Whitewater, Wisconsin
Project 25006.00
Nothing in this picture has been bought yet.
Model 001 breaks ground this August. Every window, dock section, and light fixture in it is still an open decision — and we are the general contractor making them.
A lakefront home built in public, from permit to five years lived in.
We document every product decision on this build: what we chose, what we rejected, what it cost, and how it holds up. Then we review it again at five intervals over five years.
Model 001 is our own family's home, on our own lot, with our own money.
The part that matters to you: this build has no procurement machine. We partnered with Dan Legge of Legge Planning & Project Development — thirty years of Wisconsin craftsmanship — the owner leads every brand and vendor decision, the builder leads construction and installation, and every choice is made together at the same table.
If your product goes into this house, it's because we chose it over the alternatives — and we say why, on camera, with the invoice attached.
Model 001 is the first proof of a bigger idea.
Every dock. Every campfire. Every ordinary Saturday. Those become the stories your children tell their children. Our mission is to help families create more of them — starting with our own.
The house is the first full application of the Dock to Den Standard: vision, traditions, zones, systems, specification, documentation, verdicts. The numbering is the promise — there is no Model 001 without the intent of a 002.
Who we are: the Cunningham family. We built a life around the water; now we're building the house that proves it — with our own money, side by side with builder Dan Legge — thirty years of Wisconsin craftsmanship, and every install on the record. Professionally, we've spent a career making high-stakes technical purchasing decisions. Model 001 is those same decisions, made for our own family, in public. Read the full story →
Where your why meets ours: your product exists for the same families we build for — and no ad can prove it belongs in their life the way five documented years can. That overlap is the partnership. Not a media buy. A shared bet that proof compounds.
What we promise vs. what we show: the contract covers Model 001 only — your category, your panel, five verdicts, and first right of refusal on Model 002. The rest is the direction we're walking, not a deliverable we're selling.
Five reviews of everything, over five years.
Anyone can review a product after one day. Nobody can fake time. The ladder is why this is worth more than a sponsored post — and why a manufacturer with a genuinely good product should want to be on it.
The verdict is not for sale.
A Founding Partner buys position in a category. They do not buy the review, and there is no version of this where they can.
If a product underperforms at month six, that publishes at month six. We call you before it runs, and you get a right of reply on the page — but the verdict runs.
A partner who can't live with that is the wrong partner. Better we both find out now than in 2029.
One house. One category. Once.
- 01Category exclusivity for the life of Model 001No competitor appears in your category on this build. There is no year-two auction.
- 02Specification in the build itselfChosen, installed, and documented — not staged, not returned after the shoot.
- 03A permanent panel on the interactive site planYour element on the hero image: the story, what we ruled out, the install, the cost.
- 04Five published reviews across five yearsTime-stamped, on the record, linked from your panel.
- 05Raw construction footage and stills, licensed back to youReal installation on a real build. Use it in your channels without asking.
- 06A Cross-Examination interview with the installing tradeThe crew who put it in, answering hard questions on camera.
- 07Named a Founding Partner, permanentlyFifteen names. The list never grows.
Fifteen categories. Status as of today.
Categories close in construction order, not in the order people call. Windows, cladding, and roofing are decided before the slab cures. Dock and shoreline are decided before ice-out.
And one more, off the board: the Supplier of Record.
The fifteen categories cover the products you can point to — the dock, the windows, the sauna. But a build also runs on everything else: lumber, fasteners, trim, sheathing, and a delivery truck in the driveway every week for a year. All of that flows through one local lumber yard.
That yard holds a different kind of slot — not a product category, but the build’s official materials source. The Supplier of Record is named in every materials post and delivery shot for the life of the project. One slot, by invitation only.
After that, the decisions stop being decisions. Everything on this page is open because nothing has been ordered. That is the entire window.
Take a category before the concrete does.
Fifteen minutes on the phone tells us both whether this fits. If it doesn't, we'll say so on the call. A category can be held with a $1,000 deposit — credited in full to the program, refundable for 14 days while we paper the agreement.
Start the conversation Explore the house firstWe don't build dream homes. We build lives worth remembering.
Nothing on this page has a verdict yet.
Every panel shows what we specified, what we rejected, and what it will cost — the parts that are true today. The review rungs stay dark until the day they're earned.
Anyone can review something after one day. Nobody can fake time.
Fifteen slots. One house. Once.
Founding Partners are chosen before the concrete is poured and hold their category for the life of Model 001. Partners buy position, never the review.
We design memories before they exist.