Lost Her Home in January. Home by Christmas.
In January 2020, Shannon D. lost her mom and her Fort Worth home on the same day. A fire took both.
No builder can fix that. What we could do was give her a house to come home to. By December 1, 2020, she was living in it.
This is her story, and what it says about building personal.
The hardest call comes first
After a house fire, the first question isn’t tile or paint. It’s whether to rebuild at all.
Shannon said it plainly: “I went through a wide spectrum of emotions trying to decide if I wanted to sell and leave or rebuild.”
I hear that from almost every fire family. Selling the lot feels like closing a door. Rebuilding means months of decisions. Neither choice is wrong. But before you decide, talk to a builder. Not a cleanup crew. A builder who can tell you straight what the lot, the slab and the timeline look like.
“Ultimately I chose to rebuild.”
What a burnout rebuild takes
A burnout isn’t a remodel. There’s not much house left to work with. You’re building a new home where the old one stood.
Shannon’s rebuild went the way most do:
- Months of waiting on permits.
- A long list of choices. In her words, “decisions about flooring, cabinets, and paint.”
- Then the build.
Permits are the part nobody warns you about. You can’t rush the city. What a builder can do is have the decisions made and the work lined up, so the day the permit comes through, the job starts.
Done sooner than she expected
“The best part was construction was completed much earlier than I expected and now I get to spend the Christmas holiday in my new forever home.”
The fire was in January. She moved in December 1. In 2020, of all years.
What “build personal” means
People looking for a builder search for luxury home building or custom home construction. Most of what they find is the same pitch. Nice finishes, a brochure, and two tile choices.
Custom should be more than two tile choices.
Personal means the house is built around the person who lives in it. How you cook. Where you want the light. What bugged you about the last house.
Shannon chose every finish in her house, down to the arched hallways. She wanted a kitchen that doubles as the place to entertain when friends come over, and still handles her love of baking. That’s the house we built her.
After a fire, that matters even more. A rebuild isn’t just putting back what was lost. It’s a fresh start, built for the life you have now.
Shannon said it better than I can: “So while 2020 started off horribly by taking everything I love away, it is also giving me a new beginning and I am excited to embrace it.”
And this: “I imagined what my new home would look like after it was complete and the finished product was so much more than I imagined.”
That’s the goal on every house we build. Not what’s in the brochure. More than you imagined.
If your home burned
One call. We board it up, tear it out, and build it back.
- We secure the house: board-up and tarping.
- We tear out what the fire left, down to the slab if it comes to that.
- We rebuild, and we work with your insurance company along the way.
- You talk to the builder from the first call to the keys.
We’ve been building homes in Texas since 2016, from Midlothian to Midland.
Call or text (214) 225-2093, email nathan@cincerohomes.com, or visit cincerohomes.com.
Don’t just build custom. Build personal.