Grace Builders

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About Us

Our Story

Idaho Born and Raised

Pete Wimer was born in rural Idaho and has been building since he was a little boy and discovered 2x4s a handsaw, a hammer and some nails. Having spent the first part of his young adult life as a missionary, he did a lot of fine wood work, making chapels and chapel furnishings in the eastern united states and Europe. During this time he earned an associates of the arts in Classical Studies and a bachelor’s degree in systematic philosophy in Rome, Italy. He is fluent in several languages and a constant student. Back state-side in his late twenties, he joined on to an electrician for a few years and then detoured into financial advising for the better part of a decade. But the whole while sawdust and woodchips kept calling at his heart and he could never quite put down his tool belt.

When his brother died of cancer, the time came for Pete and his young family to make big life changes,
and before he could make up his own mind on it, several people approached him to build various things,
from bathroom vanities to whole houses and a few outbuildings. Taking it as a sign and open door,
Grace Builders LLC was officially formed and they have been building new homes, shops, and even
occasional steel buildings since.

Pete sees his ability to build as a unique gift that God gave him to share with the world. He loves to see the joy of client as they see the quality and beauty of their dreams brought to fruition.
What To Expect

Our Process

We work together with you and your architect and designer to help you make the decisions early on that will expedite the whole building process. This helps greatly to make sure there are no budgeting surprises. This is also the critical moment where the decisions are made regarding the quality of the components of your home. If you do not yet have a designer or architect, we can help in that process as well.

Once plans are solidified, we determine with you the scope of work and establish the budget, timeframe, and contract for the whole project. We like to have a meeting with you and each subcontractor before any work begins so you can know the subcontractors who are part of the building team and there can be an early established relationship that facilitates communication and teamwork.

Generally, we prefer to do most of the work ourselves, and to limit the number of subcontractors. This helps make sure that everyone is on the same page and that each part of the project is up to our standards and eliminates the lag time that can often occur when a subcontractor is busy trying to keep too many people happy. It is also a way we maintain our personal investment in every aspect of your home’s construction; we are craftsmen and have great pride in the quality we build into your home.

What to Expect
Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

This is probably the most frequent question I get from the curious and the serious alike.
The answer to it can vary dramatically based on many factors. I’ve built homes for under
$200/foot and others can easily exceed $400/foot. Many times a client will already have
a well and septic system installed before the home construction begins and so these are
then costs that do not necessarily get rolled into that price per foot calculation. And

then there is the whole topic of the house plans. Some houses are simply more
complicated and take longer to frame. Others are built on difficult terrain that can make
everything more time consuming. The structural quality of a home also impacts its initial
cost although that is often quickly recuperated due to the home’s lower operating costs
and higher quality. Finishes can greatly impact the cost of a home as well. If you are
looking to price a home, feel free to reach out to me directly or fill out the form on the contact page. 
It is very important to remember that building a home makes almost every single list of the top five or six most stressful events a person can go through. The more custom the home, the more that tends to ring true, especially if not designed all the way through even down to every paint color and flooring element selected. So choosing a builder is a very important decision that can give you and your spouse a wonderful year of adventure, or an eight to twelve month nightmare that could end in litigation and lots of heartache. (I’ve cleaned up a project where the clients and original builder split and it was not a situation I’d want to see anyone in again.) But how do you pick a builder? Demonstrable skill is critical and easy to obtain. The other, harder to define element is trust. Can you trust him to give his best for you? Can you trust him to steward large amounts of money in the process of building your home? Do you agree with his ethics?

With all my prospective clients, we first meet and go over plans and spend some time getting to know each other and what to expect over the course of the building cycle. This gives my clients a chance to get to know me and gives me a chance to get to know them and mutually determine if we are going to be a good fit.
We build homes in Idaho County and Kootenai County, Idaho
First, there are many great craftsmen and homebuilders in Idaho. At Grace Builders, we believe that there is a foundational philosophy of building that sets us apart. We see it not just as the erection of serviceable structures but much more as the service of helping each client’s creativity find its full expression in the structures we build. We focus on understanding the feeling that each space is supposed to have and we are frequently the ones coming up with many of the trim designs and often even siding combinations that help the clients attain the feelings they are trying to attain. We often build many templates on site for the clients to pick from if they have not already nailed down certain details. This is especially the case when clients have chosen not to invest in predesigning every single detail of their new home, sometimes for cost reasons, sometimes due to the overwhelming nature of trying to pre-visualize every piece of trim and every color.

Another thing that we have been told by almost every client and subcontractor we work with that sets us aside is the great respect and camaraderie that we cultivate on our crews and the cleanliness of our job sites. Not long ago, I got a call from a retired general contractor to ask if we would build his house. He said he had helped himself to a tour of one of our custom build sites and was thoroughly impressed by the cleanliness and order on the site. This respectful and clean environment makes it much easier to attract and maintain the best subcontractors which in turn delivers higher quality and lowers lag time.
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WHAT TO EXPECT IN BUILDING YOUR HOME

Building a home is a great adventure but also one known to be quite stressful. Let me try to break down the steps in a quick and yet thorough way.
1. Secure your property. Sounds obvious, but this is critical BEFORE spending money on plans. Also, for this step I’d include checking the zoning and county laws to make sure you can in fact build on that land. Is having natural gas a deal breaker? Do you prefer being on municipal water and sewer? Remember that before you buy the land.

2. Talk to your builder, designer, or architect to determine home location. Or pick it yourself. I’d recommend getting your builder involved here though; he just may have some very valuable insights on how to situate or orientate your home.

3. Begin the design process on your home. Be upfront about your budget!!!! So many people lose a lot of money because they buy plans or have plans designed based on a budget they cannot match.

4. Hire a septic percolation test (if not on public sewer). (We can assist with this.) This is critical as it may put limits on the home you can build or cause additional septic needs.

5. Review plans with your builder and architect.

6. If you wish to have a fixed price build, then make sure all interior and exterior finishes are specifically called out. (Light fixtures, tile and flooring choices, siding, paint, plumbing fixtures, casements, cabinetry, stonework, etc..) Or you can work off of a fixture budget that allows you to pick all your fixtures within certain parameters before they become additional expenditures.

7. Sign contract to build.

8. Make sure there is clarity as to how involved you want to be in the whole building process. Some clients like to drive in every few weeks (or even every few months) to see the progress, whereas others like to put on a tool belt and work alongside our crews.

9. Expect a lot of communication with your contractor. I usually set up a WhatsApp chat where photos of each day’s work get uploaded so you can know what is going on at any given day on your new home.

10. Change orders: Not all change orders bring cost increases. Sometimes they are just modifications that you may desire that create no additional costs. At other times they are simply worth the additional price. All change orders have to be agreed on with electronic or physical signature.

11. Buckle up. Building a custom home is not the same as picking the finishes on a home in a newdevelopment. There is no other home like it anywhere so you can expect that it will take longer, generally six to eight months and sometimes longer depending on the size and complexity.
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