Integrity Design Lysetsky
Mars Hill is a genuinely small town built around a small university, tucked into the mountains of Madison County north of Asheville — closer to the French Broad River valley and the Appalachian Trail than to any highway corridor. It has the quiet, close-knit character of a place where people know their neighbors, not a commuter suburb dressed up as one.
Building here means building in genuine mountain terrain, further from the city than most of our other service areas, and for people who chose that distance on purpose. That's exactly why we treat every Mars Hill project the same way: as a project we own start to finish, not one we hand off in pieces because it's a longer drive.
Madison County has a real Appalachian craft heritage — timber, stone, and materials that were built to last generations, not just look good on move-in day. Our in-house designer works architecture and interior design together from the first sketch, and her work carries real professional weight: membership in a prestigious, highly accredited U.S. design association, and invitations to judge international design competitions.
That means a Mars Hill home gets designed to sit naturally on its site and age well against real mountain weather, not just render well in a preview — and it’s already part of your $235/sq ft, not a separate design fee layered on top.
Led by a designer with 28+ years of experience — AIA & IDCEC accredited continuing education in healthy home, universal, and biophilic design.
At $235/sq ft, most builders would charge extra for design work like this — here, it’s already in the price, which is exactly why a home built on this bundle can look far more expensive than what it actually cost.
Building a custom home is hard enough without also becoming your own project manager, your own permit expediter, and your own subcontractor scheduler. In a small, rural market like Mars Hill, that weight falls on you even more if your builder treats the project as an afterthought.
We take full responsibility for the process so you don’t have to carry it alone — permits, scheduling, every subcontractor on site, start to finish. You’ll always know who to call, and we always pick up.
This isn’t just business to us — it’s who we are. We’re not treating a Mars Hill project as a lesser priority because it’s farther out; we’re building the kind of home that gets us recommended to the next family building in Madison County.
Madison County land is real mountain terrain — slope, access, and drainage vary a lot lot to lot, and a road that looks fine on a map can turn out to be a serious grading job once equipment actually needs to get up it.
We evaluate your Mars Hill lot before you sign anything — slope, access, drainage, setbacks — and price it honestly from the start. Our $235/sq ft bundle already includes grading and clearing within 10 ft of the home, up to $15,000 total, enough to cover sites with a slope up to 10%. If your site is steeper than that, we tell you on the land, with a real number, not a surprise change order.
Mars Hill sits in Madison County, where permitting typically runs two weeks to a month for a building permit, similar to the neighboring counties we build in. We handle zoning, plan submission, and every county requirement, so it’s one less thing you have to learn on your own.
The further a lot sits from an existing road or an established neighborhood, the more likely it is that basic utilities aren’t already sitting at the property line waiting for you — and that cost rarely shows up in the listing price of the land.
Power: if the nearest utility pole is a few hundred feet from your build site, extending service can mean real cost, and the distance matters more than most buyers expect. Water: many rural Madison County lots rely on a private well rather than county water, which means well drilling, testing, and permitting as a separate line item. Internet: rural broadband access varies significantly by exact location, and it’s worth confirming before you buy, not after you’ve moved in.
We check utility access as part of every lot evaluation, so these costs are part of your number from day one — not something you discover three months into the build.
We don’t have a finished project in Mars Hill to show you yet — but the craftsmanship is the same everywhere we build: the same team, the same process, the same bundle.
We’re based in Asheville, and Mars Hill sits comfortably within our core service area — a further drive than some, but the same team, the same $235/sq ft bundle, and the same process as every Asheville project we build.
Professional crew with great attention to detail. IDL Construction kept us informed throughout the project and delivered exactly what we expected. Very happy with the experience.
The guys provided outstanding service. They were organized, dependable, and focused on quality from beginning to end. We would definitely use them again for future projects.
The team did an excellent job from start to finish. They showed up on time, worked efficiently, and kept everything organized throughout the entire project. The finished work looks great, feels solid, and easily met all our expectations.