Craftsmanship: The Difference-Maker

Building or remodeling a custom home is completely different than buying an existing house. An existing house is nice, sufficient, good enough.

But your own custom home is exactly what you need, and what you have always wanted. It is unique in the world, a direct reflection of you and your world vision. It is your style, your taste, your personality. Your custom home is not good – it is great.

So what makes the great homes, the award-winning great estates, so special? SeBern has been building award-winning custom homes for over 20 years, so we have some insight into this. We know that two key elements make a custom home something you will be proud of for the rest of your life: architectural design and craftsmanship. We talk at length about architectural design on our website – we devoted a separate page to it, and our custom home page is filled with photos as examples. In this blog, we want to focus on craftsmanship.

The craftsman is an unusual fellow (he is almost always male). He is not your normal construction worker. While the craftsman is working with construction materials, he approaches his job with uncanny commitment and singular devotion, much like an artist. The pride in his work is remarkable. Whether he is pouring cement for a foundation, creating a wooden and steel frame structure, pulling electrical wires through unfinished walls so as not to bend them too tightly (and thus restrict the bandwidth on your computers), creating straight walls or curved surfaces, completing a roof with man-made tile or wood shingles or slate, hanging windows or doors to perfect squares, measuring each wood panel on a floor, finishing the woodworking within the home interior, or painting a second or third layer for a finish that is exquisitely smooth to the touch, the craftsman takes enormous personal pride in his work.

He wants you and generations of your family to love living in your home, but he also wants the personal satisfaction of creating a masterpiece. To you, he is measuring a window to make sure it is in square; to him, he is sculpting the David in Florence. And chances are, he has never even been to Italy.

Custom builders don’t just find construction workers. They sift for gold. Over the years, the dirt falls out and the chunks of gold (the true craftsmen) are left. It takes a long time, sometimes decades, to find and develop these people.

So, when SeBern tells you we have been designing and building custom homes for over 20 years, we are talking about more than just experience. We are talking about the craftsmen we have found and the relationships we have built with the best construction “artists” in the Chicago area. Let us show you examples of their work in our homes. It costs you nothing for an appointment with the owners of our company. Call 630-377-7767 today.