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The Tracewater Homes Podcast brings you inside the world of modern homebuilding, market trends, and the partnerships shaping the future of residential construction. Known for their innovative steel-frame homes, Tracewater dives into what today’s buyers want, how the industry is evolving, and the experts who help bring every project to life. Whether you’re a homeowner, agent, or builder, this podcast delivers insights, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes conversations from the front lines of construction.
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Tracewater Homes podcast. Today, I'm here with Jeannie, the VP of design at Tracewater Homes, and we are going to be discussing something that's a little bit more fun than maybe some of our previous podcasts. We've done a lot of educational content, a lot of, you know, technical specifications in terms of some of the building products that we use, but today we're going to talk about all the pretty stuff that goes in your home and the stuff that everybody wants to see and talk about: the tiles, the floorings countertops. So, we're really excited to get to share some of that with you today. Jeannie, if you go ahead and introduce yourself. I'm Jeannie. I am, as Brent said, design specialist here at Tracewater Homes.
And I think before we get started, let's shout out our sponsor this morning. All right. Um, sponsored our breakfast: La Finka 3A. They are a cottage bakery and an up-and-coming new addition to our community. I won't let all of that out of the bag just yet, but do follow them on Instagram. And they did provide our breakfast this morning—some great blueberry muffins, protein balls, sourdough bread. Yes, it's, it's got all kinds of goodies today. Amazing. So, thank you to them, and best wishes to them.
So, um, yes, I have been asked to do a design podcast for a while. And so, um, I think I'll open with we're about to enter a new year. Yep. Everybody wants to know what's coming. What should we start looking for? And it's already hitting the stores, the furniture stores, the paint stores, all the places where you find things for your home. And, um, you know, I often also get asked about the whole gray and white situation. And, you know, I'm not, I'm not hating on the gray and white situation myself. And I don't think that that train has completely left the station because they're just neutral colors. And neutrals are always the backdrop to any good design. And so, yes, we are seeing things warm up. Absolutely. We're seeing a lot more cream beiges. You're starting to see a lot softer pink colors, some gold veining in your tile, in your countertop, which I do love. But I think it layers and pairs really nicely. So, anyone that currently has white and gray and you're like, "Great, I have to renovate my whole house," I wouldn't go that far. I would say you can warm that up with just some furnishings and things like that. Absolutely.
So, 2026 trends are a lot more moody colors, deep greens, a lot of olive, some terracotta, dark blues, which I love all of that, too. It layers into a neutral backdrop so nicely. Um, and accent walls—that was a thing, you know, 90s, early 2000s—and so accent walls are coming back. Um, and so I think we're going to start to see a lot more color.
And as far as, um, cabinetry, that's one of the biggest ones. And, you know, sometimes timeless and classic things become trendy. And I think that's where we've been in the last decade or so, the onset of modern farmhouse and things like that. A lot of the white shaker cabinets, white shaker cabinets everywhere. But you know what? Shaker cabinets have been around for centuries and painted cabinets have been around for over a hundred years. And so painting a shaker cabinet is a classic thing that became trendy over the last decade. Yeah. And so, um, you know, you're seeing some movement away into some stained cabinets. Shaker doors are still very popular. I think they're going to continue to be popular. They're timeless, they're simple. They allow you to create other focal points within your kitchens and bathrooms by keeping those cabinets more simple. Um, and I think also it depends on where you are. So, here on our coast, a white painted cabinet always makes sense. Yeah, you don't have to move away from that just because the trend is now leaning a different direction, right?
And we do offer, though, some of those other options. So, if you are building maybe further away from the coast and you do want more of a traditional look, we have brought in some wood grain cabinets and things, is that correct? Yes, absolutely. And we do allow people to have a different colored cabinet on their island. Yeah. And so you're still able to do maybe that white backdrop and bring in that stained cabinet for a more look on your island, which that's been popular for a while, too. But I think that also isn't going anywhere, and I don't think it should. I, I think that is a really nice look. Yeah, absolutely. Um, in a kitchen, and like one of our stained cabinets that we just brought in, we're putting into, we have a sister company, if you don't know, Coastal Affair. It is a custom home company, and I'm putting white shaker perimeter and honey-colored island in a almost $3 million home right now, and it looks beautiful. And I think we'll shoot some footage of that later today, too, and we'll, we'll push that out, even though it is in one of our custom homes, just so everybody can have a look.
Of, um, how that's coming together. So, when it comes to what I chose for selections to offer with Tracewater Homes, I kept it very classic. So, we do have painted shaker cabinets, white. Yes. We've got a beautiful blue that makes so much sense here on our coast. We've got a couple of grays, a cooler gray, and also a darker stained color. And they've got warmth to them. So, again, you know, it isn't that cold, sterile of the past decade feeling. It's, it is still gray, but there's a lot of warmth in it, and you can pair it with some of those other warmer tones. Yeah, I, I really like both of the wood grain tones that, that we offer, the, the honey and the, the darker, you know, kind of ash gray color. They both look really, really nice. I do, too.
And, you know, the other thing is where people get tripped up sometimes is they'll pick this beautiful wood colored floor, and then they struggle to find that cabinet that really coordinates well with it. And now they feel like they have to give something up. "I have to give up this colored floor". Sure. "Or I have to, you know, change my cabinet or whatever". And so again, those really neutral cabinets, even those white shakers, they go perfectly with everything. Yes. That's always, always a benefit. Um, so would you mind telling us a little bit about, um, some of the background of the selections and like why you set them up the way that you did? Why you chose, I mean, we've been told that we have a lot of products, actually, just recently, um, maybe too many, um, different selection options. So, will you just kind of go into that a little bit?
