Home construction and renovation has always been challenging. When the client is a couple, the architect – and yes, they need one – or the contractor – and, yes, they need one of these, as well – is likely to ask a simple first question: “How strong is your marriage?”

It is a valid question and an important query as large renovation projects and custom houses have ended many a marriage and partnership. The process has reduced highly successful, intelligent, confident individuals to sniveling, blubbering, spineless wimps in need of institutionalization.

As much as these poor people who merely seek more sufficient shelter need architects and contractors, there is another piece to the puzzle more important than the other two.

Without this group, the straitjacket should be on the material list alongside drywall and lumber.

Companies such as Construction Resource Group, LLC can save sanity, time and, most important, hundreds of thousands of dollars. This firm was founded and is led by Lyle Patterson, the former director of building and zoning for Belle Meade, where he also wore the hat of the flood plain administrator. Additionally, he has served as contractor for hundreds of houses for decades.

Patterson acts as auditor, CEO and liaison officer for the project. On Day One, he meets with all of the players – contractor, architect, subcontractors and interior designers – another vital ingredient to the success of the build – and all of the trades people.

He establishes accountability among the group and serves as the much-needed consultant.

He reviews all invoices before the client pays to ensure that the contractor has ordered what is required for the job and that the materials he or she ordered have arrived at the jobsite.

“On time” and “on budget” are terms not often associated with new construction and renovation.

The failure to deliver is not the result of incompetence in most cases, as material costs fluctuate and subcontractors often wreak havoc on schedules. When the plumber does not arrive when he promised – for the third time – and finish the rough-in, the contractor has to bump the electrician, who might have to change his schedule and miss a day, causing the contractor to move drywall delivery.

At that point, the drywall assigned is sold to another builder, and the entire project for the original customer has lost two or three months and perhaps a locked interest rate, costing the homeowner hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.

Patterson says contractors and homeowners often take invoices for granted, and trucks are sometimes not loaded properly. At the end of each week,

Patterson creates and schedule and sends it to all involved outlining what should be accomplished in the coming week.

He visits each site every day to monitor the progress of the project and to check the quality of the work and the materials. Architect, interior designer, contractor, then an owner’s representative, such as Patterson. If you leave one ingredient out of the recipe, the house will not rise.

Sale of the Week

Last week Ryan Long, of Parks – the real estate firm, not the Metro government department – closed on his listing at 3553 Crestridge Drive for $2.75 million on a newly constructed house that encompasses 5,100 square feet. A house selling for $534 per square foot once seemed preposterous and shocking. Now it could have some asking “Why so low?”

Being newly designed and built, the house has five bedrooms, each with its own bath or “ensuite” for French wannabes out there.

In French, a bedroom with its own bathroom would be “la chambre avec salle de bains attenante.” The word ensuite in French “en suite’ means “following.” And now ensuite means a bedroom with its own bathroom in the same manner that vente is larger than grande.

The house has Fisher Paykel appliances, based in East Tamaki, New Zealand, is a firm founded by Sir Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel and is now a subsidiary of Haier, a Chinese firm known for the dishwasher drawers it trademarked with the name “DishDrawer.” No need for linguistic cuteness.

Long listed the house, and the MLS states there was no buyer’s agent, a trend that has been around since the first homebuilder erected his first structure, especially in new construction. There are two fireplaces in the home, and they can burn gas or wood.

The house features the highly vaunted Pella windows, so named because the headquarters is in Pella, Iowa. It employs about 7,000 people and it is about to celebrate its 100th birthday. It was founded in 1925 when Peter Kuyper and wife Lucille bought Rolscreen company for $5,000.

The company has several types of windows such a casement, hung or double hung. From time to time, they sell windows that are shop mulled, a process of joining two or more windows together by their frames.

The property stayed on the market for 18 days and closed 43 days later. The crawlspace is encapsulated, a procedure now perfected with the dehumidifier, a tankless water heater and a two-car garage. The lot is 0.33 acres, and many prefer that or less.

Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich & Clark Realty, LLC and can be reached at [email protected].