The Awakened Homeowner

About The Awakened Homeowner

I'm Bill Reid and I will be along your side as Your Home Building Coach. Brought to you by The Awakened Homeowner Mission— your go-to podcast for real talk about designing, remodeling, and building your dream home! Hosted by Bill Reid, who's helped coordinate the design and construction of hundreds of new homes and remodels, this show is packed with insider secrets and smart strategies to help you crush your home goals. Building or remodeling can feel like a wild ride — but it doesn't have to be a nightmare. Here, you’ll get expert home remodeling advice, practical new home construction tips, and a full scoop on building a custom home without losing your mind (or your budget). We’ll walk you through renovation planning, share step-by-step home remodeling guides for homeowners, and spill the tea on common home building mistakes and how to avoid them. Thinking about diving into a remodel or new build? Find out exactly what to know before starting a home renovation and how to navigate the home building process like a pro. This podcast pairs perfectly with Bill's new book, The Awakened Homeowner — a must-read if you’re serious about creating a space that feels like home and makes smart financial sense. Whether you're sketching ideas on a napkin or knee-deep in construction dust, Your Home Building Coach gives you the best tips for building a new custom home, real-world advice, and all the encouragement you need to stay inspired. Ready to turn your home dreams into a reality? Hit subscribe and let's make it happen!

