Work record / Development / Santa Monica house / Questions answered
Santa Monica house: questions answered
What people ask me about Santa Monica house, and my answers. The project itself has its own page.
How near to the original completion target did the home come in?
As I remember it, the build was planned at 14 months and we finished about a month and a half early. Timing played a part. When COVID arrived, not every trade had been chosen. We had a good relationship with our main trade, which did the framing and concrete on a heavy concrete project. I was not yet under contract with the others, so I hired only trades I knew would keep working through COVID. On other projects, one trade stopping meant the whole job stalled. Here I could choose companies that were still functioning, and people were glad to have the work.
How did you tell which subcontractors would keep working through COVID?
Mostly by whether they were still working. That may sound too simple, yet in spring 2020 it was the one test that mattered. I had built relationships with most of these subs over many years, so I knew who was running crews and who had gone quiet. The signal was plain. A sub who kept confirming dates was working. One who stopped confirming, without ever saying no, was not. I brought in only companies I knew were functioning, and since people were glad of the work, the ones still running showed up.