Step One – The Consultation

When a prospective client calls us for a consultation the Owners and a Designer from the RARE team come to your home to look over the project. We discuss expectations, brain storm ideas, inspect the space and take photos. We talk about budgets, how the job will be financed and discuss time frames. We generally give a range of pricing based on our experience of the cost of other similar projects we have done.

Then our team takes all the information and we develop one preliminary idea, sometimes with sketches or drawings and develop a budget range. This takes about two weeks. We meet again and make a presentation based on the above. We discuss the pros and cons of that scenario and leave a written proposal.

Step Two – The Commitment

When a client decides we are the right company to work with we sign a one page document we call a “Letter of Intent”. The client pays a small fee which pays to finalize the design work, produce working drawings and consult on products choices. Most importantly signing the Letter of Intent puts the project on RARE’s current construction calendar.

Step Three - The Contract

When the final drawings are approved, the product is selected, the budget is complete, the scope of work and specifications are written and the schedule is approved, we sign a contract. The legal document is 2 pages. The above items are a part of the contract by reference.

The Communication Tools

Once your project starts communication during the job becomes critical. We provide a Job Book – a binder which holds all the pertinent information required by the Lead Carpenter and his crew to do the job. This book has a daily report which the Lead Carpenter fills out. It tells you what was done that day, what is coming up and what you might need to do to be ready for the next days work. There is also a section where you can write notes to the Lead and he back to you (in case no one is there during the day).

We also hold Project Meetings. These may be weekly or every other week depending on the duration and complexity of the project or a particular phase of the job. This meeting is held either early morning or late afternoon with the Clients, the Lead Carpenter and the Designer/Project Manager. Discussions are held on what comes next and what questions and concerns from either side need to be answered at that time.