We Designed The Second Story, Then Took It Back Off

We had designed an entire second story and had it engineered when the contractor got his bids back. His response was clear: “I can't afford this. This breaks my budget. Take it off.”

This was a very experienced professional contractor in California. I had designed an addition on his front house, and he got so enthusiastic about the process that he wanted to explore a second story. He thought the house would be better with it.

So we developed the whole thing and sent it to the structural engineer. Then he gathered estimates for the construction, and the second story came back off the plan.

What stayed with me was how he handled that change. He wasn't mad at me. He recognized that he'd gotten carried away with the possibilities. The budget changed what we could keep in the design, but it didn't undo the connection we'd made while working together.

He continued referring people to me, and he's a repeat customer. That's one of the things I look at when I ask myself whether our approach is working.