The Last 10%: What Turns a House Into a Home

By Garabedian Properties  |  Uniqueness… “Built-In”

Every custom home begins with an enormous amount of resources — architectural drawings, structural systems, rooflines, windows, and doors. The investment of time, money, and energy in that process is significant, and it is easy to become consumed by it. There is, however, a phase of the build that carries more weight than almost any other: what you put inside those walls once the structure is standing. That is what we call The Last 10%.

In a recent episode of Uniqueness… “Built-In,” Mike Garabedian sat down to walk through exactly what The Last 10% means, why it matters, when to start thinking about it, and why your builder is the most important ally you have when navigating it.

Defining The Last 10% in Custom Home Building

Mike opened the conversation with an analogy:

“When you build a house, you have your fundamentals of a house. You have your outside structure, you have your wood, your sheetrock, your insulation, all the roof, what have you. But basically it is a white box inside — The Last 10% refers to the things that you put into those spaces to make it your space. Tile, paint, flooring, architectural elements. And that’s what we’re talking about today: how do you make a regular house a home?”

Think of it like a pickup truck. Same engine, same frame, same four wheels — The Last 10% is the wood trim, the stereo system, the cargo bed accessories that make that truck yours. A house works exactly the same way. The fundamentals get you four walls and a roof. The Last 10% gets you a home.

Cassidy summarized it as: it is the personalization of the home, the finishing touches that reflect what the family actually enjoys. Mike agreed immediately — and noted he had said the same thing in considerably more words.

When Custom Home Owners Should Start Planning The Last 10%

Here is where most Owners are surprised: the answer is Day One.

“You kind of want to start thinking about it at the beginning. Every home has a budget — doesn’t matter what, you know, $5 million house, $40,000. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on a house, you have a budget. And if you spend too much at one section of the project, you don’t have as much for the last 10%.”

There is a counterintuitive truth buried in The Last 10%: you are working on it before the framing crew has ever touched the lot. Consider a kitchen island with a waterfall countertop, recessed lighting, and integrated cabinetry details. That is a Last 10% decision — one that requires planning at the first 15% of the build. Floating bathroom cabinets require structural brackets placed during framing. A wall-mounted faucet needs to be coordinated before tile is laid. These decisions may feel like finishing touches, but they are anchored to construction phases that come early and come quickly.

“We’re always thinking about it throughout the entire process from day one… And this applies to everything — to where your driveway goes to your mailbox. A mailbox is a mailbox, but if we want a really cool mailbox in a specific location, we’ve got to plan for it ahead of time.”

Owners who delay these conversations — or skip them entirely — often encounter the most expensive outcome in custom home construction: Change Orders. When The Last 10% is introduced past the construction window, costs climb and timelines stretch. What appears to be a minor modification from the outside is frequently a substantial reworking of what is already built. This is exactly where the horror stories about delays and budget overruns originate from.

Custom Home Finishing Touches That Require Early Construction Planning

We asked Mike to walk through specific spaces. What follows is a sampling of what elevating those spaces actually requires — and why so much of it must be decided earlier than most Owners realize.

Bathroom Upgrades in Custom Homes: Vein-Matched Stone, Floating Cabinets, and Layered Lighting

Vein-matched stone walls — where two slabs of marble are placed so that the veins align into one contiguous piece — make a significant visual impact that tile or sheetrock simply cannot replicate. 

Floating cabinets, elevated off the floor and mounted to hidden structural brackets installed during framing, require planning well before the finish stage. 

Layered lighting, from under-cabinet strips and toe-kick illumination to behind-the-mirror lighting, transforms how the entire room feels. Inside the cabinets themselves: hairdryer drawers with integrated outlets, hidden compartments, and concealed security features — all planned, all requiring coordination before the cabinets are hung.

