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Build it Your Way

  • April 8, 2016

Build it Your Way

In today’s America, customization and choice are prized commodities, consumers largely rejecting one-size-fits-all offerings that ignore individuality or personal needs.
Gallagher & Henry, a family-owned and operated homebuilder in the Chicago area for 61 years, knows this well and has long relayed a simple company mantra to prospective homebuyers: “Although our homes are made of brick, our dimensions are not etched in stone.”

Unlike many other homebuilders offering a defined home plan with limited variations, Gallagher & Henry allows its homebuyers to make custom changes to any of the company’s 40-plus floor plans ranging from adding a sunroom, shifting the kitchen layout and creating related-living suites to extending walls, heightening ceilings and even installing an in-home elevator.

“Without that expensive custom home price or the investment of time and effort it takes to create plans from scratch, our homeowners can start with our foundation and then work side-by-side with us to get their home to where they want it,” Gallagher & Henry principal John Gallagher said.

Gallagher & Henry currently has eight new single-family home communities across the southwest suburbs with home prices starting at $379,200.

From restaurant meals to automobiles, today’s American society favors customization, not one-size-fits-all offerings that ignore individuality or personal needs.
And while the broader residential construction market has largely been slow to account for this swelling consumer trend, Gallagher & Henry, a family-owned and operated firm for 61 years, has long embraced home customization as a marketplace differentiator in the Chicagoland area. More than a decade ago, in fact, Gallagher & Henry ran a newspaper advertisement carrying a now-familiar message in the company vernacular: “Although our homes are made of brick, our dimensions are not etched in stone.”

Unlike many other homebuilders offering a defined home plan with limited variations, Gallagher & Henry has built its reputation on architectural professionals and quality craftsmen making custom changes to any of the company’s more than 40 floor plans.

“Our homebuyers are allowed to move a wall, add a wall or reconfigure a space as it fits their specific needs,” Gallagher & Henry principal John Gallagher said. “So without that expensive custom home price or the investment of time and effort it takes to create plans from scratch, our homeowners can start with our foundation and then work side-by-side with us to get their home to where they want it.”

In recent years, Gallagher & Henry has completed hundreds of customer requests ranging from modest, on-the-fly adjustments to more elaborate and intricate architectural changes, such as: adding a sunroom; extending a wall, heightening ceilings and widening doorways; increasing the number of windows and skylights; installing massive walk-in spa showers in lieu of tubs; restyling the kitchen cabinet layout; and creating related-living suites with private bathrooms and larger bedrooms. In one recent project, Gallagher & Henry even installed an elevator transporting the home’s residents and guests to a finished basement.

“We offer our homebuyers the ability to make the changes they want, which provides our clients a greater sense of pride in their home and gives them the personal touch they desire,” Gallagher & Henry sales manager Sandie Kanakes said.
Currently building eight new single-family home communities across seven southwest suburban towns – Homer Glen, Lemont, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Park, Tinley Park and Woodridge – Gallagher & Henry promises to have something for everyone and the construction know-how to complete even the most ambitious of tasks. Single-family home prices start at $379,200.

“In today’s real estate market, homebuyers want a homebuilder who will be responsive to their own concerns and desires and then execute that plan,” Gallagher said. “For decades, we’ve been doing just that, taking what our clients want and making it happen.”