For different reasons, we have been involved in 3 different home remodels over the last year. Different clients, goals, and approaches.

Client #1: Hired us from the very beginning, owns a real estate company in the US, which means it’s not his first rodeo. We approached the design and remodeling from an investor’s perspective, using as much as possible from the original layout and adding what was necessary to bring the property back to life and make it special.

• The result: we transformed an abandoned hotel into a multi family unique Airbnb listing in playa Hermosa.

Client #2: Hired us right on time, they’ve been living in playa Grande for a while and bought a house to remodel and move in next year. With our philosophy, architecture and execution are aligned from day one so we approached the project as such.

• The result: we are keeping 85% of the existing home, changing just the roof structure and its cover and demolishing only 4 walls to integrate the new areas of the house we are extending. We will do all this with a steel framing construction system.

Here is where it gets interesting…

Client #3: Hired us before breaking ground with a finalized design which we didn’t do, for a house he’s remodeling to relocate to Costa Rica next year as well. They told him remodeling was easier and faster than building a new home.

• The result: a massive demolition of a home, we are just keeping the driveway, 80% of the boundary walls and 50% of the main house structure. We have spent 2 months and a lot of dollars removing construction leftovers. With 2 months in, we are now starting to build the columns, beams, masonry walls and roof structure of the new layout. Unfortunately only the new guest bathroom is being done with dry walls.

Despite having similar areas, #1 and #3 were approached very differently. If we compare timeline and budget, this last one will take us 4 more months and $400k more to complete it.

From my perspective, giving a design and/or construction service takes more commitment than just doing a layout and building it. It requires problem solving skills, analysis, optimization and a lot of cohesion between architecture and execution. I’m proud of how we have successfully guided these 2 clients from the beginning and added value from day 1 to make their dream come true.

Written by me, not AI. If there are any errors, they are good old-fashioned human mistakes.