Before there’s a floor plan, before there’s a kitchen island debate or a front door color you can’t stop thinking about, there’s a piece of land. It’s easy to skip past that part when you’re dreaming about a custom home — but where you build matters just as much as what you build. The right neighborhood sets the tone for everything that comes after: the way morning light hits your kitchen, the sound (or quiet) outside your window, the kind of life your family actually gets to live once the moving boxes are gone.
That’s exactly what drew us to Elwell Farms.
Tucked into Ham Lake, Minnesota, Elwell Farms is a 105-homesite community designed around something that’s gotten harder to find close to the Twin Cities: real, breathing room. Wide acreage lots replace the postage-stamp yards that have become the default in so many new developments, giving every homesite enough space to feel like its own private retreat rather than a backyard shared with three neighbors.
The land carries some history with it, too. This stretch of Anoka County traces back to the 1890s, when local namesake James T. Elwell built the road that eventually became Lexington Avenue — the same route that leads into the neighborhood today. It’s a nice detail to know as you’re standing on a future homesite: you’re not just building something new, you’re adding the next chapter to a place that’s been part of this area for well over a century.
Elwell Farms sits right up against the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area, nearly 24,000 acres of protected wetlands, prairie, and woods that aren’t going anywhere. That border is a big part of what makes the neighborhood feel the way it does — homesites positioned to take in rolling hills, ponds, and tree lines instead of a row of identical rooflines across the street.
It’s the kind of setting where a morning walk, a deck conversation, or just standing at the kitchen window actually means something, because there’s something worth looking at.
Acreage living usually comes with a tradeoff: space in exchange for distance from everything else. Elwell Farms manages to skip that compromise. The neighborhood falls within the Anoka-Hennepin school district, and you’re a short drive from the shopping and dining at Blaine’s City Center, the National Sports Center’s soccer fields and ice arenas, and golf at courses like TPC Twin Cities and Victory Links.
Inside the neighborhood itself, an activities park rounds things out with a playground, pavilion, pickleball and basketball courts, and a fishing pier — built for the kind of weekend that doesn’t require getting in the car.
Once you’ve found the right homesite, the next decision is who builds on it — and that’s where our process comes in. We start with a no-cost conversation about your budget, your timeline, and the way your family actually wants to live, then carry that into a home plan designed specifically for your lot and your vision. From there, our design-build team keeps the whole project — architecture, design, and construction — under one roof, so the home that gets built is the one you actually pictured, on the budget you actually agreed to.
Ready to Call Elwell Farms Home?
Homesites are moving quickly in this one. Reach out to Gonyea Custom Homes today to talk through availability and start designing your home in Elwell Farms — we can’t wait to see what we build together. Give us a call at 763-432-4500, browse our available homesites, or visit our contact page to get started.
Gonyea Custom Homes 763-432-4500 | gonyeahomes.com