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Just off U.S. 1 and at the end of Roberts Street are two looming steel structures. 

Ormond Beach resident Julie Crabb owns the larger of the two, and she says curious people are always stopping by to ask them what business is coming to that location. She informs them it's not a business at all. The structure is actually two new steel-frame homes — the first ones in Ormond Beach — one for her and one for her daughter.

“There’s nothing that beats an efficient house," said Adris Nelson, Crabb's son-in-law.

He was the one who convinced his wife, Jessica, and his mother-in-law to construct steel-frame homes. After the Nelsons sold their house, they simply couldn't find anything in town they liked. They stumbled across their lot while looking at a different property for sale in Roberts Street.

There were some challenges, though.

Crabb said the land had to be bought entirely in cash because the lot was zoned half commercial, half residential; and, half of it was under county jurisdiction, the other half under the city of Ormond Beach. They went to many planning board meetings to get the lot all under the city and zoned residential. They also split the lot into two different addresses: one for Crabb and one for the Nelsons.

Crabb has also taken the role of her house's general contractor, just as Adris Nelson is for his own house. Crabb said they have a good team of subcontractors.

“It’s a learning curve, but we know every inch of our house,” Crabb said.

After a year and a half, the lots have been cleared, and the steel-frame structures only took two weeks to put up. At this rate, they hope to move into their new homes by April.

“It’s very exciting, but, at the same time, it’s hard to picture what it’s really going to look like when it’s complete because you can’t picture it because there’s not a model home," Jessica Nelson said. "There’s not another home like it.”

But it will be their forever home with their 2-year-old daughter, Dakota, and Grandma will always just be a driveway away and ready to babysit. 

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