Primary Suite Features in Custom Homes: Ceiling Elements, Accent Walls, and Smart Home Integration

Ceiling elements and architectural lighting are among the most impactful choices in the primary bedroom. An accent wall behind the headboard — executed in wood, marble, or curated wallpaper — establishes a focal point that grabs your attention. Controlled directional reading lights allow one spouse to read without disturbing the other. Audio, video, smart lighting systems, and fireplace controls consolidate the entire living experience into an organized space. These are decisions that ripple through the framing, electrical, and trim phases of construction.

How Custom Home Builders Elevate Hallways Through Architectural Trim and Lighting Design

This one often surprises people. A hallway is functional by definition — it moves you from one room to another. That being said, Mike described what it can become with intention:

“If we do elements and lighting elements on the walls and on the ceilings and we do some architectural trim details here, or we do flooring or we do transitions with walkways and spaces, that makes the hallway something more interesting. So you still [have a] functional hallway. We’re just going to trip it out and make it more interesting for you. You’re gonna sleep in your bedroom no matter what. Let’s do some cool stuff in there.”

The same logic extends to the family room, the garage — which may warrant a car lift if you are paying to store a sports car elsewhere — and security features that can be woven into the structure in ways that are almost impossible to retrofit after construction is complete.

Why Lighting Is the Most Overlooked Investment in a Custom Home

If there is one element Mike returns to again and again — and he did — it is lighting. Not because it is flashy, but because it is The Last 10% decision Owners are most likely to underestimate and most likely to regret.

“You can put a couple can lights in the room. It has light, it is functional, you can do everything you need to do in that room. But if you do layered lighting with wall washers and the indirect lighting and chandeliers and even behind the mirror lighting, that same space with the extra lighting has a whole different feel to it.”

Owners who trust the process and allow the lighting plan to be executed fully are the ones who do not come back later wishing they had. The ones who bypass it come back. They always come back.

Why The Last 10% Is the Hardest Phase of Custom Home Construction to Get Right

The Last 10% is hard to get right because it requires Owners to make highly specific, deeply personal decisions about spaces they have not lived in yet. It requires coordination with a construction timeline.

“It’s hard for a lot of folks to visualize how it’s all going to work out at the end, how it’s all gonna finish in the end. And sometimes they second-guess their choices or second-guess not making a choice. And it can be tough. You really have to have a really experienced design and building team with you.”

There is also the budget reality. Owners who invest heavily in the structural and architectural phases of the build — the things that are genuinely exciting to design — can find themselves with diminished resources when it comes time for the decisions that make the home feel extraordinary. As Mike noted, people get invested in the first part of the house and then, when The Last 10% arrives, they may run out of gas — or money — and not be able to finish the way they intended.

Housing is also considerably more complex than it was even twenty years ago. A bathroom that once required two light switches may now require four, five, or six — and accommodating that cleanly requires early planning, proper blocking, and coordination with systems like Lutron. The sophistication of how we personalize a space today demands far more energy and time, which is precisely why it costs more money and why the conversation must begin at the start of the process rather than the end.

Spending Smarter on Custom Home Personalization: What The Last 10% Actually Costs

There is a distinction worth drawing. The Last 10% is a deliberate philosophy of directing resources toward the things that generate daily satisfaction for your family — the things you see, touch, and experience every time you walk through the door. It is not a line item you can simply redirect elsewhere.

“You spend money on a lot of things at home that you don’t see — ventilation systems or internal structural supports for chimneys and stuff like that. Once it’s done, you never get to see it again. So we want to spend your hard-earned money on things that really bring joy, excitement, and functionality to your family.”

Mike made one more point worth repeating verbatim: there are no group discounts for The Last 10%. The investment is real. So is the return.

“The last 10% is about spending more on things important to you and your family, and that will give you the greatest amount of satisfaction when you see it at the end.”

Why Builder Expertise Determines the Success of The Last 10% in Custom Homes

A builder who has spent decades in this industry has seen the decisions that worked and the ones that did not.

“Good builders and good designers will listen to what the Owners are talking about, and they will often make comments about certain things. And we’ll try to remember that so we can add that in and accommodate them later in the process. So if somebody says, I’ve got artwork going here, that would immediately be a trigger for me that we need to be thinking about lighting and wall space and things like that.”

