Blog

One-Story Farmhouse Floor Plans: What Makes a Good Layout and Which Size Fits Your Family
One-Story Farmhouse Floor Plans: What Makes a Good Layout and Which Size Fits Your Family
Short answer: A one-story farmhouse floor plan puts every room on a single level under a farmhouse exterior of steep gables, a covered porch, and board and batten or lap... Read more...
What a Guest House Costs to Build
What a Guest House Costs to Build
A custom-built guest house costs $150 to $250 per square foot, or roughly $90,000 to $150,000 for a 600 square foot one-bedroom unit, according to 2025 data from HomeGuide. That... Read more...
Slab, Crawl Space, or Basement? Picking a Foundation for Your Site
Slab, Crawl Space, or Basement? Picking a Foundation for Your Site
A foundation costs $6 to $50 per square foot depending on type, according to HomeGuide, and the right choice for a given site is decided far more by soil conditions,... Read more...
The Ultimate Guide to Windows in a Custom Home
The Ultimate Guide to Windows in a Custom Home
Window decisions on a house plan collapse four separate questions into one line item, and most buyers only ever evaluate one of them. Light, view, egress, and cost each pull... Read more...
What Can You Fit in a 3,000 or 3,500 Square Foot Lot?
What Can You Fit in a 3,000 or 3,500 Square Foot Lot?
A 3,000 to 3,500 square foot lot will typically hold a single-family home of roughly 900 to 1,400 square feet, sitting on a footprint no wider than about 40 feet... Read more...
One Story or Two? The Cost, the Comfort, and the Resale Math
One Story or Two? The Cost, the Comfort, and the Resale Math
For the same total square footage, a two-story house generally costs less to build than a one-story house, because two of the most expensive systems in a home, the foundation... Read more...
Metal Roof or Asphalt Shingles? Cost, Lifespan, and the Noise Question
Metal Roof or Asphalt Shingles? Cost, Lifespan, and the Noise Question
A metal roof costs $500 to $1,600 per square installed and lasts 30 to 80 or more years, according to 2025 data from HomeGuide. An asphalt shingle roof costs $300... Read more...
Owner Builder: What You Save and What You Take On
Owner Builder: What You Save and What You Take On
Building a house yourself, meaning acting as your own general contractor, can save you the general contractor's fee, which typically runs 10 to 20 percent of the total construction budget.... Read more...
What It Actually Costs to Turn Raw Land Into a Buildable Site
What It Actually Costs to Turn Raw Land Into a Buildable Site
Turning raw land into a buildable site commonly costs $20,000 to $60,000 or more before the first slab is poured, covering clearing, a driveway, a well, a septic system, and... Read more...
Allowances Are Where Home Budgets Quietly Break
Allowances Are Where Home Budgets Quietly Break
An allowance is a placeholder budget in a construction contract for an item you have not selected yet, such as cabinets, flooring, or light fixtures. The risk is not the... Read more...
How Much Land Do You Need to Build a House?
How Much Land Do You Need to Build a House?
How much land you need to build a house comes down to four things stacked together: the septic system, the well, your property line setbacks, and the driveway. Septic is... Read more...
Marriage Counseling vs. Home Design: When You and Your Spouse Want Two Different Houses
Marriage Counseling vs. Home Design: When You and Your Spouse Want Two Different Houses
One of you wants the shop. One wants the gourmet kitchen. The budget covers one of them, and somewhere in the last few weeks this stopped being about the house.... Read more...
Shop With Living Quarters: Layouts That Separate Work From Home
Shop With Living Quarters: Layouts That Separate Work From Home
A shop with living quarters is a single building that combines a working shop with a full residence. The layouts that succeed separate the two halves for four things: sound,... Read more...
Is Open Concept Over? What to Keep Open and What to Close Back Up
Is Open Concept Over? What to Keep Open and What to Close Back Up
Open floor plans are not going out of style. The fully open plan is. A 2023 survey cited by the National Association of Realtors found preferences nearly split down the... Read more...
Barndominium Kits vs Barndominium Plans: What a Kit Actually Includes
Barndominium Kits vs Barndominium Plans: What a Kit Actually Includes
A barndominium kit is a package of structural building materials, typically the frame, the roof, and the exterior sheeting, along with engineering for that structure. It is not a finished... Read more...
Willow Plan modern farmhouse barndominium by Fry Design Co., a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 2,217 square foot exterior 3D render
From Plan to Permit: The Custom Home Timeline in Oklahoma (2026)
Most custom home builds in Oklahoma run six to twelve months from foundation to move-in, with the full plan-to-permit-to-keys timeline taking eight to eighteen months. Fry Design Co. walks through... Read more...