the five p’s

As an adolescent and young adult, my parents and teachers regularly taught "the Five P's": Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. My success as a professional has been built on that foundation, carefully constructed of five other important P’s:

Product, Personalization, Process, Price, and Predictability.

A decade ago, I led an effort as a consultant to Lindal Cedar Homes. The mission of effort was to update the legendary company’s product and process, building on nearly seven decades of industry leadership.

The strategic plan we authored and implemented became the Lindal Elements program which showcased nearly fifty new modern Elements designs and the addition of dozens of new pre-priced fully detailed material options to the Lindal system, Like any architectural firm we now offer the design flexibility to satisfy a huge range of  personal, regional and climatic architectural preferences, but in a system that functions with a level of efficiency that reduces the amount of time and financial resources consumed in the design process to a level that would turn any architectural firm green with envy..

The system building (aka prefab) industry prides itself on the ability to predict cost, a skill that most architectural firms seem to find beneath them. We understand that the attraction of companies like Lindal is in part cost predictability that enables clients to sleep more soundly knowing that they will not be surprised with major price overruns without tools or time to reduce cost.

Most producers maintain the ability to predict cost by limiting design and material options to a few. Lindal’s system provides a method for maintaining cost predictability, even with the addition of thousands of new system “parts”

The Lindal Elements system offers the design flexibility to create one-of-a-kind homes with the flexibility of an architectural firm and with the cost predictability of a modular box with far fewer material option opportunities to personalize.

The Elements system has been a resounding success, making it possible for us to reach a wider audience and to treat all clients' budgets with respect.

Consider a set of conventional custom home plans. The framing plans include thousands of random parts that have been detailed to fit together for this particular design. The parts, the product, have no systematic relationship to each other, no process that codifies how the same parts can be used to create a different personalized design. This set of plans is a one-off:  It has a life of its own and is not part of a larger system. The price of each part was unknown when the drawing was prepared, and therefore price predictability is not a byproduct of the plans. It is no wonder that a shocking price tag that is not understood until much later.

In contrast, the Lindal 5 Ps include a product that is a kit of parts from which individual pieces can be selected in an ordered process and arranged in into infinite personalized configurations. And because the price of each part is known, the set of plans also accurately predicted the cost of the product.

Here’s how Warmmodern Living and Lindal Cedar Homes provide the five p’s with a process and product that have no equal in the architectural or prefab segments of our industry.

The Lindal building system(m offers enormous design flexibility and a broad range of material choices. Our building system, a time tested post and beam kit, enables genuine personalization without sacrificing predictability.

Think of the Lindal building system as a set of TinkerToys™. Each part is predefined. Its strength; how it connects to other components; its price; and which other components can be substituted for greater structural strength or client preference. 

Our kit of parts contains tens of thousands of components and assembly details. For example, the kit contains over a dozen siding options (that will be custom finished in your choice of colors), five window frame material options (each available in hundreds of sizes and shapes), and hundereds of door and hardware styles (available in both modern and traditional materials and styles).

Like Tinker Toys™, the building system allows for an infinite array of designs. And each design is created of carefully vetted components that can easily be interchanged with others to satisfy a wide range of client preferences, without losing sight of cost, appearance, or structural capability. 

We don’t subscribe to the unrealized promise that a factory-produced box — built from a limited range of materials, restricted in form and size by highway travel — provides a less costly or better custom home. Our clients require more personalized home design… and better value.

We begin with the understanding that our clients are independent thinkers. Choosing to build, rather than purchasing an existing home, is a courageous act of individuality.  

Whether you begin with a pre-planned design or aspire to create your own, we understand that you seek the guidance of design and planning professionals on whom you can rely to make the planning process efficient and the end result a glorious reflection of your lifestyle, carefully built, and delivered within the confines of your budget.

Warmmodern living provides clients warm and caring service, innovative planning ideas, four decades of design and prefab industry experience and expertise.

Your goal and our rather unique business model are closely aligned. Our success is based entirely on our ability to get your home successfully. We have nothing to gain by taking you on an unsuccessful journey. 

The Lindal /Warmmodern Living planning process provides clients the opportunity to create truly personalized one-of-a-kind homes in a manner that makes efficient use of material, energy, human and financial resources. Whether we are staring with a blank sheet of paper, or working with a pre-planned Lindal design, the process is essentially the same.

