Jennifer's Spot: Jennifer x Mike

Hey all! I'm thrilled to bring you my conversation with Jennifer this lovely AM! Join us as we discuss her experience building a Modern Alpine Plus in Harrellsville, North Carolina - the ups & downs of construction, Jennifer's favorite features of her DEN, and the lessons Jennifer learned along the way. 

1. Meet Jennifer and Her Motivation

Mike: So first things first, right? Tell me who you are, where you are, and which DEN design you decided to build. 

Jennifer: I'm Jennifer Thomas, and this is Harrellsville, North Carolina and it's the [Modern] Alpine Plus, I believe is the name of it. And it's just beautiful. I love it. 

Mike: Awesome. And have you ever built a house before or is this your first one? 

Jennifer: I've owned houses, but I've never built one. And it's just me. I'm a single girl here, so I've learned a lot about the building process. 

Mike: Awesome. That's great. We coach, you know, folks all the time on like what it means to actually build something.

Maybe you can share a little bit of your perspective. Why did you decide to build something instead of just buying something in the place that you wanted to invest in? 

Jennifer: Well first I found this lot and, I had been recruited to this area for a job and I fell in love with the area, not the job.

And I was like, 'I wanna stay here'. I'm a nurse. So this lot actually had... you couldn't even tell that there was a body of water in front of me because the trees were so thick. So all the trees had to come down. I had to get a well, septic, all those steps along the way was a learning experience for me.

And then I found this design that I thought fit in with the landscape. I wanted something that was unique, not like something everybody else had and I didn't want it so different from the landscape that, it just, it didn't fit in. So, I think it looks really good with the pine trees and the North Carolina landscape here.

2. Choosing the Design and Building Journey

Mike: Awesome, awesome. So you mentioned a little bit about like the existing housing inventory there. What are your neighbor's houses look like? Are they built in the 20th century? Like, you know, are they vinyl sided? Are they traditional developer homes?

Like what do they look like? 

Jennifer: Well, there's one home next to me and it has a pointy roof, similar, you know, to this one. So it fits in. The one next to him is a brick home, and then on the other side of me are just wooded lots. I am out in the country, so I'm a bit remote.

Mike: Awesome. So you said you decided to build the Modern Alpine Plus, right? Why did you pick that design? What about that design spoke to you like in terms of its look or its floor plan? What were the key features that you thought were really, really exciting?

Jennifer: Well, this is not a rental, this is not a vacation home. This is my home. So it was a bit larger than the guy that we had mentioned earlier. So this is a bit larger and it's just me. It fit the lot. The lot is, it's kind of slim and long and so is the house.

So it just fit perfectly. 

3. Construction Progress and Living on Site

Mike: Amazing. Tell us a little bit about like where you are and like the stage of the construction. I noticed that you have some construction materials on the deck there still. How far along are you? 

Jennifer: I have about maybe three weeks, three, four weeks left.

They're building the deck. The brickwork just finished for that yesterday. The painter has a couple... three days. Electrician has a day, plumber has two days. Close. I'm really close. 

Mike: Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. You're practically on the final checklist. and have you cheated a little bit?

Have you stayed in the cabin, on an air mattress, like in the middle of the construction? Like, have you... [Jennifer nods] you have! Amazing. Cool. 

Jennifer: Don't tell the housing inspector that, but yeah, I mean we had a cold snap here in North Carolina. Well, the whole country had a cold snap and, 'cause I bought, I moved here, I stayed in an Airbnb for six weeks and quickly realized I didn't wanna buy a house in the town where I was working.

And so I bought a fifth wheel camper. 

Mike: Yeah. 

Jennifer: And I stayed there for a year and I heard some of the neighbors talking about these lots I hadn't even noticed. And so I bought the lot, got some trees cut down, got a well, got a septic, moved my large camper over there. Over here, was then able to sell the camper.

Thought the house would be done before now. A friend I met loaned me a little camper, so I've been staying on property, but it was cold there for a couple of weeks. And yeah, I did stay in it. 

4. Customizations and Favorite Features

Mike: Cool. That's cool. When I built my first cabin, I definitely blew up an air mattress and stayed in it too, like while there was -

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

Mike: - still saw sawdust on the ground. So the reason why I asked that question, was to actually understand like how much time you've actually spent in this space. Because what I'm wondering is like, how do you like the layout or like, what's your favorite space or room in the house?

