I have a good friend (who I didn’t build for) that was moving into his new home and it wasn’t until he attempted to turn into his garage that he realized his driveway wasn’t safe. To summarize, he spent close to 2 months in a hotel with his family, delayed by the reconstruction of his driveway. When you think in terms of how to build a project, there is a build within a build. It’s called site preparation. Sometimes, its very straight forward and logical, but often it takes careful consideration and thought. I’ve attached some photos because recently, I’ve had a whole slew of very involved site prep projects and it can be frustrating for the home owner who is so anxious to build and doesn’t understand why we go through all of this in the first place. The reason is simple, if we can start off with safety, access, material staging areas and protection of job site- the whole thing will be better. I’ve spent days pondering on driveways before, thinking about every last detail from how the family will safely get to their home to guest parking and even the kids taking out the trash. It all matters because once this step is decided upon it’s hard to go back. In addition, the overall project seems to travel much faster because there is a global plan here greater than just the house. You involve all components as best you can for an overall family experience that is better. You can’t put that on a brochure on why you are a better builder necessarily, but I really feel like that’s our role. We need to use our expertise to help people plan for things if we can, that they might not see in advance. So next time you are near a job site and see the gravel based road, the access, the staging areas, etc. pay attention to the project within the project. One other thing and this is a side bar, January is almost over, hope your New Year’s Resolutions are still going well for you. Let’s get to work and go build something.
