The Process of Picking Finishes
Picking out cabinets, tile, paint colors, flooring, light fixtures and everything else that you’ll see and feel inside your home is one of the fun parts of building a custom home. And as you can imagine, we have a process for that. Making your selections (aka picking your finishes) on time is paramount to the construction timeline.
For some people, it can be overwhelming because there are so many decisions and choices. We hear you! If you haven’t already read our post about the complimentary interior design session with Becky Walter that we provide to all of our clients, take a minute to read it. It helps with choices.
Process and Expectations
To help with decisions and selections, we turned to Monica Beebe, who is Sineath Construction’s administrative coordinator. Clients depend on Monica to keep them on schedule and to coordinate with vendors to ensure client selections are ordered, scheduled, and delivered on time. Here she explains the process and expectations:
- After a client works with Becky Walter to develop a mood board, what is next in the process of picking finishes?
Once the mood board is complete, a client has the framework of colors, materials, finishes, and even ideas of furnishings for their custom-built home. Now is when we give them a list of our trusted suppliers to use to pick out what they want for plumbing fixtures, appliances, cabinets, countertops lighting, paint, and more. The suppliers work with the client’s mood board to help clients find just the right faucet for the kitchen sink, just the right chandelier for the dining area, the perfect cabinets and countertops – all of the interior elements that bring to life the client’s vision for their home. - What’s your role in the selection process, and how do clients lean on you along the way?
After completing the mood board or receiving the mood board from the client’s interior designer, I meet with our production manager to create a selection schedule based off the construction schedule. It’s important to get selections made early in the construction process to allow for any manufacturing time or even backorder times. For example, if the most important item in your bathroom is a copper, stand-alone tub, I need to make sure that it is accounted for time-wise and the client has enough in the allowances budget-wise for that to happen. Clients lean on me all the time to help them stay on schedule and within their budget. It’s a lot for clients to keep up with, so it’s great that I can help them feel at ease with their selections. I also help clients portion out the selection process. - How do you keep track of client selections, the timeline and vendors?
We use a project management software program called CoConstruct for the construction process, and within the client’s project, we can create a selections schedule and tie the selection deadlines to the master construction schedule. Everything happens in synchronicity to the master schedule. CoConstruct allows us to connect all the client’s vendors to the project, so each party can communicate through the program. It creates a great paper trail and a tracking process so we can make sure everything is ordered correctly and it’s delivered on time. It can be overwhelming, so we take it bit by bit. We get the big stuff, like cabinets, fireplaces, plumbing and appliances out of the way first. Then we take a break before we start selecting things like tile and flooring. We break the selection process into parts, and then we portion out the parts so it’s manageable for clients. - From your perspective, what’s the best way for clients to manage what may seem like an overwhelming process?
From my perspective, our process begins when the client walks in the door. We do our best to set realistic expectations about timelines, budget allowances and cost based on their vision and mood board. We work with the client to identify what is important to them in terms of how they want the interior of their home to feel. We get really clear on where they want to spend their money. Take the example of the copper, stand-along tub I mentioned earlier. That tub may be a must-have for the client, so it is important to them. Given their budget allowances, which we work out with them in the estimating process, it may mean that dollars from one allowance will shift to another allowance to make that copper tub happen.
We do our best to alleviate as much stress and overwhelm as we can from the very beginning with getting the selection schedule set up. It allows clients to work within their schedules to make their decisions and selections on time. What’s most important is communication. If they’re struggling to make a decision, or can’t hit a deadline, or are up against a budget limit, it can be overwhelming. We are always available to help the client whenever they feel overwhelmed.
If you have a question or would like more information about working with us:
