Discover how embracing core values like Communication, Organization, and Transparency can drive success in 2025. This article explores the importance of clear and transparent communication, mental, physical, and digital organization, and fostering trust through honesty and openness. Learn actionable strategies for improving team collaboration, managing projects effectively, and building stronger relationships with clients and vendors in the luxury home construction industry. These principles are the foundation of a thriving, values-driven business. Perfect for leaders and teams aiming to elevate their operations this year.

Our partners at JB Sash assisted in finding the perfect Marvin Elevate windows to match the original windows in our 1890s Victorian restoration project in Brookline, Massachusetts. The project showcases how expertly crafted windows can preserve a home’s heritage while meeting contemporary standards, blending timeless elegance with practicality.

The time to start managing the schedule is before it has begun. Your urgency is a sign of your reactivity; your reactivity puts your lack of planning on full display. A marathon is not won on the last mile but in the first 25.

Authority does not mean dictatorship. It does not mean all-knowing, and it most definitely does not mean all-powerful. Becoming an actual authority takes years. Over time, as knowledge expands with new experience, small tranches of authority are handed over.

We are in the budget control business. We develop a budget during preconstruction and manage it throughout construction. Sometimes, it involves difficult conversations, or it reveals an underestimated or missed scope item, but all calculations are figured in the open with margins and cost transparency.

Human beings are obsessed with the past and the secrets it (supposedly) holds. I can’t be the only builder who looks at the pyramids and thinks, “Well, it really can’t have been that hard to build.” But don’t get me wrong; I am just as amazed and obsessed with our built past as Hull or any architectural nerd.

How researching specific code requirements and available exemptions for fenestration U-factor saved the new French doors on my remodel in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Never underestimate the effectiveness of a small gesture of kindness. Sometimes, it’s coffee on a cold day. Sometimes, it’s just about relationship building. Sometimes, it’s about repairing bridges that needed mending after a very long and challenging rough-in. We need our relationships to function and flourish with the people we work with. Build it with donuts.

Some words in defense of using wood for exterior applications, specifically as trim.

A project is not a definable thing. It is a process; it is a development; it is the sum of many parts. However, we can start to define it more accurately if we look at it as synthesizing three key elements: budget, schedule, and design. Our role is to control all three.

The carpentry trade lacks the infrastructure to easily distinguish a master carpenter from a cowboy with a saw. The apprentice is defined by their master, the journeyman by themselves, and the master by their peers or by the public. One cannot declare themselves a master; the community decides.