"The Flagler" is coming along nicely!

Hello. Would anyone be willing to share the building cost for their DAG home and the state of build? We want to build the Chesnee in NC but have been practically scared off by "guess-timated" cost by a local contractor in the $400,000 range. Is this correct?

I would say that your quote is fairly accurate. We built the Larkspur plan in WV, for $360,000. We added to the size of our home, which brought the total sq. ft. to 2400. DAG homes appear to be a little more expensive to build, but well worth the added cost, in our opinion. We did have additional expense with custom finishes, etc., so the price could have been slightly lower without the additions. Hope this helps you make a decision.

nanakimber58 thank you so much for that insight! Was your build on untapped land? We purchased a 5 acre tract of wooded land so will literally have to start from scratch. Did the building cost include such things as tapping into water, electric, clearing property etc?

We purchased a lot in a new development that had all the infrastructure in place, about a year before we decided to build. The $360,000 didn't include the lot. Here's a picture of our house. Good luck with
your building project. Sounds like you'll have quite an adventure.

Aimee Kusina, Edward Salyer and Sharla Dunlap, I know you were all building The Hardesty and must have been in your home for some time now. Is anyone wiling to share pictures, inside or out? I would love to see what others have done with this plan. We've been in ours since January 2016 and it's still a work in progress!

Hi Jan,

Here are two pictures of our Hardesty. As you can see we are still under construction! It has been a long process! We hope to be finished up very soon. They are currently painting and working on tile and flooring inside so it is not real photogenic at this point. As soon as things are cleaned up a little I would love to share more pictures!

The house looks great! I really like your stone and house color. Did you use the pre painted Hardie board or have it painted? It looks like Cobble stone or Monterey Taupe.

Our contractor preferred the unpainted kind so we went with the "raw" Hardie and had it painted the Arctic White Hardie color.

I love the look of the back of your house. We built on a slab with no basement and the porch all the way across, so our rear looks quite different. We did not do the vaulted screened porch, choosing just to leave it totally open. We love it, but I must say yours looks quite majestic!

Please do post inside pictures when you can. Good luck on finishing up and the move. Hard work!!!

Thanks Jan. The back of the house is my favorite part I think. We actually just used vinyl siding. We like the look of the hardie board but decided to go with vinyl (much cheaper)! Can't wait to show you more!

Sharla Dunlap, we are breaking ground to build the Hardesty next week. Would love to see some of your interior pics now that (I'm assuming) you've moved in. Exterior looks great!

Has anyone built the Harper plan?

Anita Robinson I’ll try to get some tomorrow!

We are very interested in a few of their plans. We love the Ballentine floor plan but very concerned that there are no photos. Ive emailed them and hopefully will get a response so we can decide whether or not to purchase plans. Has anyone built this? We love the Marley also.

Hi kariesprague, I don’t know anything about the Ballentine plan but we were interested in the Marley before deciding on the Hardesty plan and I came across a blog of a couple that was building the Marley. It was very helpful to look through and see her photos so I thought I would share that with you. You should be able to just click the link below. Hope it helps!

https://marleybydonaldgardner.wordpress.com/

Thanks! I think we have looked at all pictures online of the Marley! Lol we really like the floor plan of the Ballentine just based on our kids being a little older and they need their own space. It's a tough choice.

Update: we are going with Ballentine. Upon request they were able to add a rear renderings photo to website(if anyone is interested) & sent me a preview package with additional views. With the bonus room and full basement it will be the perfect size for us. Hopefully we will start building this coming summer, if our home sells by then.

I like it. We were deciding between that and the Mulberry and ended up with the Mulberry.

Anita Robinson. A few days turned into months! So sorry! I hope you are well underway with your construction. Here are some pictures. I tried to cover all angles the best I could. The only rooms missing are the study and boys rooms. The study is under construction. We are have some built-ins being places this week. I will add a picture when done. The boys rooms are boys rooms.....

