes to show that

always be prepared for something like that to happen. And that's a question I would always ask my builder, the potential builder up front is, what happens when there's an issue? How do you handle it? What's your process for working us through these situations? And for us, we worked very closely with the ARC. We worked very closely with the surveyor and we worked very closely with the excavator and worked everything out and got the problem taken care of.

But you know, there was a delay in the project, but again, the homeowner totally gets it, totally understands. We set the expectations upfront that things like this can happen. Just be patient. The builder will work you through it. We got through it and as we talked about earlier, we're in the home stretch now of finishing the home.

Speaker 2 (19:55)
When the project is over, we're definitely going to get photos and video and all of that. can't wait to share that. But I kind of wanted to move on to the Touhey project a little bit. And one of the things that sticks in my mind, though, is when Hibbs first expanded into Park City, there was a question, are we going to build in the valley or are we going to build in the mountains? Right. And we thought, maybe we'll do both. We're not sure.

But It seems like there is such a unique skill set in terms of problem solving and you know, like you said with topography and I've even heard conversations about driveways having to be excavated in certain ways. And so the question kind of answered itself after we got so many mountain homes under our belt, wouldn't you say?

Speaker 1 (20:39)
Oh, 100%. And yeah, no, you're absolutely right about our original expansion out into the area in 2018 and 2019 is we truly did think that we would begin in the Valley and eventually, eventually move on up into the Park City area. My family and I, my wife and I, we have ties that go back into Park City into the late 80s. So we love the area. We love the community. We know it extremely well. Family that lives in the area.

We have a family home in Park City. So we are very familiar with it. And it's an area that Jan and I have fallen in love with 40 years ago. And so our dream was to, you know, one day be able to build in this mountain resort community, these big, beautiful ⁓ mountain homes. And so, yeah, we thought first that we would start in the Salt Lake Valley and then move up.

Fortunately, we were able to really make the transition much more quickly than we had originally thought. Have done some beautiful homes in the Sky Ridge area, in the Touhay area, Summit Park, Wasatch County, Interlochen, Midway area. So we've been very blessed and very fortunate to have been able to do that. But you're absolutely right. There is a big learning curve. Not only does the order in which a home is built different, but also just the complexity.

some of the challenges that building in the mountains brings with it. And so that's why I've said this all along, you're only as good as your team. We have a phenomenal team in Utah of superintendents, project managers, director of sales, design coordinators. I mean, we have just a wonderful group who really gets and understands what it takes to build in the mountains. But it is more challenging.

I like that though, it's something new, something different. I love both communities in which we build. mean, we've lived, Jan and I have lived in St. Louis area 50 years. This is where our home is. We raise our kids here, but that's our second home. And so to be fortunate enough to build in both is really pretty special.

Speaker 2 (22:41)
As you're getting into these communities from the marketing standpoint, always look at it seems like there was a gap in the market because once we got into those communities and went through the process of approvals and getting on these lists, it just seems like things started falling into place because there was a need for a builder that has the high performance features and the buttoned up processes and things like that.

Not only that, but the design, we don't design for us and we don't build for us. We build and design for our folks. And the next project we're going to talk about is one of my favorites.

Speaker 1 (23:20)
I know why as well. Every time I talk with Mr. Knockert, which is your office is what, two away from mine, and I usually have my door open and I'm a pretty loud talker, I walk in and you have this big smile on your face and you made me promise you something, didn't you?

Speaker 2 (23:36)
I made you promise that I get to meet him at least once. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (23:39)
No, Keith and Ruth are, they are just the most wonderful, I probably say that a lot on our podcast, but I'm telling you the truth, they are such fun people. I joke when I say this, we've never had a conversation less than 30 minutes. I'm joking, but I'm not joking if you know what I mean, but they're always fun. We catch up, what are you doing, how you feeling, what are you working on? And one of my favorite things whenever I talk with Keith is he always says,

I'm gonna make you smile when I say this, because he does. He'll say something that literally brings a smile to my face. ⁓ no, he has the same conversations with our superintendent two or three times a week. That's the great thing about building a custom home. Different than production, if you're building a production home, you don't get to talk to the superintendents, you don't get to interact with them. Sometimes you don't even get to walk the house because you haven't paid for that house yet.

So there'll be times that you can only visit your home when they invite you in to do an electrical walk or something. With a custom home, if you're financing it through your own lender, you can come and go from that house anytime you want. And I think it's important. Here's another good question to ask a builder is, what is my access to the team? What is my access to the superintendent building that home? You want to develop the trust in the builder, the superintendent, the design coordinator, the project manager, whomever is working with you.

And Keith and Craig, Craig's our superintendent on that project, have also developed a really close, friendly relationship. They talk all the time. Craig updates. He's to the point now where sometimes Keith jokes with me. If I don't give him an answer he wants, he says, I'm just going to go to the boss anyway. And he's referring to either Jan, who's my wife, right, or Craig, who's the superintendent. So it's one of the two he'll go to. But it's just been a wonderful project. Touhey, the community itself.