Publisher

William W. Reid

Category

arts · education · leisure

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 Apr 2025

Latest episode

17 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

80 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Oct 2026

   Building Permit Timeline: Plan Check to Final Inspection

   Building permit timeline from submittal to final inspection — the relay stages, what plan check comments really mean, and why tying payments to inspections protects your money. WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER How long does a building permit really take? It's a relay, not a stopwatch. The clock goes back and forth between the city and you, and some legs take weeks while others take days. Bill Reid walks through every stage from the moment you submit plans to the moment the permit closes. Leg one is intake — the completeness check before review even starts. A missing document costs you your place in line, which is why Episode 75 emphasized getting the submittal package right the first time. Leg two is first review — the city's long leg. For a remodel or addition, three to six weeks is common. For a new home, often much longer. And your project isn't waiting on one reviewer — it's waiting on the slowest of several working at once. Leg three is yours. Comments come back and your design team responds. That might be a few days or three weeks depending on what's being asked and how many other clients they have that month. Leg four is the recheck. The city looks at your responses. Resubmittals are usually faster than first review because they're only checking what changed. If anything is still open, you go around again. Stop and hear what that means. The number of times you loop through legs three and four matters more than how fast the city is. A department that takes five weeks and approves on the first recheck beats a department that takes three weeks and sends you around three times. Most projects go around at least once. One round of comments isn't a sign something is wrong — it's the normal shape of the process. When you put the permit into your schedule, write down first review plus response plus recheck plus cushion for a second round. For remodels and additions, that adds up to two to four months. For new homes in busy places, considerably longer. The piece you control most isn't the city's leg. It's how good your first submittal is and how fast and complete your response is when comments come back. Those two things decide how many laps you run. And there's one more thing you control — how you use the wait time. Those weeks while plans sit in review shouldn't be dead time. This is when you finish selections, when your contractor firms up pricing and lines up subs. What it's not the time for is starting work before the permit is issued. PLAN CHECK COMMENTS — WHAT THEY REALLY ARE That eleven-page correction letter isn't a denial. A true denial is rare on a residential project that's been through planning approval already. What you're holding is a correction list. Each reviewer writes down what they need changed, clarified, or added before they'll sign off. Most items are small — a missing dimension, a detail that needs called out, a note that needs to match the engineer's calculations. Your architect will knock many off the list in an afternoon. But buried in a list of forty small items, there can be one or two that change your project entirely. Bill shares three stories where that happened — a hidden setback document from 1960 that forced a complete redesign, a parking requirement misread at the counter that added a second covered space, and a floor area ratio calculation on a steep roof that cost two hundred square feet of planned addition. These aren't building department problems. They're planning department rules surfacing inside the building permit review. Planning signs off a second time comparing what you submitted to what they approved and to what code allows. Think of the comment letter as an invoice you haven't priced yet. Every item is a change. Most cost nothing but your architect's time. Some cost a little. Once in a while one costs a lot. The moment that letter lands, ask your architect one question: Do any of the revisions the city is requiring change the cost of my job? Ask it in writing if you can. Why does it matter so much? By this point you may already have pricing from your contractor built on the drawings as they stood before comments. If a required revision changes scope and nobody connects that back to price, your contractor won't find out until work is underway. That's the worst possible time. Now it's a change order in the middle of the job with a crew waiting. Get the revised sheets to your contractor and ask the same question from his side. Does this change your number? Push for one complete response, not a handful of items now and the rest later. Every partial resubmittal is another lap around the loop. And in some places after the first recheck or two, the city starts charging for additional rechecks. INSPECTIONS AND THE CLOSED PERMIT Inspections run in the order your house gets built, following what's about to get covered up. Before concrete goes in, somebody looks at footings and steel. Before walls close, somebody looks at framing and rough electrical, plumbing, mechanical. At the end, there's a final inspection. Every one is a gate. You don't pour until the footing passes. You don't hang drywall until framing and rough trades pass. If you skip a gate, the only way an inspector can see what's behind it is to open it back up. Tie some of your progress payments to passed inspections. Not to the inspection being scheduled or the work being about done — passed and signed on the card. That gives everyone the same definition of done. When the framing inspection is signed off, the framing payment is due. Nobody argues about whether the stage is finished because somebody from the city just said it was. The job isn't done when the crew leaves. The job is done when the permit is closed. It's surprisingly easy for a permit to never get its final. The last few items drag, the contractor moves on, the homeowner's living in the house, and nobody calls for the final inspection. The permit just sits there open. In many places if a permit goes six months without passing an inspection, it can expire. And that can come back on you when you sell or refinance. A buyer or lender may run a permit search and an open expired permit can hold up the deal. Before the final payment goes out, make sure the final inspection is passed and the permit shows as closed. Look it up on the city's website yourself. Get a copy of the signed card, put it with the stamped plans, and keep both as long as you own the house. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Episode 73 — the planning department Episode 74 — the building department's five reviewers Episode 75 — the building permit application Episode 78 — conversation with Chad Esslinger on lot selection This closes out the approvals and permits series. Next episode brings on a guest who consults with homeowners in contract trouble. Enlighten, empower, protect. Now go make it happen. --- ### SHORT SHOW NOTES (800-1,200 characters) Building permit timeline from submittal to final — the relay stages most homeowners misunderstand. It's not a stopwatch. The clock goes back and forth between the city and you. First review takes three to six weeks for remodels, longer for new homes. Comments come back. Your team responds. The city rechecks. Sometimes you loop again. The number of loops matters more than how fast the city is. You control how good your first submittal is and how complete your response is. Plan check comments aren't a rejection — they're a correction list. Most items are small. But one or two can change your project budget entirely. Ask your architect immediately: Do any of these revisions change the cost of my job? Get the answer to your contractor before scope and price disconnect. Tie progress payments to passed inspections. The job isn't done when the crew leaves — it's done when the permit closes. An open expired permit can surface years later when you sell. This closes out Episodes 73-79, the approvals and permits series. ASK BILL A QUESTION - Call or text 530-289-6368 Voicemails may be featured on a future episode, first name only. Let me know in your message if you'd prefer to stay off the air. Free Story: The Tale of Two Homeowners (https://the-awakened-homeowner.kit.com/09608e1727) Watch: YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@HomeBuildingCoach) Listen: Podcast (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/listen) Read: AMAZON (https://www.amazon.com/Awakened-Homeowner-Orchestrate-Construction-Success-ebook/dp/B0F1MDRPK7) , All Book Stores (https://books2read.com/u/bpxj76) Visit: Homepage (https://www.theawakenedhomeowner.com/) Follow: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/theawakenedhomeowner/): Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/theawakenedhomeowner/) Learn: BuildQuest Planning Platform: (https://buildquest.co) Contact: Email: wwreid@theawakenedhomeowner.com Mentioned in this episode: The Awakened Homeowner Book (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/home-building-book) <a...

2. 

