March 24, 2025
I’ve always been very good at prioritizing family over work. Those are the only two things I do – and sometimes trail running. In early March one of my twin 10-year-olds said for the first time “Daddy, it seems like you never have time to play with us, you are always talking to people about…
March 8, 2025
Our pre-construction design, plan check and permitting process is ready to go! While the County always finds it’s way to present challenges, we have massive experience on board to get projects done. Our structural engineer was formerly a plan check supervisor at LA County Department of Public Works and is so concentrated in LA County…
February 27, 2025
Industry experts were really excited about our use case of rebuilding Altadena! I found a lot of help and they all agree we can scale up to serve more people while improving the customer experience, home quality and subcontractor’s enthusiasm, using the industry best practices preached at the show and the abundance of new software…
February 20, 2025
In the case I worked on today, a very special Jane’s Cottage was lost and is not being replaced. To capture the large insurance values in the many Jane’s Cottage details, we offered to provide custom estimates from experts for all the non-standard details in addition to our standard, detailed, one-hundred-page+ estimate in the insurance…
February 18, 2025
Preconstruction is developing the construction plan to match the clients’ lifestyle & design vision. Construction is all about what happens before construction begins. I’ve learned this the hard way with some difficult projects in which I got lazy with preconstruction. And now I insist on a thorough and complete pre-construction process. Cost overruns and schedule…
February 17, 2025
Walked a site with a lovely couple today who lost everything on East Mendocino. They already have a Like-4-Like design and we considered private lot clearing to protect the new hardscape they had installed in the rear yard and to preserve the septic system. In reviewing the design they had worked on with a friend,…
February 12, 2025
The Altadena Rebuild has a different challenge than Palisades due to the historic architecture that was lost. We are prepared for this challenge, I just helped my wife Regina O’Brien Wronske restore a 1933 Deco Synagogue for which we won a Historic Preservation Award from the Los Angeles Conservancy. Capturing the insurance claim value of…
January 30, 2025
Yesterday a real estate developer friend from the Bay called to say I needed to think harder about being part of the Rebuild effort. He covinced me – we are the local building industry – who else is going to rebuild? I stayed up late in bed writing a business plan. I’m ashamed it took…