Can I see some customer builds?

Yes. Finally.

I recently posted a roundup of some customer build photos over on our Instagram and figured I’d share some here. 

Most of these are pulled from reviews. You can see more of them here. There’s been an influx of build photos coming in as of late. Something I’m quite grateful for.

One of the unexpected personal difficulties in selling these building plans (and advising folks on their prospective projects) has been that—for the first couple years at least—it truly felt like no one was doing much with all that information.

And this, sometimes, made me feel feelings. 

Admittedly the earliest plans that I packaged up were pretty basic. And they’re still an evolving work in progress—I’ve been creating new 30-50 page, illustrated, step-by-step guides. Still have a few more to do.

But, even as I’ve shipped more and and more usable plans off into the void—thousands of them now—I rarely hear anything back. (It’s quiet out in the void.) The feeling, is that I’m just selling dreams to dreamers. 

Like I said, that’s been changing though and one reason for that change, which didn’t appreciate at first, is that it takes time to spin up a project. Especially one that’s cabin-sized. And so this past year I’ve seen that flywheel get cranking and have received a lot more photos of projects that have finally gotten off the ground.

Hopefully I’ll see more and more and more success stories. It’s been a joy for me (and for Molly) to discover customers who are actually getting their hands dirty and re-constructing our builds around the globe. 

“Discover” is an apt word for it though, since I often hear about the successful builds by accident. I’ll come out with an improved set of plans and email them to previous customers, only to hear back “Oh thanks, we already built ours actually. Turned out great!”

On the one hand, Hell Yeah! That means there are likely even more folks than I’m aware of, out there in the world, seeing their projects through. But on the other hand, where’s the photos?! Share em!

I get it. We’re not exactly buddies. But if you’re out there sitting on build photos and it never occurred to you that I’d be interested in seeing them, I’m here to dispel that notion. I’m very interested!

When I do hear about a completed build I encourage customers to attach photos to a review—literally any review, I don’t care what it says—just so other potential builders might see the work and get some inspiration.

So far reviews are my only means of connecting prospective builders to customer builds. But, I’m curious about something more useful, as I get a fair number of requests from mid-build customers, or those in their planning stages, saying they’d love to connect with other customers who have done similar work, to ask questions or get inspiration.

I love the idea, but I’m not sure the best way to facilitate it those connections.

In my experience, running forums is an abnormal amount of work in content moderation and spam prevention. What’s the alternative? A private sub-reddit? 1-800 hotline? I’m genuinely asking. If you’ve got an ideas, send them along. 

In the meantime, keep sending in photos. Love seeing ‘em.

-Jeff