Fox & Dahlia Homes

Fox & Dahlia Homes Custom home builder serving the South Sound and mountain communities.

Built on thoughtful planning, disciplined ex*****on, and craftsmanship that performs long after move-in.

Can you tell me what your custom home will cost to build?It’s one of the first questions we hear—and it’s an important o...
07/09/2026

Can you tell me what your custom home will cost to build?

It’s one of the first questions we hear—and it’s an important one.

The reality is that there isn’t a responsible answer after a five-minute conversation.

Before we talk numbers, we need to understand your property, your plans, your priorities, and the countless decisions that make your project unique. Those conversations allow us to build a realistic budget that reflects the home you’re actually trying to create—not simply a number designed to win a project.

At Fox & Dahlia, our goal isn’t to tell you what you want to hear.

Our goal is to give you the information you need to make confident decisions.

This is the first post in our Before You Build series, where we’ll answer the questions we hear most often from future custom homeowners.

What question would you like us to answer next?

📍 Custom Homes Across the Pacific Northwest

d.hayes


Have you ever noticed all the writing on the framing inside a house before the drywall goes up?None of it is random.Thos...
07/03/2026

Have you ever noticed all the writing on the framing inside a house before the drywall goes up?

None of it is random.

Those notes are left by the builder and each trade throughout construction. They mark locations, identify measurements, answer questions, confirm details, and communicate information before the walls are closed up.

By the time drywall is installed, much of that communication disappears forever.

Most homeowners never see this part of the process, but it’s happening on every well-managed custom home.

It’s one of the many ways hundreds of small details come together long before the finished home ever takes shape.

📍 Snoqualmie Pass, Washington

d.hayes


Have you ever walked through a home before the drywall was installed?

We’re honored to be featured by Huber Engineered Woods.We choose the products we use with the same level of care we brin...
06/30/2026

We’re honored to be featured by Huber Engineered Woods.

We choose the products we use with the same level of care we bring to every home we build. That’s why we’ve come to trust systems like ZIP System®—they help us deliver homes built for long-term performance and give our clients greater confidence in what’s behind the walls.

Thank you to Huber Engineered Woods for recognizing our work. We’re grateful to work with manufacturers who share our commitment to quality, innovation, and building homes the right way.

06/29/2026

Last week, our team spent several hours walking this custom home in Snoqualmie Pass with the interior design team before construction moves into the next phase.

These walkthroughs are one of the most important parts of the building process.

We walk the home with the construction drawings in hand, reviewing every room, discussing details, making notes, marking changes, and confirming that the design intent, construction documents, and what can actually be built all remain aligned.

When builders, designers, and trades stay on the same page, questions get answered before they become delays.

That protects the timeline.

It protects the budget.

And most importantly, it protects the client’s vision.

Thank you to Kimberlee Marie Interiors for another thoughtful collaboration. We appreciate the time and care your team brings to every project.

If you’re considering building a custom home, we’d love to show you what this process looks like.

📍 Snoqualmie Pass, Washington

Joshua Renich
Rachel Hayes
Kimberlee Marie Interiors

Yesterday we spent about three hours on site with Annie from Kimberlee Marie Interiors, walking this custom home room by...
06/27/2026

Yesterday we spent about three hours on site with Annie from Kimberlee Marie Interiors, walking this custom home room by room, level by level, with the plans in hand.

This wasn’t just another meeting. It was an opportunity to make sure the design, the plans, and the construction are all still aligned before moving into the next phase of the build.

As we walked the home, we made notes, clarified details, marked walls for our trade partners, verified dimensions against the plans, and worked through the questions that naturally come up as a custom home moves from paper to reality.

The goal isn’t to make changes for the sake of making changes. It’s to identify questions early, confirm decisions, and ensure everyone involved is working toward the same vision.

When the builder, designer, and trade partners stay aligned, projects move forward more efficiently, timelines stay on track, and clients have greater confidence throughout the process.

A special thank you to Annie and the Kimberlee Marie Interiors team for spending the afternoon with us. We truly appreciate the collaboration and care your team brings to every detail of this project.

We’re looking forward to sharing more behind-the-scenes moments as this home continues to take shape.

📍 Snoqualmie Pass, Washington

THERE’S A REASON WE DON’T QUOTE CUSTOM HOMES ON DAY ONE.We could.It would probably make our jobs easier to throw out a q...
06/22/2026

THERE’S A REASON WE DON’T QUOTE CUSTOM HOMES ON DAY ONE.

We could.

It would probably make our jobs easier to throw out a quick ballpark number and move on.

But we’d rather give clients a realistic number than a comfortable one that doesn’t reflect the full scope of the project.

