Interior Design
Finishes, millwork and furnishing developed alongside the build, so the house is finished rather than merely complete.
Interior Design →→Approach
The house is decided long before it is built.
By the time a slab is poured, almost every decision that determines what the house costs and how long it takes has already been made: which lot, how the foundation is engineered for the soil under it, how much glass faces west, how the roof turns a corner, and whether the millwork is drawn or bought. Our job in the first six months is to make those decisions with you while they are still cheap to change.
We work design-build. That means we price the drawings as your architect develops them — ours or yours — so the budget is a live number you can steer rather than a verdict delivered at bid. When a detail cannot be built for what it was estimated at, you hear it in the design meeting, with two alternatives and what each costs.
On site, the practice is small on purpose. A superintendent is on your house every working day, you get a written update every week with photographs, and once a month we meet on the job with the schedule and the numbers in front of us. A house is two years of small decisions, and almost all of them are easier to get right standing in the room.
What is included
A ground-up commission covers all of the below. If you already have an architect and a permitted set, we join at pre-construction and price what exists.
Site selection and evaluation
Before you buy: soil and foundation implications, drainage and floodplain, trees and setbacks, easements, utility availability, and what the street will support in value.
Architect collaboration
We work with architects we know well, or with yours. Either way we cost the drawings as they develop and flag what will not build as shown while it is still a drawing.
Budget development
A costed range after the first site visit, refined through design, and fixed as a contract sum at the end of pre-construction. Every allowance is written down with what it assumes.
Pre-construction
Engineering, survey, geotechnical work, selections, the trade schedule and the permit set. This stage is why the build stays on program.
Allowances and selections
A dated selections calendar showing what has to be decided by when, and what happens to the schedule if it is not. Stone, tile, plumbing, appliances and lighting have the longest leads.
Permitting and inspections
Filing, plan review, tree and demolition permits where required, and every inspection through to certificate of occupancy. Highland Park and University Park run their own processes and their own timelines.
Construction management
A superintendent on site daily, trades scheduled rather than summoned, a written weekly update with photographs, and a monthly meeting on the job.
Warranty and handover
Commissioning of every system, a walk-through with manuals and warranties, the snag list closed before you move in, and a return visit at eleven months.
How a house runs
Two and a half years, in five stages. The one people underestimate is pre-construction, and it is the one that decides whether the other four hold.
- 01
Consultation
We walk the lot with you, talk through the house you have in mind and what it is likely to cost, and tell you if the site will fight you.
- 02
Design
Schematic through construction documents with your architect, priced at each stage so the design and the budget move together.
- 03
Pre-construction
Geotechnical and structural engineering, survey, selections, permit set, trade buy-out. Contract sum and calendar fixed.
- 04
Build
Site work, foundation, frame, dry-in, rough-in, finishes, landscape. Daily supervision, weekly written updates, monthly meetings on site.
- 05
Handover
Systems commissioned and demonstrated, documents handed over, snags closed, then a return at eleven months to correct what the first year has shown.
Selected details
Select an image to enlarge. Arrow keys move between images, Escape closes.
What North Dallas ground does to a budget.
Most of the expensive surprises in a custom house are decided by the site, not the specification. These are the ones we check before anybody signs a purchase contract.
Expansive clay soil
Much of Dallas sits on clay that swells and shrinks with moisture. Foundation design follows a geotechnical report, not a template, and post-tension slab detailing plus a watering plan are part of the house, not an upgrade.
Drainage and grading
Water has to leave the site somewhere, and on an infill lot that somewhere is usually a neighbour. Grading, area drains and retention are cheaper to design than to retrofit after the first heavy spring.
Trees and ordinances
Mature canopy is most of what makes a Preston Hollow lot valuable, and the municipalities protect it. Tree surveys, mitigation and root-zone protection affect footprint, staging and program.
Setbacks and lot coverage
Highland Park and University Park hold tight envelopes. The house you can build is often smaller than the house the lot appears to allow, which is a design constraint worth knowing before purchase.
West-facing glass
A wall of glass facing a Texas afternoon is a mechanical load and a fading problem. Orientation, overhang depth, glazing coating and shading are resolved together or paid for monthly.
Utilities and easements
Service capacity, sewer depth, gas availability and recorded easements decide where the house and the pool can physically go. We pull the plat before the design starts.
Questions
Related work
Outdoor Living
Loggias, pools and summer kitchens designed with the house, which is the only time the grading and the slab can be got right.
Outdoor Living →→
Media & Entertainment
Theaters, acoustics and whole-house systems planned during framing, when the walls are still open.
Media & Entertainment →→
Bring us the lot before you buy it.
An hour on the site will tell you more about what the house will cost than a month of drawings. Send the address and when you are free. Based in Dallas/Fort Worth and available for projects outside the Metroplex.
214-901-3655