All right, Lincoln, we’ve got a series of questions.

How do you estimate project costs and how accurate are your initial estimates?

The way we’re able to do that is just based off of past projects.

And I’d say we’re within usually about 10%.

You’re gonna get as tight of an estimate as your plan is.

Yeah, so if your design is super detailed, then we’re gonna have a super detailed estimate.

As half-baked as your design is and as immature as the design is, you’re gonna get a fluffier number.

What happens if the project goes over budget?

If it goes over budget, there has to be a conversation of, we usually will go to our contractors and ask them for prices reductions and what can we do to make things cheaper.

And we usually press hard on our guys to bring the price down.

I will stop you right there.

First of all, there’s a distinction between it happening when it’s over budget on paper, not over budget in the field.

Oh yeah, great point.

Yeah, you should never have that experience of being like, what do you mean this is 20 grand?

You said 12, like in the field.

A lot of our competition does that to our clients.

Yeah, that should never happen.

That should never happen.

That’s a big whiff.

You should be knowing if you’re over budget when you’re in paper.

In paper, if we’re over budget, the first step is what we, it’s a three-step process right here.

What we do is we will go in there and we will press our contractors.

Maybe we get lower pricing from them.

Maybe we get another estimate from another contractor.

Second would be the design team will meet with us.

Hey, is there any way we can still make this project look amazing?

But instead of doing marble, can we do quartzite or whatever it may be like.

How do we get the same effect or the same outcome with a more affordable pathway?

It comes with us first, squeeze our contractors.

Then it comes down to trying to adjust the materials.

And then at the end of the day, it comes down to the client.

Sometimes they’ll be like, hey, I still have the budget to do that.

This is really important to me.

I’ll spend the extra 20 grand.

Okay, let’s make it happen.

Or let’s phase it.

That’s one of the things we do a lot of times with our clients is, hey, let’s do the things that are most important.

Let’s do the kitchen, the flooring, the bath.

Let’s do the addition.

And we’ll save the casita for later.

You know, we’ll do that for next phase two.

And that happens a lot with our clients.

So that would be the answer for that.

How do you handle unexpected challenges or changes during the construction phase?

Again, getting back to a good plan and a well thought out plan, you should be able to limit those as much as possible.

But there are surprises.

You handle them in one step at a time.

And you figure out, you know, at first there’s that phase of, okay, what are we dealing with?

What are the impacts of possible implications?

And then what’s plan A, plan B, plan C?

Or to the client, option one, two, or three.

What is the best outcome for them?

And you’re involving them in that discussion.

And you just, you handle it with transparency.

What is your typical project timeline and what factors could cause delays?

On the design side, the factors that are gonna cause the delays or any type of variance you’re going to the municipality with, hey, I need a little extra space here on this setback.

Or if you’re going to an HOA asking for approval, hey, you say I’m only allowed white windows.

That’s an outdated standard.

Can I do black windows?

Stuff like that.

If you’re asking for variances, that’s gonna be a delay.

Once your project has started, the things that get delayed are surprises.

You know, hey, the structural plans don’t call out this wall as a load-bearing wall and surprise, surprise, it’s a load-bearing wall.

And then we get the engineer out there.

Yep.

Resubmit it to plan.

Yeah, exactly, so.

So any type of surprise is gonna cause delays.

On a rare occasion, usually we don’t start a project until all materials are delivered, but sometimes there is some unique product that maybe shows up broken and you gotta reorder it or maybe showed up in the wrong color hue and that needs to get reordered and oh, sorry, that’s on back orders.

That can happen.

And we try to reduce that as much as possible, but it does happen.

Yeah, exactly.

Or sometimes something happens to materials where you order material, we bring it in, they open up the boxes, the labels are wrong and things happen.

That’s not on our end, but that can happen with the manufacturers.

That’s very rare.

But materials, there can always be some challenges with materials where a fan shows up or a chandelier shows up and it’s broken and then it’s like, oh, well, that’s a three-week delay for the final product to be done.

