Musings and Contemplations from Our Team
In our last blog, we covered how we come up with our pricing for a construction project. In hindsight, I realized I failed to mention why prices can still vary so greatly from one competitor to another. There are many reasons for this, and, in part, it depends on at what stage pricing is being…
It seems to be a big mystery as to how remodelers and custom builders come up with their pricing. I obviously can’t speak to how everyone else does their pricing, but I can address how we do things at Custom Dwellings. What we don’t do is a square foot price. In my opinion, there are…
One of the first questions potential clients want to know when they call Custom Dwellings is; how much will my project cost? The short answer is, “it depends”. With the help (i.e., blatant rip off of a well written blog) of Marcus Sheridan, I’ll try to do my best here to explain why that question…
Going back to my business school days and in countless books and articles since, I’ve often heard of a company needing to define their core values. I used to look at this as a bunch of theoretical academic mumbo jumbo and paid little heed. My disinterested approach may have even been OK when our company…
Natural stone is a wonderful product for hardscaping, flooring, and even countertops, but I don’t think there is a builder out there who won’t have a disclaimer about the fact it is a natural product and colors will vary. Each and every stone has its own unique texture and color. This makes for a truly…
Renovation Update! After some hiccups with broken tile and lot mismatches (new lots one size and old lots smaller!) we are finally in Tile Phase I in our primary bath renovation- the shower. While I’ve laid tile in a tub/shower before, it’s been a while (back in 2000 or so) and it wasn’t nearly as…
That’s a question most people would probably never think of asking of a contractor they are interviewing to build their project. I’d make the argument that it is an important question to ask. First though we need to understand what project management software is. At a minimum it is software (ideally an app) that is…
By now we all know the effects the Covid Pandemic had on prices in the construction industry. First lumber prices skyrocketed and everything else was soon to follow. We often had clients ask if it would be beneficial to put a hold on their project until prices went back down. While we obviously want clients…
My 16-year-old daughter has always shown a bit of interest in the projects I work on. When she was 8, I taught her how to finish sheetrock while I was finishing our basement to make room for baby number 4. She picked it up quickly! Now she says she wants to help with the tile…
Now it is time for the electrical rough. The bath fan needs to be GFCI protected, so we settled on adding a “dead front” on a wall that will be covered by a picture. That was a good idea until I realized that my Home Depot doesn’t sell them anymore. So, I improvised and bought…