Our Process
Designing and building your dream home should be an exciting journey, not an overwhelming one.
That’s where we come in. By getting involved from the very beginning—at the conceptual and schematic design stages—we provide the expert guidance needed to keep your project on track. Our construction knowledge and strategic planning help you and the design team make informed decisions that don’t compromise your goals or your budget. With us by your side, you can move forward with confidence, knowing every detail is thoughtfully planned and considered.
Below outlines our process, from initial conversations to project completion for building a new custom home. The process is similar for additions and renovations.
Pre-Construction Process
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Our initial call is about your vision, lifestyle, and scope of your project. We take the time to understand your timeline and budget to ensure that we’re capable of delivering. If you've already started working with an architect or designer, we’ll review any in-progress design documents to get up to speed. If you're not at that point yet, we can recommend trusted design professionals based on your project’s needs.
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Following our initial discussion, we take a deeper dive into your project scope, dedicating time to analyzing the available design and specifications. Using historical data and industry expertise, we provide a preliminary cost estimate presented as a range, as details are still being refined at this stage. If there are any ambiguities, we’ll offer recommendations to help define the scope more clearly. Additionally, we may develop a high-level project timeline based on the design status and estimated construction duration. With this information in hand, you can confidently decide whether to move forward with us and bring your dream home to life.
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If you choose to move forward with us, we’ll enter into a Pre-Construction Services Agreement, a crucial step in ensuring a smooth and well-planned building process. This standalone agreement compensates us for the significant time and expertise required to properly plan, coordinate, and manage all the details leading up to a construction agreement.
During this phase, we:
Collaborate and coordinate with the client, designers, and key vendors to define the project scope, refine the design, improve the constructability and durability of the home.
Develop cost estimates at design milestones and provide cost-optimization recommendations. If adjustments are needed to maintain budget objectives, they happen during design—not during construction.
Create detailed scopes of work and specification packages to ensure accurate pricing from subcontractors and vendors.
At the conclusion of the pre-construction phase, you will have a finalized Control Estimate, detailed scopes of work, and a clear construction schedule, setting the stage for a successful and well-executed build.
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The Construction Agreement is signed once the design team has completed the construction documents and the necessary permits are approved. The most successful projects are those with well-defined plans before construction begins—reducing surprises, delays, and unexpected costs.
Construction Process
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Congrats! The excitement is about to begin. Before construction starts, the project team meets to:
Review project documents: plans, specifications, estimate and schedule
Review applicable policies, procedures, and expectations
Document any outstanding design, specification or decisions with associated due-dates to prevent construction delays
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The project’s actual construction costs are diligently tracked and compared to the Control Estimate. Provided that scope was detailed during pre-construction, there should not be much variance between expected and actual costs. Monthly, you receive a Draw Request that details line-by-line completed costs, forecasted variances and any cost for changes orders requested outside of the Control Estimate scope.
Throughout construction, you receive a bi-weekly schedule update with a lookahead to upcoming activities. Any outstanding decisions and their due dates are clearly communicated. Progress photos are shared. Key milestones are forecasted for scheduling site meetings with the project team.
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We perform QA/QC on the jobsite daily, but invite the project team to meet on-site at key construction milestones. They are intended to review work-in-place as well as coordinate and define specifics of upcoming work.
Framing Completion / Pre-MEP Roughs
Rough Inspections Completion / Pre-Insulation
Flooring, Millwork and Interior Trim Pre-Install
MEP Finishes
Homeowner Orientation / Punch-List
Punch-List Completion / Project Turnover
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Upon substantial completion, we guide you through your home, explaining and educating how things work and what responsibilities you are expected to do. Maintenance is paramount for the home’s long-term success
To ensure long-term performance, we inspect the home after 3-months and 11-months and to answer any questions or concerns you have
We are always a phone call away
Some of our favorite project planning and management tools.
Bluebeam - this program is a workhorse for project management and estimating. We use it to perform quantity take-offs of various materials and systems; from volumes of concrete, to square footages of flooring, to cabinet hardware counts. It allows us to do constructability reviews, drawing overlays and redlining as we coordinate with architects, engineers and designers. Not a day goes by that Bluebeam isn’t up and running.
Microsoft Project - this allows us to create tailored schedules in Gantt and calendar views. We utilize it to create construction schedules as well as procurement / need-to-know-by schedules as to prevent in-field delays. These schedules are updated and shared with the project team, so everyone is in the know as the project progresses.
SketchUp - while typically used by designers, we find great value in being able to visually model specific conditions or details that we will encounter. It allows for proactive problem solving so we can keep construction on time and budget.
Matterport - this technology is exceptionally valuable to the builder and client. Utilizing a special camera, this stitches together photos into a 3D scan of a space. It’s primary value occurs before insulation and drywall, where a scan creates record of the insides of floor, wall and ceiling cavities. There is then always record of where things are without having to remove drywall or other interior finishes.
