Whose Minding the Store?
Well of course it is only a metaphorical question but it is one of great consequence. The “Store” is your budget. And the question is who will be minding it? Believe it or not, I see many just sort of loose track of it. Then all of a sudden, wham, the reality hits them like a freight train. Someone needs to be in charge. It can be you, your architect or your designer but it should be done consistently by the same party and updated no less than once a month on a good size project. A written comparison of actual costs versus estimated costs. This will keep your budget from derailing. Design build projects are difficult to anticipate costs way in advance keeping constant tabs on them is imperative. A good way to do this is to create categories or phases in the beginning. The construction industry uses what are known as CSI codes. These construction cost codes break down a project by every category and assign a number to it thus creating a schedule of values. If your contractor is unfamili
