Most builders pad their numbers to protect themselves. Cost-plus asks both sides to do something harder: trust each other. Here's how it works and why we built Shade Tree on this model.

Ever heard a friend say their remodel “doubled in cost overnight”? It didn’t. Their wish list finally met reality, and reality sent the bill.

We're not the cheapest option. We know that. We're also not trying to be. Here's what we are, and why we think it matters.

It's common. A client comes to us with a number in their head built on a TV show, a blog post, or a project from ten years ago. Here's why that number rarely survives contact with reality.

It's one of the most common questions we hear. And we don't love answering it, because price per square foot is a metric that sounds useful and rarely is.

Most people want their project affordable, fast, and built to a high standard. That's natural. But you can't have all three at once. Here's how to think about the trade-off.