The Collier Way

The first time Collier met Edie, he picked up a 15-inch wide plank at a Luxury Home Magazine summit, smirked, and told her a floor like that couldn't be made. It would cup. It would warp. She calmly answered every objection — and now that floor is going into the Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home.

In this episode, Collier heads to Dripping Springs to visit Raesz Custom Floors & Lighting, which is celebrating 50 years in business. Edie spent 31 years teaching in Dripping Springs before Gary Raesz — whose sons she once taught — talked her into flooring sales. She explains why floors keep getting wider, why the wear layer is the real test of quality, and why a rubber-tree core keeps a 15-inch plank lying flat. She also answers the questions every homeowner asks: can wood go in a kitchen, how do you install it over a slab, how do you clean it, and why don't wide plank floors need a transition strip?

Then Edie walks Collier through the showroom: wood towers that run to the ceiling, the largest antler chandelier display in Texas, carpets made into custom rugs, tile, and the Visual Comfort lighting showroom. Gary Raesz stops by to talk about 50 years in the business, and Collier sees the 15⅜-inch Goa floor going into the Showcase Home for the first time.

Most people sign a construction contract the same way they click "accept" on a software update — they skim it, they trust the relationship, and they sign. That's backwards. The relationship gets you to the table. The contract is what protects you once you're building.

In this episode I sit down solo to walk through everything that goes into the contract you'll sign with your builder — AIA versus TAB versus a custom attorney-drafted contract, and why almost every builder in Texas, myself included, ends up using a TAB contract that gets rewritten every three years alongside state law.

I get into the three ways a house actually gets priced — cost plus, fixed, and fixed with allowances — and why cost plus is one of the most common contracts to end up in a lawsuit, even between two people who trust each other completely. I talk about why your building specifications matter more than almost anything else in the contract, why there's no such thing as a custom home with zero change orders, and how a draw schedule is supposed to tie to what you can actually walk out and see on site.

I also get into what causes real delays — including the time it rained for six months straight right when we needed to pour a foundation — what substantial completion actually means, what your warranty covers, and what happens if a builder and a homeowner can't come to an agreement.

If you're building a custom home anywhere in San Antonio or the Texas Hill Country, this is the episode that tells you exactly what to ask before you ever sign anything.

New episodes every week. Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

You see a faucet at a big box store for eighty nine dollars. You see one at Ferguson for eight hundred and ninety. What's actually different? In Episode 10 of The Collier Way, Collier sits back down at Ferguson's original San Antonio showroom with Linda Leroux — his plumbing sales representative for close to two decades — to break down what really separates a luxury fixture from a commodity one, and why it matters ten years after your home is built.

In this episode: Why the guts of a Moen valve are identical whether it's going into a track home or a $20 million estate — and why that consistency matters on Christmas Eve when something breaks. PosiTemp versus MCore versus digital valve systems, and what it actually means to control your shower from your phone. The difference between pressure balancing and thermostatic valves. Why finishes have moved from "will never change" to living finishes like unlacquered brass — and how to protect a patina you love with something as simple as faucet wax. What's inside House of Rohl, Riobel, and Perrin & Rowe, and why in-wall valve systems are a designer favorite and a plumber's least favorite installation. Builder pricing versus retail pricing, and why an appointment — not a walk-in — is how this process should start. Water heaters, water softeners, and why San Antonio's mineral-heavy water changes almost every decision on this list.

This is what it looks like when a builder's trade relationships actually show up for the client — not just in price, but in problem-solving.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along. Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

What does it actually feel like to build a custom home — from the client's seat? Collier sits down with Katherine Trimble inside the finished Collier Custom Homes project she built in Terrell Hills. No sales pitch, no glossy version of events — just an honest conversation about the lot search, the tear-down, the selections process, the delays, and what it is like to finally live in a home that was designed specifically for her family's life.

Katherine talks about why she decided to build instead of buy, what surprised her most about the process, why having the right team made all the difference, and what she would tell a friend who is right where she was when this all started. She also shares her favorite part of the house — a scullery zone behind the kitchen that her friends now call the brain of the house — and the GE Monogram French door wall ovens she uses every day while the beautiful range in the main kitchen stays perfectly untouched.

