Planning Process and Timeline

Dear Pat and Neil*,

Designing and building (or renovating) a custom home requires resources, time, and emotional energy. It takes significantly more of all three of these things to create a custom project than it does to buy or build a production or semi-custom home. The reward, though, for the increased effort and resources is amazing. This is the path to create your dream home - the home that you and your family will enjoy for decades to come.

Every project has a team. When we are all ready to start, we set up these teams based on fit and availability. When you engage us in a planning or design agreement, there is sometimes a queue (hopefully short) until we have the capacity to focus on your project. This works much like a ski lift: when we wrap up one project, we can move on to the next.

Most of our projects take about 7 to 8 months to move from the starting gate to breaking ground. Planning timelines vary. Planning timeline drivers include architect capacity and design document delivery schedule, client capacity to review work and make decisions and selections, builder and trade partner pricing timelines, building site entitlements, permit review and approval timeline, financing timeline, quantity and timing of revisions, and special circumstances (for example, if the project is in a local historic district). When the building industry is busy, the time required for each of these drivers can increase which, in turn, extends the planning process.

The design + build process brings the client, the architect, and the builder together early in design. We all find alignment and pull in the right direction so we create a project that you love and that is just right for you and your family.

Respectfully,

Randall Lanou
Company Lead

P.S. Since you have been married for more than 30 years, you know the value of doing what it takes to build something that lasts!

*Full disclosure: not only have we never worked for Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, we've never actually met them. Indeed, I'm not sure we've ever been in the same city at the same time. They seem like fun people, though, and we would be happy to build a home for them. If any of you are close friends with them, we would be grateful for an introduction!