   10 Oct 2026

   Before You Sign on That Land: What Builders Wish You Knew

   Buying land for a custom home feels like progress. You found the lot. You made the offer. You closed. Now the real planning can start. Except if you bought the land before you tested what it can actually support, you may have just made one of the most expensive mistakes in the entire process. Chad Eslinger, owner of Eslinger Homes in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and founder of Construction Flow, has three projects on pause right now. Different homeowners, different budgets, same fundamental problem. They bought the property before they priced what they wanted to build on it. And now they're stuck. ABOUT CHAD ESLINGER Chad Eslinger is a second-generation builder with twenty-nine years of experience. He's built over 150 homes, completed 75+ remodels and additions, and developed hundreds of residential lots in the Lake Oswego, Oregon area. He bought the family business in 2006, right before the market collapsed, and built it into a practice where most of his work comes from architect referrals. He also created Construction Flow, an application designed to walk homeowners through every phase of a build before they're standing in the middle of it, and he hosts the Construction Flow podcast. Find Chad: For Owners https://getconstructionflow.com/ For Pros: https://constructionflowpro.com/ https://eslingerhomes.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChadEslinger Apple Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/construction-flow-podcast/id6819874089) Spotify Podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/2wzc3RHUKNMTaOCCsIu5pg?si=jqp8yYRcTRKseDqQBgl_5A&amp;utm_source=native-share-menu) chad@getconstructionflow.com THE THREE PROJECTS Project one. A couple blending families wanted a home large enough for both sets of belongings. They bought a lot they knew. It was near where the wife already lived. They were aware of a sewer extension, but the estimate they inherited from the seller turned out to be half of what it actually cost. The lot is a long way off the road, which added storm sewer complications the city has been fighting them on for over a year. They brought Chad in at schematic design, which was smart. He gave feedback as the architect drew the plans. But every meeting where they tried to value-engineer, they added more costs. The plans are now one hundred percent done. They handed them to the homeowner, the homeowner wrote the architect a check, and in the same sentence said "we're pausing." They've held the land for multiple years and may never build. Project two. A couple retiring and moving cross-country to be near their son and daughter. They bought land next door to the kids before doing any due diligence on utilities. It's in the country, so septic and well. The well on the property turned out to be 5,000 feet from the building site—an irrigation well. Their goal was to match the price of the home they sold in South Carolina, a budget reverse-engineered from a resale number rather than from construction cost. They designed the plan. The numbers came back higher. They paused to shop other builders. The bids came back the same. Six months later they re-engaged and discovered the county permitting process will take 150 to 200 days because of farm zoning restrictions. They could have been running that clock the entire time they were sitting. They've held the land for a couple of years and still don't know if they're building. Project three. Currently unfolding. A homeowner meeting with four or five builders. Chad had just priced a similar home for the same architect, so he had a number to start with. The homeowner is worried about overbuilding. The plans are finishing right now, and according to the architect, the homeowner is asking for more complexity to be worked into the drawings. The stated budget hasn't moved. Most projects work through this. These three haven't. And the pattern is identical. THE PATTERN People buy land because it's exciting. It's tangible. It feels like commitment. And in many cases, they're making an emotional decision. One couple wanted to be near family. The other loved the neighborhood. Emotional decisions are fine. The mistake is making them without the one piece of information that changes everything: does this lot support what I want to spend? The reason homeowners don't bring builders in earlier is they think it locks them into a relationship before they're ready. They want to make sure they're getting fair pricing. They want to keep their options open. What they don't realize is the value they're missing. A builder brought in during due diligence would have flagged the sewer