Phase I: Getting Started – Conceptual Design

Once we discuss your budget and what your vision is for your new home, including its size, and feel confident that we can deliver, the Lindal/Warmmodernliving LivingDesign Agreement and its modest fee will enable us to work with you to create a design you love, that your budge will support, and one that is a palpable response to its natural environment and your lifestyle.

• Site Visit and Analysis — Let’s walk your site and discuss how the path of the sun, the prevailing winds, the topography, the existing vegetation, and, yes, the views, all should contribute to shaping your new home.

• Conceptual Design — Lets talk about your lifestyle and how it may change in the foreseeable future. And let’s talk candidly about your budget. Let us show you how these factors and your site might be “heard” with an initial design concept.

Phase II: Design Development

The initial exploration will help us both understand if further collaboration will result in success. Going further requires a modest investment of time and money (Ask how much, and be surprised!).

• Design Development — With our input, the Lindal Design Team will produce preliminary designs, including floor plans and elevations, typically requiring only a week or two! From that we will update our estimate of cost.

• 3D Modeling — Lindal will produce each iteration of your preliminary drawings using Revit, a sophisticated CAD program that develops perspectives of the entire exterior while the plans and elevations are created. This recent innovation enables clients to more fully understand their design and how it will be viewed from all directions.

• Material Specifications — From an enormous palette of Lindal material choices, we’ll create a material spec that suits you, your site and your budget. Cedar windows, corrugated steel siding, and a 125 mph wind speed design criteria… no problem!

• Construction Specifications — We will create a construction spec of locally provided labor and systems. Your estimate will include the right kind of heat and the proper level of insulation for your region, estimated by one or more qualified local builders.

Phase III: Pre Construction Through Finish

At this point, you should be comfortable with the design that has evolved and its cost. When you sign the order for your Lindal kit:

• Construction Drawings and Engineering — Your design will be developed into a set of construction drawings (30 to 40 pages) detailing the assembly of the Lindal materials. The CDs will be reviewed and stamped by a structural engineer licensed in your site state.

• Builder Selection — Select a builder whose working style, quality, pricing and availability suit you. In all likelihood, warmmodern living will offer an experienced local builder for you to consider. We also work with first-time Lindal builders who do great work every year. We’ll facilitate the bidding and selection process. The choice is yours.

• Exterior Pre-finish and Interior Trim Selection — Match your house color to your rocky ledge or the color of your dog. Many Lindal exterior materials are delivered pre-finished for enduring quality. Warmmodern living will work with you and Lindal's extraordinary pre-finisher to select and provide samples of the colors you select on the specific materials you'll receive. Choose from hundreds of exterior and interior door styles, numerous hardware styles and finishes, proprietary Lindal interior trim and railing styles, and more to further personalize your Lindal.

• Construction-Related Services — Lindal provides full-time service experts who will answer your builder's questions, and resolve any issues or material claims. Warmmodern living will be your and their on-site eyes and ears for quick response and resolution. We provide the experience required to assist you locally and the backing of an industry leader.

Optional Services 

• Planning for energy independence — If your vision includes becoming less reliant on the power grid and fossil fuels, we’ll design your house with maximized energy efficiency, suggest systems that will maximize your state’s contribution. If you plan the installation of technology as a second phase of your project, we will plan the initial build to be technologically ready (eg. roof designed to support photovoltaics).

• Advanced 3-D Imaging and Modeling — Massing models and colorized presentation renderings (like those in the site’s current project area) solar studies, and interior 3D modeling services are available to help clients understand their designs.

• Interior Finish Selections — For clients who lack the time or inclination to make finish selections, engage us to organize and recommend those selections; countertops, cabinets, tile, flooring, plumbing fixtures and fittings, lighting, and interior color palettes whose costs fall within the allowances we’ve established.

• Landscape planning — There is no one who will be as familiar with your site and the features you would like to highlight. We will develop a landscaping concept that will include plantings (by scale and general type) and build xxx (walls, planters, water features) that you can use with your local nursery or a landscape architect.