Yeah, for sure. So, Tracewater Homes, it was designed from day one to be just one step below custom home, and one step below not in craftsmanship, not in quality, not in choices, but one step below the overwhelm and the cost of a custom home. And so, a lot of people build one and done and they're like, "I will never build another custom home again." "Almost got divorced," you know, "couldn't sleep for weeks," all the things. And so, um, we really wanted to just take that overwhelm right out of the process and we wanted to bring the fun back into it. And we also wanted to make customizing a home much more affordable because custom homes have gotten out of reach for a lot of people. Yeah, unfortunately, and I just think that's wrong, you know, but economy is where it is, prices are where they are. Land costs what it does. And so we really worked hard to come up with bringing customizable homes into reach for, for other people. And so, um, I just think people deserve choices, and I think they deserve options. And so we set it up in a way to not overwhelm people. I'll just use the tile as an example. Yeah.
So, tile comes with a lot of decisions, believe it or not. "What am I going to put on my bathroom floor? What will I put on my shower wall? What will I put on my shower floor? What color grout do I have to put with all this?" And suddenly, yeah, that one topic becomes extremely overwhelming. So, knowing that about tile selections, I just took that whole problem away from you, and I made tile collections. I, we have many tile collections, from, you know, in many tier levels, price points, and I've paired grouts to go with all of it. And so, when it comes to tile, you are selecting a collection. And there's a lot of collections to choose from. There are. Um, but when it comes to a lot of the other things, you have a lot of choices, and I, I didn't make them for you. And I'm here to help you make those choices, but ultimately, anything that was really overwhelming, I tried to just pull that piece back so that it could, it could stay fun.
Yeah. And we also have, um, something called Builder Trend, and people are able to log into their own portal, and they're able to see all of their choices. I think, um, we'll also shoot that so people can see the inside view of what that looks like. Yeah, that would be fun. That'd be a good idea. So, um, but you log into your own portal, and Tracewater Homes was built on transparency, 100%. So, there's no surprises when it comes to financing, insurance, or selections where you're surprised at the end with any kind of cost that you weren't expecting. So, when you log into your portal, all the pricing is transparent. It adds it up as you favorite items, so you know if you're staying within your desired amount or going over, um, before you're ever committed to anything. Yeah.
And then, you know, everyone buys everything online. I never thought something like Carvana would ever be successful, right? You know, because same with houses, people like, "I need to touch it. I need to feel it. I need to see it. I need to sit in it. I need to drive it". And yet everybody's buying cars out of a vending machine. It blows my mind. What's crazier about that situation is that those are used. So, you know, does it have scratches? Does, you know, all of those things? I know they take close-up photos of it, but it is really bizarre that you're willing to spend that much money on something that's sight unseen. Um, you know, so we are definitely are trending towards a more virtual shopping experience, for sure. Yes. And, you know, I do understand the need to touch, feel, see, and all, all of that, too. And so we do have physical samples people can definitely, um, borrow, take them home, check them out, um, meet with one of us to go over them, but also they have the digital version of it. So, anyone can do it from any place they want, any time of day, and they can see them, they can see their pricing, they can play around with them. Um, and ultimately select them and sign off on them if they're feeling good and confident about it all. Yeah.
Um, but the process is such that when they reach the time of doing their design selections, they will do a lot of that on their own at home. The images are clear. Um, we're adding more and more photos as we are able, as we're, you know, putting some of these products in. We're adding more photos. And once they're feeling very confident in most of the things that they've selected, I'll get together with them either, you know, virtually. A lot of our home buyers don't live here. Um, and we'll just run through it all, and I'll answer questions, and if I see something that I think, you know, I'm not sure you're going to like that, may I suggest something else? But, um, you know, it's, it's just very easy and efficient. Yeah. And, um, I want our consumer to have the confidence to know that I spent a lot of time curating things that look well together. And so most things will pair nicely together. Yeah.
As you know, much to your chagrin, you wanted to kill me. I, it was a process, and you know, I would say, "Wait, not this, that," and then you would get that all set up in the system, and then, you know, I would reneg on you one more time. Yeah. But I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted it to be just right because I believe that that's the experience that our consumers deserve, and it's what I would want. I'm, I'm so adamant that the process should be extraordinary because when I'm doing something so important as building a new home, I want my experience to be extraordinary as well. Yeah, absolutely.
And we had talked so much about how we thought, you mentioned it earlier, that, you know, people deserve choice. And even at a high price point, there are a lot of builders that are saying, "Pick package A or pick package B". And in those packages, everything is pre-selected for you. The vanity faucets, the light fixtures, the tile, the flooring, you know, countertops, all of it. And you're just picking a package for your home. So, it's not you, you know, you didn't get any personality, you know, involved in that. You didn't get to pick anything that reflected the way that you live or your style. And so we really did try to set it up to where it was organized, but you still had plenty of options to choose from. Yeah. I mean, who wants to go to the Super Bowl party at your neighbor's house that looks exactly like yours? I mean, it's just not fun. It's not fair. I, I just really feel like it isn't fair to force people into things that they maybe, you know, wouldn't choose for themselves and to have to live with something. Yeah. You know, and so I just, I just that's not something that I wanted to do to people. Yeah. And, um, I also wanted to be able to meet people where they're at in terms of price point. And so, you know, if you really want to upgrade that countertop and backsplash, then you have the ability to do that. Yeah. And that's where you want to spend the bulk of your design dollars, then that's where you get to do that.