extension cost, the storm design issues, the well location, the farm zoning restriction, the foundation cost from the topography. On one of these projects, moving the house twenty feet forward would have saved three hundred thousand dollars. The homeowner chose not to. They wanted the longer driveway. That project is paused. WHY THE ARCHITECT-BUILDER RELATIONSHIP MATTERS Most of Chad's work comes from architect referrals, and he works with the same architects repeatedly. That relationship has value homeowners don't always see. When an architect and a builder have worked together on twenty-five or thirty projects, they can read each other's minds. They know how the other one details things. They know what the plans mean even when every detail isn't drawn. A cased opening that's supposed to align across three rooms doesn't always have a section showing every condition. If the builder knows that architect's work, it gets priced right the first time. If they don't, it gets missed, and the homeowner walks in during construction and says "I had no idea that's what I was getting." The relationship also means faster answers when problems come up during construction. A good architect is busy. They're going to prioritize the calls from builders they work with regularly. That responsiveness is part of what you're paying for when you hire a team that already knows each other. WHAT SCOPE OF WORK ACTUALLY MEANS Scope of work is what goes into every single line item in the house. It's not just "box beam ceiling." It's what kind of box beam—three-part crown or simple? Stain-grade or paint-grade? How is it built up at the edges? There are fifteen ways to do a box beam ceiling, and if the builder isn't part of the design conversation, they're guessing which version you meant when they priced it. The same applies to every material and every detail. Does the water pressure need a reducer? Is the paneled wall a big feature or a small note? Scope of work is both what's being done and what materials are being used to do it. If you can't clearly tell what's being priced, you're headed for a dispute. The more thorough the scope, the better. And the best way to see it is to walk a finished home the builder has done and have them point out what the details actually look like in three dimensions. BUDGET CHECKPOINTS DURING DESIGN Bill and Chad both operate with budget checkpoints during design. Schematic design ends with a milestone decision: do we move to design development? Design development is where you spend most of your time specking out finishes—windows, doors, tile, stone, cabinetry, MEP systems. If you blow through that milestone without testing the budget, you wake up at the end of design with an estimate that's two or three times what you thought you'd spend. Budget checkpoints prevent that. They also give you a chance to vet contractors while you're still designing, which means by the time you're ready for final bids, you've already interviewed people and seen their work. You're not picking up the phone and checking reviews. WHAT HOMEOWNERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR Some homeowners raise their hand and ask "what am I responsible for?" The ones who don't ask are in worse shape, because they think they're done and they walk off while the home gets built. You're the General Manager of this project. The architect designs it. The builder builds it. You make the decisions. And the earlier you understand that, the fewer surprises you'll have. THE TAKEAWAY A budget isn't real until it's been tested against a real site and a real scope of work. The cheapest time to test it is before you bought the land or paid for the plans. If you've already bought the land, bring a builder in now. Pay them a retainer if you need to. Five thousand dollars for forty hours of consulting during design can save you three hundred thousand in the field. That's not theory. That's one of the three projects Chad just described. CROSS-REFERENCES Episode 47 (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/episode/-building-dream-home-quality-team-/) -Building Your Dream Home Starts With a Quality Team Episode 66 (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/episode/control-costs-during-home-design/) - Budget Checkpoints: How to Control Costs During Home Design Episode 70 (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/episode/how-to-find-contractor-without-getting-sold/) — Finding the Right Builder Episode 71 (https://player.captivate.fm/episode/c5bb311d-009a-408e-9a01-0b8a2caca3d2/) — The Three Returns Framework Episodes 55-67 — The construction contracting arc ASK BILL A QUESTION - Call or text 530-289-6368 Voicemails may be featured on a future...

