Dan Steiner of Steiner Homes: Builder, craftsman, Region resident

Every other day, Dan Steiner of Steiner Homes meets a new customer on a lot and walks through what the land will cost before anyone picks a floor plan.

That habit comes from a career that started when he was 17. Steiner began working alongside his father-in-law, an old-school Swedish builder, who handled nearly every job on the site.

“He knew a zillion things,” Steiner said. “I learned every trade from him, and that was invaluable when I started my own company.”

Steiner worked in the labor industry for 25 years before he started his own company about 32 years ago. He launched Steiner Homes a little over 20 years ago, and this is his 51st year in the business.

Steiner Homes has built at every level. Today, he focuses on semi-custom and custom houses. Prices start around $550,000 and climb to about $3 million.

“We had fun creating homes that we really love to build,” Steiner said.

For Steiner, the feeling a house gives people is what matters most.

“I’m not going to build a whole house that’s cold and austere,” Steiner said. “I just want to build a house that feels really warm.”

At a single-site parade house, visitors kept describing the same feeling. The home felt warm and inviting, and several women called the kitchen ‘the one they had always dreamed of.’

Steiner balances modern features with personal, craftsman touches. Inside, the homes have solid wood doors, wood trim around the windows, and three-quarter oak floors in the foyer, great room, dining room and kitchen.

“Most people do drywall wrap, and that’s okay,” Steiner said. “Real wood just feels warmer, and it lasts.”

Outside, Steiner and his son call the extra detail, “Gingerbready.”

“Gingerbready means that I’m going to put some extra effort into the looks of that house,” Steiner said.

The homes get trim bands, gables with pediments, rounded windows, large columns, and metal roofs over porches. Those touches cost more, but Steiner said owners tell him they love coming home to the house.

Steiner gives a starter home the same care he gives a $1.5 million house.

“I’m not going to treat you badly because it’s not an expensive house. I’m going to treat it with as much respect because it will be your home,” Steiner said.

Growing up in Northwest Indiana, Steiner moved to Portage at 16 years old and made a promise to himself.

“I’m just not leaving, and I never have,” Steiner said.

He and his wife spend their free time along the Lake Michigan shoreline and in Chicago.

“We just love the Region. There are so many reasons we love being in the area,” Steiner said.

To learn more about Steiner Homes, visit steinerhomesltd.com.