For years, we kept getting plans across South Orange County.
Beautiful plans.
Plans that homeowners in Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, San Clemente, and Newport Coast had spent a lot of money developing.
And then we would find out they were never going to be built.
Sometimes the plans were too complicated. Sometimes they were too expensive. Sometimes things simply didn't work together.
And sometimes the homeowner had no idea what the project was actually going to cost.
That was the part that bothered me.
We kept seeing homeowners go through the same process: hire an architect, develop the plans, hire an interior designer, then take everything to a general contractor and ask for a price.
It sounds organized.
But there is a problem.
The person who designed it isn't necessarily the person who has to build it.
And when those two things are separated, the homeowner can end up in the middle.
Where Did the Idea Go?
A homeowner starts with an idea.
They explain what they want.
Then the idea goes to the architect.
Then maybe an interior designer gets involved.
Then the plans go to a contractor.
Then the contractor talks to the trades.
By the time the project reaches construction, that original idea can get lost in translation.
Everyone has a piece of it.
But who owns the whole thing?
That's the problem.
When something doesn't work, the homeowner can end up asking:
Who is responsible for this?
The architect says the contractor needs to figure it out.
The contractor says that's what the plans show.
The interior designer says that's how it was designed.
And the homeowner is standing in the middle trying to figure out who is right.
The homeowner shouldn't have to do that.
"The person who designed it isn't necessarily the person who has to build it. And when those two things are separated, the homeowner can end up in the middle."
Here's the Question I Ask
We get calls from homeowners who already have plans.
They'll say:
"We already have an architect. We just need someone to build it."
That's fine.
We'll look at the plans.
But one of the first questions I ask is:
"Did you discuss a budget with your architect?"
Most of the time, the answer is no.
So I'll look at the project and say:
"Okay. This custom home or whole-home remodel is going to be at least $X. Are you prepared to spend that?"
And most of the time, the answer is no.
They had no idea.
That's how homeowners can spend a lot of money getting a project designed before discovering what the project is actually going to cost.
That's not necessarily because anyone did something wrong.
It's because design and construction were treated as two separate things.
A Drawing Isn't a Building
I have looked at plenty of plans that looked good on paper.
Then I start looking at how the thing is actually going to be built.
The tile layout doesn't work because the sizes and thicknesses don't work together.
A cabinet door can't open because there isn't enough clearance.
The traffic flow is wrong.
There's too much being crammed into the space.
It's the five-gallon-bucket problem.
You can't put five gallons in a one-gallon bucket.
Sometimes you simply can't build something the way it's drawn.
I catch those things when we're looking at the project and pricing it.
That's one of the reasons we design our own room additions, ADUs, and custom homes as a premier design-build contractor.
We aren't designing something and then handing it off to someone else and hoping it works.
We're thinking about how it gets built while we're designing it.
You Can't Know It If You Haven't Done It
I've been building for more than 50 years.
I've built more than 30 ground-up homes and thousands of remodeling projects across Southern California.
And I've personally worked across virtually every part of a house.
Tile.
Cabinetry.
Framing.
Plumbing.
Electrical.
Concrete.
Roofing.
Stone installation.
Masonry.
Custom woodworking.
Windows.
Doors.
And when I say doors, I don't mean just installing prehung doors.
I mean hanging them the real way.
That experience changes the way you design.
When I'm looking at a room, I'm not just thinking about what it should look like.
I'm thinking about how the materials come together.
How they're installed.
What has to happen first.
What has to happen next.
How the structure works.
How the plumbing and electrical work.
How the space functions.
What it will cost.
And whether the whole thing makes sense.
You can't know it if you haven't done it.
That's the difference between understanding construction and understanding construction from a set of drawings.
This Is Where Change Orders Start
One of the biggest problems homeowners worry about during remodeling is the change order.
And they should pay attention to it.
A change order means more time, more material, more labor — and usually a markup for the builder to make the change.
We don't treat change orders as part of our normal way of doing business.
We spend the time during design to work the project through the mud.
We look at the details.
We make sure things fit.
We make sure the design is buildable.
We make sure the homeowner understands what we're designing.
Now, if a homeowner decides during construction that they want to add something they didn't originally ask for, that's different. That can happen.
But discovering during construction that something should have been figured out during design?
To me, that's a problem.
Why didn't you think of that when you were designing it?
That's what design is supposed to do.
Why We Became Design-Build
I think we were doing design-build before there was really a name for it.
We kept getting plans that were never built.
We kept seeing homeowners get excited about a project, spend money on plans, and then become disappointed when the numbers came back or the plans couldn't actually deliver what they wanted.
We saw what was coming.
So we built our business around solving that problem.
Today, when we design something, construction is already part of the conversation.
We don't separate the two.
That's why as a Laguna Niguel and South Orange County design-build firm, we can look at a project and ask the questions before construction begins.
Can we build it?
Does it work?
Does it fit the house?
Does it fit the homeowner?
Does the budget make sense?
Those aren't construction questions that come later.
They're design questions.
And What About South Orange County?
Here, there are plenty of things homeowners don't think about when they put together a remodeling budget.
They think about construction.
They forget the soft costs.
Permits.
Engineering.
Design.
HOA requirements.
Structural work.
Setbacks.
Drainage.
And with older homes in coastal markets, sometimes asbestos testing, removal and abatement.
HOA approval can be the first step before you can do anything.
Setbacks have to be verified.
Structural requirements have to be considered.
Drainage can become a major issue, especially when an existing drainage system has been altered, damaged or simply doesn't work anymore.
These things don't show up because someone suddenly decided to make the project more expensive.
They're part of the project.
You have to know to look for them.
One Team Means Someone Owns the Whole Project
That's what I think a homeowner is really buying with design-build.
Not just drawings.
Not just construction.
They're buying someone who understands how all the pieces connect.
Who do you call when something doesn't make sense?
Who makes the decision?
Who owns the problem?
Who knows why the design was created that way?
With Tuscany Builders, that's us.
One Team. One Contract. One Point of Accountability.
Design and construction under one roof means someone owns the whole project from the first conversation to the final walkthrough.
That's not a tagline. That's how we're built.
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