Category: Learn

How Do I Make Sure Construction Actually Matches My Approved Plans?

You shouldn’t have to watch every pour yourself — that’s part of what construction administration and regular site visits are for. But if you want an added layer of oversight, hiring an independent inspector to check in at critical points is a legitimate and affordable option, often just a few hundred dollars a visit. The […]

Can I Fire My Builder in the Middle of a Project?

If there’s real cause — a builder deviating from your approved, permitted plans, for example — you have legitimate grounds to end the contract. But it’s rarely simple. You almost certainly won’t find another builder willing to finish the project anywhere near your original price, and whoever takes over an unfinished project with a homeowner […]

My Builder Skipped Something in My Approved Plans — Is That a Red Flag?

My builder skipped something in my approved plans. Is that a red flag? Yes — it’s one of the clearest ones there is. Once your plans are approved for a building permit, your builder’s job is to build exactly what’s on those drawings and in the specifications, not to privately decide something is “over-engineered” and […]

How Complete Should My Plans Be Before I Get Pricing?

Source: Home: The Second Story podcast, Mailbag 3 episode — Sheri Scott (Springhouse Architects) & Marilyn Moedinger (Runcible Studios) How complete should my plans be before I ask a builder to price my project? The more finished your drawings are, the narrower and more accurate your pricing gets — and that accuracy costs time and […]

When a 160-Year-Old Church Becomes a Home: Lessons in Adaptive Reuse

There’s a remarkable property at the corner of Baymiller and York streets in Cincinnati’s West End that stops people in their tracks. From the outside, it still looks exactly like what it is: a Gothic Revival church built in 1866. But step inside, and you’ll find something that redefines what a home can be. The […]

What Most Architects Won’t Tell You About the Custom Home Process (We Tell You Everything)

The custom home process has a reputation problem. It is commonly described as expensive, slow, unpredictable, and exhausting. Projects run over budget. Timelines extend. Clients who started out excited end up feeling like the process happened to them rather than for them. Some of that reputation is deserved. But not for the reasons most people […]

After 20 Years in the Military, They Finally Built the Home They’d Been Planning for Decades.

Paul and Rebecca had been planning this home for a long time. Not in the passive, someday sense. In the active sense — the kind of planning that accumulates real information and makes real decisions, even when the build is still years out. Twenty years of military service meant twenty years of moving, but it […]

She Kept a Journal for 10 Years. Then She Found an Architect Who Could Create What She Saw.

For ten years, Cindy kept a journal. Not a mood board. Not a Pinterest folder. A real journal, with specific notes about materials she had noticed, spatial relationships she wanted to recreate, and details she had refined over a decade of serious observation. Industrial elements. Architectural steel. A kitchen that would function like a workshop […]

They Started Building During a Pandemic. Here’s What Happened When They Trusted the Process.

Spring 2020 was not an obvious time to begin building a custom home. The country was shutting down. Supply chains were uncertain. Nobody knew what the next six months would look like, let alone the next two years. The sensible advice, from nearly every direction, was to wait. Ashley and Greg did not wait. A […]

Home: The Second Story Podcast Series

From Uncertainty to Clarity: What Home: The Second Story Teaches About Designing a Better Home At its core, Home: The Second Story is not just a podcast about architecture—it’s about decision-making, expectations, and the lived experience of home. Initially hosted by three seasoned residential architects (now two), the podcast brings together real homeowner stories and […]