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By Joshua Renich, Fox & Dahlia Homes Last updated: July 2026 The question comes up on almost every early client call: should we hire an architect separately and then bring in a builder, or work with a design-build firm that does both? It sounds like a logistics question. It's actually a strategy question — and the right answer depends on the specifics of your lot, your priorities, and what "getting it right" means to you. Fox & Dahlia is a design-build firm. We don't hide tha

By Joshua Renich, Fox & Dahlia HomesLast updated: June 2026 Gig Harbor is one of the most rewarding places in the South Sound to build a custom home — and one of the more involved. The same things that make it special (the water, the wooded slopes, the small-town design character) also shape what you can build, where, and how long it takes to get there. If you're considering a custom home in Gig Harbor, here's a clear-eyed look at the lots, the permitting, and what to actuall

By Joshua Renich, Fox & Dahlia HomesLast updated: June 2026 It's the question every custom home conversation starts with, and the one most builders are slow to answer straight: what does it actually cost to build a custom home in the South Sound right now? We'd rather be direct about it. Below are real 2026 ranges for our market — Tacoma, Gig Harbor, the Key Peninsula, and the broader Puget Sound — along with the honest part most cost articles leave out: why two homes of the

Building a Custom Home in Gig Harbor: Lots, Permits, and What to Expect By Joshua Renich, Fox & Dahlia HomesLast updated: June 2026 Gig Harbor is one of the most rewarding places in the South Sound to build a custom home — and one of the easiest to underestimate. The views that draw people here, the wooded slopes, the waterfront, the wide peninsula lots outside city limits, are the same features that turn a build into a puzzle. The lot that looks like a bargain often carries

By Joshua Renich, Fox & Dahlia Homes Last updated: June 2026 It is the first question almost every client asks, and the honest answer is the one most builders are reluctant to give: it depends — and on a South Sound lot, it depends most on the part of the budget nobody puts in the headline number. You can find a dozen articles that quote a cost per square foot for the Puget Sound and call it a day. We build custom homes across Tacoma, Gig Harbor, the Eastside, and the islands

How Much Does a Custom Home Cost in the South Sound in 2026? By Joshua Renich, Fox & Dahlia Homes Last updated: June 2026 It's the first question almost every client asks us, and it deserves a straight answer: a custom home in the South Sound in 2026 generally runs $350 to $700 per square foot for construction, with genuinely luxury builds on demanding sites pushing past $800 a foot — before you count the land. For a well-appointed 3,500-square-foot home, that puts most proje

By Joshua Renich, Fox & Dahlia HomesLast updated: May 2026 Some of the best homesites in the Puget Sound are the ones other people gave up on. The steep lot with the water view. The wooded parcel with no road and no utilities. The narrow infill lot in a historic Tacoma neighborhood. We have spent more than three decades building on exactly these sites, and we will tell you upfront: a "difficult" lot is not the same as a bad one. But the difference between a remarkable homesit