Home.
The word means something different to everyone. It’s where you place your head, where you entertain friends, where you feel most at rest. It’s where your family is – and for most of us, where our heart is too.
When you make the gigantic decision to build a home – from the literal dirt up – you want someone guiding you who understands exactly what home means to you and your people.
Maybe for you that’s extra bedrooms – you want all the kids and the guests to have their own space. Maybe it’s a kitchen that flows right into the family room. Maybe it’s a library with shelves that go to the ceiling and one of those rolling ladders. Maybe your entire home design is built on catching that sunset just over the ridge and you want your kitchen sink to frame the view perfectly.
If you’ve got a vision for your future home build, well – we know a guy.
Jim Kyker (or as those of us in TR call him, Jimmy) has been working in the construction industry since his twenties. He started managing construction projects as an engineer officer serving in the Marine Corps. After the Corps, he and his young family moved to Greenville where he started working with Ryan Homes. Throughout his professional experience he also worked with Legendary Communities, building about 400 homes each year. Jim has worked on all facets of the build in his career – leading construction teams, leading sales, wearing all the hats and receiving a deep and wide education in building, designing, selling, closing and more.
“I really missed building homes and working directly with people,” Jim says, explaining why he’s made the move to starting his own company – Trivium Homes.
We’re seated in Jim’s comfortable and inviting living room – designed by him, as we chat about what Trivium means to him and his family. Both the name – and the business itself.
Trivium is a word familiar to homeschooling families, a world Jim and his family have been a part of for several decades. The word Trivium also means where three roads meet and Jim says that symbolism fit perfectly with his goals and vision for the sort of homes Trivium creates.
“There are three things that really matter to me in home building,” Jim shares, a clear confidence exuding for the topic. “Design – making sure our homes are really well designed. Craftsmanship – making sure our homes are really well built. Beauty – making sure when it’s all said and done that you have a beautiful finished product.”
Jim leans back and explains his vision for Trivium, hands moving as he tells his story. “What makes us unique is that we’re made up of folks who have a background both in the production world – so building high volume homes at low prices, but also the custom world. And when you can bring those two things together you’re trying to get the best of two worlds, which is an efficient process, really paying attention to your costs so you can deliver a high quality custom product at a better price than what most custom builders can.”
He’s an expert in his field and you can tell he’s spent years considering both the craft and the mission behind home building. “In the custom home building world, you can have a more expensive process,” he continues. “And in the production world, you can just get the most square footage – but I think there is this really cool middle ground where people get choices and a custom process without offering everything – by picking what is most important to them and focusing on those areas. We deliver an almost full custom home process at a pretty good price.”
Trivium Homes is a full service home building company that specializes in building homes in the target range of $350K to $750K. “I think what we can do that is unique at this price point is to deliver a really custom experience for people. We can work with their design or we can design it completely,” Jim shares, his sincerity evident. He believes that people are actually able to build at better price points than they realize. And one of the key ways to make this happen is by listening directly to people and determining how to deliver what they want in a cost-effective way.
Wherever folks are along their path to home building, Trivium Homes can help. They can help buyers find land, if that’s what they need. If they already have land, they can handle everything else with an in house architect or they can take a future home owner’s plans and customize them. Essentially, start to finish, Trivium Homes delivers the full package.
At Trivium Homes, you’re not dealing with just a project manager, but with the owner of the company – a local TR builder, a family man, a community supporter whose kids are active participants in the sports programs at Travelers Rest High School.
Family is essential to Jim and his team and that directly influences the way Trivium Homes builds and views home – through the lens of family. “Having designed and built several homes for my family with my kids shaped my views of home building. We’re a family who spends a lot of time at home. We do a lot of family gatherings at our house and we thought through how to use every part of the house. It’s a thoughtful design. We use all of the space,” Jim shares. And that’s the sort of attention to detail he brings to each building project.
A question Jim asks all of his clients is this: how do you plan to use your home? He believes that asking a lot of questions at the beginning helps to truly understand what rooms are important to them and is helpful in guiding them to create the best use of their space. “I used to see folks build giant spaces just for the size and then I’d visit on warranty calls post build and there would be empty rooms that no one used. That’s not our goal. A house doesn’t have to be huge – it has to be designed well.”
Jim’s quick grin and his enthusiasm draw you in. He’s the front face of Trivium, it’s his baby, and you’ll be connecting with Jim as you work through your home building process. In fact, that direct client-to-builder connection is his favorite aspect of the job. “Working with clients, walking room by room, asking what will you use this space for? What details really are important to you? That’s the stuff I love,” Jim shares. And this time spent with Jim at the helm isn’t an add on to the home building plan, it’s not a line item on the budget – this is just included in the experience of building a home with Trivium Homes and Jim Kyker. Making sure folks have full access through the build – talking, giving updates, inviting them in during the process, getting their feedback – that’s the space where Jim shines best.
“I like seeing the parts and pieces come together. You take a piece of dirt where there is nothing and you just build something. That part is really fun,” Jim says. “I really like taking someone’s dream – their biggest ambitions with respect to their home – and bringing it to life. I like working with regular folks. We’re building homes that people are going to raise their families in. I love building homes that people are coming home to every day.”
Jim’s goal for Trivium Homes is to have a reputation that draws folks in. He wants people to hear about the Trivium experience and to say – I want them to build my house!
He has another goal as well – “We want homes that are timelessly beautiful and that will outlive the builder who built them.”
You can find out more about Trivium Homes here.
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Story by Lacey Eibert Keigley
