Renovation · within one hour’s drive
A renovation does not begin with a number from a walkthrough.
The expensive questions on a job site are almost always design decisions that arrived too late. Everything below exists to move those decisions earlier, when changing them is still free. Construction is delivered under a licensed registered contractor.
Ours or someone else’s.
If you have one, we price the construction directly and there is no pre-construction fee.
If you do not, the design comes first. We will not put a firm price on a room nobody has drawn, because that number is a guess dressed up as a commitment.
The step most firms skip, and the one that decides whether your price holds.
- the design and selections approved, before anything is ordered
- verification on site, including opening up whatever needs opening up
- a real quote from every trade on the job — no allowances
- a firm final price, in writing, before anything is demolished
The fee is set from the size of the project and confirmed in writing. Part of it credits toward construction when you go ahead within thirty days of receiving the firm price.
The agreement
A written agreement with the scope, the firm price and the schedule. Permits are pulled before work begins. Payment follows the work — each stage is released when the stage before it is complete and verified, never on a calendar.
Protection, then demolition
The rest of the house gets sealed off before anything is opened. Dust containment, floor protection, and negative air where the age of the house calls for it. It is the least visible line on the invoice and the one clients mention most afterwards. Then demolition — and in a house built before the mid-1980s, expect to find something. It is budgeted as a range from the start rather than discovered in week three.
Rough-in, and the first quality gate
Plumbing and electrical set against the drawing, not against where the old one happened to be. Blocking where anything will hang. Nothing gets covered until it has been checked. A quality gate is a stop, not a note.
Waterproofing, and the gate that matters most
The part nobody sees and the only one that can ruin everything downstream. We specify it as a system — membrane type, coverage, transitions and how it terminates — rather than leaving it to whoever is setting the tile. It is flood-tested for 24 hours and it has to pass before a single tile goes on.
Finishes
Tile set to the drawn layout. Cabinetry, stone, glass, lighting, hardware. Material was ordered during pre-construction against lead times, so the site is not waiting on a box.
Closeout
Punch list walked with you, not sent to you. Warranties and manuals handed over. Final cleaning. Nothing over $500 changes without your signature — in either direction.
The work behind the walls
Stone template
Before
Tile layout
The drawing, on site
Completed
Valve rough-in
Color check
A proposal is good for 14 days.
The firm construction price holds 30 days and can be revalidated to day 60, which is what it costs to go back to every trade and ask again. After that it is re-priced. Material is ordered inside the 30-day window; after it, a line adjusts to the supplier’s current cost.
Trade Partners.
Selected on the quality of their last job rather than the size of their discount. It is one of the few decisions still visible in a room years later.
