Over the years I have attained a good understanding of construction management and maintenance, coupled with hands-on experience. Below you will find a visual guide to help you understand my experience and see some completed projects that I have managed.
Construction Manager and Superintendent Experience
I started my career at an early age, growing up building houses with my Dad, and then eventually running his construction company, Harmony Homes, as the license holder for the business. Pictured below are some, but not all of the project location highlights that I worked on as construction manager:
My favorite aspect of new home construction
Working with my team to visualize, dream, organize and build neighborhoods and homes for families is an extremely rewarding experience and something that has defined me. Being able to go back to these neighborhoods years later and see the quality of our work standing proud is a true testament of what we are capable of!
My biggest challenges when it comes to construction management
One of the biggest challenges that I have faced as a builder was the disconnect between upper management and those in the field actually doing the work for our sub contractors. This resulted in problems down the road with no body to hold accountable other than ourselves.
For instance, STS ratings (Sound transmission ratings) are something that I believe is quite often overlooked by builders and installers. It is extremely important that these assemblies be built in such a way that they aren’t compromised or they wont work at all. STS ratings are something that most building departments don’t inspect and most attorneys do. At one point, an investigation into our STS assemblies in one of our multifamily buildings was launched and we had to defend our construction practices.
Inspections aren’t just something done by the building department, any good builder should have their own inspection protocol in place.
Anthony Jacobs
How my challenges have been overcome:
I overcame the challenge of my defense of our building techniques through education and proper training of my staff and subcontractors as to the proper installation of STS assemblies as well as very thorough in-house inspections of assemblies prior to covering up our walls.
My take away from this is that accountability will almost always fall back on the builder, and it is the sole responsibility of the builder team to make sure that they are building and completing their projects the right way. It is extremely important to have a standards guideline in place when building so that when accountability needs to happen, those accountable have something to fall back on.
Crystal Peak Lodge Engineering and Maintenance Manager
I was in charge of the team that maintained this building and my team also worked directly with homeowners who own units inside the building. I worked extensively with the multiple HOAs for the building along with the property management company to facilitate the care and maintenance of the facility. Our company held maintenance contracts with homeowners and I was the first point of contact for the homeowners when something went wrong and I was responsible to organize the repairs and maintenance in the owner-occupied units as needed.
Building facts:
- Number of Units: 45.
- Size: 1 Bedrooms (8), 2 Bedroom (30) and 3 Bedroom (7) (2-4 baths)
- Year Built: 2007.
- Amenities: True Ski-in/Ski-out!
Favorite aspect of managing this building: I love this building because it doesn’t have an attached restaurant or other ski-resort amenities meaning that the building remains somewhat separate from the ski resort even though it is at the base of the mountain.
Biggest Challenge: Managing the Crystal peak lodge included many challenges with the original design of the building. One of the most challenging was the hot tub design. An oversight to hot tub design when the building was constructed lead to overpressure of the hot tub filters which were located 2 stories below the actual hot tub. This over-pressure eventually lead to the failure of the hot tub filters causing flooding in the parking garage in the bottom of the structure.
How Challenge was overcome: We were able to fix and mitigate the issues here by checking filter specifications and outfitting the building with new filters capable of handling the head pressure created by the elevation difference between the hot tubs and the hot tub equipment.
One Ski Hill Place Engineering and Maintenance Manager.
I was in charge of the maintenance and engineering management of this facility. This included leading a staff of 10 to assist with the duties required to run this type of facility. The team I lead were in charge of the non-commercial maintenance and engineering of the facility including: The maintenance contracts that we had with our homeowners, the health and safety of the pools and hot tubs, the maintenance and management of the equipment that the building contained including boilers, chillers, air handler units, and a 2 lane bowling alley.
Building facts:
Approx. 88 wholly-owned ski-in/ski-out condominiums
Studio to four-bedroom furnished residences
- Studios: 8 units – 490 – 576 s.f.each
- One bedrooms: 15 units – 761 s.f.each
- One-bedroom/dens: 6 units – 860-958 s.f. each
- Two bedrooms: 33 units – 1142- 1282 s.f. each
- Two bedroom/dens: 4 units – 1315 s.f. each
- Three bedrooms: 15 units – 1445-1500 s.f. each
- Three bedroom/den: 3 units – 1905 s.f. each
- Four bedrooms: 4 units – 1905 – 1982 s.f. each
Favorite aspect of managing this building: One Ski Hill Place is the main attraction in terms of buildings in Breckenridge, and it comes with a very complicated mechanical room. A great aspect of this building was the integration with Setpoint systems for BMS control. At a glance, critical building systems can be monitored and set points changed easily with the setpoint BMS software. This software made the management of six boilers in cascade, a chiller system, and multiple air handlers much easier to manage and control, allowing more time to focus on our homeowners.
Biggest Challenge:
The big challenge with One Ski Hill Place was working to keep our owners happy with the facility despite constant maintenance and down-time of the 2 lane bowling alley that was installed in the building. This bowling alley is a 2 lane bowling alley that is booked 100% of the year. Every guest and owner in this building wants to bowl It could really upset guests when the bowling alley was not working (this was a frequent issue due to the sheer amount of use that it gets) The cancellation of a night of bowling during vacation to your expensive, ski-in condo is not something that anyone should have to endure.
How I overcame the challenge:
We worked to send one of our staff to bowling alley maintenance training with Brunswick to ensure that we had the proper training to safely work on the Pinsetters on-site. I created a parts inventory for the lanes to ensure that we had what we needed in the event of downtime. Minimizing downtime of this complicated and cantankerous machine meant happier homeowners and guests.
Custom Home in Skyway neighborhood- Construction Manager
Building Facts:
- Built in the Colorado Springs Skyway area
- Hillside fire requirements
- Tile Roof
- Mother in laws apartment
Favorite aspect of this building:
This home was fun to build because it was a full-custom home with many great features and a home owner that was willing to listen to design recommendations.
Biggest Challenge when building this home
This home is in a high-risk fire zone and required hillside fire mitigation which in Colorado Springs means that the lot needed to be cleaned of extra trees, brush and additional fire department inspections needed to be made in order to approve the project for construction.
How Challenge was Overcome
We didn’t want to have to cut excess trees out of the lot, nor did we want to have to have the added expense of a fire sprinkler system in the property. We solved this challenge by working closely with fire officials and the building department to voice our concerns and diligently meet to ensure that all departments were on the same page. The end result is that we were able to keep some of our big trees while still complying with the hillside fire mitigation codes.
811 & 851 Merrimack Way, Monument, CO-Construction Manager
These homes highlight some of my favorites that we built in El-Paso County. I was the construction manager during construction of these homes and just about every house that we built in this neighborhood was custom or semi-custom. My Dad and I used to challenge each other to make sure that our drainage on our properties was perfect. A lot of builders can make mistakes if they don’t set the foundation at the correct elevation during the build. This mistake can be devastating to house long-term if the house is set too low and devastating to the yard if built too high. These houses highlight an ideal driveway and view situation. I had a good time working using knowledge gained from my dad to set these houses on their lots and customizing them to work with the lot.
Favorite thing about this project:
Working with the side-load garage on this ranch at 811 Merrimack and setting the home high on the lot meant customization in terms of it’s basement, garage layout, elevation details and windows. This way we were able to maximize the views with minimal impact to the driveway and curb appeal of this home. This is one of the things that I love about careful planning as a builder. The end result really looks and works great!
What challenges did you face?
I can remember on this particular home that when we were very near the final phase of construction that some kids broke into the home with some ninja stars and caused a very large amount of drywall damage.
How did you solve your challenges?
A police report and insurance claim later, we got back to business, although we had to call out our drywall finisher for overtime to finish on-schedule. Had we not followed through with our insurance claim, we would have had an extra expense due to the damage.
734 & 736 Chesapeake
One of the challenges that we constantly faced as a builder was how to make our houses unique even when we had two clients who wanted the same floor plan on adjacent lots. 734 and 736 Chesapeake Ave. in Monument Colorado are a good example of this.
What challenges we faced?
On this particular project, we had two homeowners who both wanted the same house on adjacent lots.
How we solved the challenge
Our solution to make the neighborhood more diverse was to customize the look and layout of the two homes so that they could achieve individualism despite being the same base-model. At first glance, the roof lines look the same, however, 756 Chesapeake, pictured left has bay windows on the left side along with a sculptured front-porch column.