Before we talk budgets, we spend time understanding the property, the goals, the priorities, the timeline, and what success actually looks like for the people sitting across the table.

We also evaluate the factors that have the biggest impact on cost — site conditions, access, utilities, permitting requirements, engineering, structural needs, finish selections, and the countless details that can affect a project’s budget.

Then we do our homework.

We gather information from trade partners. We verify assumptions. We account for the details that are easy to overlook and expensive to discover later.

Only then do we build a detailed budget and sit down together to review it — line by line.

Sometimes the number ends up higher than expected.

That’s okay.

Now we’re working with real numbers.

From there, we can make informed decisions, adjust priorities, evaluate options, and cost engineer the project together.

Cost engineering simply means finding the right balance between budget, design, performance, and priorities without compromising what matters most to the client.

What we will never do is hand over a number designed to win a project knowing it will likely cost significantly more once the details are fully understood.

Our clients deserve better than that.

Which would you rather have: the lowest number or the right one?

📍 Custom Homes Across Western Washington

.d.hayes

One of the first questions almost every prospective client asks is: What does it cost per square foot to build a custom ...
06/16/2026

One of the first questions almost every prospective client asks is: What does it cost per square foot to build a custom home?

It’s a reasonable place to start.

The problem is that custom homes aren’t commodities. Two homes with identical square footage can carry dramatically different price tags depending on site conditions, topography, utility access, structural complexity, finish selections, outdoor living, garages, retaining walls, and view corridors.

Square footage is one variable in a much longer equation.

The better question — the one that actually leads somewhere — is: What will my home cost to build?

That answer requires a conversation. It requires understanding your land, your priorities, your non-negotiables, and the tradeoffs you’re willing to make. That’s where the real work begins, and it’s the part most builders skip.

We don’t skip it.

📍 Custom Homes Across Western Washington

.d.hayes

One of the biggest misconceptions about custom home building is that projects go over budget and clients don’t find out ...
06/11/2026

One of the biggest misconceptions about custom home building is that projects go over budget and clients don’t find out until it’s too late.

Every custom home involves decisions, adjustments, and variables along the way. But surprises should never come from a lack of communication.

At Fox & Dahlia Homes, clients receive updated budget projections throughout the build so they know where things stand, what decisions are ahead, and how those decisions affect the overall investment.

We believe clients should understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what options are available before decisions become surprises.

Building isn’t about avoiding every challenge. It’s about navigating them before they become surprises.

That’s what building with clarity feels like.

📍 Custom Homes Across the Pacific Northwest

What’s the biggest concern you’d have about building a custom home?

One of the most important conversations in custom home building happens long before construction begins.It’s the budget ...
06/08/2026

One of the most important conversations in custom home building happens long before construction begins.

It’s the budget meeting.

At Fox & Dahlia Homes, we believe clients deserve a realistic understanding of what their project may cost before major decisions are made — looking beyond the obvious line items and accounting for the details that actually shape a build: site conditions, permitting, temporary utilities, material selections, contingencies, and the variables that make every custom home its own problem to solve.

The goal is not to create the lowest budget.

The goal is to create the most accurate one.

When the numbers are real from the start, something else becomes possible: if priorities shift — if a client wants to reallocate funds, upgrade one area, or adjust scope — we can do that with actual clarity. That’s cost engineering. It only works when you started with an honest number.

It also means the budget we hand you at the beginning is the budget we intend to finish at. Scope changes and genuine surprises are always on the table — that’s building. But a number that quietly grows because it was never complete to begin with? That’s not something we’re willing to hand anyone.

If you’re considering a custom home in Western Washington, we’d love to start that conversation.

📍 Fox & Dahlia Homes | Tacoma, WA

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate most about the way Joshua Renich approaches building is that clients are never...
06/04/2026

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate most about the way Joshua Renich approaches building is that clients are never left guessing.

A custom home is one of the largest investments most families will ever make. There are hundreds of decisions along the way, and every one of them has the potential to affect budget, schedule, and the overall experience.

That’s why meetings like this matter.

Before construction begins, Joshua spends time walking clients through plans, budgets, options, allowances, contingencies, and the details that often get overlooked.

Not because surprises never happen in construction.

Because informed clients make better decisions.

At Fox & Dahlia Homes, we believe communication, transparency, and craftsmanship all go hand in hand.

The goal isn’t simply to build a beautiful home.

It’s to guide clients through the process with clarity and confidence from start to finish.

📍 Western Washington

d.hayes


Address

950 Broadway
Tacoma, WA
98402

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Monday 6am - 6pm
Tuesday 6am - 6pm
Wednesday 6am - 6pm
Thursday 6am - 6pm
Friday 6am - 3pm

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