When an Owner mentions grandchildren visiting frequently, the builder is already thinking about step lighting and night lighting controls. If an Owner mentions low maintenance, the conversation about marble versus quartz begins. The builder is translating lifestyle into construction decisions — a translation that requires a relationship built on trust. That trust needs to be earned at the beginning of the design process.

“It’s not so much about how the builder communicates with you and talks to you through the process and gives you a heads up. It’s more about the process of communication. You may not like the same thing that your builder does, but you have to have confidence that they can communicate to you the pros and cons of making decisions and things they’ve seen, and offer you opportunities when the opportunities present themselves.”

Mike’s own default when an Owner is hesitant, he asks himself: if this were my house, what would I do? An educated decision made with full information — one that the Owner is genuinely at peace with — is the only decision worth making. Owners who commit halfway tend to revisit those choices later, and not in a celebratory way.

We Want Our Custom Home Owners to Cry — Here Is What We Mean by That

Yes. That is a real goal. We are not apologizing for it.

After all the late nights debating countertops, all the budget conversations, the selection appointments, the framing walks, the punch list reviews — you deserve to walk through the front door of your finished home and have a moment.

“This is probably one of the biggest investments, if not the biggest investment your family will ever make. When you walk into the house and you move in, after it’s cleaned up, you want to just be — holy crud, we did it.”

To be clear on the crying: Mike wants to hear the joy — not tears, exactly, though he confirmed we keep Kleenex on hand just in case. It is the kind of overwhelming, caught-off-guard-by-beauty reaction we want you to have. When a space exceeds everything you tried to visualize during the construction process. Owners who engage early, communicate openly, trust their team, and invest intentionally in The Last 10% are the ones who arrive at that moment.

“Owners who have been reluctant to follow some guidance come back later and say, I wish we would have.”

There is an “I wish we would have” that settles into a home when The Last 10% is left unfinished or underfunded. A great building process should never leave that behind.

Questions Custom Home Owners Should Bring to Their First Builder Meeting

Mike was specific. These are the conversations that shape The Last 10% before a single foundation pour has been poured:

• Do you have artwork with a designated place in the home? Lighting and wall planning begin there.
• Do you own sports cars currently stored elsewhere? A garage lift system may be worth the conversation.
• Do you entertain frequently? Lighting design changes significantly for that lifestyle.
• Do you have furniture you plan to bring into the new home? Floor plans and lighting should accommodate it.
• Do you have security concerns for the property or your family? Elegant, integrated solutions disappear into the construction when planned early.
• Do you have grandchildren or aging family members in the home regularly? Step lighting and night controls matter far more than most Owners anticipate.

Bring pictures. Mike is direct about this: images communicate what words rarely can, and you have to be willing to invest in those early conversations. The clearer the vision brought to the table, the more precisely the team can execute it.

How Garabedian Properties Guides Owners Through The Last 10% From Day One

Building a custom home will likely take longer than expected, cost more than initially planned, and finish at a size somewhat beyond what was sketched on the first napkin.

“Your house is your house. It’s going to be approximately 10% bigger than you want it to be. You can spend approximately 10% more than you want to spend, and it’ll take longer than you want it to take. But be at peace with that. If you’re at peace with that, then it will go much easier. If you fight that, it’ll just be harder. You’ll still love it in the end.”

At Garabedian Properties, The Last 10% is not a phase — it is a discipline we practice from the very first conversation. Every detail, every space, every decision is considered with the finished home in mind. The personalization that makes a house yours cannot be retrofitted after the fact; it has to be built-in.

If you are considering building a custom home and want a team that will help you think through The Last 10% before the first shovel of dirt is turned, we welcome the conversation. Reach out to our team at 817.748.2669 or follow along with new episodes of Uniqueness… “Built-In” for more insight into the process of building a home that is genuinely, unmistakably yours.