Chuck and Linda Seward dreamed for years of remodeling their McHenry County home, but were repeatedly disappointed as contractors, building permits and financing issues always seemed to fall through. Thanks to the efforts of Roger Gerstad and his team at Gerstad Builders, the couple now happily resides in a brand new, completely customized home.

The initial struggle began after Linda inherited the McHenry County property from her parents. While the Sewards simply wanted to remodel the existing home, they spent three years investigating their options with county officials and multiple contractors. Eventually, they determined the process would be far too costly and they would still be stuck with an outdated floor plan that didn’t suite their lifestyle. After three years of attempts and failures, Chuck and Linda felt that they were back where they started.

Their luck finally changed when Linda decided to visit the model homes at Gerstad Builders’ Liberty Trails, a community of homes in McHenry, Illinois. Although Linda was only looking for some inspiration in the model homes, she found herself telling the sales manager, Trisha, about her dilemma over the past few years. She was particularly drawn to one of the Liberty Trails models, but wanted to continue living on the property she inherited rather than moving to another community.

To Linda’s surprise, Trisha informed her that she did not have to leave her current property to enjoy the floor plans and amenities offered by Gerstad Builders. Unlike the majority of other subdivision builders, Gerstad is willing to build outside of their subdivisions and allows their floor plans to be heavily modified to the client’s specifications.

With the help of Gerstad professionals, Chuck and Linda chose the Georgian design and began planning for the construction of their new home. Unlike their years of difficulties with other contractors, the negotiations for building permits, design and construction became easy and stress-free with Gerstad Builders. Chuck and Linda made multiple alterations to the home’s design to fit their individual needs. Thanks to Gerstad’s years of home building experience, new blueprints and cost estimates were available within just a few days of the Sewards’ modification requests.

Custom alterations to the home included converting a second-floor bedroom into a loft, swapping the locations of the laundry room and powder room, installing a two-story stone fireplace in the great room, adding a linen closet into the master bathroom and expanding the closet for the master bedroom. The couple also upgraded several amenities and materials, adding porcelain floor tile to the kitchen, breakfast room and foyer, putting granite counter tops in the master bathroom and installing a double oven.

Although Gerstad is one of the largest McHenry County builders, Chuck and Linda Steward were thrilled with the level of one-on-one guidance, timely responses and level of dedication to provide them with a completely customized home.

To see the model homes that inspired Linda to choose Gerstad Builders, visit the Liberty Trails sales center on Lincoln Road, open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.