The Talisker Club at Tuhaye is officially what it's called. They have been just so awesome to work with. Very buttoned up. Now this is an ARC that has very strict rules about when you can build, noise levels, days off, entrance requirements and things like that.

But they demand it in some of these luxury communities like that because those folks who have finished building and are living there, want to feel like the ARC has their back and is kind of looking out after them and keeping control over the construction. This is where I think it makes a big difference in why they're somewhat strict about the builders that they let in. You have to follow their rules or there are fines and those fines can be pretty hefty, but they're there to protect this beautiful community, the ARC, the Talisker club and the residents who are living there.

Speaker 2 (26:28)
Were there any challenges that you can remember coming into the project or that have surfaced?

Speaker 1 (26:33)
I'll be honest, this has been one of the more smoothly running projects that we have done in a long time.

Speaker 2 (26:40)
need you to find a piece of wood and knock on it because that home is not complete yet.

Speaker 1 (26:44)
We're close. We are through the sheetrock, the drywall phase. We'll be starting flooring very soon. The exterior is coming together. Keith and Ruth will be moving in sometime late October, November-ish, somewhere in that area. So again, another project that we're getting very close on. I think the only struggles, challenges we've had on this one is just they really wanted to be so, one of my favorite terms, buttoned up, upfront with the budget, that they knew everything about the house and everything going in.

There was a little bit of miscommunication with my team and them as far as some of the ceiling treatments. Nothing major, not huge dollar items. We worked through it and got them back on track. But overall, the organization, the amount of time that we spent with them up front, the architect, and everybody up front, understanding finishes, understanding selections, understanding just what they wanted.

That's another tip for people that are building a home. Do your homework up front. Communicate up front. Do as much as you can to make all of your selections upfront. Now that doesn't mean you can't change them during the project, but the more you can do upfront and the more you can lock in, the more successful the build's going to be on the backend from the standpoint of the budget will be accurate. You can order materials upfront more easily and the project just runs much more smoothly. So they had a vision of what they wanted to build and it was based upon another one of the projects that had already been done in Tuhaye.

And so that vision led us to where we are today and it led to many of the decisions that have been made. But because that vision had been built before, it made it much easier to bring it to life again. And the other thing is, I'm not going to give Keith credit for this. I will give Ruth credit for this. Her organization is unbelievable. And that's another thing that makes all the difference in the world going into a build like this.

Speaker 2 (28:41)
Well, and especially since they built before and had a very firm idea of what they wanted. And so being organized with communicating that to the team. ⁓

Speaker 1 (28:50)
That's an interesting point because they've built at the Lake of the Ozarks a beautiful home. They also built and still own a beautiful home. I mean, this thing has been in magazines in South Carolina. And so yes, they had been through it before, which absolutely helps because they knew what to expect. They knew how to be prepared. I think you're right that having that experience of having built a couple of homes really helped.

Speaker 2 (29:13)
When you were talking about the ceiling treatments, one of the things that kind of came into my mind was the accountability, right? And so you want your builder to, you want to trust that they're going to be accountable. Like you said, you know, that this was on my team. Is there some way that you can find that? Is that something that you want to look for? just like accountability is a big thing for me as a person.

Speaker 1 (29:36)
The one thing that I, looking back on it, would have done differently is required this information to have been, I know that they had sent us a sheet with what they wanted to do. I, as the builder, should have suggested to them that this needed to be added to the construction documents. Because the construction documents, the structural information, the landscape plan, that's really the Bible of what we're building. That's everything. That's what the trades bid off of.

And so that another, you know, maybe tip for everybody is make sure that even though you might say, I don't want my architect to spend another couple hours on this, the more details on those plans, the better for everybody. So anything from ceiling treatments to fireplace mantles and surrounds to you name it, be as thoroughly detailed on those plans as possible it's going to make the bidding process more successful and the construction process more successful.

Speaker 2 (30:36)
So looking for a builder that's organized. For sure. Absolutely. all of the information in one spot that you can kind of access things and get answers to your questions. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:39)
Sure. Now I want to be fair about this too, that there are builders out there who probably are, you know, maybe a smaller company that are working on their own or maybe have a very small staff and they probably can handle, you know, working off of drawings and maybe they're more used to it. I prefer things to be more, here comes my favorite word, buttoned up in the way we do our things. So I wouldn't rule out just because somebody maybe doesn't have a

Overall really strong process, but that's where you kind of have to figure out. What are we looking for? What are the characteristics that I want in my builder? Do we want that person who maybe is a little bit more relaxed with their procedures and policies? And I use the term fly by the seat of your pants, not in a derogatory way, because there are those who can do that very effectively. I think especially with the size homes we're building.

