Process
Five stages, and you always know which one you are in.
Most of the stress in a renovation comes from not knowing what happens next. This is exactly how a CMG project runs, from the first phone call to the year after you move back in.
Stage 01 · Week 0
The initial call
Everything starts with a straightforward conversation about what you want to do, where the property is, and roughly what you are prepared to spend.
We are trying to establish one thing on this call: whether we are the right builder for this project. If your scope is smaller than our minimum, or the work sits outside what we do well, we will say so and point you toward someone better suited. That takes ten minutes and saves everybody a month. If it does look like a fit, we schedule a site visit.
One call, roughly twenty minutes
Stage 02 · Weeks 1 to 12
Planning and design
We collaborate with homeowners, architects, and structural engineers, solidify the details, and settle the budget before any tools come out.
This is the stage that determines whether the rest of the project goes well. We walk the site properly, and on structural work we usually open a small section to see what we are dealing with rather than pricing a guess. Drawings get reviewed for anything that will be difficult or expensive to build. Permits are identified and filed. You receive a scope of work, an accurate budget, an accurate timeline, and a written plan for how we handle the curveballs that renovations produce.
Longer where wetlands or coastal review applies
Stage 03 · The main phase
The build
You receive steady communication and timely updates through our construction software. The crew keeps the site clean, safe, and moving.
Updates arrive at whatever frequency suits you. Some clients want a message every evening, others want a summary on Friday. Either is fine, and we agree it before we start rather than guessing. The site is protected, sealed against dust where you are still living in the house, and locked at the end of the day. If something changes, you hear about it from us on the day, with the cost and schedule impact attached, before any work proceeds.
Duration depends entirely on scope
Stage 04 · Completion
The final walk-through
Once the work is complete we walk the space together and make sure every remaining detail is handled.
We go through the whole project room by room with you, and we expect you to be critical. Anything on that list gets fixed before we consider the job finished. This is not a formality and it is not a signature you are asked for in a doorway while the truck is running. It is the point of the entire process.
Punch list closed before final payment
Stage 05 · Ongoing
Support after completion
We stand by our work. If you have questions once you have moved back in, we are a phone call away.
Houses settle. Timber moves through its first heating season. A door that closed perfectly in July can stick in January. Call us. That is normal, it is usually a twenty minute adjustment, and we would far rather come back and handle it than have you living with something that irritates you every day.
Same number, same people
Ground rules
Things we commit to in writing.
These are in the contract, not just on the website.
- No quiet add-ons. Nothing gets added to your invoice that was not discussed and agreed first, in writing, with the cost stated.
- Change orders before work. If the scope changes you see the cost and schedule impact before anyone picks up a tool, not on the next statement.
- Progress draws tied to stages. Payments follow completed work, not the calendar, so you are never paying ahead of what exists.
- The site gets cleaned daily. Not swept at the end of the month because a photograph is needed.
- Permits are ours. We file, we attend, we schedule inspections, and we deal with the town.
- One point of contact. You do not chase four subcontractors to find out what is happening in your own house.
Next step
Start at stage one.
The first call takes about twenty minutes and costs nothing. Worst case, we tell you honestly that we are not the right fit.