Honesty, integrity, and reliability from start to finish.
When constructing a home we start by building a relationship.
After a warm greeting and handshake from the owner of Sheffield Construction, you spread your blueprints out on the conference room table. Your dialogue with Skip has begun. This dialogue is not just about specifications, dates, and budgets. It’s about you, about what the project means.
How do you see yourself living within the space? What adjustments could be made to add personal style or functionality? The incisive questions keep coming. And Skip will be jotting ideas for every one.
As we learn about you, you’ll learn about us too. That we examine everything, because when your home is finished, we want you to be absolutely in love with it. That’s why due diligence is done way up front to set the project in the right direction.
With plans finalized, the team meticulously organizes the actual phases of construction and provides you with access to an exclusive online portal where you can monitor the construction’s progress and budget.
Next, highly skilled craftsmen, chosen because they share the Sheffield vision of excellence, make the ideal real. A perfectly imagined space takes on physical shape and tangible beauty, with every worker adhering to a strict policy of construction site cleanliness. It’s part of doing things right.
When Skip Sheffield and team finish, you have a new place to call home—and a group of dedicated professionals to call friends.
You may come to Skip Sheffield with full, partial, or no building plans; with a clear vision or developing ideas; with a set budget, a range, or more questions than numbers. Wherever you are, that’s where we start.
- Your “Life at Home” document. The most important step in planning a home is knowing how you want to live in it—today and tomorrow (see LifeTime Homes). We discuss specifics with you: who is your family, what are their needs and likes (easy living, privacy, entertainment/entertaining, hobbies, office), where can your answers affect design? Over decades of building homes—not houses—we know this dialogue creates real meaning in a home. Together we write a document, a personal “Life at Home,” to capture your lifestyle.
- Without architectural or conceptual plans. We discuss architects and home designers that may be the right fit for the project.
- With plans or drawings. This step is unique to Skip Sheffield. He thoroughly examines any plans with a practiced eye toward “lost opportunities,” toward adding telling design and function, achievable for the same cost. This isn’t talk. Your eyes are the judge as Skip draws on an overlay atop the plans. With your agreement, he can then commission revisions and detailed drawings from extremely gifted professionals. Every client sees a difference. For examples: Look: Before & After.
- First budget discussion. We begin balancing your wants with a realistic budget, explaining possibilities. The budget is always addressed in the first meeting for clear understanding.
- Preliminary plans and budget. Using your “Life at Home” and all meetings so far, we complete preliminary plans (schematic drawings to scale) with an initial budget that addresses each phase of work. Adjustments and approvals follow.
- Scope of work. This step covers all final choices, from flooring to special trim to cabinetry to other amenities. We help you arrive at the scope of work, balancing desires with budget, by showing how a variety of good options impact cost. Our approved and highly valued vendors and craftsmen submit bids for their materials and work.
- Final plans, budget, and schedule. With scope of work and pricing negotiated and approved, we provide final plans, a precise schedule of phases, and a line-item budget. The agreement is signed.
- Construction and communication. During the building, your interactions with Skip and the talented team are as full as during planning. Skip communicates personally, keeping you in the loop, answering questions, and, above all, monitoring quality control. The company also provides you with an easy online portal giving full access to construction progress and spending.
- Welcome home. Your walk-through is one of Sheffield Construction’s greatest pleasures. It’s your home, but it fills us with pride too. While this is an inspection—and we want to know every concern and address it—most of all it’s a celebration. Welcome to your vision made real and all the years you will live it!
Beyond Curb Appeal.
A passion for superior, traditional design in any modern home.
Skip Sheffield believes any homeowner, with any budget, can achieve a home of high aesthetic standards. The key is knowing and using historical principles of architecture and design. He wants this difference for your home: “People driving by won’t pause to look. They’ll get out of the car.”
Keen Eyes on Your Project. Skip himself reviews your plans and demonstrates, with his own hand drawings, possible changes. He may also commission concrete revisions from other talented professionals. He wants you to see the difference to decide. This signature Sheffield step comes from Skip’s personal history and passions. He is educated in architectural history from Vitruvius to Thomas Jefferson to modern masters. He has also worked hands-on in every part of homebuilding, from cabinetry to company owner. Details matter.
Harmony of Design, Future of Investment. The before-and-after drawings demonstrate how solid historical background creates good architectural detail—and function. Massing and proportion, roof lines, column width and spacing, column-beam ratios, dormer and window style and scale: these are some of the elements that move a home beyond nice curb appeal to impressive presentation. All four elevations (sides), and interiors, come together in one statement. For the same cost, the most important purchase of your life can be a blue-chip investment. Pride, comfort, and value, now and through the years.
