Still Justifying
Missing a client deadline is manageable. Missing one you set yourself is a different thing. An honest look at the loop of justifying — and the question I can't quite answer yet.
Missing a client deadline happens, and it's manageable. You ask for an extension, give a heads up, move on. No grief. That's part of the work.
Missing a deadline you set for yourself is a different thing entirely.
I set a date to publish my first preliminary house plan. I missed it. And then I started justifying.
The full-time job is demanding — I'm carrying four projects right now, which is a big deal coming back into a PM role after some time away. I've been closing inefficiencies, building better spreadsheets, automating reports that piece together information that used to be scattered. Real work. Legitimate reasons.
I caught myself mid-sentence. I'm justifying again.
Here's the thing about justifying to yourself: it can look exactly like self-awareness. You're evaluating, right? You're being honest about priorities. The income from the full-time role makes the side project possible — of course that comes first. Rational. Reasonable.
But there's a moment when you realize you've been explaining your way around the same thing three times. That's not reflection anymore. That's avoidance with a narrative.
The side project reality isn't dramatic. A handful of RSS subscribers. No traffic to speak of. No inquiries. But it's not nothing either. The sketches exist. The stages are documented. The process is evolving — even when the output isn't visible yet. Execution, when you've never launched a product, is actually evolution.
That doesn't silence the other question. Is my heart in this?
I don't have a clean answer. The demands of the full-time job are real, and they're pulling. Some weeks the side project gets whatever's left at the end, which isn't much. And in that space — tired, behind, staring at a deadline you already missed — it's hard to know if the doubt you're feeling is a signal or just noise.
Self-sabotage is a bitch. Especially when it comes dressed up as honest evaluation.
So I'll ask: do you keep your side projects going? What does that actually look like for you?
Why I'm Building Stock Plans After 30 Years of Designing Homes
Homeowners fall in love with square footage and end up house poor. Builders work from plans drawn by designers who've never walked a job site. Thirty years on both sides of that problem — here's what I'm building.
I drew my first house plan by hand in 1992. No CAD. No software. Just pencil, paper, and a drafting table at Design Basics in Omaha. I was one of their first CAD draftsmen when the technology came along, and I helped build standards that are still in use today.
Thirty years later — custom homes, commercial estimates, project management, groundbreaking to close-out — I've seen the same problems come up over and over.
Homeowners fall in love with square footage and end up house poor. They stretch to afford the size and then can't afford the cabinets, countertops, and finishes that actually make it feel like home. Builders work with plans drawn by designers who've never priced a wall or managed a schedule. And the gap between what a plan promises and what it costs to build keeps catching people off guard.
That's why I'm launching RED Residential Design.
Stock Plans, Built by Someone Who Knows What Things Cost
I'm not coming at this from a design-only background. I've spent years as a construction estimator and project manager. I've priced drywall, insulation, steel studs, acoustical ceilings — every line item that turns a drawing into a building. That experience changes how you design.
When I draw a plan, I'm thinking about framing efficiency — where mechanical chases run, whether the layout creates unnecessary waste in materials or labor. These aren't things most plan designers think about, because most plan designers haven't sat in a trailer doing takeoffs or walked a job site reviewing change orders.
I have. And that's what makes these plans different.
Custom Changes Welcome
A stock plan is a starting point — and a good one. But every family lives differently, every lot has its own constraints, and every budget has its limits. Custom changes are part of the deal.
Want to flip the layout? Add a bedroom? Adjust the garage for your lot? That's exactly what I've been doing for builders and homeowners for three decades. The stock plan gets you 80% there. The custom changes make it yours.
What's Already Built
Before the first plan was finished, I built three tools to support it.
A Design Matrix for preliminary programming — a structured way to work through what a client actually needs before design starts. A Specification Outline that comes with every plan — your road map for interviewing builders and comparing bids on equal footing. And a Construction Cost Estimator — not a ballpark, not a per-square-foot guess, but an actual estimate backed by current construction data.
The plans are in development now. The infrastructure to support them is already done.
If you're a builder or homeowner who's tired of the disconnect between design and cost — stick around. This is being built for you.