Master Works Construction

Nick McClellan of Masterworks Construction visited this morning, along with Mike, who I think is his brother. One talks, the other doesn't. Nick is the one who talks.

Masterworks remodeled Greg and Chris Schwesinger's home at 8th Ave and 122nd in 2008.

I found Nick by knocking on the door of the Schwesinger's home, which I have admired. If the house was remodeled in 2014, I'd wonder how it would hold up, but this remodel is almost seven years old. From the front porch, I could see that the good design continues inside, with a sharp-looking cable railing around stairs to the lower level. (Nick mentioned that that railing was $150 a foot.)

I gave Nick the tour and showed him the latest plans (A.9). He ballparked $200,000, but he had nothing to go on. In general, he'd like to give me a bid with "allowances" for "discovery items" (that is, problems that are discovered once they start). The allowances wouldn't be binding at all--the extra work would be time and materials. I sensed that Mike thinks Nick talks too much. It was nice to hear Nick's enthusiasm for the house and my designs in any case. (I would be smart to hire only people who don't kiss my ass, I think.)

They pointed out sagging in the eaves and the hip roof, particularly the hip over Ba3. Metal roofs reveal such imperfections more than composition shingles, in my opinion (Nick didn't necessarily agree with me), and it would be imperative to repair the roof structure before putting on the roof--this makes metal that much more than comp. Nick gaily arm-waved an engineered ridge beam over BR3...basically rebuilding the entire garage roof. 

They liked the clean, dry basement, and they seemed shy about replacing forced air with hydronic--every hydronic they've done has been above the floor, encased in Gyp-crete. Mike knew about the heatshield for underfloor installations, though. Remarkably, they spoke easily of replacing all the ducts when we put in the new furnace. He wanted to put in a heat pump to handle air conditioning, whether I wanted it or not (I don't want A/C).

We had a more productive conversation about the sequence of things. Nick painted a picture about pouring new foundations without touching the existing house, then framing the new walls and only then removing the old roof. From that point, it's a race to button up the "cap," as he called it, so that the existing house is only exposed to the weather for a short time. Work inside would proceed once the new roof was on--under the umbrella, as he put it. Nick waxed rhapsodic about the smooth, clean fascia line and new gutters--can't you just see it?--and this utterly perfect roof installation, with vents for planned plumbing changes installed even though the bathrooms were only on paper. But then, after that, no one needs to go on the roof.

Oh, but then Nick saw that the electrical service entrance would have to move. Oof, he said, with more elegant words. "That's five thousand right there. Easy," he said. 

They arrived late for our 9am, but they stayed 90 minutes or so. It took ten days from my email contact until this meeting. They left without leaving so much as a business card (Blue Sound left a portfolio with company details). Mike lives in Everett and Nick lives in Arlington, which is north of Everett--45 minutes without traffic. However, they did the Schwesinger's house, and they mentioned more recent work in Seattle. They didn't want to work farther south than that, though, they said.

We left it that I would send them preliminary plans by email, and Nick promised to respond with prices, value engineering ideas, and product specifics.

Nicholas McClellan

Master Works Construction LLC

20902 67th Ave NE #339
Arlington WA 98223
425.531.4258 F 360.403.3061

masterworksconstruction@yahoo.com