Journal
A practitioner's perspective on custom builds in the US Virgin Islands and coastal Florida, renovations in Romania, and residential architecture more broadly — the design decisions, market realities, and project knowledge that don't usually get written down. Published weekly.
Featured articles:
The USVI New Build Field Guide
The complete overview for anyone planning a custom home in the US Virgin Islands — islands, permits, timelines, cost drivers, and what the process actually demands from the start.
USVI Construction Costs Per Square Foot
Honest cost ranges for a USVI build, what pushes numbers up, and what to pressure-test in a contractor quote before you commit.
What Does the USVI Permitting Process Actually Look Like?
The permit path from submission to groundbreaking — timelines, agencies involved, common reasons projects get sent back, and what to have in place before you file.
St. John vs. St. Thomas vs. St. Croix
A practical comparison of the three islands for buyers deciding where to build — infrastructure, permit paths, cost differences, and which fits which project.
Cisterns, WAPA, and Water in the USVI
Every USVI home runs on rainwater. How cistern capacity is calculated, what WAPA can and can't be relied on for, and how water infrastructure shapes design decisions.
What Is the USVI Coastal Zone Permit and Do You Need One?
When CZM review applies, what triggers it, and how coastal zone requirements affect timeline, buildable envelope, and cost on a USVI project.
Adding a Guest House in the USVI
What lot coverage rules, utility capacity, and the permit path actually allow when adding a detached structure — for owners evaluating whether their property supports it.
Adding a Pool to a USVI Property
Coastal zone triggers, cistern math, site excavation realities, and honest cost ranges for a pool addition — before you commit to a design or a contractor.
The Romania Apartment Field Guide
The complete framework for buying and renovating a Romanian apartment — building eras, structural realities, permit path, budget structure, and what to check before you commit.
Renovating in Romania: What Budget Estimates Always Miss
The costs contractors leave out of their initial quotes, why Romanian renovation budgets tend to overrun, and how to build a realistic envelope before you start.
Contents:
What building on St. John, St. Thomas, and St. Croix actually involves — from land to permit to construction.
Building on the Florida coast — from flood zone to permit to construction.
Renovation in Romania — what the building, the process, and the design actually involve.
How we work with clients across time zones, jurisdictions, and project types.
What building from the ground up actually involves — structure, permits, cost, decisions.
What existing buildings require before, during, and after — structure, regulation, and cost.
Architecture, culture, and the ideas worth arguing about.
Latest articles:
How Long Does a Building Permit Take? A State-by-State Reality Check
Building permit timelines for a new house range from 2 weeks to 9 months — and the reason that range is so wide is that permits are issued by individual jurisdictions, not states. Your timeline is determined by four variables: where you're building, what you're building, how complete your submission is, and how busy your plan checker is.
Understanding those variables won't give you a guarantee, but it will give you a realistic range — and enough control to avoid the delays that derail most projects.
How Much Land Do You Need to Build a House? What to Know Before You Buy
How much land you need to build a house depends on four variables — your house's footprint, your jurisdiction's zoning minimums, the setbacks that reduce your buildable area, and the physical constraints of the site itself.
For most suburban and rural lots, that puts the answer somewhere between a quarter-acre and two acres — but no two lots are the same. This guide walks through each variable so you can size land for your specific project before you make an offer.
Slope, Setbacks, and FAR: The Site Constraints That Decide Your Project Before You Do
Zoning is not a formality you hand off to a consultant after you've bought the land. It is the first design decision made on your project — and it was made without you, years or decades before you arrived. By the time you're standing on a lot imagining what you'll build, the zoning code has already determined how much of it you can cover, how high you can go, how far you must sit from every boundary, and — if the site has any slope to it — how much of your budget disappears into the ground before a single wall goes up.
Most first-time developers and investors don't discover this until they're mid-process. This article is the earlier conversation.
