Happy holidays and a fantastic new year!!
The Holidays are here, the year is ending, and it is a time for reflection.
Merlin Custom Home Builders’s team of dedicated professionals, both in the field and office, are proud to recognize 2014 as our most successful year since 2009. This year we celebrated our 25th year of luxury custom home building and renovations for some of Las Vegas’ finest homes and estates. This year’s success is due to the dedication and passion of our entire team. We continue to partner with our valley’s most amazing home -owners. Being part of creating special, one-of-a-kind, family homes that will last for generations makes the long hours and construction challenges worthwhile. We proudly craft each home with perfection and love. As the year ends, we say “Thank You” to our wonderful Homeowners and professional Trade Partners. We look forward to the New Year and more opportunities to share the joy of building custom homes.
Steve, Bart and the Merlin Custom Home Builders Team
Happy Birthday to our December Employees
Mike Alton: Happy Birthday to Mike, Project Manager Extraordinaire! To be a Project Manager on a Merlin Custom Home Builders home requires a vast array of talents, knowledge, leadership abilities and diplomacy. Mike has all that and more. Another of Mike’s invaluable skills is his ability to teach and train Merlin Custom Home Builders’s next generation of PM’s. He does this well and passes on his enthusiasm and love of building.
Bart Jones: Our Leader is a year older this month, has a little thinner hair, and still keeps his office too cold (brrr!), but he’s still thrilled to work alongside his brother every day and with all the exceptional men and women at Merlin Custom Home Builders.
Merlin Custom Home Builders December Employee Anniversary
Robert Brown: Happy 10th Anniversary with Merlin Custom Home Builders. Robert’s contributions to Merlin Custom Home Builders have grown with every one of his ten years. Estimator, field project coordinator, scheduler, and production manager are some of the hats Robert wears. He is a unique and key hub of Merlin Custom Home Builders’s building information. Working closely with Steve, Bart, Project Managers, Assistants and Trades, Robert takes new house plans and guides them through budgeting, value engineering, redesign to contract. His contributions include not only handing off the house plans and budget to Merlin Custom Home Builders’s Project Managers but working with them to a home’s completion by estimating and scheduling the constant changes and revisions. Thank you, Robert, for ten great years!!!
On time, on budget, and exceeding customer expectations starts with a thorough preconstruction plan.
To finish a complex project on time and within budget, the Merlin Custom Home Builders works hard to generate and convey the value of a thoughtful, thorough and well-developed preconstruction. That process can feel like a slow way to start, but the time spent upfront pays off in more ways than some homeowners realize.
Despite its importance, planning is one of those success factors that gets too little credit. Most homeowners understand that the custom home builder must complete the house on paper before breaking ground, but not all of them realize the full extent of the prep work involved. This work goes well beyond blueprints.
For a custom home project to come off without major problems, the builder must plan every detail and activity for every stage of the project—right to the day in many cases. The builder has to put supplies in place at the right times, have workers ready to go when needed, and create contingencies for weather and other obstacles. The more detailed the plan, the more streamlined the project effort.
The scope of this build-out plan can be staggering because of the sheer number of details that need to be tracked. New custom homes include thousands of assemblies, colors, components, finishes, and model numbers. The absence or presence of specific words in the plans and specifications can dramatically change estimated costs, finished appearances, and scheduling. Calculating and determining correct quantities, costs, and delivery times for all these items demands real organization. A decision made today will determine whether the right personnel and materials are on the job three months from now.
Another element to planning addresses bureaucratic entities such as zoning and architectural review boards and state environmental agencies—their rules have to be taken into account during every step of the project, and a good plan includes all the deadlines and requirements.
Then there are communication issues. Building a new custom home has much in common with a relay race, where the baton gets passed between participants at key points. The most crucial of those happen during the planning phase, when a lot of information has to be passed intact from the salesperson, to the designer, to the production manager. A proven management system is needed to ensure that these transfers happen smoothly and accurately.
Someone on the builder’s staff must also make sure that key details are communicated to all members of the project team—homeowners, architect, interior designer, project manager, contractor—at the right time. This person must also make sure that everyone on the team understands their own, and everyone else’s, responsibilities.
A project with this type of detailed plan stands a much better chance to come in on time, within budget, and with minimal stress. The custom home builder can ensure the best possible outcome for the homeowners by taking the time up front to think through and record decisions, establish workflow and detailed schedules, account for permitting, and plan for communication and contingencies,. The ultimate benefit of a good plan is a finished home that reflects the vision of the homeowners, and a sense of pride and satisfaction for all who had a hand in building it.
Warm Regards,
Steve Jones & Bart Jones
Merlin Custom Home Builders
6408 S. Arville Street
Las Vegas, NV 89118
702.257.8102 – Phone