Question and answer, Brian.

What is a change order?

There’s a lot of different, you know, definitions of what a change order is.

What is an actual change order?

So, change order is anything that is maybe unforeseen on a project that is not captured in the original scope.

Also, a change order could be something a customer wants to add now that you’re in construction.

Hey, I wanna, you know, I actually wanna do more slab in this room, could we, you know?

So, additional work.

Is a change order when some, when our company messes up with something, let’s say like, let’s say that we lose a mirror or we, or Kingdom & Co. breaks the slab on accident, is that considered a change order to the client?

Not at all.

That’s something that we eat every time.

We would not expect you to cover something that was our fault.

It’s just whatever’s not in the scope originally that’s added upon.

Correct, yeah.

Is a change order.

So, an unforeseen, like going back to if I open up a wall, you know, mechanical in the way where I’m supposed to put this post, yeah, that’s unforeseen.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t planned for and that would constitute a change order.

And we hate to change orders.

We hate them.

That’s why we do our due diligence in the pre-construction and we try to go in and see, could there be?

We break holes in walls and we look and to make it to where we mitigate those change orders.

Yeah, lots of our competition love change orders because that’s where they make all their money.

It’s true.

They underbid and they make money off the change orders.

100%.

It’s very normal.

Can I design my project myself?

That’s a good question.

Can, let’s say like I was gonna do a remodel and I was like, you know, I can design this myself.

Anybody can do it.

But at the end of the day, you’re probably gonna spend 10 times more because you’re gonna be redoing a lot of stuff that you hate.

There’s a lot to say with interior designers knowing functionality and the way a home should flow.

You know, a lot of people will think they’re designers and they realize they get done with it.

Man, I only have two bathrooms.

That’s so far my guess here.

That’s what’s so good with work in design build.

They know what that framework looks like.

Right, so if I was gonna design my own house, I would say the answer would be yes and no.

Meaning, of course you can design it.

But then when we have a process where we vet the plans and if there’s a lot of missing things, then we’ll have to go back to you and redesign.

And then, so the answer is you could, but the key is we need every detail because if we can’t hand it off to our field guys with specifics of our, we have a checklist of every detail that needs to be in there.

If you can’t design it to those details, then I would say no.

But if you are able to, then I’d say yes.

Yeah, I agree with that.

And just so you know, it’s an overwhelming process because there’s, I mean, it sounds silly, but down to your door stops, you got to purchase those, your faucets, your sinks, your slabs, your flooring.

You wanna use a special wallpaper here, this and this.

There’s so many moving parts that for a general contractor, like if you don’t have that stuff in place and when we’re ready to do the work, it could kill the timeline on your project.

If you’re gonna do it every day, you’re kind of like, okay, grout line thicknesses, thicknesses of countertops, countertop edges, transition points, what kind of tile goes into this and what kind of the right glue for this.

There’s so many variables for every little detail and we’ve made all those mistakes in the past.

So there is an advantage of paying us to do it for you because at the end of the day, you’ll probably spend about the same amount of money.

But if you’re a good artist and you’re a good designer, you have experience with this kind of stuff, you can definitely design your own, but it’s just very rare.

Yeah, I agree.

What is your favorite remodel story?

I’ve done too many.

I don’t even know where you begin on this one.

Memorable would probably be the job we did for the Property Brothers where me and the team worked basically 24 hours straight to meet our deadline.

There was a lot riding on it.

That was the last day of filming.

If we didn’t meet it, we would have had to pay for their production team to come back.

That was written in our contract.

It was a big deal.

And I remember even staying there to the point, I got my car basically towed by security because you couldn’t have work in their community after 6 p.m.

And I told them, nah, that’s cheaper, tow it.

I’d rather get the house done than have to pay for a production team to come back.

But it’s memorable because everybody came together.

We knew it was gonna be miserable.

We were taking naps in the closet, power naps, just to make it through the night.

And somehow we did it.

The next morning, the production crew showed up.

House was clean.

We met the reveal, and it looked unbelievable.

And I think it’s cool that Jonathan and Drew are still friends to this day, and they were amazing guys to work for and work with.

And watching you guys do that work was incredible.

I mean, these were full remodels in seven weeks.

I mean, crazy stuff.

We tiled a fireplace that was 25 foot tall by probably 14 feet wide, two feet deep, in 12 hours, nonstop.

And we’ll never do it again?

Never.

We almost died.

Yes.

I remember coming and bringing you a blanket one night because you were like, hey, I brought you a pillow and a blanket because you said you needed to spend the night there.

So I remember leaving in the middle of the night, bringing that over to you guys just to help you out.

So that was a really cool experience.

It was a memorable one, for sure.

How does the Kinemico process help limit the amount of change orders in a project?

Well, I kind of look at it as a three-phase step.

You have your consultation, your design, and then your actual construction.

And we take the time that’s necessary in each phase because you don’t want to rush it, start the job, and then take steps back to move forward.

It’s critical in the design that we have everything called out, that when we’re done with that, we know what we’re building.

And that sets us apart.

A lot of contractors in town will start without even having the finishes called out.

Again, another area for change orders to come into play because, oh, you’re picking out large format tile as opposed to typical two-by-four porcelain or whatever.

Yeah, that’s four times as much to install.

But Brian, they were so much cheaper at the very beginning.

Yeah, exactly, that’s why.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

What warranties and post-occupancy services should I expect?

