4 Personal Touches This Custom Builder Adds to Every Home

What separates high quality custom builders from any other builder comes down to intentional, small touches that make a big impact. At Alair Homes Houston, Partner Bryan Phillips ensures his team and trade partners understand this concept.

There are four thoughtful choices that can be found in Phillips’ homes, which separate his homes from the rest—and these decisions don’t cost a thing, and some result in higher

1. Custom Name and Logo Stencils

When Phillips built production homes, he would receive calls from on-site trade partners with questions, he found it difficult to identify what rooms the trade partner was in.

“An electrician would call me and say, ‘Hey man, I’m up in the northeast bedroom on the second floor,’ and I’m like, ‘What’s the plan say? What room are you in?’” recalls Phillips.

To remedy the issue, the builder spray-painted each bedroom with the identifier from the plans onto the subfloor during construction. Now, those calls with trade partners became much easier. Then Phillips began building custom homes for people.

Those labels of “bedroom three,” turned into a child’s name associated with their bedroom.

“We got this killer reaction, and thought, ‘I’m doing this forever!’” he says.

After years of witnessing positive reactions, Phillips is now taking it a step further with a custom stencil of the Alair Homes logo that his team will spray paint into the home’s entryway with the name of the family.

“Now it’s going to say, “[Last name] Residence in the foyer.”

PHOTO COURTESY BRYAN PHILLIPS

2. Aligned Outlets and Overhead Lights

Another sign of a high quality builder is when they pay attention to the details nobody else will notice. This is Phillips’ take, and he puts this into action by aligning wall outlets directly under windows, for example, or thoughtful alignment of recessed cans, AC vents, ceiling fans, and fire sprinklers on the ceiling.

Recently, Phillips held a project manager training meeting on-site at a home under construction to teach team members on what that intentionality looks like.

“If you go just by the plan, yeah it’s all going to be there, but don’t you want it to line up?” says Phillips. “Regardless if the homeowner cares about it—we do.”

PHOTO COURTESY BRYAN PHILLIPS

3. Closets Convertible to Elevators

On each level of Phillips’ luxury custom builds, there’s an intentional hallway closet that can be converted into an elevator in the future. This requires intentional forethought that’s planned well before construction.

“We set up the framing in between the floors so it can easily be removed. There’s no wires or pipes or anything going in between there. This family or a future family, with a phone call, can add an elevator instantly the day they move in or 20 years after they move in,” he explains.

PHOTO COURTESY BRYAN PHILLIPS

4. Package Drop-Off Zones

Entrances for Alair Homes Houston’s builds include a side door just for delivery drop-offs. This intentional addition is a minimal addition, but can make a large impact on homeowners.

These drop-off zones can even have two doors, one internal and one external, to make package retrieval even easier. Homeowners simply open the internal door, which often leads to a study.