What’s on My Camera Roll This Summer

While the weather here in Northwest Arkansas may not feel like it, we’ll be transitioning to fall soon. Labor Day always seems to act as a pillar for summer, right along with Memorial Day.

And long live summer. She was a hot one, but it’s always my favorite time of year.

I was scrolling through my photos, remembering family vacations and looking for site progress pictures, and I felt inspired to share a little of what was on my camera roll this summer.

I’m always asked what my role is here at Mark Phillips Construction, and that’s a bit of a loaded question.

Because it’s just Mark and me, we’ve really learned how to divide and conquer. We can step into each other’s roles when needed, and we also know where the other has more experience. So the short answer is: we do it all.

It takes a lot of organization, communication, and trust in each other, our suppliers, and our subcontractors to not only “pull it off,” but to execute quality custom homes at a high level.

I always laugh because I’ll tell people I’m not above ordering porta potties for jobs or walking a site picking up trash. But you’ll also find me working with clients to finalize and perfect their floor plans, helping them make timeless selections for tile, wood flooring, lighting, paint, and exterior finishes, meeting with framers to work through details on site, and checking job progress to make sure materials are there when they should be.

The list goes on.

And I love the variety this work gives me in a day, a week, a month, and a year. Looking through my photos really hit home just how much happens in one season here at MPC.

Site meetings in the woods

Site meetings in the woods in August are always interesting.

We load up on DEET because we do enjoy red meat and know exactly who is lurking on these job sites. Yikes.

But these meetings are also some of the most exciting. This is where the ideas start to become real. You’re standing on a piece of land imagining how a home will sit, how it will relate to the property, and what the experience of living there could feel like.

Seeing a house framed

Seeing a framed house is always so rewarding.

All the time spent on Zoom calls and design meetings with clients, finalizing floor plans and working through details, finally comes to fruition. What has lived on paper for months suddenly has walls, openings, ceiling heights, and scale.

It’s one of those stages that never gets old.

A lot of Zoom, a lot of plans

Speaking of Zoom meetings, one of the positives that came out of the COVID years is realizing how effective virtual plan meetings can be.

Home designers /architects can make changes in real time, clients can share ideas easily, and everyone can work through a floor plan together without always needing to be in the same room.

We still meet in person plenty, but for plan development, virtual meetings have become a really useful part of our process.

Selections before construction

Working with clients to make their interior and exterior finish selections before we break ground is one of my favorite parts of the process.

Most clients feel overwhelmed before they start. There are a lot of decisions.

But they almost always walk away feeling relieved and excited.

Our process is efficient, thoughtful, and creative, but we’re also always considering budget. The goal is to make decisions early enough that when all of the numbers come together, we aren’t having to completely rethink the house.

It’s so fun to see clients go from “I have no idea where to start” to feeling confident and excited about how their home is going to look and feel.

Watching it all come together

Then there’s the other end of the process.

We wrapped up a large custom home in Shadow Valley this summer, and while getting a home ready for move-in can be intense and very timeline-driven, it’s also one of the most rewarding stages.

It’s always a little bittersweet when we finish a project because we’re no longer seeing or talking to our clients on the regular. You spend so much time together during a custom build that you naturally develop a connection.

But seeing a home go from the very first concepts to move-in ready is pretty hard to beat.

Talk about job satisfaction.

A fun summer milestone

It was also such an honor to see one of our completed homes featured in At Home in Arkansas’s Kitchen and Bath issue.

The design process with these clients was a dream. They knew what they didn’t like, had a few key things they absolutely wanted in the kitchen, and from there we were able to work with the home designer and cabinetmaker to create a layout that was both beautiful and highly functional.

We selected the countertops, lighting, tile, paint, cabinet style, and hardware to complement the space, and KH Design came in at the end with the perfect finishing layer of art, barstools, furniture, and accessories.

Being part of the photoshoot was a blast. It takes so much work to make a room look effortless in a photograph, and they absolutely nailed it.

A little life mixed in

It was a busy summer at MPC, and carving out time to rest, relax, and explore is important too.

Stepping away for a bit is such a good time to reflect, gain inspiration, appreciate life, and recharge.

We spent time at our family lake house in Missouri, which is one of those places that immediately makes life feel a little slower.

Maine

And we took a family trip to Maine this year.

We explored up and down the coast and made it a mission to see a lighthouse every day.

We really took it all in. The New England architecture is so inspiring, and being in nature always fills my cup.

There were whale sightings, rocky coastlines, beautiful old homes, and plenty of moments that made me want to pull out my phone.

Summer, you were good to us.

We’re looking forward to fall and everything it brings.

And hopefully some cooler weather ASAP. :)