Renovation and design
Renovation project management
Somebody whose job is the schedule, the sequence and the follow-up, so the job does not run on whoever shouts loudest.
What you get
Project Management, specifically
- A schedule with the sequence written down
- Bids compared against one identical scope
- Change orders priced in writing before they are approved
- Site visits through the build and a punch list at the end
This work is separate from my real estate brokerage activity. What that means, in plain terms.
Somebody has to own the schedule
Renovation project management is mostly the job of holding one sequence in one place. On a job where nobody holds it, the order of work gets decided by whichever trade returned a call first, and the result is an electrician working around a tiler who is working around cabinets that arrive three weeks late.
A written sequence fixes the order and the dependencies. Rough-in before drywall. Cabinets measured, then counters templated, then the sink and faucet. Flooring before or after the cabinets depending on the material, which is a decision with a real cost attached rather than a preference. Inspections scheduled around the work instead of discovered after it.
The owner is usually the person holding all of this by default, in the evenings, from a phone, while also living somewhere without a kitchen. That arrangement is where most of the money gets lost, and it is the thing this service replaces.
Hand the schedule to someone else
One scope, bid three ways
A bid is only a number until you know what it covers. Three contractors quoting from a walkthrough and a conversation are quoting three different jobs, with different assumptions about who buys the fixtures, who patches the ceiling and who carries the debris away.
Every bid I compare gets handed the same written scope first. Then the comparison becomes a real one, and the interesting differences show up: the labor rate, the lead times, the allowances each contractor built in, and whether anybody priced the thing the other two quietly left out.
Price is not the only axis in that comparison. Availability, the size of the crew, how the contractor handles a change, and whether they will still answer the phone in month three all belong in the decision. A written scope does not come from nowhere, which is why renovation planning normally runs before this service starts.
Change orders, priced before they are approved
Every renovation changes. A wall opens and the framing behind it was not what the previous owner claimed, or you stand in the room and realize the window should be wider. Changes are normal and they are not the problem.
The problem is the change nobody priced. A verbal yes in a dusty hallway becomes a line on an invoice six weeks later, at a number nobody agreed to, with no record of the conversation. Four of those in a row is how a renovation ends twenty percent over budget with everyone feeling cheated and nobody at fault.
The rule on my jobs is simple and unpopular for about a week. A change gets written down and priced before it is approved, including the effect on the schedule. You see the cost and the delay, you say yes or no, and the number goes on the budget where you can see what it has done to the contingency.
Money leaves in draws, not in lumps
Payment schedule is the one piece of real power an owner holds, and most give it away in the first week. A large deposit followed by whatever the contractor asks for and whenever they ask for it leaves you funding work that has not happened on a job you cannot stop.
Work gets paid in draws tied to completed stages, with the stages defined in the scope. Rough-in passed and inspected. Drywall hung and finished. Cabinets set. Final, after the punch list closes rather than before it opens. The last draw is the one that matters most, and it is the one owners most often release early.
Renovation loans run on this logic already. An FHA 203k holds the renovation funds and releases them against inspected progress, which is one of the reasons I like that product for a house that needs real work. The financing side of that is covered on the main renovation page, and investors running the same arithmetic on a rental will find the purchase side under investment property.
The punch list somebody actually walks
A renovation does not end when the crew leaves. It ends when the last twenty small things are done: the door that does not latch, the outlet that sits crooked, the caulk line along the backsplash, the paint on the trim where the tape pulled.
Those items get walked with a pen while the final draw is still unpaid, which is the only moment when getting them fixed is easy. Walked a month later, after the money is gone and the crew has started another job, the same list takes six phone calls and still ends with you doing three of them yourself.
Warranty and the paperwork trail close out the same way. Permits finalized, inspections signed off, appliance registrations, and the receipts collected in one place rather than in four glove boxes. An owner who sells in five years will want that file, and so will their buyer.
Coming in mid job
Some of these calls arrive with the house already open. The contractor has gone quiet, the schedule has slipped twice, three changes are unpriced, and the owner has stopped being able to tell whether they are being taken advantage of or merely unlucky.
Starting mid job is harder than starting clean and it is still worth doing. The first step is an honest inventory: what has actually been completed, what has been paid for, what the remaining scope really is, and what the realistic finish date looks like. Sometimes that produces a plan to continue with the same contractor on tighter terms. Sometimes it produces a decision to stop.
What I will not do is tell you the situation is fine when it is not. If the work already in place has a problem, you hear about it, in writing, with what it would take to put right. Everything in this section sits outside my brokerage activity, and what that separation means is set out in plain terms on the renovation page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you the general contractor on the job?
No. Licensed trades do the work, pull their permits and carry the liability for what they build. I manage the scope, the schedule, the bids, the change orders and the draws on your behalf.
Can you take over a renovation that has already started?
Yes, and it happens often. The first piece of work is an inventory of what has been completed, what has been paid, and what the remaining scope actually is, before anybody decides whether to continue with the same crew.
Do you have contractors you work with?
Yes, and you are not required to use them. Plenty of owners bring their own contractor and hire me to hold the scope, the schedule and the money against it.
How often are you on site?
It depends on the stage. Rough-in and tile need eyes on them more than paint does, and the schedule we agree at the start says who is checking what and when.
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