For years, Corey Fitch dreamed about building a second home in Washington’s Methow Valley, where he could spend time with family and friends while indulging in mountain biking and cross-country skiing. But even for him, the founder of BuiltWell, a Seattle-based home-building company with a focus on sustainability, the cost of construction was a significant hurdle.
Mr. Fitch, 45, and his wife, Ashley Newman, 40, the owner of Union Pilates in Seattle, routinely browsed real estate listings while visiting friends in the Methow Valley, but the timing never seemed right to make such a big investment.
When the pandemic struck in 2020, however, Ms. Newman was pregnant with their daughter, Luna, now 4, and Mr. Fitch noticed a sudden uptick in interest in Methow Valley real estate. Eager to get a foothold in the region before prices spiked, they decided it was time to buy.
They had already identified a three-acre lot in the town of Winthrop as their favorite, and bought it for $90,000. After closing that summer, Mr. Fitch began putting together a budget to build a cabin, figuring that the services of an architect would be about 12 to 15 percent of the total cost.