Well, that's the other nice thing about it, right, is that you spend money where it matters to you. Um, because even the included selections are all beautiful. And so if you want to save some money on the flooring and stick with the included flooring colors that we offer, you can do that. And then, like you said, spend your money on the countertops because that's really important to you. Um, and so it, it lets you choose what you're going to upgrade, you know, and what you're going to spend that extra money on. Um, which I think is huge because you get to design kind of your, your own home, obviously within the parameters that, that we've set up, but it is just one step below custom. It, it is. And I just want to touch on something that you just said, and that is that even our included features are really nice. They are.
So, I'm going to bounce over to our custom side again, um, very unintentionally. But, um, you know, we just built two of the custom homes that we built in the last year, um, chose from our Tracewater Home selections. Yeah. And, um, one of those homes was multi-million. Yeah. A few blocks off the beach. Yeah, I think they can see the water from their house, actually. Yes. Yes, we can see the water from their house. And, um, not only did they choose from Tracewater selections, they chose a lot of included options. And in the price of their custom home, they could choose of anything. Yeah. And they really liked a lot of the included features. So I was like, "Wow, well that's cool". And probably an anomaly. And then later in the year, we went into design on another custom home, and they chose from the Tracewater selections, and it happened again. The, I think it was the exact same flooring, actually. It was the exact same flooring. Um, and there were some other different choices, but they all came out of the included features. So, when the world was their oyster, they chose Tracewater Homes included features. Yep. That actually does speak a lot to the work that you put into finding products that were affordable yet beautiful.
Yeah. And again, you know, I, I do that for our homeowners because I just think that that's what's right. It is. And that's what's fair. And that's where you and I had to come together, and that's where kind of some of that back and forth came from. "Hey, can we put this in?" "No, that's too expensive. It's going to make our cost, you know, unaffordable." "Okay, let me go back and find something else". And so you and I had to kind of work together to find that sweet spot, the, you know, where price meets beauty, and that's your value point, you know? And, and that's really what we try to do. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, when we talk about lighting. Yeah. Um, and really any, any of the finishes, like plumbing, cabinet hardware, interior door hardware, we offer, um, a couple of style choices in all the finishes. We do at the included level, um, and then at the upgraded level as well. But you don't have to get stuck with a color or a style that you don't like just because that's the only one that's included. Um, which we also thought was really important. You shouldn't have to spend money on upgrades just to get something that you like, you know? Absolutely. So, we did work really hard to make sure that there were options at every price level.
Yep. And, you know, speaking of trends, gold is definitely back, and it's a forerunner for a lot of people. It's not the brassy gold that we had in the 90s. No, it's called champagne bronze in most of the product lines. So, it is, you know, a lot more muted, kind of a matte gold color. Yes. Um, there's a few names depending on the manufacturer of it, but it's, it's a lot softer. Yeah. Um, and, and much more muted. And the question I get a lot is, "Well, I really like that, but my husband doesn't want it around the whole house". And fine and fair. So, um, I think it's perfectly fine. And any design convention or international builder show or anything that you ever go to, mixing your metals is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Yeah. I think the one that we probably see the most is that gold with matte black. So you'll do like gold cabinet hardware, matte black plumbing fixtures, or, you know, uh, the gold plumbing fixtures with matte black lighting and door hardware, things like that. Yes. Yeah. They, they pair, you know, so nicely together.
Again, if people want to be just very classic and timeless, you really can't go wrong with just a brushed nickel. Yeah. Chrome kind of comes in and out. Um, it's an offering, um, that, you know, some people just really like that. And other people are ready to move into some other things. And oil rub bronze, that was also a thing of the early 2000s, and it's back as well. And we do offer some oil rub bronze. Um, right now we don't have anything chrome, but that's not to say that won't change, you know, as trends change and things like that. Um, I think on bringing back kind of the custom side with Coastal Affair, um, I think what I've seen is that chrome is either very high-end in the custom world or it's very entry-level, what people would call builder grade, you know. Um, and so that's what makes chrome kind of difficult, is it's either really expensive and luxury or it's the cheapest, most bottom of the barrel. It is. And I avoided it intentionally for a reason other than that. Oh. And that is, um, it's very water spotted when it comes to faucets. And it's very hard to clean, and it's hard to keep looking nice. Fingerprints, streaks, the rag, you know, even as you clean it, it still has lines, and it is very difficult to keep clean. That is for sure. All the water spots. And so, you know, I just, I, I forewent that in, in our current selections for that reason.
Yeah. Um, well, cool. Well, we've talked about a lot of the, the selections, the, the finished products. Um, but what we haven't discussed yet is all of the options because that's another piece of what we offer that's unique to Tracewater Homes compared to a lot of, you know, semi-custom type builders. Um, is all of the different choices that people get in terms of structural options. Um, you know, trim, accent walls, things like that. Um, do you want to touch on that for just a minute? We can get into that side of things. Yeah, that's, that's a great segue kind of away from color and, um, cho, color choices into our options. Structural options and also just design options. So, um, same thing, you know, we really wanted to offer a lot of choices. People can choose none, or they can choose every single one. Going back to spending your money where it matters for you, you know, um, you should be allowed to choose the things that if it's in your budget and you want it, you can have it. But if you don't want to spend the money on it, you don't have to. And you can still get a beautiful home, you know, that just has all of the included features. Yes.
Um, some of the, some of the ones that I'm proud of and just want to say from more of a decor standpoint, and I'll let you work on some of the structural options. But, um, we have, you did mention, um, the trim accent walls. We've got, you know, from board and batten to your classic, um, trims to, um, shiplap and, uh, the crown mold and trim around the windows. And when it comes to beams in the ceiling, they can be painted. They can be stained to coordinate with your floor. They don't have to be there at all, you know, and your house is equally as beautiful. But just people want to put their interest in different areas of their homes. Um, when we, at one point in time, we tried to figure out in, I think, our largest floor plan. Yeah. If people opted for all the options. Yeah. We came up with a price, and we tried to come up with how many options we actually offer. Yeah. In order to be, you know, really customizable. Do you remember what that was?