The more details, one of our core values dedicated to details, the more details you have, the better the project's going to.

Speaker 2 (31:46)
Working with a client that's built multiple times, it seems like the processes were important to them after they've worked with a few builders is finding that that really did make a difference. And I know that he asks you a lot about how business is going too. He seems like he's invested in what we're doing just as much as we're invested in building his house.

Speaker 1 (32:05)
It's that relationship we talked about. He was a very successful entrepreneur. I'll be honest, Melody, I enjoy talking with him about business as much as he talks to me because I always feel like I can learn something from him. I respect him. I respect the success that he had and I like to learn from that. We've really developed an awesome relationship. I love the build. The view from his lot in Touhey is absolutely spectacular. It overlooks the Jordanel

reservoir right into Deer Valley, the new Deer Valley East, Bald Mountain, Heber Valley, the Timpanogas. The view is absolutely spectacular. I am so happy for them because I know it took them a while to find the lot that they were looking for. The design process took longer, not that there was a problem. It just takes a while in the Park City area, but construction has gone along and I have to knock on wood again here. There we go.

that we really have not run into any major issues along the way. So hopefully for the next four five months, I can stay the same thing.

Speaker 2 (33:11)
What are some of the really cool features of the house that stand out to you?

Speaker 1 (33:15)
Number one, the design. think that you've got these very modern yet kind of rustic design that melds very well together. think the rear decks are going to be absolutely stunning because of the view. I think the home itself has a lot of exposed timbers and tongue and groove cedar. The fireplace itself is very important to the client and it's going to be kind of a showpiece if you will. Big, huge stone fireplace. The primary bathroom, my gosh. I can't wait to be able to share some of the finished photos and videos of this particular home because I can't do it justice to try to describe what they're going to see, but the primary bathroom is going to be just spectacular.

I think one of my favorite things though, as a businessman who, you know, we have an office in our house and the location of Keith's office, the view of Keith's office and how they're going to finish it is going to be spectacular. And I know people might be saying, what you're saying a home office is one of your favorite things in a mountain home. I think it is simply because when you see the finished product and you see, like I say, the view and all, it's gonna be remarkable. But just how the house flows from the kitchen to the great room, to the dining room, it's just a beautiful home.

Speaker 2 (34:39)
I can't wait to share pictures and so these communities are so great to build in and yes You know the two has been around a little bit longer than Sky Ridge Sky Ridge has its own character But it's been a lot of lessons learned and a lot of really cool homes coming out of there

Speaker 1 (34:53)
of lessons learned. think you know the big takeaways plan on extra time building in some of these resort areas. Plan on a very strict ARC process. Plan on the design taking longer than usual. Plan on construction possibly if you're building in any of the mountain areas or maybe coastal areas and all. Plan on construction taking a little bit longer. Plan on if you want the killer views a lot of windows.

You can still build a nice high-performing home, but maybe not to the level in which you want. And it has nothing to do with the builder or how they build the home. It has everything to do with the glazing, the glass, and the big sliders and things like that. And then just plan on a fun experience, a wonderful experience, and a beautiful home with gorgeous views when you're done.

Speaker 2 (35:40)
And it's not necessarily something about the mountains though. I do have to point that out. We're getting bigger homes that we're building here in St. Louis at the complexity of the homes and the details of the homes. The timeline on those are starting to expand and look a little bit Park City-ish, if you will.

Speaker 1 (35:55)
You're right about that. Quite frankly, even in some of the markets like the Midwest and all, people want to take advantage of the views, which is going to mean more windows. And anytime you go down that route, just understand you then need to start focusing on having larger overhangs to shade the windows in the summer. Make sure you have the right window glazing so you don't have that solar heat gain and things like that. Just find the builder who speaks your language and knows how to build a very good home.

you bring up a good point, whether it's Park City or Newport Beach, California or wherever, you're gonna run into some challenges along the way. Just put a great build team together and have a good project.

Park City's resort communities offer something truly rare, the chance to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth with all of the comfort, convenience, and connection that comes from thoughtful master planned living. But building in these communities requires more than just a great design. It takes an understanding of the land, the lifestyle, and the layered approval process that ensures every home contributes to the bigger vision.

These Park City homes are proof that when you align great design with great execution, the result is more than a house, it's a legacy.

Speaker 2 (37:20)
Thanks for joining us for this episode of 20 Homes for 20 Years. Be sure to subscribe to the Art of Custom if you listen to podcasts and stay with us as we continue with the homes and stories that define our journey. can reach us at podcast at hibshomes.com, 844-Hibs20, or find our community on Reddit. Our next episode, we're going to be digging into designing for sensory and generations.

OUTRO: For more information visit www.artofcustompodcast.com or find us on Facebook and LinkedIn as The Art of Custom. Be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes and please rate and review. The Art of Custom is produced by HugMonster sound with original music by Adam Frick-Verdeen. Thanks for listening.