Between the two familiar ways to buy a new home — choosing one that is already finished, or commissioning an architect to draw something from scratch — there is a third path that sits in the middle. It is called semi-custom, and it is how homes at Vista Montaire are built.

Semi-custom means you start from a proven floor plan rather than a blank page, then shape it through a defined set of choices: the architectural style of the exterior, the layout changes that alter the framing, and the finishes that determine how every room reads. The engineering is already solved. What is left is the part that makes the home yours.

The Four Decisions That Shape Your Home

Nearly every choice falls into one of four layers, and they are decided roughly in this order:

  • Your floor plan. Four plans — the Shasta, Heirloom, Sonoma, and Tacoma — ranging from just under 2,600 square feet to well over 3,000. This is the footprint everything else builds on.
  • Your elevation. Each plan is offered in three architectural styles: Spanish, Farmhouse, and Contemporary. The interior layout stays the same; the rooflines, exterior materials, window shapes, and entry details all change.
  • Your structural options. Layout changes that move walls, add rooms, or alter the roof and foundation.
  • Your finishes. Flooring, cabinetry, countertops, tile, paint, lighting, plumbing fixtures, and appliances.

The order matters, because the deadlines are not the same. Some of these decisions close early and permanently. Others stay open for months.

Structural Options Come First

Structural options change the bones of the house, so they close early — generally before framing begins, since the framers build from the plan set your selections produce.

What counts as structural varies by plan, but the menu includes choices like converting an office into an additional bedroom, extending the primary suite, upgrading to a deluxe primary bath, adding a powder room, replacing a standard slider with pocket patio doors that open the family room to the covered patio, reconfiguring the garage, or — on the Heirloom — adding an attached ADU with its own entrance.

"The decisions that shape the walls come first. The ones that shape the feel come later."

Each floor plan page lists the structural options available for that plan and includes an interactive floorplan that draws the option onto the layout, so you can see exactly what changes before you commit to it.

Then Come the Finishes

Once the framing plan is locked, attention turns to surfaces — and this is where the catalog opens up. Flooring, cabinet door styles and colors, hardware, countertops and edge profiles, backsplash and bath tile, interior paint, lighting packages, Moen plumbing fixtures, and GE appliance packages each carry their own set of choices, and most of those choices come in several finishes.

It adds up to pages and pages of decisions. That volume is the whole point of semi-custom — but it is also why walking into a design appointment cold is the wrong way to approach it.

The Design Selections Portal

This is the part we would point to first. Once you have placed your initial deposit, you receive private access to our Design Selections Portal: an interactive catalog of the finishes and options available at Vista Montaire, organized the same way your selections will be.

You receive your password at signing, and from that point you can browse at your own pace, at home, before your design appointment and before you finalize your contract. Compare cabinet colors against flooring late at night if you want to. Change your mind four times. The point is that the decisions happen on your schedule, with time to think them through, rather than under the pressure of an appointment clock.

How to Prepare for Your Design Appointment

  • Set an upgrade budget before you browse. Decide the number first, then shop against it. We covered how the total comes together in what a new home really costs in Bakersfield.
  • Know what is already included. Every home comes with a solar energy system, dual-pane Low-E windows, EV charger prewire, high-efficiency HVAC, concrete tile roofing, and a landscaped front yard with full irrigation. Nothing in a new home needs replacing on day one, so upgrades are a matter of preference rather than necessity.
  • Rank your rooms. Most buyers land on one or two spaces they genuinely care about — often the kitchen and the primary bath — and leave the rest at standard. That is a sound way to spend a budget.
  • Weigh what is hard to change later. Moving a wall, adding a bathroom rough-in, or running conduit for a future pool is straightforward while the house is open and costly afterward. Paint color is a weekend.

Where to Start

If you have not chosen a plan yet, the floor plans page is the place to begin — each plan page includes the interactive floorplan, the three elevations, and the structural options that plan offers. If you would rather see selections already made, our available homes include homes under construction and, when inventory allows, move-in ready homes where the design work is already complete.

For a fuller picture of who does what along the way — builder, seller, and sales team — see Building With Us. And when you are ready to talk it through, schedule a visit and we will walk you through the process step by step.

Pricing and availability subject to change without notice; see current pricing on our Available Homes page. Equal Housing Opportunity.