Project Management.

I price the site work honestly, including the parts nobody enjoys paying for. Dirt, drainage, drives and utilities are where the surprises live, and I’d rather put real numbers on them in month one.

Framing is where a house stops being a drawing. It’s also the last moment when changes are still reasonable, which is why I want owners walking the frame with me while the structure is open. You can stand in the room and understand the ceiling height in a way no elevation communicates. You can see where the light actually falls in the afternoon. Moving a window while the wall is open is a conversation. Moving it after drywall, paint and trim is demolition, and everyone in the process pays for it in time as well as money.

I keep the number of concurrent builds low on purpose. Being on the job is the entire value of hiring a builder rather than a broker.

Roof geometry does more work than almost any other decision. It sets the massing you see from the street, the volume you feel inside, where water goes, how much attic you have and what your framing costs. A complicated roof photographs beautifully and introduces valleys, which are where roofs leak. I’m not against complexity, but every plane should be there for a reason you can name. The simplest roof that gives you the rooms you want is almost always the one that ages best.

I put my family name on the sign. That's most of what keeps the standard where it is.

That’s the standard, and it doesn’t move depending on the size of the job.

I keep the number of concurrent builds low on purpose. Being on the job is the entire value of hiring a builder rather than a broker.

Framing is where a house stops being a drawing. It’s also the last moment when changes are still reasonable, which is why I want owners walking the frame with me while the structure is open. You can stand in the room and understand the ceiling height in a way no elevation communicates. You can see where the light actually falls in the afternoon. Moving a window while the wall is open is a conversation. Moving it after drywall, paint and trim is demolition, and everyone in the process pays for it in time as well as money.

Site work is the single most underestimated line in a custom build. Clearing, cut and fill, the driveway, drainage structures, the septic field if you’re on one, and the utility runs from wherever the service actually is to wherever your house will be. On an easy lot it’s modest. On a hard one it can rival the cost of framing the entire house. I put real numbers on it before you’re committed, because discovering it later is the most common way a budget comes apart in the first ninety days.

Utility service is the item people never price. If the meter is at the road and the house sits two hundred feet back, that trench costs real money, and it has to be coordinated with the drive and the drainage so nothing gets dug twice. On acreage you may be looking at a well, a septic field and a longer electrical run than the house itself needs.