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What is it like to work with me?

  • Jen Jo
  • May 5
  • 4 min read

What's it like to work with me? How much do I charge?


I get these questions a lot, and thought it would help for me to offer this information here so that you can decide how my services might fit into your project.


I help clients at every stage of building a new custom home, including looking for land, designing a home, and building the home. I work remotely but can sometimes help you find and screen local architects, contractors and inspectors if needed.


This gives us both a chance to get to know each other and decide whether we’re the right fit for each other. If we decide to move forward, I’ll credit the $25 fee towards our first consulting call.


Step 2: Enter into an agreement

Ours will be a process-based partnership. Since I’ll never set foot on your build site, I have no control over the outcome of your project.  My contract is the chance for us to agree to that in writing.


Step 3: Take my classes

I am working on two classes that will empower you to take charge of your home build: “Buying Healthy Land (and Keeping it that Way), and Stick Built on Steroids: Getting the Details Right for a Reslient Home.  Once my classes are available, I highly encourage you to take them.  It will likely save you money working with me down the line.


Step 4: Buy the guide

Most of my clients start by buying my New Build Design Considerations guide. It's a greatly expanded version of my blog post that my clients take to their architect or designer as a starting point for the design requirements for their house.  It has everything from how to set up the house to be healthy from a mold and EMF perspective, to how to save money on finishes so you have more budget for a healthy wall assembly. I sell the guide for $300.  


Step 5: Review and develop plans

Once you and your architect have come up with a basic floorplan, I can go over that floorplan and audit it for anything that might create a risk of mold, condensation or EMF exposure, and offer alternative suggestions.  We then talk about assemblies together.  I can offer suggestions.  Once we agree how the home will be built, I can offer places to find a starting point for detail drawings.  I audit your final plans to make sure that all of your control layers (thermal, water, vapor and air) make sense and are contiguous as needed.  I am available for short and more involved questions that come up during the iterative design process.


Note that most residential architectural plans say what will be built; not how it will be built.  Figuring out the “how” upfront, and getting it in writing as part of the drawings that will become part of your contract with your contractor, is the single most important thing you can do to make sure your house is built intentionally and correctly. I can help with that.


Step 6: Quality control 

Once the plans are nearing completion, most of my clients buy my Construction Inspection Checkpoints guide.  


This inspection checklist tells you what details need to be correct before moving on to each stage of construction.  It will let you as a homeowner, and also any inspector you want to hire, know what to inspect for at each stage of construction so you catch any issues before they become a problem.  It is also great for your contractor because he knows exactly what he needs to do and can make sure it gets done right in the first place so he doesn't have to fix it or get callbacks later.  I can be available during construction as needed to clarify any expectations. 


The checklist has inspection points for 26 different stages of construction, and contains eight pages of inspection points. This checklist goes far beyond code minimum.  


For example, here is a list of things I suggest verifying before pouring your stem walls in a slab foundation.

Prior to stem wall pour

  • Dimensions of stem walls are correct per plan.

  • Use standard 6/8/10 check to make sure corners are square, and then check for square across entire building.

  • Check building for parallel.  Make sure sides have same length.

  • Anchor bolts are correctly placed in the stem walls (i.e. for 24 for OC framing, bolts are every 24”, and don’t allow for any blind thermal bridging corners. Refer to and follow the structural plan exactly.)

  • Video-tape all stem walls before the pour.


I sell the basic inspection checklist for $500, and then charge my hourly rate to customize it for your particular assembly.  


My hourly rate is currently $150.  I charge in 6 minute increments, so if you email me a quick question and it takes me a few minutes to answer it, then I'll only charge you for 6 minutes for that interaction.  Most of my clients spend between $3000-5000 on my services during the build, but it can vary depending on how much help you need. You are not locked into any kind of minimum expenditure. Once we are in contract, I am a resource for you as needed throughout your design and build process.


Assuming that your home costs an average of $300,000-500,000 to build, that means my services will account for 1% of your total home build. General contractors usually charge 20+%.  Realtors charge 6%.  1% of your home build to make sure you have a design that accounts for how the home is being built, and a checklist for making sure it gets built that way, is nothing.  I try to keep my pricing very fair, because my family has been down this path as well, and I know firsthand how devastating it can be.  My goal in life is to help people build healthy homes.  Let me help you build one, too.


Why me?

The book I wrote, Destination Blue Sky, talks about how my husband and I healed our own family from PANS, Mold and environmental illness, Lyme and co-infections, and cancer, by building a healthy home. I run the Facebook group Beyond Build Defects in New Construction.  

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I have the following certifications:​

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