“I finally found a third contractor,” he goes on. “I checked out his previous work, I was happy with the workmanship, so we started to chat. Then I started to do a little bit of research and I found a lot of Court of Queen’s mentions against him. So I started getting leery of him.” “Finally, I decided ‘You know what? I’m just going to try to do this on my own.’ I’d been a project manager for six-orseven years at that time. I’d been doing road construction and parking lots, but I thought ‘If I can manage those guys, I can probably manage these guys.’ So I did my own house. I hired my own subcontractors. By the end, I realized I kind of enjoyed it. I thought maybe I could do it again.” From there, Cody started building spec houses. A few successful projects later, he decided to leave his previous job and strike out on his own. Inspired by his own negative experience working with homebuilders, his vision was to create a company that would “do things the right way.” These days, Brownstone Estates still largely works on spec, and they mostly build luxury estate homes – hence the company name. In terms of value, their projects typically range from $2.5 million to $5 million. Even within that high-end niche, Cody believes what sets his product apart is the extremely high quality: “I only use high-end materials,” he says. “I don’t compromise on anything when it comes to the building envelope. If I’m putting my name on something, I want it to stand the test of time. Any home I build has to be built to last.” OCTOBER 2023 Photo: Suite Six Design
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTYzNTg=