Inside your remodel
What actually happens between the first phone call and the last walk-through — including the parts nobody puts on a website. How the price gets fixed, who you ring, what the house is like to live in while it is a building site, and what we do so that answer is “fine” rather than “don’t ask”.
Stage two
The Renovation Edit
Everything that matters.
Nothing that doesn’t.
A whole-home renovation asks a homeowner to make somewhere north of two hundred separate decisions, most of them about things they have never had to have an opinion on before. Left alone, that is where a project stalls: not at the framing, at the tile.
The Renovation Edit is our name for the stage that fixes it. Between the drawings and the demolition, a designer sits with you and cuts the whole catalogue down to a short list that already works together, already fits the house, and already fits the number. You are not choosing from everything. You are choosing from the right things.
The measured drawings, the elevations and the budget. Every room drawn as it will actually be built, so a selection is made against a real dimension rather than a hope.
Cabinetry, stone, tile, floors, paint, plumbing, lighting, appliances, hardware, trim. Named, specified and priced — not left as an allowance to be argued about in month three.
One document. The complete selection schedule, attached to one contract and one price, with a build schedule drawn against it. Nothing after this is a surprise, because nothing after this is still undecided.
The Edit is part of pre-construction, priced in the table further down this page. It is the same work whether you build with us or not — and it is the single biggest reason a job finishes when it said it would.
The five
What people are really
asking about.
Nobody rings a builder worried about joist spans. These are the five things that actually keep people awake before a renovation — in the words they use — and the part of how we work that answers each one. Not a badge. A mechanism you can check.
“It will run months over.”
The dateA schedule drawn from a finished plan set, not from optimism.
- Nothing goes on a calendar before the permit is in hand. A date given before plan review is a guess, and a guess is what overruns.
- The build schedule is drawn against the selection schedule, so the job is never waiting on a decision that has not been made yet.
- One project manager per job, on site — not a name on an email chain who visits when something has already gone wrong.
- Long-lead items are ordered in pre-construction, not when the trade turns up to fit them.
“The number will double.”
The pricePriced from complete drawings, before anything is demolished.
- We do not quote a renovation off a walk-through. The number comes off a finished plan set and a finished selection schedule, which is why pre-construction exists as its own paid stage.
- The pre-construction fee itself is published, in bands, further down this page. You know what the answer costs before you commission it.
- Allowances are set against selections you have actually chosen, so they behave like line items rather than like blank cheques.
- A change is written, priced and signed before it is built. There is no such thing here as work done first and discussed later.
“Nobody will tell me anything.”
The silenceYou should never have to ask where your own job is.
- One point of contact, whose number you have, who answers about your job rather than about the company.
- A walk-through on site every week: what got done, what is next, what is waiting on you.
- Anything found behind a wall is photographed and sent to you the day it is found — with what it means for the price and the date, in plain language.
- Design and construction are the same company, so there is no gap where two firms can each say it is the other one’s question.
“The finish will be nearly right.”
The standardThe person who drew it is the person who checks it.
- The drawings are made in-house, a few feet from the people who build them. A detail that does not work gets caught at the desk, not on site at 4pm on a Friday.
- Everything hidden — framing, waterproofing, services — is photographed before it is closed up, and you get the photographs.
- A written punch list before the final payment, walked with you, signed off item by item.
- Licensed and insured in North Carolina and South Carolina. Our licence number is on every page of this site for a reason.
“We still have to live here.”
The houseIt is your home first and our site second, in that order.
- Dust barriers go up before demolition starts, not after somebody complains. Sealed, floor to ceiling, with zips at the openings.
- The route in is protected — floors, stairs, banisters, door casings — on day one and until the last trade leaves.
- Broom-clean at the end of every working day, and the site secured before anyone goes home.
- Working hours, parking and which rooms the crew uses are agreed with you at the start, and they do not change without a phone call first.
The rules of our site
Eight things that happen
on every job.
The same on every job, written down so you can hold us to them.
Sealed dust protection before the first wall comes down.
Floors, stairs and casings covered from the door to the work.
Broom-clean at the end of every shift, not at the end of the week.
Start and finish times set with you, and kept.
One project manager, one number, your job.