Jennifer: Oh, well [motioning to various parts of her house over facetime] I think the front part of it, and maybe in the design, see there's the windows. Okay. So that is, that's the backyard. That is what looks out over the water. So I don't know if you consider that the front of the house or the back of the house here. This would be the back of the house.

And looking out the windows and looking at the view that I have, clearly that's the best. 

Mike: Gotcha. So when you're hanging out in the living space -

Jennifer: Mm-hmm. 

Mike: - you're just like, 'this is why I did this project'. 

Jennifer: Mm-hmm. 

5. Design Philosophy and Functionality

Mike: Amazing, amazing. I think this is really cool because you're one of these Vanguard people who is living in what I would consider an appropriately sized house, you know? For a single person or a small family. Tell us a little bit about your thought process, about like even selecting this sized home for yourself. 

Jennifer: I like the best of everything. The best floors, the best countertops. Well, I'm not having to furnish or pay for a $3,000 or $4,000 home.

I left Kentucky, I had that. I didn't wanna do that again. I wanna be in a small footprint, but still have the luxury, the nice things. So, you know, the faucet I have, the fixtures I've chosen, the countertops I've chosen, they're all spectacular. And I'm doing it on a small footprint.

Mike: That's cool. That's cool. The Modern Alpine Plus is -f or folks listening - is like just under a thousand sq ft, right? It's 34 ft long and 16 ft wide. And then with the loft it gets us to like 918 sq ft, I think, on the nose, right?

So, so yeah.

Jennifer: I did make a couple of changes and I'll show you on the tour. 

Mike: Yeah, please. 

Jennifer: Yeah, I have a little more space than that, but no, not a whole lot. 

Mike: Yeah, let's do that. I would love, that sounds really exciting. Give us the tour.

Jennifer: Okay. Let me see if I can spin you around. Okay. So again, that's the view and it is on a crawl space. So the house is lifted up and I did have a request to put an extra block around it, so it's just even a little taller, which my electricians and plumbers love. They love that. I have Andersen windows.

That was a bit of a splurge, but they're lovely. Hardie Plank on the side and I went with, it's called Iron Gray. Might not be the exact color of what is shown like on your website. 'cause I loved all the colors, but this is a standard color, it's not extra.

I did add 12 feet to the house, and you'll see why when we get inside. I'm just gonna spin around here. Oh, and I have a chicken coop that is built.

The front portion is where I'm gonna park my car. This portion, the veranda outdoor eating and entertaining, and I don't have steps. I'm gonna have to go up this ladder.

We'll come back to this room.

All right, so I extended it 12 ft, to put the kitchen forward. 

Mike: Oh, nice. That's cool. 

Jennifer: So if I'm gonna have to do dishes, I wanna do 'em right here looking out. 

Mike: Oh, that is a great customization. Well done. 

Jennifer: Because in the original plan, I think the kitchen was a galley kitchen along this way.

And I love to cook, so I wanted the kitchen forward. So this is going to be a coffee and bar area. And I had, these are from Fabuwood cabinets, and they're gonna bring another one. 'Cause I actually have space, for another one here. Because again, this is my full-time home, so I need the space, the storage, and there's the bathroom.

Mike: Nice. 

Jennifer: And I had a niche put in. And this is a medicine cabinet that's got the lighting where you, you know, you hit a button. And a button for like anti-fog when you're in the shower and probably put a glass door here. And I got heat, so that'll be nice, in the bedroom. And you notice I changed the doors. So the doors are pocket doors and that saves on space. 

Mike: Nice. 

Jennifer: The original plan had a door right here. And because I was putting the kitchen there, I moved the door to the hallway here and it's a pocket door. And then there'll be a shelf there with bifold doors. But this I can pop up, put all my tall boots, and clothes up top.

So all of this space is being used for closet.

Mike: You don't have the spiral staircase in yet, huh? 

Jennifer: I don't have the spiral staircase in yet, but it's on order and it will be here. 

Mike: Nice. 

Jennifer: Yeah, the loft is the same dimensions as the original plan. 

