From Bare Field To Dried In: The Milestones Of A New Custom Home

For a family building a new home, the construction phase can feel like a blur of activity followed by long stretches where nothing seems to change. It helps to know the big milestones and what each one means. The project photos with this post follow a two-story house on an open field, from the first cut of the dozer to new siding, and they make a clear map of the journey.

Topsoil Off and the Hole Dug

The first photo is a drone view of a dozer cutting a strip of topsoil in an open field, with dirt piles and a pickup nearby. Topsoil usually comes off first, so the excavation starts in firmer soil and the topsoil can be kept for the yard later.

Before this moment, a lot has already happened: the design, the permit drawings, the bids and the site planning. The dozer is the first visible sign of all that work.

Footings and Foundation

Next, a boom pump truck places concrete into the footings while the crew works in the excavation. Footings spread the weight of the house into the ground, and the foundation walls rise from them. This is also where the basement takes its shape, so its depth and layout were settled well before the concrete arrived.

Framing Goes Up

Framing is when a house starts to look like a house. A drone photo shows first-floor walls going up on the deck, with the open basement stairwell visible and green fields around. Walls, openings for windows and doors, and the stair all appear in a short stretch of time.

Framing is also a good stage for homeowners to walk through, if they want to. Rooms that were lines on a plan become spaces you can stand in.

Dried In, Then Shingles and Siding

“Dried in” means the house is closed against the weather. The next photo shows the front wrapped in house wrap with roof sheathing on and the garage opening framed. Then the shingles go on, shown from the air while the walls are still in wrap. Finally, siding starts: the corner of the house in new blue siding, with the wrapped front porch beyond.

Once a house is dried in, a lot of the work moves inside, where plumbing, electrical and mechanical rough-in begin. From the road it can look like progress has slowed, when in fact the pace inside has picked up.

How Involved Do You Want to Be?

Families experience these milestones differently. My business partner Colten Roth, who runs our builds, sees the whole range. Some homeowners “are a lot more hands-off,” and “some people are very much involved which is fine and we just have to make sure that if that's the case we are communicating that to them.” As he puts it, “every house is different every person's different and that's what makes it fun.”

Whatever your style, Colten's standard is the same. “We want to make sure we under promise and over deliver,” he says. “We don't want to say make all these grand promises and not be able to follow through on them.”

• Hands-on: visits at key stages like framing and dried in.
• Hands-off: updates when something needs your decision, and the rest handled for you.
• Either way: anything that affects you or needs a decision reaches you the same day.

If you're planning a custom home in Lincoln, tell us how involved you'd like to be. We'll shape how we communicate around it.