Like, once I finish the project, sometimes projects, there’s a few things that we need to clean up or fix up or things like that.

So, what are some things, what should I expect once the project’s completed, what should I expect?

So, at the end of the project completion, we’re gonna walk with the customer and we’re gonna identify the punch list in a formal format.

We’re gonna type it, send it to the customer so he knows exactly what needs to be done to be finished.

Again, we strive to not have a punch list at the end, but if there is, that’s the first thing we do.

Once we finish that punch list, we’re at substantial completion.

That’s when we square up.

We then go into what’s known as the warranty phase.

If anything pops up, you call us, we’re gonna take care of it.

Now, our warranty consists of a one-year, I like to say bumper-to-bumper, a 10-year structural.

But we’ve always lived the way of, if something’s wrong and we were your contractor, please call us, we’re gonna make it right, even if it’s two, three, four years down the road.

Because the relationship’s more important to us than making that extra couple hundred bucks to send somebody out there to fix it.

It’s not worth it.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, can Kenan & Co. handle complex hillside or view lots in Las Vegas?

Yes, we have great trade partners.

We’ve done them already.

They’re challenging, though, right?

They’re very challenging, yes.

You have some of the retention that’s involved.

You have layered retention going up into these cliff sides.

I mean, it’s complex, but what’s great is we have partners, great engineers, that give us the details needed to accomplish them.

And there’s some projects on our website right now that you can see where we’ve gone into the cliff side, and they’re beautiful.

Engineering on that is very important.

Yes, it’s crucial.

Dirt compaction, very important.

Soil reports, very important.

Yeah, so even though, in a job, you have what’s called a QAA.

It says all the inspections you’re supposed to get on something like that.

And even any job we do, we’ll get some new builds where it doesn’t even say that you need to do a concrete pour observation.

I still do it every job because I don’t want to have any issues.

I have them come take the moisture of the concrete.

They take cylinders, test it.

So we go above and beyond our third parties, even if they’re not required.

So something like that, being on a cliff side home or a retention wall, I’m calling third party for compaction, rebar, third party for the backfill observation to make sure we’re meeting our detail of the gravel going up against the retention wall.

These are the certain things that if you’re not experienced in it, I mean, it’s catastrophic.

It’s life safety.

It’s a major lawsuit.

It’s a company ender.

It’s something that, you know, again, you want to vet your general contractors to make sure they’re actually can do this type of work.

All right, what is considered a major remodel versus a cosmetic refresh?

Like what’s some of the things that go into that?

So I like to call like a facelift.

That’s just where we’re going in and redoing surfaces.

I’m not changing any of the walls.

I’m not, you know, I’m not moving your island, saw cutting stuff.

I’m just going in and beautifying the home.

Structural is, yeah, we’re going in there.

We’re pouring new footings because I’m changing a structural wall.

I got to put post beams in.

We’re opening up a floor plan.

You know, I’m taking, I’m adding a bathroom or I’m, you know, moving the location of the bathroom.

That’s major structural.

What are some of the pros and cons of open plan versus defined spaces in luxury homes?

That’s a good question.

And it’s interesting because I see people trying to push for more specific spaces again.

Yeah, because I’m an open concept guy.

Might go to my house.

I have, you know, the one wing where the kids are and then my great room through my kitchen completely open because I like that feel.

Well, and I think to me, the argument I have to some of these designers who are pushing this is like, I think that people want the open concept for the kitchen and living room because when people are cooking or entertaining, they want to have like a Superbowl party.

They want everybody to be together.

But I definitely agree with the point of like, okay, maybe a separate office that’s a little further away or a library or a place where there’s more refuge.

So I can definitely see, or maybe a dining area that’s not, that’s more formal so that you can have more of a specific experience.

So I can see it being almost a hybrid of having an open space and specific areas to where it’s not connected to the main area.

But I just don’t see the open area ever going completely away because again, us as humans, we want to be able to cook and we want to be able to be with each other and spend time together and watch the game while people are in the kitchen hanging out or people are by the game table hanging out.

The game’s on, we’re in the living room.

Like people want those experiences and I don’t think that’s going to go away anytime soon.

I’m seeing on jobs I’m getting lately, the open floor plan concept is getting dialed back more and more.

You’re seeing more, you know, a hallway when you first come into that open floor plan, but that hallway now goes down to an area where you have individualized office, a gym, a mudroom that’s all kind of separated out.

And you know, it’s just trends, but it’s just, yeah.

I don’t think you can really go wrong either way, in my opinion.

I agree with you, yeah.

But if it was me, I’m all about the open plan.

I like to be able, like you said, have parties or my family’s, my wife’s cooking to be able to like joke with her in the same room.

Right, exactly.

I see a lot of realtors, I’ve talked to them, the open floor concept is still very desirable, but there is specific areas that people want to have more privacy.

When is the best time to start a consultation if you want your projects completed by the end of summer or holidays of next year?

You know, right now is the time if you’re looking to get work done in the summer, because we’re in the winter months right now in the beginning of November, is probably the time you want to get in for your consultation.

During the holidays is a good time to get started, get the ball rolling, start having your consultation, seeing if it’s within the budgets, and then you can start design sometime in January, finish in the springtime, and then you can hopefully finish it by the holidays of next year.

Again, you don’t want to rush the design and planning phases.

You want, this is your dream home.

You want to do it right.

So right now, I would say for next holidays, this is the time to get in.

Agreed.