Your construction budget may be smaller than it once was, but that doesn’t mean your house can’t be big on style.  In today’s market, the new homes that are selling on margin (not at fire-sale prices) are those that offer something unique--be it an unusual front entry, a clever built-in storage solution, a one-of-a-kind accent piece, or a feature that makes a small space infinitely more functional. Putting that extra something into a house doesn’t have to cost a fortune. And even if it costs a little more than vanilla, it can often yield a significant return on investment. BUILDER went out bargain-hunting and found these examples.

Break the Mold
Dixon Kirby Homes and designer David Kenoyer threw caution to the wind and began experimenting with transitional architectural styles. A competitor in the area referred to this modern farmhouse as a “chicken coop” but later ate his words. Seven potential buyers toured the spec house the first day it opened, and Dixon Kirby Homes sold it within two weeks. Kirby says the standing seam metal roof cost about $20,000 more than standard asphalt shingles, but was an investment that quickly paid for itself.

“If there are any spec builders left in the U.S., here’s something else that worked for us,” Kirby also advises.  “Instead of listing the house on MLS at the foundation stage, we waited until it was totally punched and the pictures were good. That way it hadn’t been listed on the market for 180 days by the time we were ready to show it.”

Photo: Courtesy Dixon Kirby Homes

Save Stuff
Doug Selby, founder of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Meadowlark Builders, has trouble throwing things away.

That’s proved a good thing. The stair treads in this gut rehab are made from pieces of knotty white pine he salvaged from a teardown project ten years ago. The remodel also involved the deconstruction of an old addition, which Selby saw as a treasure trove of raw materials. He and his crew reused 100% of the wood salvaged from that take-down, reincorporating it as framing lumber, trim, cabinet tops, and other non-floor surfaces in the remodeled house, which was originally built in 1837. Window sills from the old addition were even repurposed as rustic dining room table legs. “I usually figure the cost of used wood is just slightly less than new wood because it requires a lot of extra handling time,” Selby says. “But it's a beautiful resource that can be a great story.”

Another great story? This was the first whole house remodel in Michigan to earn LEED platinum certification.

Photo: Courtesy Meadowlark Builders

Do the No-Brainers
Got a little dead space in your plan? Bring it to life and put it to good use, as The St. Joe Company and the architects at Looney Ricks Kiss did with this under-the-stair storage nook in a concept home whose architecture is best described as “Victorian folk.” 

Little things can generate a significant payback when they’re done well, explains principal Carson Looney. He quantifies the cost benefit this way: “The floor space or square footage are free, the trim carpenter and painter are already there, and the extra lumber is lying around. If you had to buy this feature as a stand alone, it might cost between $250 and $500. But then the lady falls in love with the extra care and special touches you’ve put into the house, and you sell it three to four months sooner than you would have. You just saved more than $7,000!”

Photo: Courtesy Looney Ricks Kiss Architects

Use It or Lose It
Continuing the theme…here’s yet another clever way to get more mileage out of unused space, courtesy of architect Darrell Russell, also a principal with Looney Ricks Kiss Architects. During this overhaul of a Florida beach house, which Russell took on as a private venture in partnership with builder John LaPlante, many spaces within the existing footprint were reconfigured. When an old boiler underneath the stairs was swapped out for a tankless hot water heater (which, thanks to its small size, could be installed elsewhere), the cavity left under the stairs proved a perfect spot for a kid’s hideaway. 

Carpenters built out the bunk using mahogany stair treads Russell had been salvaged from another demolition project. “All I paid was labor, which I’d say was around $500,” Russell says. For added whimsy, he purchased an antique porthole, derived from a World War II ship, at an antique shop for around $750. The house, which previously had sat on the market for two years without a bite, sold within two months to a family with kids. Check out Major Makeovers in the March issue of BUILDER for more details about this project.

Be Counter Intuitive
Granite is beautiful and everyone wants it, but it’s not cheap. There are other, more economical countertop materials that can be just as handsome and infinitely more customizable--not to mention memorable. Take concrete, that humblest of materials, which designer Fu Tung Cheng has elevated to an art form. A master at manipulating and transforming the material with aggregate mixes, inlays, and molds, Cheng offers workshops for builders and DIYers, and has authored several books, including the recently released Concrete Countertops Made Simple.

“Concrete brings a level of craft back to the equation that is doable, and for builders, the capital requirements are zero since they already have the necessary equipment,” he says. “Working in concrete gives builders a chance to do work that is edifying and allows them to differentiate from things that are manufactured.” Even better? Such distinction comes at an irresistibly low price in today's tough market. Cheng estimates the cost of “DIY concrete” at around $8 per square foot, compared by $25 to $40 per square foot for laminate, and $40 to $80 per square foot for granite.

Photo: Courtesy Cheng Design

Take Liberties
A little creativity with off-the-shelf products can go a long way, as seen in this 350-square-foot studio home in Cubix Yerba Buena, a chic, yet affordable, 98-unit residence in San Francisco’s SOMA arts district. The side table in this compact galley kitchen (cost: about $100) was part of an Ikea bedroom line, but architect George Hauser saw it as the perfect casual dining solution for a tight space. 

“It comes with a drawer, but we left it out to provide knee clearance,” says the architect. “A well-designed space can live larger than something poorly designed that is twice its size."

Photo: Courtesy Hauser Architects

Get Scrappy
Here’s a quirky fave we pulled out from the BUILDER archives, courtesy of Heritage Custom Homes and the architects at CGA Partners in Austin, Texas. This kitchen in a custom home, which garnered props in our 2008 Watermark Awards, spared no expense when it came to appliances and high-end cabinetry. But its defining feature and tour de force is a captivating mosaic that cost next to nothing. 

The funky backsplash, which spreads out as an art installation, was constructed almost entirely of tile remnants, which interior designer Jackie Depew of Depew Design Interiors sourced from various tile distributors about town. The entire composition is mortared onto backerboard, with hand-cut bricks of thin-coat limestone around the edges suggest a structural wall that has crumbled away to reveal hidden treasure.

Photo: Robert H. McGee

Try a Different Route
South Carolina builder Steve Kendrick, founder of Structures Building Co., is a master at stretching a modest budget to make houses that look like a million bucks. For example, you’ll never find plain drywall inside one of his homes, thanks to this clever trick, which has won considerable points with buyers. Kendrick has his trim carpenters score sheets of birch plywood with a router and then paint them to simulate the look of bead-board.  The result is a crisp texture for interior walls at roughly a third of the cost of real tongue-and-groove paneling. 

Click here to read more about Kendrick’s other cost-saving tactics, featured previously in BUILDER.

Photo: Courtesy Structures Building Co.

Find a Niche
The San Francisco Bay Area is known for funky homes that are loaded with character and charm. Architect Kevin Wilcock with David Baker + Partners didn’t miss a beat in the design of Blue Star Corner, an enclave of slender, three- and four-story infill townhomes, each standing on a footprint measuring a mere 15 feet by 30 feet.  Developed by Holliday Development and built by Bjork Construction, two of the three plans offer a mezzanine level between the second and third floors, which--per code--cannot have a floor area exceeding 30 percent of the square footage of the floor below it.  Wilcock complied by keeping the floor space on the mezzanine to a minimum. But that didn’t stop him from maxing out the rest of the volume space on that level. 

His solution: an upholstered, mezzanine “chill pod” that sits up on a raised platform and can be used for reading, watching TV, or hosting overnight guests. “Technically, the chill pod doesn’t count as floor space because you can’t stand up in it,” he explains.  Click here to read more about Blue Star Corner.

Jenny Sullivan is senior editor, design, at BUILDER magazine.