Mike: Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer: But because I put the lean-to, y'know, for parking, and that veranda, a friend said, 'oh my gosh, you have a scullery'. And I was like, 'a scullery. Well what, what in the world is that? Like, do I need an antibiotic? Like what is that?' And a scullery is like one of the hottest things in 2025 with new builds. A kitchen, a dirty kitchen, like a bigger like butler's pantry.

So the space in between the carport and the veranda. So I'm gonna have, I'll have my washer and dryer here, and then I'm gonna have one of those tall, skinny refrigerators, like a beverage refrigerator. 

Mike: Yeah. 

Jennifer: And an appliance garage here, and then countertop with another sink here.

Countertop across, and then I may put cabinets on top. I may do a little bit of open shelving. I haven't really gotten that far. I haven't decided, but so you can be in this area, you can be making a cocktail, make an appetizer, and walk through this door to the covered porch. 

Mike: Cool. 

Jennifer: Yeah. 

Mike: That's amazing. 

Jennifer: And there'll be a ceiling fan here and then, in here they've got it for two ceiling fans. And then if I step back here, you can probably see I've got the little split unit up there because if a person does sleep up there, spend the night, I mean, North Carolina does get pretty hot, so they need a little air. 

Mike: Nice. 

Jennifer: Yeah. 

Mike: Well done. 

Jennifer: You like it?

Mike: I love it.

I mean, it looks incredible. Also, I learned something new today. I had no idea what a scullery is. That's pretty cool. 

Jennifer: Look it up! Yeah, I had to look it up and when I told my builder, I said, 'listen, we gotta get our story straight'. I said, 'I designed it and you built it. And it's a scullery'.

We didn't do it by accident, you know, we did it intentionally. 

Mike: Yeah, for sure. For sure. 

Jennifer: But it was kind of by accident 'cause it was just gonna be storage, I felt like I needed storage. 

Mike: Yeah. That's cool. I mean, I'm looking at this right now and it says.

'Having a scullery can increase your property's value, increase your home's value. It's a valuable functional space in a house'. So, nice job. 

6. Working with the Builder

Mike: This is amazing. What an incredible project that you have, you know, nearing completion here. And let me ask you this - you know, when you purchased the plans from DEN, right? Like how did you use the plans to find yourself a builder? Or did you have the builder in mind and, did you just simply share the plans with them? How did the plans themselves set your project up for success initially?

Jennifer: So in this area of North Carolina, there are not a lot of builders, but the best builder is David Drew. And so I waited a year to be able to get him. And again, there's two or three, I mean, there's not many and there are a lot of big, I mean, he builds monster homes and then he saw these plans and he shared 'em with his helper.

Two guys built this house, two guys. And they looked at it and his helper said, 'well, David, are you sure we can do this? This is it. This is all she wants. Right?' So, yeah, it was easy for him. And it's a small area.

He knows everybody. He knows the best plumber, the best electrician, the best person to do concrete. So I just relied on him. 

Mike: Nice. Nice. I'm assuming that the builder also gave you... did they give you a fixed price on the construction or did they give you a cost plus agreement?

Jennifer: He told me what he could build it for. And we went with that. 

Mike: Cool. 

Jennifer: Along the way, I made some changes, like... the Andersen windows were not really in the plan or the budget, because they're not cheap. I don't know if you know anything about Andersen Windows, but they're not.

Mike: Oh, we know a lot. 

Jennifer: We'll step outta here because these guys are gonna - 

7. Lessons Learned and Living the Dream

Mike: [The call keeps cutting in and out] Jennifer, the best place, where I think you might have the best like connection to your Starlink, is where we started the call, like near the river. I noticed like when you're like on the backside or on the front side of the house, your front side of the house, which where the front door is, you tend to cut out there. So if you're looking for a place to finish up the interview... actually this works fine. It's, seemingly a good connection. 

Yeah. So that's cool. And so they gave you a price based on the original plans and then there were some, uh, you know, escalations in the price, like due to like things that you changed along the way. That's cool. And, you know, did you find that the builders had like a lot of questions for you or a lot of questions about the plans, or do you think that they were easily understood by the builders?

Jennifer: Very easily understood. 

Mike: Awesome. Awesome. Well, cool. And then, what has been your favorite part of the build process thus far? Where you're like, 'hey, this was like totally worth it'. What's been the best part of the experience? 

