Estimating & Budget
A real number early and a number that gets updated at every decision, not one estimate at the start and a surprise at the end. Cost-plus-a-fee means you see what things actually cost.
Our Services
Design-Build
One contract from the first sketch to the finished building, designed by Coe + Coe Architecture and built by Coe + Coe Construction.
One contract, one phone call
On a conventional project the owner signs twice: once with an architect and once with a builder. When something goes wrong in between, the owner is the one standing in the gap.
Design-build closes that gap. We design the building and we build it, on a cost-plus-a-fee contract with an open book. You see the subcontractor quotes, the material invoices, and the fee, and you see the estimate move as decisions get made rather than at the end.
Coe + Coe Construction is a separate company from Coe + Coe Architecture, and your construction contract is with the construction company. We say so out loud, because knowing who holds which contract is exactly the thing this delivery method is supposed to make simple.
Design-build includes
Schedule
Built around the Vermont season and the material lead times, working backwards from when you want to be in the building. Foundations, framing, and roof get sequenced against weather rather than against optimism.
Purchasing & Long-Lead Items
We track what has to be ordered when in order to hold the schedule. Windows, mechanical equipment, and anything custom get ordered against the schedule, not against the drawing that happens to be finished.
Subcontractors & Trades
Local excavators, framers, electricians, plumbers, and finish carpenters we have worked with and will work with again. In a region this size a subcontractor relationship is worth more than a low bid from someone who will not come back to fix something.
Payments & Change Orders
Monthly applications for payment against a schedule of values, with retainage. Changes get priced and approved before the work happens.
Warranty
We are still here after you move in, and we walk the building with you before the first year is out.
Selected experience
A tear-down rebuild lakeside home on Willoughby Cove in Westmore, on the existing foundation. A pondside rebuild at Daniels Pond in Glover. A dilapidated Barton farmhouse rebuilt with a high-performance shell and all-electric heat and ventilation. A hunting camp on Andersonville Road converted into a four-season retreat with a wraparound white cedar deck. A gut renovation of a Shadow Lake cottage. A charred-board camp outside Glover. Interior finish carpentry, millwork, and trim through the main floor of a house in Short Hills, New Jersey.
See our projects →Related services
Usually comes before
Architectural Design
The full arc, schematic design through construction documents. The anchor service — everything else is upstream or downstream of it.
Usually comes after
Permitting & Code Compliance
The whole permit stack — Fire Safety, zoning and DRB, environmental, historic, accessibility, energy code — with the schedule behind it.
Next step
Tell us the site, roughly what you want to build, and your budget range. We will tell you honestly whether design-build is the right way to do it.