Design Decisions, Delivered: Our Step-by-Step Process
This month, we’re going to talk about something that, frankly, doesn’t get discussed enough: how the &*$% do you manage all of the details regarding finish selections for a project?!
I’m going to be blunt: when we first started in this business, we were totally winging it. We’d make decisions as questions popped up, and if something needed to be changed to accommodate a selection or design, we’d just redo it. Luckily, we were able to learn our biggest lessons on our own development deals. Now, working with clients has forced us to be much more organized.
If you want to be efficient, you have to know what you’re building before you start. In an ideal world, we have all of our design decisions and finishes spec’d before a project begins. In a less-than-ideal (but still workable) world, we have all design decisions finalized by the time structural framing is complete. Many design decisions affect how we frame a space, so being ahead of schedule is truly the only way to be on schedule.
Alright, we understand why it’s important to get organized early, but how do we actually do it? We get involved with our clients as early as possible and rely on a few internal resources for guidance:
Design Deliverable Packet
Spec Book
Order Procurement Sheet
Design Deliverable Packet
This is a comprehensive packet comprising all high-level decisions required for building a house. When I say high-level, I’m referring to the things that are needed for essentially every project (not custom items). For instance:
What style of doors do you want? Solid core or hollow? What color is the door? What door hardware are you using? We need these answers because we want to match the door handles to the hinges, and we order the hinges with the doors! What’s the style of the trim? What’s the size? What’s the color? And that’s just the doors. We confirm everything—from the style and color of windows to whether appliances are gas or electric.
Disclaimer: This is a fantastic resource for our investor projects and can be used efficiently by homeowners. However, we always prefer to bring in a professional design team when working on fully custom homes.
Spec Book
This is a booklet organized by room, showing all of the finish details for each space. Each room includes screenshots of the architectural set, product images with links, custom details, helpful notes, and more.
The Spec Book includes:
A tile cheat sheet (location, specs, design, grout color, etc.)
A paint cheat sheet (location, color SKU, sheen)
A millwork cheat sheet (trim style, color, sheen, size, door details, specialty molding, etc.)
This helps our clients visualize the full picture and helps our on-site team stay organized by trade and by room.
Order Procurement Sheet
This is a Google Sheet we use to organize every selection in the project, from rough-in materials to chandeliers.
Each product is labeled by its current phase in the process:
Select product → Order product → Ordered → Delivered → On site
That way, we always know where everything stands.
The columns across the top include:
Allowance, Unit Price, Quantity, Actual Budget, Date Needed, Change Order, Color, Notes, Link, Vendor, Shipped To, ETA, Day Delivered
As you can see, the ordering process is no joke. We work backward from the date the item is needed on-site, order the product to the office in advance, check for quality, and ensure it’s on-site the day it’s needed to keep the project on track.
The sheet is organized by product type (e.g., plumbing rough, plumbing finishes, electrical finishes, etc.) and is mainly used by our operations director in the office. Our on-site construction team also uses it to double-check finish-related details.
Keeping the details organized throughout a project allows us to stick to deadlines and operate efficiently on our job sites. Our team expects this system to constantly evolve and improve, but our current process is helping us stay on budget and on schedule. We’ll continue to innovate and continue to be builders you can rely on!