Yeah. So, I took the largest floor plan and then went through Builder Trend and selected every upgrade option at the most expensive level. So, I did the most expensive countertops. I added, I'm going to give a little bit of a teaser on some of the structural options, but I added things like the third car garage option. Um, I added the pool to the backyard. You know, I did the most expensive backsplash tiles, all of the most expensive things that I, I could, um, select from. And we came out, um, I think it was right in the mid $900,000 range. And so that was a 3,400 square foot house, six bedrooms, four bathrooms, pool, third garage stall, you know. I mean, it was the Mac Daddy, and we still came in right under a million. Now, that's without land. That's just the, the home itself. Um, and without some of the, you know, utility tap fees and land clearing and some of those other site costs. Um, but I mean, that's pretty impressive. And like we've discussed before, the trades that we use, you know, are the same trades that we're using on the custom side. So that's going to be a very, very beautiful, luxurious home. Um, when it's finished with those beams in terms of quality, craftsmanship, the style, the selections. Um, and so I mean, we really can service anyone from our base price point of that $299, um, for the smallest plan all the way up to, you know, right at a million. Um, so we've, we really have run the gamut on, you know, affordability, but also customization and options.
And I mean, really and truly, for a home of that size, the quality that I know that it is. Yeah. The craftsmanship, the options, I would stand that home up against any other home, even on 3A. Yeah. Of the Emerald Coast. Absolutely. So, um, I mean, it's something to be proud of, and and we are, and we're really not afraid to say it. So, that's awesome. And to answer your other question about the uh, the number of, it wasn't the number of selections, it was the number of unique homes that we could build. So, I took all of the plans, all of the options, um, that we offer in each of those plans. And then obviously, I'm not good enough at math to do this. So, I used the help of, uh, of the internet. But I put everything in and and ran the calculation on that. And the number was just something absurd. It was one to the E to the 10th power or something. So, I mean, it's a number that basically infinity. Yeah. Probably doesn't even have a name, you know. Um, and so the number of unique homes that we could build with all of our options is essentially infinite. Um, we, we will never build that many homes in our lifetime. So, I mean, that's incredible. Yeah. And that actually makes me so proud.
Well, you mentioned it earlier about going to the Super Bowl party and walking in the door and going, "Hmm, this looks just like my house," you know? And you see communities like that all over the country. Where, you know, every house, I mean, we drove through one yesterday where there was a whole street, and they didn't even bother to change the front elevation. Every single one side by side was identical, just copied and pasted. People deserve more. They do. They do. And at the end of that Super Bowl party, if you had a lot to drink, you wouldn't even know if you went in the wrong house 'cause it looks just like yours. You end up sleeping in your buddy's bedroom. You just stumble your way back there and pass out. I mean, it's just not right. It's just not right.
Well, so you teased us on some of those structural options. So, how about we launch into some of them? Yeah. So, these options vary by plan. Some of them are consistent throughout the plan. Some of them are unique to an individual plan. Um, but like the third garage stall, for example, that's available on every plan, um, that is in the, the Creek series of homes. Um, as long as your lot can accommodate that, you, you know? So, as long as we're, we're not encroaching on setbacks and things like that. Um, we've got that third garage option. Um, and since we're talking about the garage, we've got a lot of options in the garage. I was just going to bring that up. So, I mean, we have epoxy garage floor options. Um, you can insulate the garage if you'd like to keep it a little more, you know, tempered in there in terms of, um, you know, somebody that works on cars or things and wants the garage to be a little bit more comfortable. Um, we have hot and cold hose bib options for the garage. So, washing cars, we'll put in a hot and a cold hose hookup right there. Um, you know, you can spray down the garage floor, wash your vehicles, wash your pets, wash your kids if they got dirty outside, you know? Whatever. Um, and I'm probably missing a couple of of those options.
How about if you have an electric car? We do offer that one. Yep. Thank you. Um, we've got a pre-wire, so it's a rough in for an electric car because of the variety of electric car chargers out there now. Um, we're not going to install the charger itself, but we'll run the 220 power into a box, wire nutted off the blank cover. And after, you know, move in, a client can choose to hire an electrician, or there might be specialty guys. I don't have an electric car. I don't really know how that all works. But you might just contact Tesla and they come out and put one in for you. But we'll have the power source there for you. Um, a... You don't... Oh, go ahead. Oh, I was going to say a whole home generator rough-in package. So smart. Um, again, we're not going to install the, the product, but we'll put in the transfer switch and the wiring. So that, you know, I think like Home Depot and Lowe's, some of those guys, you know? They sell generator packages. Um, they can just come, come right out, hook up to that transfer switch, and and you're good to go. So now hurricanes are really not a threat. You've got steel framing, you've got impact windows. Your roof's going to be great, and you're not going to lose your power.
Well, it's actually really nice. So, my in-laws who, who, you know, live in Texas, and they have a whole home generator. And their part of Texas sees a lot of tornado activity. And we were there after one of the tornadoes. Everyone else was without power. Theirs about 3 or 4 seconds after the power shut off, kicked on, and now they had air conditioning, light, TV. We were sitting in the recliner watching a football game, drinking beer like nothing had ever happened while the power company was working on fixing everything. So neighbors came over to cool down. You know, everyone wants to be at that house when the disaster strikes, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, if you don't want the neighbors over, you better shut off the lights real quick so they don't know you're up. Just keep the AC running in a dark house. Yes. Oh, no. We're, we're all about helping our neighbors. So, if you don't do any upgrades to your garage, it's just bare studs, right?
