New Before & After Pictures for a Major Remodel in Washington, DC's Columbia Heights Neighborhood
We're pleased to share the photos from our latest project. A homeowner purchased this Columbia Heights rowhome in Washington, DC and wanted to update it before he moved in. New City reconfigured the existing floor plan to make room for a new, modern kitchen, to add a powder room on the first floor and a to create a second full bath on the second floor. We also converted two bedrooms on the top floor into a master suite with a large, modern master bath. Throughout the home, mechanical systems and finishes were upgraded and modernized, and new decks were added in the rear. The finished house is open, contemporary, and ready for its new owner. Click here to view the complete before-and-after photo gallery.

New Before & After Pictures for a
Luxury Rowhome near Baltimore City's Patterson Park
We're pleased to share the photos from our latest project. This 3-story rowhome was fully gutted to the 100-year-old-brick walls to create a brand-new luxury home. Floorplans for all levels were custom-designed to the owner's desires using our 3D design software. We added a third-floor addition to create space for a new master suite and entertaining area with wet bar and powder room. The house also has a terrific roof deck with spectacular view of the Baltimore waterfront, and a completely renovated rear yeard with a secluded patio. Lots of other great features also fill this custom home. Click here to view the complete before-and-after photo gallery.

We are a stable and growing residential remodeling company that serves clients throughout the Baltimore-Washington area (DC and Baltimore City plus Baltimore, Howard, Anne Arundel, PG and Montgomery counties). Our typical projects are whole-house remodels, additions and full-gut rehabs ranging from $100,000 to over $500,000.

We are looking to add a highly-qualified, professional and experienced field superintendant to our team. You must have a deep understanding of residential remodeling and be able to manage 2-3 projects at the same time. Your duties will include:

• On-site project supervision, direction and problem solving
• Taking “as built” measurements of properties
• Understanding project drawings and scope documents
• Interacting with clients, architects and inspectors
• Coordinating with and monitoring foremen, laborers, subcontractors, materials suppliers and inspectors
• Creating, updating and being accountable for short-term and long-term project schedules
• Managing project budgets, costs and materials usage
• Indentifying project concerns and discoveries; providing change order recommendations
• Completing project documents, such as field reports, field change orders, changes in scope and written communications with clients
• Being responsible for timely completion of projects
• Performing quality control for all aspects of projects
• Managing final delivery and turnover
• Servicing a 30-day punch list

Minimum Requirements

• 5-10 years supervisory background in residential construction
• 3-5 years hands-on or supervisory experience in remodeling
• Ability to read blueprints
• Familiarity with management of all trades
• Own tools and ability to use them on occasion, as required
• Reliable vehicle suitable for transporting construction materials
• Some ability to speak and understand Spanish, preferred
• Ability to lift 50 lbs as required

Salary and Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Health and dental insurance
• Cell phone and transportation allowance

TO APPLY: Send resume and cover letter to jobs@newcitycompanies.com. DO NOT call. Since good communication skills are a key part of this position, we will be evaluating your submission to assess your communication skills. Inquiries without resume and cover letter will not be considered.

203Ks, Home Additions, Finished Basements and Whole-House Renovation Jobs

Undertaking a remodeling project -- especially a large one -- can be overwhelming. For most people, it's a new experience, it's one of the biggest purchases they'll ever make, and they find themselves dependent on people who know far more about the process than they do. This can be very uncomfortable.

The idea of this blog series is to give you the "inside track" on home-remodeling projects, so you have the information you need to make yours a success. It doesn't matter whether you are interested in a room addition, a whole-house renovation, a finished basement or a new kitchen and bath. It also doesn't matter whether you are paying for the project with cash, or financing it with a 203k, conventional or other renovation loan. This series will help you understand what to expect, what to avoid, how the process works, and what kind of contractor will best fit your needs.

With a nod to David Letterman, let's start things off with the Top 10 Problems Homeowners Face in Remodeling Projects.

10. Living in Chaos - If you are planning on living at your home while work is being completed, plan for chaos. Construction is messy and noisy and will completely disrupt your life while it is going on. Most construction trades like to start early in the morning, so you will have workmen in your home joining you for your morning coffee. At times during construction, you will probably have to live without certain utilities for a short while, and there may even be periods during which it makes sense to relocate to a local hotel.