If you are thinking about building a custom home in San Antonio or the Texas Hill Country, this is the episode to share with your spouse.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along. Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

Most people think a GE appliance is a GE appliance. It is not.

In Episode 9, Collier heads to Ferguson’s original San Antonio showroom and sits down with Sarah Prazak, GE Monogram’s South Texas sales manager. Nearly 20 years with GE, all of it on the luxury end. She knows this line the way a builder knows a jobsite.

What follows is one of the most useful conversations this show has had — because appliances are not a finishing decision. They are a construction decision. The cabinet dimensions, the electrical rough-in, the ventilation requirements — all of it flows from what goes in the kitchen. Most clients don’t know that until it’s too late to change it.

In this episode:

•       The GE brand family and what Monogram actually is versus what most people think it is

•       The SmartHQ app — and the story of turning on an oven in San Antonio from a Southern Living summit in Alabama

•       The new AI wall oven that recognizes what you put inside and suggests the setting before you ask

•       The five-in-one speed cooking oven — Sarah’s favorite product in the line and why it becomes the everyday oven in every home that has one

•       New dishwashers shipping now — 37 decibels and a third-rack jet manifold that finally makes the third rack functional

•       Column refrigeration — tower cooling, built-in shelf lighting, and the 10-degree drawer for scoopable ice cream

•       The Hearth Oven going into the Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home

•       The professional range — 23,000 BTUs, caterer’s oven, brass and leather designer collection

•       Induction versus gas — and why Collier now runs both on every build

The appliances featured in this episode are the ones going into the Olmos Park Showcase Home. If you have been following the build, this is the episode where the kitchen starts to come alive.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along. Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

There are things you can fix in a house. The foundation is not one of them.

In this episode, Collier Bashara breaks down the step that happens before anything else on a custom home build — the geotechnical soils report — and explains exactly why it drives every foundation decision he makes.

In this episode: What a soils report is and how it works. Fat clay versus lean clay explained simply. The Plasticity Index — what the number means and why it matters. How San Antonio clay actually moves over time — the crack, fill, and swell cycle. PVR (Potential Vertical Rise) and what 3.5 inches really looks like. Groundwater — what it is, how to find it, and how to design around it. All four foundation types: slab on grade, post-tensioned slab, drilled piers with suspended slab, and pier and beam with crawl space. The 5-foot and 8-foot rules for when soil removal stops making sense. The bathtub effect — why too much excavation creates new problems. Renovation foundations and why they have to match the existing structure.

New episodes every week. Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

What does it actually look like when a great designer and a great builder work together on a Southern Living Showcase Home?

In this episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara sits down with Mariana Loya — the designer behind the Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home — for one of the most genuine and entertaining conversations in the series so far.

Mariana founded LED Design three years ago after 16 years in the industry. She studied interior design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio and what she has created for the Showcase Home is something worth waiting to see.

In this episode:

How Mariana approaches a new project — from the first client meeting to room by room presentations and technical drawings

Why she never sends a presentation before she is in the room with you — and what happens when she challenges clients with something unexpected

The open plan problem and the millwork solution — how Mariana created three distinct spaces within one large room without adding a single wall

The kitchen island that has the team at Cambria excited and the metal fabricators working overtime

Why every project starts with the kitchen — the room that sets the tone for the entire home

The importance of bringing a designer in before the slab is poured — and what happens when you wait until after the sheetrock is up

Value engineering — how to identify what matters most and let the team find savings everywhere else

Hidden details and the surprises Mariana loves to design into a home that clients discover after they move in

The Showcase Home reveal is coming — and this episode gives you a behind the scenes look at the design decisions going into it before a single elevation is released publicly.

The Collier Way is hosted by Collier Bashara, Southern Living Builder of the Year and founder of Collier Custom Homes — one of only 85 Southern Living Certified Builders in America.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along.

Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

Most people think a decorator and a designer are the same thing. They are not — and confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make when building a custom home.

In this episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara breaks down exactly what a designer does, why it is different from what an architect does, and why an interior decorator — as talented as they may be — cannot replace a professional designer on a custom home build.