No. No. Um, we, we have a bare minimum standard at Tracewater. And so, even in the garage, the garage is finished. Um, it is finished in drywall. It is taped, mudded, and then painted. So, you're in two years, you're not going to have the tape peeling off the garage ceiling like you see so often. Um, it's got base trim, trim around the garage door. It's all painted to match the interior of the home. Um, so it is a finished garage. The concrete will be bare if you don't choose the epoxy, but it looks nice. It's a finished space for sure. It's absolutely ready to be a man cave, a party room, a kid hangout. For sure. Yep. Added square footage of the house if you really wanted it to be. And you added some of the upgrades like the insulation. Yeah, and I think we actually, I'm 99% sure on this. So, um, I'll go ahead and say, and I think we actually even offer a heated and cooled garage option. We have a mini split option that we can put out there. Well, if we don't, we do now. Yeah, there we go. Hey, you know what? We put it out there. We'll add it to the list. But, um, it wouldn't be a hard thing to add. But I'm pretty sure that we already have that in there. Um, but I mean, how nice. You can, like I said, working on your cars. You talked about a man cave, a wood shop. And, you know, it's cold outside and it's, it's heated in there then, or it's, it's hot and you've got some AC going.
A little funny sidebar. So that, that's how we like to have our garages. So that's why we provide that for our customers. But back when you were in high school, and we had a garage finished off like that, you and your buddy literally put a love seat out there and you lived in the garage pretty much. We had a love seat, the TV, PlayStation, there was a fridge out there. So, I mean, we were set up. Yeah, it was, it was pretty nice. So, if you don't want to up for the second story, uh, you can always put the teenagers out in the garage. Yeah. Hey, we didn't mind. We were having a good time. It was our own little hangout space. Yes. Um, but you mentioned, you know, that we offer those options because those are things that we would want to see in our own garage. That was most of the design of all of our plans, all of our options, everything is we said, "If we were living here, what would we want?" Yeah. If it's not good enough for us, it's not good enough for our clients, you know? And so, you know, some of the things that we have in our personal homes might be upgrades with Tracewater, but we offer them, you know. Um, we, we shouldn't, uh, shouldn't be building anything that we wouldn't move into.
So, um, back to structural options. Um, we've got the rear porch options that are really cool. So, included in every home is a 12 foot deep, um, by, or 6 foot deep, I'm sorry, by 12 foot wide concrete patio. Um, and then we have the option to extend that to a 12 by 6 concrete patio, a 12 by 6 covered rear patio, or a 12 by 6 covered and screened in patio. Um, so that's a pretty nice option, especially, um, for those that have like larger acreage properties, you know, up north of the bay, things like that in the woods. You can put this really nice entertaining space off the back, screen it in so you keep the bugs out living in the woods. You know, we've got plenty of those here in North Florida. Um, and just have this extension of your home. Um, I mean, Florida is all about outdoor living space. We're sitting in yours right now. So this is our outdoor living space. And yeah, I mean, we live outside more than we live inside a lot of us. Yeah. And so all those outdoor living features are really important to us, especially the transplants, which, you know, we're seeing more and more of in this area because we appreciate what we have. Some of the people that I know that, you know, grew up here, they complain about the heat and things like that. But they've never lived in 40 below zero, so they don't know. Um, so we can't really blame them for that. But yes, most of the people that we're seeing are coming from out of state and they're coming here for the outdoors, the nicer weather, the ability to, you know, be in nature, get out of the big cities, things like that. And so, yeah, being able to enjoy that outdoor space right at your own home is is really nice.
Yeah. So, besides covered screen patios, what else do we have for outdoor living? So, on that rear patio, we've got an outdoor kitchen option. Um, that's really cool. Um, we've got a few different colors of outdoor cabinets, and those cabinets are made from HDPE, which is a plastic. Um, so Florida weather, as much as we love it, is... they don't look like plastic. They do not. They look really, really nice. They actually are in a shaker style. Um, so, you know, kind of ties that in from, from the inside to the outside. Um, but they have really natural wood grain looking colors and things like that. Um, fit that outdoor living look. Um, but the one thing that the Florida weather does do is beat up on things. And so HDPE is designed to hold up to the elements. Um, so you don't have to worry about, even though it's under a covered patio, you don't have to worry about that salt air, things, you know, rusting or discoloring stuff like that. And why do we care about that? Because we care about our customer longevity. Yep. And I mean, we've talked about that in previous podcasts, you know, resale value and, um, you know, lower cost of maintenance and all of those kinds of things. And less headaches. It looks beautiful five years from now. Exactly. This product ties right into all of that. Yes.
Um, and so those cabinets then are paired with, um, some granite countertops. Um, again, knowing our craft and knowing our market, those are all granite tops. Um, we, we do not want to put quartz outside, um, and let that get sunbaked. It'll discolor. Um, it yellows, things like that. So, um, the only option for the outdoor kitchen is granite tops, but that's because it's a natural stone that's going to last outside. That's a benefit to our homeowner. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so then that outdoor kitchen, uh, comes with a, an under counter mini refrigerator for, you know, beverage fridge, sodas, beers, wine, whatever you want for that outdoor entertaining space. Um, a built-in grill. Um, and that grill will come if you get the outdoor kitchen just standard as it comes. Um, there's a space under the grill for a propane tank. Um, or if gas is available in your area and, uh, you want to pay to have that hooked up, we'll just directly plum that grill right to a gas line. So, no more swapping propane tanks. Just lift the lid, hit the igniter, and you're good to go. Um, so, a really, really nice addition to that outdoor space.
