About and contact
A design studio that's also the builder.
Founded in 2014. Kitchens, bathrooms, whole-home renovation and additions in Charlotte and the towns around it.
Design-build means one contract and one answerable party. The value is not efficiency — it is that nobody can tell you the drawings were fine and the builder ruined them, because the same firm did both and has to live with the result.
Who you actually deal with
Four people, and you will meet all of them.
Not a call centre and not a salesperson who hands you over. Here is who does what, and when they turn up.
- The designer
- Weeks one to five, then at every selection decision
- Measures the house, draws it, and is answerable for what the drawing costs to build. This is the person who replies to your enquiry, and the same person who tells you the island won't fit.
- The project lead
- From demolition to handover, on site most days
- Runs the trades, holds the schedule, and writes the Friday update. If something is found behind a wall, this is who photographs it and rings you the same day.
- The estimator
- Before you sign, and again at every change
- Prices the drawings against real supplier quotes rather than square-foot averages, and prices every change order the same way — including the ones that reduce the number.
- The trades
- Their stages, and they're the same people each time
- Electricians, plumbers, tilers, cabinetmakers and plasterers we've used for years. All carry their own liability cover and workers' compensation, and we hold current certificates for every one of them.
License, insurance and money
The boring page, in full.
- North Carolina general contractor license
- DEMO-GC-78412
- Building — Limited classification, issued by the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors. North Carolina requires a license on any single project of $40,000 or more, and the board’s public register is searchable by anyone.
- Insurance and workers’ compensation
- General liability, $2,000,000 aggregate. Workers' compensation on every employee and required of every trade. Certificates come to you direct from the carrier rather than as a PDF from us — a PDF from a contractor proves nothing, and asking for it from the carrier costs you nothing.
- How we charge
- A fixed-fee design agreement first — $3,500 for a single kitchen or bathroom, $6,500 for whole-home or an addition. Credited in full against construction if you sign within 90 days of the drawings being issued. Then a fixed-price construction contract with a stated contingency, drawn down against real costs and returned to you if it is not used.
- No free consultations. A free consultation is a sales visit, and the design work it skips is the expensive part.
- Paying for it
- Most clients use a home equity line of credit or cash. We take card for the design agreement and bank transfer for construction draws, which are tied to completed stages rather than to dates. We do not offer in-house financing and we do not take a commission from any lender — if a contractor is arranging your finance, ask what they are paid for it.
Start here
Request the design agreement.
Four fields. You are not committing to anything and there is nothing to pay to send this — the first reply is a conversation about whether what you want and what you were expecting to spend are in the same room.