3. 

   3 Oct 2026

   ProQuest: Connecting Homeowners with Design & Build Pros

   ProQuest is the final module in BuildQuest's planning platform. By the time a homeowner reaches ProQuest, they have completed ProjectProfile, built vision boards in VisionSpec, and worked through their budget in CostCompass. ProQuest lets them share all of that work with architects, designers, and contractors in one organized project brief. This episode walks through ProQuest from both perspectives. Bill Reid explains how homeowners search for professionals, what goes into the project brief, and how professionals respond. The goal is alignment before formal engagement so neither party wastes time on projects that were never realistic. HOW HOMEOWNERS USE PROQUEST ProQuest gives homeowners two search options. Deep search tools match them with professionals based on project criteria, location, and quality level. Or they can invite professionals they already know. Homeowners save the ones they want to work with and send them a project brief. The project brief includes property information, family profile, design direction, vision boards for every room, timing, budget range from CostCompass, and a personal introduction letter. Homeowners control what they share. Budget range is optional, but sharing it eliminates the biggest source of wasted time. When homeowners send invitations, professionals receive an email with a link to the brief. Professionals can accept and review the project, or decline. Homeowners get notified either way. If a professional accepts, they can message the homeowner, request a meeting, or respond with budget feedback using BuildQuest's built-in tools. HOW PROFESSIONALS USE PROQUEST ProQuest is not a lead service. Homeowners pay for BuildQuest, which means they are serious. Professionals receive project-specific invitations from homeowners who have already done the planning work. When a professional receives an invitation, they review the project brief. They see the property, the family profile, the design preferences, the vision boards, the budget range, and the timing. If they are interested, they accept. If not, they decline and the homeowner knows not to follow up. Professionals can respond with questions, suggest a meeting, or use the budget tools to create their own budget and share it back. The budget builder pulls from the homeowner's project criteria and lets professionals adjust design fees, consultant fees, permit costs, contingencies, and construction costs. They can share a detailed budget or just a total dollar figure. WHY THIS PROTECTS BOTH SIDES Most project failures start at the connection point. Homeowners do not know what professionals need to know. Professionals waste time on inquiries that were never realistic. ProQuest solves both problems by requiring homeowners to clarify their project before they reach out. A general contractor can spend 40 to 400 hours preparing a custom home estimate. An architect can spend weeks developing a proposal. ProQuest makes sure both parties are aligned before either one invests that kind of time. THE BUDGET ALIGNMENT PROBLEM ProQuest addresses the budget gap that kills most projects. Homeowners often have unrealistic budgets. Professionals know this. Without budget transparency early, both parties can spend months only to discover they were never close. CostCompass builds a budget from the homeowner's project criteria. ProQuest lets homeowners share a budget range with professionals. Professionals can then respond with their own budget using the same tools. If the gap is large, they know immediately. If it is small, they move forward. This is not construction estimating. That comes later after plans and details are finalized. This is budgetary alignment before formal engagement. THE FOUNDATION PACKAGE FOR PROFESSIONALS Professionals do not pay for ProQuest. The Foundation package is free and includes everything needed to communicate with homeowners, review project briefs, and respond with budget feedback. BuildQuest also offers a Pro Studio package for design firms, architectural studios, and design-build companies. Pro Studio lets professionals use the entire platform with their own clients. They can create projects, build style libraries, and use the tools as an onboarding system. Pro Studio is optional. The Foundation package is all most professionals need. WHAT HAPPENS AFTER CONNECTION Once a homeowner selects a professional, BuildQuest steps back. The relationship moves into the professional's own process. BuildQuest is not a construction management system. It is a planning and connection tool that gets both parties aligned before formal contracts are signed. Future versions of BuildQuest will include budget management and cost tracking during construction. That is planned for version two and three. Right now the focus is getting homeowners and professionals connected on solid footing. WHERE BUILDQUEST IS NOW ProjectProfile, VisionSpec, and CostCompass are developed. ProQuest is currently being built. BuildQuest is in development and nearing completion. Early access signup is live at buildquest.co. If you are a design or construction professional and you see ways to improve what is being built, reach out. If you are a homeowner planning a custom build or major remodel, sign up for early access. There is no cost and no commitment. First people in get first access when the platform launches. This episode is the second in a two-part BuildQuest series. Episode 76 introduced CostCompass and explained how BuildQuest's financial module works. Episode 70 introduced ProQuest's search strategy concept. This episode completes the picture by showing how homeowners and professionals actually connect. Enlighten, empower, protect. Now go make it happen. ASK BILL A QUESTION - Call or text 530-289-6368 Voicemails may be featured on a future episode, first name only. Let me know in your message if you'd prefer to stay off the air. Free Story: The Tale of Two Homeowners (https://the-awakened-homeowner.kit.com/09608e1727) Watch: YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@HomeBuildingCoach) Listen: Podcast (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/listen) Read: AMAZON (https://www.amazon.com/Awakened-Homeowner-Orchestrate-Construction-Success-ebook/dp/B0F1MDRPK7) , All Book Stores (https://books2read.com/u/bpxj76) Visit: Homepage (https://www.theawakenedhomeowner.com/) Follow: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/theawakenedhomeowner/): Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/theawakenedhomeowner/) Learn: BuildQuest Planning Platform: (https://buildquest.co) Contact: Email: wwreid@theawakenedhomeowner.com Mentioned in this episode: The Awakened Homeowner Book (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/home-building-book) The Awakened Homeowner Book (https://podcast.theawakenedhomeowner.com/home-building-book)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

820

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 57 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

88

Social presence

0

YouTube

64

Engagement

0

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