So, what if I might want to do that, but I don't want all that right now? Yeah. Um, so, for that situation, we've got an outdoor kitchen rough-in package. Um, so we will run the plumbing for the sink, the water line, and the drain line. Um, if the gas option was selected, we'll run that gas line. Um, and then all of that stuff will just get capped off. So, you will have, you know, a small stub sticking out of the back of the house of a water line with a cap on it. Um, but it's a really good way to add on to your home later incrementally. You know, if, if you want to add something down the road, but you don't want to spend the money on it now. The rough-in package is significantly less expensive, obviously, than the, the entire kitchen package. Um, and so you put that in now as opposed to trying to retrofit those things later. Once the house is finished, it's almost impossible to get an additional water line or especially a sewer drain line running the slab. Exactly. So, we put it in now, which saves you time and headache and cost down the road. And it gave you a choice. That gave you a choice of, yep. I don't need any of that. Yep. I want to step into it later. Yep. I want it all right now.
Exactly. And so we offer the same thing with the pool options that we have. So we have a pool rough-in package where again, we'll run, um, if it's available and a client chooses a gas line for a pool heater. Um, you know, we'll run the electricity, the water line for the pool's auto fill, the data line for the smart pool controllers and stuff like that. You, everything needs data nowadays. Um, and so we'll run that to that location. Um, and again, that way if you want to put in a pool down the road, you're not tearing up your yard trying to run a new gas line, you know, busting up concrete, drilling holes in the wall trying to get a water line for an auto fill. Um, it just makes it so much easier downfield. And again, you have the choice. No pool, pool rough-in package. Then we go to a pool, um, 10 by 20, and then the, the Taj Mahal, if you will, is the pool with the spa. Um, so 6x8 spa package, um, you know, in addition to that pool. So, I think there's some fountain jets. There are. Yeah. Once you select the pool, we've got a deck jet package that you can put on there, which is a series of jets that are mounted into the pool coping that'll shoot up and spray into the pool. Which is a really nice, you know, kind of background noise. Yeah. A little ambiance, you know, fun for the kids. They'll put their foot on it and stop it from going and whatever. Um, and then we've got a sun ledge option, um, which is a 4 foot by 10 foot. The pool is 10 feet wide, so it goes the full width of the pool and then four feet into the pool of a shallow kind of splash pad, sun ledge type situation, where little kids can play. You can set a lounge chair and lay out and suntan. Um, just kind of be in the water without being in the water, you know. Um, so those are a couple of cool upgrade options that we have on the pool.
You've heard us say kids multiple times throughout this podcast, and just another one of Tracewater core values. Family. Yeah. Kids are important. We designed these homes with children in mind, growing families. Yep. Um, multi-generational use in some of our floor plans. So, you know, family is and always has been at the heart of literally every decision we make. Yeah. As, as a family ourselves, we get together at least once a week, multiple times a week. Yeah. Look for opportunities to hang out. And so we designed our homes and our outdoor spaces to accommodate that. Well, and that's what you're building a home for, is family, right? Um, it's more than, or it should be more. It's, it's not with, with some builders, it's just a, a house, a structure. But it should be a home, you know? It's more than a house. That's where your memories are made. Christmases, Thanksgivings, the family gathers, you know? And so we thought about all of those things as we designed the homes. You know, extra space for guests to stay. As your kids grow, if you have the second story option, they kind of have their own little house up there, you know. Um, they've, they can have their own little living room space, their own bedrooms and bathrooms, you know. So, um, where to plug in the Christmas tree? Yes, I thought about that on every single floor plan. Yep. Um, I mean, little things like the USB outlet package that we offer that makes it really easy to charge phones. You know, people can upgrade and add those USB outlets. And when you add them, we add them to every bed wall in the bedrooms. Um, and then one in the kitchen as well. So, if you've got an iPad or something that charges in the kitchen. But, you know, just little things that are about the way families live, you know, that, that simplify your life.
Um, so one of the cool things that we offer, um, that I guess on the, the topic of kids and family, um, that I think is pretty unique to us. I mean, there's probably somebody else out there doing something similar. But is the personal touch selection. I was going to bring that up. Um, so we let as our clients are going through Builder Trend, making their selections, the very last selection that they make is their personal touch on their home. And we have a couple different options in there. One, the family can come on slab pour day when we're pouring the concrete. And in the back patio, we'll let everyone put their handprint in the concrete. Um, and we can take a stick or something to write the year in there. And, um, so that one's pretty fun. Um, we also allow right before drywall goes in, um, we'll let the family come with Sharpies. And the entire house is their canvas. So, and we've done that with some of our custom home building clients before. Where people will write, you know, scripture verses. They'll write messages to somebody that might remodel someday. You know, "The Hannish family was here in 2025," whatever it might be. Um, kids will draw pictures on the concrete floors and on the walls because it's all getting covered up. So, just let them go crazy and and leave their mark on their home and really make it their own. Yeah.
When y'all were little, you know, and we would build a home, which we did a lot. Yes. And, you know, colored chalk, crayons, markers, all the things. "Go pick out your room, color your rug," you know, "write messages to your future self," and, you know, just decorate your room. And then, you know, obviously it gets covered, but it's just a really fun family day. Yeah. My sisters probably drew like the rug in the bedroom. I was probably over there with a tape measure like, "Okay, my bed is this big". You can draw in Sharpie lines, you know. But probably and wondered where you're going to hang your hockey stick. Right? Um, but yeah, so that's a really cool thing that we offer that I think, um, is, like I said, pretty unique to us. Um, just to get, get the clients involved in the build process because it's such a big part of your life. For some people, you know, like you said, we built a lot of them. We moved around a lot. Some people, this might be the only home they ever build. Yes. So, it's, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. And the process and experience needs to be extraordinary. It needs to be fun. It needs to be exciting.
