Searching for a custom home builder in Lyon Township, MI usually turns up two extremes: large production builders selling templates, or lot-build custom shops that quote by the square foot. Evergreen Homes offers a third path. We build award-winning, personalized homes at The Reserve at Crystal Lake in Commerce Township, about 20 minutes northeast. Family-owned for 25 years and built with you in mind, we make a genuinely custom home feel attainable.
Most buyers near Lyon Township end up comparing three kinds of builders, and the differences matter more than the brochures suggest. A production builder gives you a large template library, but the "custom" part is often limited to finish selection. A build-on-your-lot custom shop gives you a blank sheet, along with variable pricing and a longer, less predictable path. In the middle sits the semi-custom community builder, the option buyers overlook when they assume they must pick one extreme or the other. That middle is where Evergreen Homes lives.
| What You Compare | Production Builder | Semi-Custom Community (Evergreen Homes) | Build-on-Your-Lot Custom |
|---|---|---|---|
| How much you personalize | Mostly finish choices from a set menu | Proven plan plus structural options and finish selections | Full architectural freedom |
| Price predictability | Fixed, but finishes add up as upgrades | Published starting price with luxury finishes already included | Variable; land, design, and overruns are separate |
| Finishes included | Many premium finishes are upgrades | Premium finishes standard in the base price | Everything specified and priced individually |
| Community | Large tract layouts | A private lakefront community of 203 home sites | Your own scattered lot |
Our homes for Lyon Township buyers are built at The Reserve at Crystal Lake, a community in Commerce Township about 20 minutes northeast. We do not build inside Lyon Township itself, so most of our buyers here are relocating a short drive to join the community. It is an easy trip either way you take it.
| Route | Approximate Drive |
|---|---|
| Via I-96 and Wixom Road | About 15 minutes |
| Via Grand River Avenue and Pontiac Trail | About 15 to 20 minutes |
What a lakefront community offers that a tract build cannot comes down to setting and amenities. The Reserve spans 160 acres around a private 40-acre lake, with 203 premium home sites, a private beach and beach house, and a boat dock for electric boats, kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards. It was named the 2025 Development of the Year by the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan. The Reserve is adjacent to Proud Lake Recreation Area, roughly 3,000 acres on the Huron River with an extensive trail system, fishing, and paddling.
For Lyon Township buyers used to the pace and space of the New Hudson area, the trade is an appealing one. You keep the open, established feel you are looking for, and gain a walkable lakefront setting, mature amenities, and neighbors who chose the same lifestyle. It reads less like a build site and more like a place that already feels like home the day you move in.
Instead of an overwhelming template catalog, The Reserve offers four proven plans in Craftsman, Farmhouse, and New England Seaboard styles, ranging from 2,570 to 3,250+ square feet, starting from $609,900. Fewer plans, refined over many builds, means fewer surprises and a higher standard of finish.
| Floor Plan | What Sets It Apart |
|---|---|
| Avalon | Winner of the 2025 Blue Ribbon Award. A two-story plan with a first-floor owner's suite and a standard 2.5-car garage. |
| Madison | Winner of the 2024 Blue Ribbon Award. A balanced two-story plan with defined living zones and generous gathering space for growing families. |
| Newport | Offers the flexibility to add a third full bathroom upstairs, creating an en suite bedroom, an optional first-floor in-law suite, or a spacious second-floor loft. |
| Chelsea | A flexible layout with room to tailor bedroom count and living space to how your household lives day to day. Featuring a second floor laundry room. |
Semi-custom is easy to misunderstand, so here is the plain version. You start with a proven, award-winning plan, then shape it two ways: structural options and finish selections. That is more freedom than the finish-only "customization" many volume builders offer, without the open-ended cost of a blank-sheet lot-build. Explore the full range of personalization options, and you will find choices like these:
A fair question when you see $609,900 is simple: what am I actually getting? At The Reserve, the standard features are the finishes many production builders bill as upgrades, and here they are part of the base price:
Energy-saving, high-efficiency features come standard in our homes, which helps with year-round comfort and operating costs. A new build also starts with current materials and systems rather than the aging mechanicals and insulation you inherit with an older resale home, so efficiency is built in from day one. We would rather set an honest expectation than overclaim, so we describe what is included plainly and let the specifics speak for themselves.
Jon, the owner and builder, is on-site every day. With volume builders, the on-site superintendent can change mid-project, and the owner is rarely seen. Here, the person whose name is on the company is the same person checking the framing, the finishes, and your final walkthrough. For most buyers, that single point of accountability is the difference that shows up in the finished home. Most homes take about 10 to 12 months to build from signing; if your timeline is tighter, our quick move-in homes are already under construction or near completion.
Evergreen Homes is family-owned and operated with 25 years' experience, and our work has earned recognition from the industry and a jury of our peers. You can meet the builder and read countless homeowner testimonials that describe the same experience: honest, responsive, and fair.
| Year | Awarding Body | Recognition |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan | Development of the Year - The Reserve at Crystal Lake |
| 2025 | Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan | Blue Ribbon Award - Avalon plan, with its first-floor owner's suite |
| 2024 | Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan | Blue Ribbon Award - Madison plan |