In comparison, 736 Chesapeake Ave. pictured right in the above photo, has a much different options set.
This home does not feature a bay window, has almond colored, grid-less windows, different accents in the peaks, a master suite option upstairs as opposed to 3 bedrooms. It’s the small customizations and attention to detail that really helped in this situation to give two homeowners the home that they wanted, without making them look exactly the same.
Personal Construction and Remodeling Projects:
Salem Kitchen Remodel
The Salem Kitchen remodel is the latest in the line of projects that I have personally completed all work on, including building the cabinets from scratch. This project includes design, CAD, Cam, Manufacturing, installation, tile, paint, trim, plumbing and electrical and carpentry skills. Between my hands-on experience and my project management experience, I have managed to amass a full-rounded skill set which allows me to accomplish projects like this myself.
Project facts:
I have built plenty of kitchens using pre-made cabinets and fillers, but for this project I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could build an entire kitchen from scratch using a 3D printed CNC machine that I built myself. Why do this? 1. I love a good robotics challenge 2. I wanted something on a budget, 3. custom cabinets were the only way that I could figure to maximize the usable space in such a small kitchen. I needed to get this kitchen done for less, but I also wanted a custom kitchen for this house.
Favorite part about the project:
Some said it couldn’t be done, but in the end, the kitchen turned out better than I ever imagined with a finer fit and finish than is possible using conventional cabinets and fillers.
Biggest project challenge:
A DIY CNC machine has its’s own challenges, my machine lacked rigidity and repeatability, which caused some issues resulting in parts taking much longer to manufacture than anticipated.
How I overcame the challenge.
Perseverance and careful measurement and planning played a big part in the success of this project. When things went wrong, instead of getting frustrated, I just reset, re-evaluated and tried again. I ended up using the full sheet DIY machine to cut most of the larger parts for the cabinets, but for the doors and dados, it proved inadequate due to rigidity issues. I have a smaller, professional 24×36″ CNC machine that I ended up using to cut the doors. Even with these CNC routers, the project involved quite a bit of work by hand to get the perfect fit and finish.
Check out the first article in my series on this remodel from start to finish
Lakewood Master Bedroom Lofted Ceiling remodel
There are some very charming houses in Lakewood, Colorado built in the late 1950s. Some of these homes I consider to be the last of their kind; Sprawling ranch homes with adorable, swooping roof lines with low-pitched roofs, Scrolled woodwork, Brick facades, and other little details that you just can’t find in the homes of today. I call these homes Storybook ranch homes, and although they are well built for their time, there are some major challenges when it comes to remodeling them.
Lakewood Loft before ceiling Demo 
Lakewood Loft Ceiling and Joist Demo 
Lakewood Loft Ceiling and Joist New 
Lakewood Loft insulation with Foam insulation to acheive R36 
Lakewood Loft Drywalled
This bedroom remodel involved working with a fantastic engineer to come up with a plan and drawings which we used for approval with the building department. I completed all work myself.
What you enjoyed about the project
The project was a big challenge in terms of wrapping our heads around the existing roof structure and the final design. I modeled this ceiling using Autodesk Revit BIM and then implemented Virtual reality to actually go to the space before it was built to look at the ceiling lines. The result speaks for itself.
Project Challenges
These 1960’s houses were all stick framed and the roofs are rafter-type construction. Our challenge here was that we were not in a position to modify the roof structure to achieve the loft that we wanted without having to bring the entire roof structure to code which is not really possible on this home. The roof structure in this home is complicated, I went through a few engineers who couldn’t help me before I found an engineer up to the challenge. This caused some project delays and additional expenses.
How I solved the challenges
3D Modeling the existing roof structure really helped us to understand what we were dealing with in terms of the modifications that would be required on this project. The first engineer I hired told me that it couldn’t be done. In the end, I was able to do what the homeowner wanted because I knew that this could be done. The end result is a happy homeowner and a much-improved space.
There are many other projects that I am preparing to write about which will be added to this page as time progresses. They include:
- Custom boiler installation
- Radiant heat installation and troubleshooting
- Building curbless showers
- Lakewood kitchen
- Aurora basement finish & more.