9. Becoming Overwhelmed by the Process - Whether or not you hire someone else to manage your work, you'll probably find that your home improvement project takes more of your time than you expect. And, the demands on your time are often urgent, because delays on your part will ripple into project delays. Sometimes, all these decisions can paralyze homeowners -- especially those that don't enjoy decision-making -- and can bring a project to a complete halt.

8. Inability to Visualize the Finished Work - Many homeowners have a hard time visualizing what their project will look like when it is completed. While you may get to see a floor plan of the finished work and samples of the materials to be used as finishes, this is not always enough. Homeowners sometimes find themselves disappointed at the end of a project when the reality doesn't match up to the vision they had in their minds.

7. Unrealistic Expectations of Work - Some homeowners don't understand that the work specifically identified in their construction contract (the scope) is the limit of the work that their contractor is planning to deliver. They look at the document as a starting point and think that they can make changes as they go along just because the construction company has workers and materials on site. In fact, changes during the construction process are more expensive than work contracted in advance, since these changes often require delays, expedited fees for materials, more coordination time from the contractor and inconvenience.

6. Third Party Control - You and your contractor do not control the entire remodeling process. During the project, you will have to deal with a number of players that don't necessarily share your sense of urgency. Unless your project is very small, it will require building permits -- which will be issued by local authorities on their own schedule. Compliance with local building codes is overseen by building inspectors, who have liberal control of the process - including when they visit your site and what they approve. Often, local utility companies must participate in your project as well, and as powerful monopolies, they set the rules for how you have to work with them.

5. Contractor Cashflow - In order to keep work moving on your project, materials must be ordered and subcontractors paid regularly. If your contractor does not have enough working capital (through your payments, its own lines of credit and its own funds), then work can move slowly or stop. Because timing of draw payments is impacted by many factors beyond the contractor's control -- inspections, bank processing and lead-times on materials -- even well-run companies can run into cash flow issues from time to time.

4. Discoveries - Issues often come up during the construction process that neither the homeowner nor the contractor expected. These can include structural defects in the building, inadequacy of existing utilities or environmental problems, such as mold, lead, asbestos or termites. These all add unplanned costs and time. Discoveries can really derail a project if the contingency in the budget or the schedule is too small to address the problems identified (see Insufficient Budget and Project Delays).

3. Project Delays - Project delays seem inevitable in home remodeling jobs, and it's not ALWAYS the contractor's fault. Part of the problem is that unlike the construction of a new home -- which is fairly predictable -- renovations require work to existing buildings that have problems which cannot be seen until walls and floors are opened (see Discoveries). Then, solutions have to be developed on site to handle these challenges. You should expect changes to whatever schedule is established up front.

2. Insufficient Budget - Sometimes, homeowners don't have enough money available to do all the work that really NEEDS to be done for a project. So, critical items must be cut from the scope in order to get the project to fit the budget. Since most projects grow in scope as they go along, starting out with little or no cushion creates problems down the line. What happens when a cracked sewer line is discovered? What happens when a beam is needed to stabilize the building?

1. Unqualified Contractors - You are trusting your contractors to be your construction experts. What if they're not? Especially in these tough economic times, many contractors are accepting any kind of work they can find -- even if they are not very good at it. Using an unqualified contractor for your project can result in project delays, cost overruns and shoddy workmanship. Worse still, an unqualified contract may ultimately walk off your job completely, leaving you with work half-done and bills unpaid. Choosing an unqualified contractor is the #1 problem homeowners face when taking on a home remodeling project.

NEXT: In the posts that follow, we'll explain exactly what you can do to avoid as many of these problems as possible, and what to do to handle the ones that do occur

So it's a Friday afternoon, and I am working on our Internet marketing.  A good friend, also an Active Rainmaker, Brent Kluge (a terrific lender, by the way, if you are looking for an expert on 203ks and other renovation financing), helped us create our first video of completed projects to post on our Website.  It includes pictures of full-gut rehabs, whole house remodeling projects, additions and other major renovations.

Please watch the video and let me know what you think.  How can we make it better? We're very new at all of this online media and would love any help or direction that the community could provide.

Thanks!