The first meeting

The second meeting, first.

Builders save the arithmetic for the second meeting so the first can stay pleasant. You’ve already had our second meeting — it’s the ledger — so the first one can be useful instead: an hour on your lot, with your range on paper.

A fictional design-build studio — not a licensed contractor, not accepting projects. A design demonstration by Isolume.

The lot, read

Slope, access, where a crane can stand, what the neighbors' setbacks did to their light. An hour on the dirt answers more than a month of email — and it's where ×1.18 either earns its keep or comes off your number.

The Board, pre-checked

Laguna's Design Review Board meets twice a month and owns months 6–15 of your schedule. We walk in knowing what triggers review on your street — height, view equity, the neighbor letters — so the months on your sheet are the real ones.

The range, on paper

You leave with this page's arithmetic printed and signed: the band, the factor, the soft-cost line, the months. If we never meet again, you still own the honest number — that's the point of the whole site.

New houses standing on a raw graded hillside at dusk, bare dirt in the foreground — THE PART WE WALK FIRST — THE DIRT

Your sheet

The range travels with you.

This is the same ledger as the home page — same state, not a copy. Adjust it here if the lot taught you something; the walk sheet below follows.

The size

The finish

The lot

The ledger · a range, on purpose

Construction2,400 sq ft × $520–620 × 1.18 hillside$1,472,640 – $1,755,840

Design, engineering, the city14% of construction — architecture, structural, geotech, fees$206,170 – $245,818

THE RANGE$1,678,810 – $2,001,658

27–39 months, honestly: design 5–7, Design Review & permits 5–9 (the Board meets twice a month — the step every schedule omits), the build 14–20, plus 3 for the hillside.

Fictional bands, real mechanics — mid-market Orange County custom work runs roughly $400–600 a square foot and up (2026 guides), and land is not in this number. A real studio would plug in its own history; the honesty is the product either way.

The hand-off

Bring it to the dirt.

What you’re bringing · from the ledger

The house2,400 sq ft · considered finish · hillside$1,678,810 – $2,001,658

Design, engineering, the city14% of construction, already inside the range$206,170 – $245,818

The honest calendar: design 5–7 months · Design Review & permits 5–9 (the Board meets twice a month) · the build 14–20 · plus 3 for the hillside — 27–39 months to keys.

Change of heart on the size or the finish? The ledger on the home page is the same sheet — edit it there and this page follows.