Our Design-Build Process

A short phone conversation, usually 15 to 20 minutes. We'll ask what you're trying to accomplish, what part of your home is driving you crazy, your rough timeline, and the investment range you're thinking about. If it's a good fit on both sides, we'll move forward to the next step.

If the project sounds like a match, we visit your home. We walk the spaces with you, take measurements, talk through what's possible structurally, and pressure-test ideas against your budget and the way your family actually uses your home.

You'll get straight answers about what's realistic, what isn't, and where the real cost drivers are.

Within about a week of our visit, we send a written investment range for your project.

This isn't a fixed price. It's an honest number, based on similar projects we've built, so you can decide whether to move forward without anyone designing in a vacuum. If the range doesn't work, finding out this early will help us work together to brainstorm alternative options that will keep your budget intact.

If the proposal amount aligns with your budget, we move into paid design. This phase pulls in our architect and interior design partners to produce real floor plans, structural drawings, 3D renderings, and a guided selections process for finishes, fixtures, cabinetry, and materials.

You stay involved at the level you want to be, but you don't have to manage the designers and architect yourself. That coordination is on us.

Most of our best projects spend real time here, because every hour invested in design saves three during construction.

While your design agreement is being drafted, we're working behind the scenes to make sure everything's ready to build. We coordinate early with your key trades, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, to validate design feasibility, identify conflicts, and make sure the construction documents reflect an accurate scope before pricing.

We will handle civil engineering if required by municipality. That covers the topographic survey, existing site conditions, the sediment and erosion control plan, the proposed site plan, and grading and drainage. Once construction drawings are complete, we compile and submit all required permit documents to the municipality on your behalf. Permit fees are the homeowner's responsibility. 

At each design milestone, you get an updated construction budget impact summary. And when design wraps, we deliver a detailed construction proposal with a fully defined scope, material allowances, and a project timeline.

With finalized drawings and selections in hand, we produce a detailed, line-itemed construction proposal: scope, allowances, schedule, payment milestones, and a fixed price.

No more "we'll figure it out during the build." You'll know what you're getting, what it costs, and when it's done before you sign the construction contract.

This is also when permits and HOA approvals get queued up.

We pull permits, schedule trades, and start the build. You get a dedicated project manager, a shared schedule, and weekly check-ins so you always know what happened last week, what's happening this week, and what's coming next. Surprises are the enemy of a good remodel, and the entire build is structured to keep them rare and small.

Before we call a project done, we walk the home with you and build a punch list of anything that needs adjustment.

Once everything is signed off, you get a written workmanship warranty and a real person to call if something needs attention later. We'll be here when you need us.