In this episode:

The difference between an architect, a designer, and an interior decorator — and a memorable analogy for understanding how all three fit together

Why Collier requires a professional designer on every project — no exceptions — and what his own project data taught him about what happens when that is skipped

What a designer actually does that most clients never anticipate — from plumbing selections before the foundation is poured to floor plug placement before the concrete is set

The master suite tub story — why your builder needs your tub selection before the first form board hits the ground

The sheetrock moment — what happens when a decorator hands over a tile layout after the walls are already up

The cabinet hardware story — why small decisions stop jobs for weeks and how a great designer keeps everything moving

Why Collier reserves the right to approve your designer even if you already have someone in mind

How a designer, decorator, and colorist can work together as a team to produce extraordinary results

If you are thinking about building a custom home in San Antonio or the Texas Hill Country — this episode will change how you think about who needs to be on your team before you break ground.

The Collier Way is hosted by Collier Bashara, Southern Living Builder of the Year and founder of Collier Custom Homes — one of only 85 Southern Living Certified Builders in America.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along.

Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

What does it actually mean to build a Southern Living Showcase Home — and what does it take to deliver on that standard?

In this special episode of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara sits down in Tampa, Florida with Brook and Josh of Devonshire Custom Homes — siblings who built one of the most extraordinary Southern Living Showcase Homes in the country — for an honest conversation about building luxury custom homes, the Southern Living builder program, and what it means to be part of something bigger than any individual project.

Collier recorded this episode on location at the Devonshire Showcase Home open house — walking through the finished home for the first time after seeing it in sheetrock — and sat down with Brook and Josh the following day while the emotion of finishing something extraordinary was still fresh.

In this episode:

The story of Devonshire Custom Homes — siblings building together in Tampa and what that family dynamic brings to a luxury building business

What it means to build high-end custom homes in the Tampa market and who their clients are

The Southern Living builder program — what it demands, what it gives back, and why Brook and Josh chose to pursue it

The Build 10 group — the inner circle within the Southern Living program that functions as a personal board of directors for the builders inside it — and why Collier calls it the backbone of the entire program

Taking on a Southern Living Showcase Home — the commitment it requires, the standard it demands, and what it does for a building company when they deliver on it

What the open house felt like — real people experiencing a finished Showcase Home for the first time

What Brook and Josh want every prospective client to understand before they sign a contract with any builder

This episode was recorded live on location in Tampa at the Devonshire Custom Homes Southern Living Showcase Home open house — raw, real, and unlike anything else in Season 1 of The Collier Way.

The Collier Way is hosted by Collier Bashara, Southern Living Builder of the Year and founder of Collier Custom Homes — one of only 85 Southern Living Certified Builders in America.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along.

Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com

In Episode 3 of The Collier Way, Collier Bashara sits down with architect Elizabeth Haynes — the architect behind the Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home and one of San Antonio's most respected residential architects — for an honest conversation about what great design actually requires.

Elizabeth and Collier have been collaborating for years — from a complicated renovation in Oakwell Farms to historical restorations to multiple ground-up luxury homes across Olmos Park, Alamo Heights, and Terrell Hills. This episode is the story of that collaboration and the philosophy behind it.

In this episode:

How Elizabeth's career began with a historical renovation and what that taught her about buildings that last

Why as-built plans are the very first step of any renovation — and why skipping them is one of the most expensive mistakes a homeowner can make

Designing for aging in place and why this conversation has become increasingly important for how homes are designed today

The Olmos Park Southern Living Showcase Home — the design vision, the decisions made along the way, and Elizabeth's favorite room in the house — the keeping room

How Collier and Elizabeth approach designing to the lot, the neighborhood, and the client's actual life rather than just their wish list

What makes Olmos Park, Alamo Heights, and Terrell Hills each distinct to design for — and why that matters more than most clients realize

The collaboration that turned two friends into one of San Antonio's most trusted builder and architect partnerships

This is one of the most genuine conversations about residential architecture and design you will find — from two people who have built a lot of homes together and learned what actually matters along the way.

The Collier Way is hosted by Collier Bashara, Southern Living Builder of the Year and founder of Collier Custom Homes — one of only 85 Southern Living Certified Builders in America.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and follow along.

Learn more at colliercustomhomes.com