Kitchen, 1926 bungalow · Plaza Midwood
The Build Ledger
One kitchen, 17 weeks, every number — including the $6,800 we went over and the 3 weeks we ran late.
Every builder in Charlotte has beautiful photographs. None of them will show you what the job actually cost, because the overruns look bad in isolation. They are not bad in isolation — they are what a hundred-year-old house does when you open it, and the only question is whether you find out before or after you sign.
So here is one, in full. Seventeen rows. Open any of them for what changed and who decided.
A note on what this is: a worked example, built to show the format and the level of detail. The format is exactly what you get during a project with us — the same columns, updated weekly, for your own house.
Week by week
168 sq ft, walls unchanged, one window enlarged. Rows with a marker opened up — tap any of them for what changed and who decided.
Your partSign, and send us photographs of what you've collected.
Running total to here: $3,500
Your partNothing. Be out of the house or ignore us.
Running total to here: $3,500
Your partTwo hours at the table with us. Bring disagreements.
Running total to here: $3,500
Your partOne showroom morning. Decide the counter; everything else follows it.
Running total to here: $3,500
Found on site · decided by Ashgrove
The Historic District Commission asked for a divided-light sash to match the originals rather than the single pane drawn. They were right. Redrawing and resubmitting cost nine days and no money, because the window hadn't been ordered yet — which is exactly why we don't order windows before the COA.
Your partNothing. This is ours.
Running total to here: $4,740
Running total to here: $15,240
Your partSign the construction contract. Kitchen closes Monday.
Running total to here: $11,740
Found on site · decided by Nobody — it just happened
The sill plate under the sink window was wet and the framing above it had gone soft — an old flashing failure, invisible until the cabinets came off. We stopped, photographed it, priced it and called before touching anything. Sistering the studs, a new sill and header, and a proper pan flashing: $3,400 and six days. Nobody could have quoted this in advance, and anyone who tells you they can inspect for it through a cabinet is selling you something.
Your partAnswer the phone. We needed a decision inside a day.
Running total to here: $19,240
Running total to here: $26,040
Running total to here: $38,440
Running total to here: $40,290
Running total to here: $46,190
Changed by choice · decided by The homeowner
The homeowner saw the first two square feet of backsplash go up and didn't like it — too much variation in the glaze against the counter. That is a fair reaction and it isn't one you can have from a sample board. We pulled it, sourced a quieter tile in the same format, and re-set: $1,900. We ate the labor on the two feet already set, and we told them the number before we ordered.
Your partLook at it on the wall before we go past the first foot. We'll ask.
Running total to here: $55,390
Found on site · decided by Ashgrove
The exterior wall was out of plumb by 1¼ inches over 8 feet — an old house settling, and more than the ½-inch scribe the tall cabinets were built to absorb. The choice was a visible tapered filler or remaking two end panels with a deeper scribe. We remade them: $1,500 and six days at the shop. The measured survey caught the floor in week one and didn't catch this, because you can't read a wall for plumb through plaster and cabinets.
Running total to here: $81,490
Running total to here: $89,690
Supplied late · decided by Nobody — it just happened
The range slipped eleven days at the distributor. No cost, and no days added — the schedule had float here precisely because appliance dates move, and we had sequenced paint to fill it. This row is in the ledger to show what an absorbed delay looks like. Most of what goes wrong on a job is this, not the week six kind, and most of it should never reach you.
Running total to here: $92,090
Running total to here: $96,940
Your partCook something. Find what annoys you before the punch walk.
Running total to here: $99,540
Your partWalk it with us and be difficult. That is what the walk is for.
Running total to here: $101,300
How it closed out
- Estimated
- $94,500
- Planned
- 14 weeks
- Final
- $101,300
- Actual
- 17 weeks
- Over
- +$6,800
- Late
- +3 weeks
That is 7.2% over on money and 21 days over on time, on a 168 sq ft, walls unchanged, one window enlarged kitchen in a Plaza Midwood bungalow. Neither number is zero, and any builder who shows you one that is has either not built it yet or is not showing you everything.
What happens with yours
Yours will have its own version of this.
Different surprises, different numbers. We cannot tell you what is under your sink window any more than we could tell that client — but we can tell you what the room costs, how long it takes, and where the risk sits, before you commit to building anything.
The design agreement is $3,500 for a kitchen or bathroom and $6,500 for whole-home or an addition, and it produces the first three columns of this ledger — the weeks, the work and the estimate — before you commit to anything. Credited in full against construction if you build.
- Licensed
- DEMO-GC-78412
- North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors
- Insured and bonded
- General liability, $2,000,000 aggregate
- Certificates come to you from the carrier, not from us
- Building since
- 2014
- 12 years in Charlotte
Take it with you
Not ready to spend anything? Take the ledger instead.
Useful for reading against somebody else’s bid. If a builder’s schedule has no float in it and their estimate has no contingency, you now know what that means.