Another, uh, side story, I guess, on the leaving notes for people that, uh, might remodel someday. And speaking of us moving around a lot, just a few years ago, you actually had somebody reach back out to you from like 1994, right? Or five, maybe. Yes. So, it was our first actual home that we owned. And we had renovated that thing. It was built in the 1800s. Um, old farmhouse. We renovated it to the point where the insurance company insured it as a brand new home. Wow. And but I put a time capsule, which we like to do in a lot of our projects. That would be a good one we could add to Personal Touch Day. Yeah, absolutely. If somebody wants to do that, I'm all for it. New ideas are being born right here on this podcast. Um, but we put a time capsule in. And that house was in Brookings, South Dakota, which is where Matt and I went to college. And, um, yeah, it was about maybe two years ago, the people that bought the house from us still own it. And they found the time capsule in the wall. And she went to the internet, and she tracked me down. And she sent me a Facebook Messenger message and gave me the whole lowdown of the children that were raised in the home and all the memories and all the years and all the things. And she sent me a picture of what was in the time capsule. You were probably... I was young, like baby still. I think you were our only child and you were probably under two. Okay. Yeah. And in this thing, I wrote in there, um, it's 1995. And it is the, it is the year the internet has been created. That is what this letter says. Yes. I, you know what? I'm going to see if I can't find that and we're going to bring that back to life. That's wild. Yes. I am not even kidding you. I can hear the AOL dial-up right now inside my head. And now here we are talking about people picking out their homes online. Yes. Oh my gosh. Buying a car and having it show up in your driveway from the internet. Crazy. So, makes me feel old. But also I, you know, like I've lived in such an interesting time to have gone from no internet whatsoever to where we are right now in 2020, almost 2026. Yeah. So, that's pretty crazy. We will have to find that and maybe we can post on socials or something a photo of that time capsule because that is pretty cool. Yes, absolutely. Yes.
Getting it back on track. Now we're over here talking about the internet. Sorry. Um, some of the other options that we offer in terms of changing the structure of the home. Um, we've got a few different plans that allow an optional door from the primary suite closet into the laundry room. Everybody loves that, which is super popular nowadays. Um, so that's a pretty fun one. It's not on every plan, but it's on most of them, um, on the, on that Creek series. Um, I think three out of the five, um, have that option. Um, the largest plan, the Cypress Creek, has this really nice alternate primary suite layout where now you get a, a really nice freestanding tub in addition to the stand-up shower. Um, it just kind of reconfigures the, the bathroom space a little bit. You get a little bit more room in there. Um, so that's a really cool structural option that we offer. Um, the second story options, I mean, that, that's a huge one. Um, four out of the five plans come with an optional second story. And that can be configured in three different ways. One, just an open storage space. Um, you just leave it. It's, it'll be finished, um, with, you know, flooring and drywall and everything like that. But it's just an empty open space. Um, for people from the north, think of it like a, a basement. Um, but it's, it's finished with our, our building products. Um, but use it for storage, use it for a kids' playroom, you know, whatever you want to do. Um, the other really cool thing that we did consider when designing these second stories is that that open storage space also is a really great option for future expansion. So, if you're not ready to spend all of the money just yet, but you want to throw a couple bedrooms up there later, we designed it with the windows in the right places so that you still meet code, you have egress. It's not a Harry Potter bedroom under the stairs, you know, like this. If you put walls in there, this would be a legitimate bedroom space. And cheap square footage. Yeah. Yeah, really. I mean, if you add the second story and don't finish it right now, that's totally fine. You can finish it later. But, you know, you're never going to add a second story to your house. Tear the roof off and, yeah. So, it gives options. Options. Yep. Cheap square footage, whether it's finished or unfinished.
And then the other two options involve bedrooms and bathrooms. Now, there's one with a suite on the second story, an on suite bathroom. Um, that bedroom's a little bit larger. Um, and then you have a loft space. And then that one includes a half bathroom. So that way you don't have people in the loft having to go into that bedroom to use the bathroom. Um, and then the other option is two bedrooms, one bath, and those two bedrooms share that bathroom. There's also loft space there. Um, so really just whatever fits your family's needs and your lifestyle. Um, we, we have an option to accommodate that. You know, if you have aging parents that are living in the home with your family, they can take the first floor primary suite where they don't have to use the stairs. And maybe mom and dad take the upstairs while the grandparents are downstairs, you know, or whatever, um, you know, you, you want to do. But we just have so many different options that people get to choose from. Very intentional. Yes. Very intentional with our floor plans. It wasn't just, "Architect, draw something for us". No, there was a lot of intention. Through the entire lifespan. Yes. From bringing home new babies to bringing your parents back in to live with you. Yeah. We thought of all the options. Absolutely. And where to get rid of those teenagers during those years. Yeah. Send them upstairs.
So, I mean, I think, you know, we've kind of gotten our point across that it's really unlimited possibilities. Yeah. Between uh design options and structural options and things that we do differently than maybe what other, what people have experienced with other builders in the past. Or if they've never built a home, they won't say, "Gosh, I never want to do that again". Well, and, and I know people that are, are that way. I actually was just hanging out with some friends that completed a new home build, um, maybe last year, the year before, and they said, "We'll buy existing from now on. It was just too difficult". And they'd rather put up with something that someone built for themselves. Yes. Than build something for, because they had such a bad experience. And that's so unfortunate. Yeah. Um, and so that's really what we're trying to avoid. Um, is, you know, simplifying the process. Um, and we talked a lot, actually, about the custom side of, of building that we've been involved in. And, um, you know, you probably know better than anybody what that process looks like and how difficult the selections process in a fully custom home really is. People don't realize how many decisions they have to make when they're going full custom. Well, and I mean, I'll divulge. We've moved, I, I'm not sure exactly the number, but over 20 times in our marriage and raising our children. And I've definitely learned what to do and what not to do. And I cut out all the what not to do and I put in only the what to do in Tracewater Homes builds. Because, you know, I mean, even doing it for ourselves, I've hated it, you know? I mean, almost to the brink of insanity. Yeah. And, you know, I just, I don't ever want someone to have that be their experience.