Jennifer: Well, you know, seeing it come to fruition, we've had some delays. It rained the entire month of [unclear] so that, you know, put us behind a little bit. But, you know, I've learned a lot. It's been fun watching how everything comes together, every step of the way. Once those windows went in, oh my goodness. You know, just standing before the drywall, before anything happened, just, you know, seeing your dream come true.

Mike: Nice. That's cool. I bet - like you mentioned some delays, right? Like I bet it wasn't all smooth sailing across the entire process. Right? What has been the biggest challenge that you've faced or, the biggest headache that you faced on the project, and how did you overcome it?

Jennifer: Well, I've learned, patience. Again, it's a small rural area, where the drywall was coming from. There were a couple weeks they had no workers, and so that put the delivery of the drywall two weeks behind. Which then caused the people that were gonna put the drywall in to be delayed probably like four weeks. 

Mike: Gotcha, gotcha. there is like a cascading effect that happens when one major element is delayed. And that makes a ton of sense. 

Jennifer: And it took a while for the roofer to get here. It took a little while for, you order cabinets, you think they're gonna be in, it's just a week here, two weeks there, delay. It's not like the houses, 'cause this is all very custom and it's - again - very rural.

It's not like in a subdivision where they can throw houses up in a matter of weeks. 

Mike: Yeah. One after the other. 

Jennifer: It's been a process. I didn't think I was gonna be in a camper as long as I have been. It's like the fun camping trip that never ends and I'm ready for it to end.

Mike: Nice. Nice. 

Jennifer: No more campers for me. No more campers for me. 

Mike: Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. So let's say like you had a friend or a family member who is thinking about building their own DEN home. What would you tell them? What words of wisdom would you share with them?

Jennifer: I would say... For me, in my mind, I just, I lived in it. I pictured myself walking in the front door, walking down the hallway, where am I gonna put my coat? You visualize these things in your mind and that way you build it. Because I've heard so many people say, 'oh, I wish I'd had done this and I wish I'd have done that'.

And I haven't had that experience yet because I've had enough time to, even the delays were probably a blessing because I was able to think about things, there was that little wall that, when you walk in the door from the carport, I had a little small wall, so you don't see the washer and dryer, you know?

So I would just visualize like, what's it gonna feel to walk in this door? Where do I put my shoes? Where do I put my purse? Where are my cups? Where are my dishes? And where's my laundry? And so you just, if you just visualize it, then you can make these little tweaks to make it personalized to you along the way.

Mike: Gotcha. And do you think that the plans helped you to visualize those things? 

Jennifer: Oh yeah, absolutely. The website was great. I mean, I don't know if you can tell who visits your website, but I probably visited a thousand times, you know, looking at the house and showing people, 'this is the house that I'm building, this is the house. Lemme show you the pictures'. You know. So, I don't know. I went to the website a thousand times. 

Even though I chose the Alpine plus, I looked at others just to see, 'well how did they decorate this house? Or, you know, what steps or windows did they put in that one?' Or you know, just to get ideas to make mine uniquely mine.

Mike: Oh, that's really cool. When you showed off the house that you were gonna build, like what was your friend's and family's feedback? 

Jennifer: Well, everybody that's seen it, they're like, 'oh my gosh, that's what I want. That's what I've dreamed of.' 

You know, people dream of something like this. You may not be looking across at a river. Maybe it's a mountain landscape, but this is a dream for a lot of people, and I know it was my dream. 

Mike: That's amazing. That might be the best part of this interview, quite frankly. I mean, like we're really happy to be part of that dream delivered for you.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm. 

Online, I looked at houses, I looked at houses and I looked at houses. And a friend of mine did say, 'you know, I found one. It was cute kind of cottage looking'. That looks like it belongs in town. You know, the little towns you go through across mid-America or whatever.

And I'm like, 'oh my God, it does look like that. That's not the style that I want. That's not me. I'm not basic. I need something with a little pizazz and wow'. And this certainly provided. 

Mike: Awesome. Awesome. Um, well that's cool. We'll leave on a high note.

I'm gonna stop the recording right there, and before I do, I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of the whole team here at DEN. We're really, really happy that you chose DEN to help build this home and deliver on this dream. Yeah, thanks for your interest and support in our business.