“You’ve been seeing [Shaker] cabinetry in Houston for 20 years,” says Conrad. “Now we have exclusive European imports for all of our cabinets.”

Spending time and money on research and holding onto land investments were risky moves, but they paid off when Surge disrupted Houston’s single-family home market with a for-sale housing option that was both luxurious and affordable. “When the oil bust came, we already had product ready to sell and we were one of the only ones in the market with that type of innovative product,” Lemieux says.

Conrad adds, “All innovators are going against the current, so for us to have people tell us we were wrong or would fail was normal, and it’s what every innovator hears. But today, we can’t build fast enough for the demand we have, and we are, for now, the only ones able to offer [affordable homes] here because we don’t have to buy land at a high cost.”