Custom Homes With Care
Our second feature in a year, and a reflection on why we are choosing to build fewer homes, not more.
Mirikeen Homes is featured in the May 2026 issue of Modern Home Builders Magazine. The article, titled Custom Homes With Care, marks our second feature in the publication in a year. For a Bellevue luxury custom home builder, that kind of recognition means something. What we are most proud of, though, is the story the magazine chose to tell. It is not about square footage or finishes. It is about how we work, who we work with, and why we have made the deliberate decision to build fewer homes rather than more.
Recognition Built on Relationships
The feature gets right to the heart of how Mirikeen operates. Success here is not measured in annual unit volume. It is measured in the number of clients, subcontractors, and colleagues we genuinely enjoy working alongside. Every client we take on gets the cell phone numbers of our founder, Mike Jacobsen, and our director of operations, Lindsey Kull. That access does not end at the final walkthrough.
Whatever you need, call me, text me. We are here.
That was Lindsey’s parting message when she handed over the keys to one of our recent homes. It is not a sales line. It is how a relationship-first builder actually works, and it is the standard the magazine recognized.
Two Homes, One Philosophy
The photography in the feature moves between our recent work, from the warm, traditional lines that have long defined Mirikeen to the cleaner, more contemporary spaces we have been exploring. One home earned the nickname the Hawk’s Nest, named by a client’s daughter for the maple tree visible through its windows. Another was organized entirely around natural light. Different homes, different styles, but the same standard runs through both: care expressed in a hundred small details, made a hundred times over.
The People Behind the Work
A theme the article returns to is the team. Our longtime architect, Dan Brobst, is described as a magician for his ability to deliver exactly what a client envisions. He now works almost exclusively with Mirikeen clients, which means building with us is one of the few ways to work with him. The same goes for the trades and partners we have relied on for years. We choose people who share our values, and that relationship-selection criteria shapes which projects we pursue. As Lindsey puts it, we want to work with clients we enjoy collaborating with, and thankfully, we are in a position where we get to.
Why We Are Choosing to Build Less
Perhaps the most counterintuitive part of the story is our long-term strategy: do less, not more. We currently deliver one to two custom homes a year, and we plan to reduce that number further. The reasoning is simple. We want our full focus on the homes we are creating, so that each one gets the attention it deserves.
We still want to build beautiful homes. Just fewer of them. That way, each project is given the attention it deserves.
Care That Extends Beyond the Build
The feature also touches on something close to us: community. Mirikeen supports Plymouth Housing, a foundation building affordable housing in one of the most expensive markets in the country. We feel strongly that a healthy community is supported all the way around, with good schools and affordable housing. That belief is part of the same throughline as everything else. Care for the home, care for the client, and care for the place we build in.
Read the Feature
We are grateful to Modern Home Builders for the recognition, and to every client, partner, and trade who made the work worth writing about. If you are considering a custom home on the Eastside and you want a builder who treats the relationship as seriously as the craftsmanship, we would love to talk.
Read the full feature in Modern Home Builders Magazine here
Explore our homes here.