• Lighting — Lighting should make your home glow without pockmarking our ceiling with receded “hotspots”, the lofty spaces should be filled with light, including the wood lined ceilings. There should be adequate task lightning where needed, all without the fixtures being seen (except perhaps in your dining room and entry). We’ll work with your to create custom lighting plans that you can use with your local lighting source when you purchase the fixtures.

Do recall the teaser, “Which weighs more… a pound of sand or a pound of feathers?”

Here’s another brainteaser but without an obvious answer:  “How much do your homes cost?”  The answer is that “We design houses to fit our clients budgets,” and that is the simple truth.

The not-so-simple truth is that our recent projects have run the gamut from $375 to over $475 per square foot in the Seattle area. The range on eastern Long Island is $550 to over $650 per square foot.

These figures are for a completed house, with the exception of:

• Permits, including civil, geotechnical, and wetlands engineers required to satisfy the need to obtain permits on difficult sites with wetlands or steep slopes.

• Site preparation, such as septic and well, hook up to municipal utilities, driveway, and excavation (the foundation, however, IS included in the quoted costs).

• Landscaping and specality items, such as swimming pools, oversized garages, and decks that are greater than the equivalent of 15% of the interior living area.

• State and local sales taxes on the Lindal materials, and in the state of Washington all the materials and labor provided by the builder.

The factors that affect cost are numerous:

• The efficiency of the structure — A one-level rambler has more surface area and more foundation than a comparably sized two-level house and therefore requires more material and labor to construct. 

• The Lindal specs you select — The baseline Lindal spec is of unusually high quality, and almost every Lindal component has optional substitutes that add or reduce cost. For Example, vinyl windows cost less than the standard cedar windows while aluminum clad windows cost more. Clear cedar siding costs more than the standard cedar with tight knots, while cementboard or corrugated steel siding costs less.

• Local on-site labor costs, site development, and permitting costs

• The finishes and amenities you select — A two-story masonry chimney mass may cost $30,000 (call that $10/SF in a 3000 square foot house). A Professional grade six- burner range adds another $20,000 ($6.66/SF); a three-car garage adds $1.50/SF to the overall cost; radiant heat throughout adds another $3.50/SF.  In Suffolk County, Long Island, the requirement of 125 mph impact- rated windows sometimes adds $20/SF to the overall cost.

The only valid way to estimate cost is for us to know you, to understand the overall design concept and to explore the level of finish you plan in many important areas. Our methodology is to understand you and to guide the process and your decisions to an on-budget conclusion.

Warmmodern Living provides clients detailed estimates with every iteration of design. As each design evolves, estimates are refined.  Every Warmmodern Living estimate contains three key elements:

• The Lindal components and options.  We typically attach a written spec.

• The cost of on-site and locally provided materials and systems required to construct and finish the house.  Recent project costs and estimates from local builders inform this section.  

• Allowances (budgets) for important finishes, such as: 

  • Plumbing fixtures and fittings

  • Cabinets and vanities

  • Countertops

  • Appliances

  • Finished flooring

  • Lighting

  • Amenities such as fireplaces, home elevators, etc

We consider your budget our most important client. If we don’t meet it, we’ve wasted your time and ours.  If you add bells and whistles we’ll estimate their costs upfront.  If we need to reduce cost, we'll guide you with appropriate suggestions.  We are uniquely diligent in this area.

Every successful project requires a systematic approach and ongoing local service and guidance; don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. We’ll put our architectural training and expertise plus four decades of systems building experience to work for you. We’ll get to know you and your site, sit at your kitchen table, and be your local experts.

While every client is unique, all aspiring clients share four fears:

• You won’t create a design you love

• Even if you do, you won’t be able to afford it

• Even if you can, the quality of the built reality will not meet your expecations

• The process of panning and building will require too much of your overcommitted time

 It all comes down to predictability... or the lack thereof.

Design flexibility and personalization do not require the loss of predictability.

Lindal Cedar Homes and warmmodern living provide clients a planning process and product that celebrate individuality without losing sight of the need for predictability.  Each design is created and refined through an iterative design process, and every iteration will be followed by a detailed warmmodern living estimate for the completed home.  Each time you make changes, you will understand  how those changes will impact cost.

Come explore how we overcome the ”four fears” and provide you with the home of a lifetime.