A few more

Sharla, no problem I know how busy life gets! Thanks so much for the pictures. They are doing our subfloors currently and I can’t wait until framing starts to give me a better idea of the space. My fireplace and built-ins will be similar to yours so this helps a lot! Also I love the tile in your bathroom!

Hardesty going up! Thanks for your help Sharla and Lydia!

Anyone build The Heywood plan?

Has anyone built The Cline? Please post some interior pictures and any modifications, etc. If anyone has modified The Cline into a two story home, I would be interested in finding out how you did it. Thank you!

Finally, a few pics from Holidays...

Few more...

So beautiful, Edward! I love seeing all the different ways The Hardesty can look with just minor changes/variations that we all made. We've been here now 2 years (hard to believe!) and are still working to get it and the land just like we want it. I guess it will always be a work in progress. Keep posting pictures---love to see what others are doing with this plan.

We're building the Ferris. We just finished electrical, plumbing and HVAC rough-in. If anyone is interested in seeing more or have any questions regarding the build, please let me know.

We are currently building the Ballentine. Should be finishing up in the next few weeks

Looks good! Did you make any modifications to the plan?

The only minor changes that I can think of was eliminating a few windows in the master for more options of bed placement, added 2 ft on garage and made an extra closet in the master above the basement steps. Nothing major

Katie, did DG do the changes for you or did your builder handle them?

The same question to anyone who bought a DG plan. Did DG do your modifications or did your builder do them.

I'm just get a consensus on whether to buy the stock plan and have my builder do the fairly minor changes, as in pushing out a wall a few feet, converting a wet bar to a 2nd pantry, adding a second vanity or changing a ceiling treatment. Any thoughts based on your experience would be greatly appreciated,.

I would also be curious if anyone received feedback from their builder that DG plans are more expensive than others to build?

Thanks,

Will

Has anyone built the Birchwood? We are interested in building with some changes in the Charlotte, NC area. Any suggestions or photos?

Also, our daughter is looking at the Galway. Has anyone built this one or have photos? What changes did you make, if any? Thanks!

I am just about finished with Jasper Hill

Our builder made the small changes that we wanted but they were simple. They did have an issue figuring out how to get hvac to second floor since that is not part of the plan, had to run it up through storage area in garage and into bonus room over garage which used up some space that we werent expecting. As far as costs to build their plans vs others- Im not sure, we never priced any other company's plans. Foundation roof and windows pretty much decide the cost from what we learned . :)

@Will... Our Ferris plan is pretty pricey due to all the lumber in the roof structure. Also, the DG materials list we used was a good bit off for a lot of things so I would have your contractor calculate the materials needed and not rely on the DG list.

Finished our Hardesty last year.

Has anyone built the Valley Gate house plan?

no. his plans are overrated. typically fat and dark interiors

Would love to see some Drake photos if anyone has built it!

Looking at building THE FERRIS, if anyone has photos to share. I love the Don Garner homes and appreciate all your feedback here. It helps as we finalize our decision. Thank you!!

I'm curious to any of you who have actually built a DAG home, are you finding them "dark" like everyone seems to assume when they comment on these plans, are they thinking that no light comes in because of the covered porches? I'd love to hear your level of satisfaction with one of these one story homes with the various porches and covered patios in the back.

@rjinga... the covered porches do keep some of the light out but the Ferris has a lot of large windows that really let him a good amount of light. We havn't felt like it was dark or gloomy inside at all.

@Andrea Smith https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5173287/donald-gardner-ferris-home#n=147

Love it! are you still around Nana

We are building The Chaucer and there wont be an issue with darkness die to the porch on back which has skylights Im sure we will need to add tint to reduce so much light. This is an amazing plan! We will add photos soon to Rendering

Building The Jellicoe. Hope to have foundation poured soon.

A number of folks on this thread have built the Hardesty Plan. We are about to break ground on our adaptation of the Hardesty Plan and I was wondering if there was anyone who built the Hardesty and wished you had changed something or done something differently?

I wish the full bath was larger. I don’t even know if that’s possible but if it were, that’s the only thing I would change.