Remodeling questions, answered

One contract covering both the design and the construction, with one firm accountable for both. You are not hiring a designer and then hiring a builder to interpret them, and you are never asked to decide which of two companies is right when the drawing and the field disagree.

Because design is real work with real hours in it, and a firm that gives it away is either recovering it in the construction price or not doing much of it. The design fee is defined in the Design Agreement, it is stated up front, and you own the drawings.

At the Fixed-Price Proposal, phase four — after the drawings exist and the trades have priced them. It is a fixed price with an itemized scope, not an estimate, and it is the first number we will ever ask you to sign.

Sixty thousand dollars. We publish it, along with the four ranges above it and a straight statement of who we are honestly not the right firm for, on The Right Fit.

Design is typically eight to fourteen weeks. Construction runs from about six weeks for a single bath to nine months or more for a whole house. You get a written schedule with the proposal, before you sign it.

In writing, priced, and signed by both of us before the work happens. Never after. That is a term of the construction agreement rather than a habit we are describing.

Our workmanship — framing, drywall, tile setting, cabinetry installation, trim, paint adhesion, and the installation of the fixtures and systems we put in. Manufactured products carry their own manufacturer warranties. The scope, the exclusions and the term are printed in your contract and we will email a copy any time.

Yes, at eleven months, uninvited, before your first year closes. It is the only phase of our process that happens after the money is spent, and it is the one that tells you whether the rest of it was true.

Usually, for a kitchen, a bath, or an addition. Rarely, for a whole-home renovation. We will tell you honestly which one yours is at Discovery rather than at month two.

No. The value of what we do is that the people who drew it are accountable for building it, and selling drawings alone would break that.

Yes. Federal lead-paint rules govern any work that disturbs painted surfaces in homes built before 1978, and window replacement and demolition of painted surfaces are covered regardless of how small the area is. It affects containment, cleaning, verification, the schedule and the number, and we build it into the proposal.

Some clients use third-party lenders. Those arrangements are between you and the lender — we publish no rate, no term and no monthly figure, and we make no representation about what you will be offered.