The hardest part of rebuilding isn't the construction. It's the ninety days before construction — when insurance, permits, and grief all arrive at once, and every decision feels permanent.

We lost our own office in the January 2025 fire, so we won't pretend to be observers here. What follows is the same walk-through we give our neighbors across a kitchen table: what happens first, what can wait, and where the process rewards patience over panic.

Start with the insurance clock, not the design

Your policy has deadlines that matter more than any floor plan right now. Document everything, request your full policy file in writing, and understand the difference between your dwelling coverage and your code-upgrade coverage — the second one is where rebuilds are won.

The families who fare best aren't the fastest to break ground. They're the ones who spend the first months getting the paper right.

The permit path is faster than you've heard — if you qualify

Like-for-like rebuilds move through an expedited lane most homeowners don't know exists. We map which parts of your project ride that lane and which trigger full review, before you commit to a design that costs you a year.

Where we come in

A rebuild under insurance pressure is a different discipline than a ground-up custom home — it rewards open books, honest timelines, and a builder who knows the county's counters by name. That's the practice we've built, because this time it was our neighborhood too.