Nothing hidden gets closed up without a picture first.
A change is signed before it is built. Always.
Doors, windows and the site locked before anyone leaves.
Four stages
What we are doing,
and what you are doing.
The same four stages every Queen Boss project runs through — with the half nobody publishes: how much of it lands on you, and when.
Walk the house
We look at what is there: structure, services, what moves and what does not. Most of what a renovation will cost is decided by things you can see on this visit.
An hour in the house, no charge and no obligation. Bring the folder of pictures. We will tell you what is possible, what it roughly costs and what we would do differently.
Design & drawings
Layouts, elevations and selections developed with you, with a level of revision included, until the drawings describe the house you actually want.
This is the Renovation Edit. The heaviest week of the project for you, and the reason the rest of it is not.
Engineering & permit
Structural calculations and a stamp where the work needs one, then submission and any requested revisions — so the schedule starts from an approved set.
Engineering and plan review run on the city’s clock, not ours. We chase it; you get told where it is.
Build
One team, one schedule, one point of contact. You know what is happening this week and what is happening next.
The decisions are made and the schedule is set. Your job now is the weekly walk-through and the occasional question.
In house
From a line on paper
to a room you live in.
Every project on this site started as a drawing made in our own office. Not a mood board and not a catalogue page — a measured set, drawn to the millimetre, that a framer and a plumber can both build from without ringing anybody.
Before a wall moves
You see the room
before it exists.
Rendered, so the decision you are making is about a room rather than about a line on a page. Change it here, where changing it is free — that is the whole argument for the Renovation Edit.
Book a consultation →What the answer costs
Pre-construction,
priced in the open.
The Edit, the drawings, the engineering and the permit are their own paid stage, because they are their own body of work — and because a builder who gives that away has to get it back somewhere you cannot see. Here is the whole of it.
| Pre-construction stage | Scope | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Design & Architectural | Complete plan set: layouts, selections, construction drawings & renderings | $2,000 – $4,000 |
| 2 — Structural Engineering | Site evaluation, calculations & engineer’s stamp (if required) | $2,000 – $4,000 |
| 3 — City Permit | Plan submission & city stamp · permit fees billed at cost | At cost |
| Total pre-construction | Final range confirmed once scope & areas are set | $2,000 – $8,000+ |
Financing
Borrow against the house
it is going to be.
A renovation is usually worth more than the house was before it. RenoFi is built on that: their lending partners underwrite against your home’s after-renovation value rather than what it is worth today, which is why the number they can reach is so often larger than a standard home-equity offer.
RenoFi is not a lender; it works with lending partners who make the loans. Queen Boss Construction is not a lender or a broker, does not arrange credit and takes no part in the application or the decision — we point you at them because clients keep asking who to talk to. All terms, rates and eligibility are between you and the lender.
Straight answers
The questions people ask
once they trust us enough.
01Can we stay in the house while you work?
Usually, yes — on a kitchen, a bathroom or a basement, almost always. On a whole-home renovation, generally not, and we will tell you that at the walk-through rather than at framing. Where you are staying, we set up a temporary kitchen or bathroom as part of the schedule.
02How much of this do I have to project-manage myself?
None of it. That is the point of design–build: one contract, one invoice, one company answerable for the drawings and the building. Your job is the selections during the Edit and the weekly walk-through.
03What happens when you open a wall and find something?
You get a photograph the same day, an explanation of what it means and a written change order with a price before anybody touches it. Old houses have surprises in them; the only real question is whether your builder tells you about them on the day or at the end.
04Do I have to use your designer?
No. If you already have a designer or an architect, we will build from their drawings and work alongside them. The in-house team exists because most people do not have one, not to shut anybody out.
05When do I pay, and how much?
Pre-construction is billed by stage, at the bands published below. The build itself is billed against a draw schedule set out in the contract and tied to work completed, with the final payment released after the punch list is signed off.
06What if I want to change something halfway through?
You can, and people do. It gets drawn, priced and signed first, and we will be straight with you about what it does to the date. Changes are not a problem; unrecorded changes are.
Get started
Tell us about
your project.
A conversation and a walk through the rooms you are thinking about — no charge, and no obligation at the end of it.