A letter from Charlie & Jenny Murphy.

We built Icon so the family across the table from us would get the same answer we'd want if our family were sitting in their chair.

When we founded Icon in 2008, we made a decision most builders don't. We decided that the relationship — with the people we build for, with the trades we build alongside, with the architects and designers and realtors who put their reputations next to ours — would be the thing we measured everything else against.

It hasn't always been the easy decision. There are years when the easy decision would have been to grow faster than the people we were hiring. There were projects where the easy decision would have been to say what a client wanted to hear instead of what they needed to know. There were trade partnerships where the easy decision would have been to cut the rate, not the conversation.

We didn't do those things. We're still here, and so are our trade partners — many of them since before our doors opened — because we didn't.

We're founders. We answer the phone. When something goes sideways on a build, the call comes to one of us. When a client three years out of warranty has a question about how the heated driveway interacts with their generator, the call comes to one of us. The Lifetime Partnership isn't a policy we adopted. It's just how a family business works.

We bend over backwards for our clients. We serve our industry, our employees, our trade partners, and the geographic market we live and work in — in every way we can. Eighteen years and counting.

If you're reading this because you're thinking about building a home, we'd be honored to meet you. We'd be honored even if you choose someone else. The hour over coffee costs the same whether we ever build for you or not.

We will tell you what we think. We will tell you what we know. We will tell you what we'd do if it were our own family. And then the decision is yours.