Most firms rush you to a contract.We make the project earn one.
The single biggest source of remodeling misery is a contract signed too early — before the design is finished, before the house has been verified, before the price means anything. Our answer is structural: we put a decision in front of you three times, and the money follows the certainty rather than leading it. Each step costs more than the one before it and tells you more than the one before it. Everything that makes a price real — trade bids against final drawings, dimensions verified in your actual house, long-leads identified — happens inside the design agreement, while walking away is still cheap. By the time the contract that matters reaches you, there is nothing left to guess about.
The Design Agreement · Phase 1
The first commitment is to the design — not to a build, and not to us as your remodeler. Concept through development, with your sign-off advancing each stage. Every selection is made and priced against your budget as we go, so the design that emerges is one you can actually afford to build. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are both priced on page one, so you are never asked to approve a number you have not already seen.
The Design Agreement · Phase 2
This is the step most remodelers skip — and the reason their “fixed” prices drift. It is not a separate agreement: it is Phase 2 of the Design Agreement you have already signed, priced on page one alongside Phase 1. Trades bid against your final drawings. Site conditions are verified in your actual house. Long-lead materials are identified and priced. The surprises get found here, on paper, where they cost a conversation — not mid-build, where they cost a change order.
The Fixed-Price Contract
Signed last, on purpose. By now the design is finished, the house is verified, and every trade has priced the real scope — so the number on this contract is a promise, not an estimate. Plan adjustments after this point are priced in writing and signed by you before any work proceeds. The price you sign is the price you pay.
Why This Order Protects You
Cost-plus firms profit when scope grows. Firms that contract early profit when assumptions break in their favor. Our sequence removes both incentives: we can’t profit from surprises we’re contractually obliged to find before you sign. Alignment isn’t a slogan here — it’s the paperwork. And when something genuinely does change, it comes in exactly three legitimate forms: a discovered condition no one could see, a material overage, or an addition you asked for. An internal error is not a change order — it is an estimating lesson, and we eat it.
And when the design is done, you can still stop. Keep the drawings. Keep the trade-verified price. Owe nothing further. Two agreements, an exit at every decision — a remodeler confident in their process does not need to trap you in it.