Property brings family back to its roots

When Rob and Raquel Ivie decided to leave their Maple Park home and build a larger home for themselves, their two children and Rob's parents, it made sense to consider property that has been in the family for over 100 years.

When his grandmother died a few years ago, Ivie explained, she still owned a house and just over an acre of the land in Batavia, where she and her family once ran a small nursery.

"My dad grew up there," Ivie explained, "so we bought it from the estate and decided to tear down the old house, which needed a lot of work."

Once they secured the land and had house plans drawn up, the Ivies began searching for a builder. They went to three different custom builders in the area and even considered self-contracting before they chose Patrick Franciscy and his Homes by Patrick LLC based in North Aurora.

"He had built my friend's home in Yorkville and it was really nice, and then I got his bid and he was about $22,000 less expensive than the next closest bidder," Ivie said.

Conventional wisdom may warn not to take the lowest bidder on a project, but Ivie is thrilled with the work Franciscy did and he and his family are thoroughly enjoying their 3,700-square-foot brick and stone home.

"I wanted to know exactly what I was getting into so I wanted exact bids," Ivie explained. "Patrick came in at $100 per square foot when the other two gave me a range of $125 to $150 per square foot. It was a huge difference."

The Ivies' home features two master bedroom suites plus two additional bedrooms, 3ˆ¨ baths, a living room, dining room, family room, large eat-in kitchen, office and full basement. It also has a six-car garage to handle the trucks from Ivie's painting business.

And upgrades abound in the $370,000 home. There is a deep-pour basement, hand-scraped oak floors, granite countertops, knotty alder doors, beautiful wood trim including wainscoting in the dining room and crown molding throughout, custom designed tile, a soaking tub, upgraded light fixtures and top-of-the-line windows. Appliances were not included, but were purchased by the Ivies.

"I don't believe in getting greedy - especially on the upgrades, which is where many builders make a killing," Franciscy explained. "I only charge people my costs on the items."

"The way I see it, the more upgrades a person puts in their house, the better it will show to their friends and family and the more chance that I will get some future business from them," he continued.

In fact, Franciscy said that most of his business for the past eight years has come from word-of-mouth between clients. He builds only four houses per year - and says that if he tried to build any more than that, it would cease to be a fun, creative outlet for him.

Franciscy has a new Web site at www.homesbypatrick.net and can also be reached at (630) 688-6367.

The Ivies' house took almost a year to build, which Ivie said was to be expected because that included the time it took to demolish the previous home and make the lot ready to build, which he handled himself.

The family moved into their new home in late 2006.