Well, there's just so many options. If you're going to do a fully custom home, you can pick anything from anywhere in the world as long as you can pay for it, right? And so the amount of different tiles that exist out there and the number of different countertops, it's, you went through the entire world and condensed it for Tracewater Homes into a lot of options, but it's structured, you know? And it's in packages and things like that that you put together. So you did all of that overwhelming hard work already. And now people just have to pick from beautiful list of selections that we offer, you know? I mean, so you, you really did. I mean, you took away a lot of the headache and the stress that goes into all of that. Um, the meetings at the tile store and the countertop store and the cabinet store and all of those things. I mean, you know, one of the probably the best things I did, people get intimidated with their exterior colors. And I've got exterior color palettes ready to roll and so many different choices. Yeah. And they fit so many different unique styles. If you love the, you know, just white on white everything that, I mean, we do see quite a bit of around here. We've got that. We've got, you know, more earthy tones. There's one that I can think of that I really like that is like a dark green with like kind of a bronzy colored front door. And it's beautiful, especially like for a home in the woods. I mean, it would look just gorgeous. Or on the modern elevation. Yes. Yep. Um, so yeah, it really runs the gamut on, you know, color choices, too, for the exterior. Yeah. Yeah.
We've got a digital catalog we can send out to anybody that our, our sales team is asking us to figure out a way to condense it because it's like 200 and some pages on a PDF. But, um, so yeah, we've got, um, a design catalog that we can send out to anybody that is interested in seeing more of our options. On the website. It's on the website. Once you go under contract, you'll get your own homeowner portal. That's where you get to see all the things and the pricing and everything like that as well. Although the catalog does say included versus upgraded. So, as you're, you know, browsing the catalog, you can see, "Okay, this one is going to cost me more." "I don't know how much yet, but I know I'm going to have to pay extra for it." Um, the reason that the pricing isn't in the catalog is because it's unique to every plan. And so it depends on, you know, if you pick a smaller plan versus a larger plan. The amount of square footage of tile is going to be different. So I can't say this tile is a $500 upgrade. Well, it depends on which house it's going in, you know. So, yeah. And so again, it's not about lack of transparency because the transparency initially is which tier it falls into. But the, the true transparency is once you come under contract or you start working with our sales team at least, that's where you get to know the actual dollars and cents based on the size of home that you're considering. Exactly. Yeah.
So, um, so yeah, I mean, we've got, we've covered our color options, a lot of our structural options because it's infinite, we couldn't sit here and talk about it all day. But, you know, I'm thinking about maybe five different things in my mind that we could tease and early leak out to our audience. Okay. Um, but we'll pick one. Okay. So, I have no idea what you're thinking. You're gonna have to pick one. Wait, we have telepathy a lot and you don't know what I'm thinking. Oh, but I don't know which ones you guys are going to be mad if I, if I just like allude to. Oh, you can allude to whatever. I mean, we've got new plans coming out. We do. Um, we've actually got, uh, a few new plans coming out um that will be part of an entirely new series of plans. And that'll be its own podcast. Yeah. Right. We'll have to introduce that. Um, but currently our plans are all named Something Creek. And so that's our Creek series. This set of plans will be the Lago series. Um, Lago meaning lake in Spanish. Um, and a couple other languages, I think. But, um, those plans are the same quality, same design, same selections for the most part, um, as the Creek series, the, the regular trace homes, if you will. Um, they're just simplified. So they don't have as many structural options. Um, you know, most of them are only second story. They're not single story with an option for a second story. Just comes as a second story. Um, they don't have... Well, don't give it all away. It's going to be its own podcast. Yeah, they don't have nearly as many structural options. Um, it's, it's a simplified version at a lower price point, basically. So, yeah. So, we're meeting a new price point. We've got some new plans. Yep. We're working on a new elevation for the Creek series. Yes. Um, I'm really excited about that. It's pretty cool. Um, don't want to give too much away, but let's just say that it'll have some stone elements. When do you think we might have be able to sneak peek some of that? Um, I don't know if we'll be ready by the next podcast, but maybe the one after that. Okay. So, in the next 60 days, next few months. Yeah. Um, but that one will, I'm, I'm excited about. I think a lot of clients, particularly from northern states, northern climates, are going to enjoy that elevation option. Yeah. Yeah. Don't give too much away there. Um, I'm definitely not giving too much away here, but we have honed in on some new locations. We have. Where, um, we're going to probably be starting to actually put up some interesting product. And I'll just leave that there.
So, we're always working on new things, and we're always innovating here at Tracewater Homes. Uh, I hope that we were able to give you, um, a lot of insight into our mindset, where we're coming from, design choices, structural options, and some new things to get really excited about. Absolutely. Yeah, I think there's a lot to be excited about. So, should we, uh, maybe call it a day and take a look at some of the actual selection products? We can go over and pull out some of the samples and things like that. I think that would be awesome. Awesome. All right. Well, thank you everybody for tuning in. Until next time, I'm Brent. This is Jeannie with Tracewater Homes. Don't forget to check us out at tracewaterhomesfl.com. And as we mentioned earlier, you can check out our entire design catalog under the featured building products tab. Thank you guys so much.