But a lot of these things, what we’re pretty good at is keeping the jobs always going, even though we have some of these delays.

Exactly.

Yeah, so that’s the key.

How do you ensure quality control throughout the project?

Good question.

So our superintendents have a, before we pay our subcontractors, they have an inspection sheet that they’re required to fill out.

So they’re inspecting the drywall work.

They’re inspecting the tie work.

Before we even pay our subcontractors, we have an inspection sheet where they go through every detail and it’s signed off by us and then we verify it.

So that’s an important step.

We also have project managers that go out to these job sites on top of the supers to verify, make sure things are good.

So we have like a double, triple layer system where quality is always being checked.

That’s very important to us.

Yeah, you want multiple sets of eyes.

When you’re working on a project, you can go blind to stuff.

So that second set of eyes, that third set of eyes is so helpful.

We want to make sure we address things before we have to rip stuff up and redo it.

We have a strong system in place to make sure that our quality is top tier.

That’s important for us.

Can you work with an existing floor plan or do you only design from scratch?

We do both, easy.

How do you handle energy efficiency and sustainability in your projects?

So particularly in glass.

Windows and insulation, yeah.

So obviously we have to comply with certain R values in the walls.

When it comes to glass, a lot of the glass that we’re working with now is going to be compliant with Title 24.

So it’s like, usually California is only leading with energy requirements.

So we’d like to be two, three steps ahead of that.

And anytime we’re implementing or working with a supplier, we want to make sure that we’re not building relationships and creating these product lines if something’s just going to be outdated and not usable.

So we’re trying to always be ahead of that and make sure that, hey, when we install something, particularly glass, it’s going to keep the heat out, keep the warmth in and keep the heat out in the summer, keep the warmth in in the winter and stuff like that.

We try to be way ahead of that.

Do you provide 3D renderings or virtual walkthroughs of the design before construction begins?

Yeah, it’s imperative because we want to, and it’s also important for the client to know, like there’s certain stages when you do this.

The short answer is yes.

And we do it in certain stages where a lot of those decisions are getting finalized.

Can you help with interior design selections like furniture and decor or just building?

Yes.

So yeah, one of our new additions to the team, she’s proficient in building out furniture, layouts and things like that and helping people get a really good deal on good quality product.

Yeah, she’s incredible.

What happens if I change my mind about a design element once construction has started?

Lashings.

It’s really simple.

We just change it and there’s obviously a cost to that and it’s something major, but it’s simple.

We can make it happen and we do it all the time because again, design build, it’s a lot easier for us to do it than others.

We try to stay away from that, but it happens.

It happens.

Yeah, it’s not a big deal.

What kind of maintenance will my new home or remodel require after completion?

The one thing, we can do a miracle transition or transformation of your property.

The one thing we can’t do is make a home that cleans itself and takes care of itself.

Yeah.

We don’t do robots like- Would they?

You’re still gonna have to clean the home.

You’re still gonna have to take care of new products.

Like grout, sealing your grout every now and then, sealing your quartzite every now and then, or marble.

There’s some things that you just gotta keep upkeeping, but it’s not that hard.

There’s like two or three things I can think of.

We’ve been out to projects where, hey, my slider door is really hard to open.

Well, you got a bunch of crap in the track.

You gotta clean it every now and then and put some lubrication on it, things like that.

I would say that our stuff, it’s very low, low main.

There’s not, again, it’s sealants for countertops, tile.

And then from there- Keeping water off stuff.

Yeah, keeping- Like, hey, wood cabinets is not, they’re not waterproof.

Yeah.

You know, don’t- I have wood floors.

My kids, we have an ice machine and they spill water and the wood below that is just completely gone.

And I’m like, so like there’s certain things like that, you just do your best.

Yeah, you gotta keep water off stuff, keep stuff dry, clean, and in working order.

And if something is not functioning properly, you know, fix it before it becomes worse.