Haven Builders Part 2: Holistic design with Charissa Surine

Show Notes

Today on “The Building Code,” Tom and Paul are delving into the meaning of holistic design for Part 2 of the Haven Builders podcast with design manager, Charissa Surine. If you missed Part 1 from last week, be sure to listen by clicking here.

Tune in to the full episode to hear about Charissa’s unique design process and how she gets to know clients one-on-one in order to fully understand their design styles and needs for their dream home.

When building in a development, how do you approach design to ensure the homes aren’t all the same visually?

  • We are very focused on creating unique homes
  • We never use the same floorplan more than once
  • We use a variety of high-end design materials like maintenance-free fiber cement board or metal siding with a wood look
  • We don’t put ourselves in a design box – we find it inspiring and challenging to take on new design styles

You use a holistic approach to design. What does that process look like?

  • We have found through trial and error that it’s better to do all design aspects at once to keep up the momentum as opposed to selecting things in the middle of the build
  • We keep the process fun, stress-free and engaging over the span of two months
  • After a two-hour meeting with our clients, we take two weeks to pull together the full design and floorplan incorporating everything we learned about them
  • We put together the mood boards for the entire feel of the home and the furniture layout
  • We think about things like where the Christmas tree will go, where the stockings will go
  • We think about each house as a home and how our clients will feel when they walk in

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Okema Beach Cabin

2018 Hospital Home Lottery Show Home

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Transcript

Tom Houghton:

And now for part two with Haven Builders, you’re listening to “The Building Code.” Part two. I’m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

I don’t think the listeners understand that Tom and I sit pretty close to each other because, we’re trying to be on video with our listeners during COVID.

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Paul Wurth:

And you stare at me when you say our intro and it freaks me out every time. I want you to stop-

Tom Houghton:

I’m going to look at the ceiling.

Paul Wurth:

Don’t look at me when you say that. Because you’re almost like I know you’re Tom. I think listeners probably know too. We’re in a workshop. We already say that.

Tom Houghton:

This is our first ever one of these where the back-to-back.

Paul Wurth:

That is true. So if you didn’t listen last time, this is a continuation.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. So stop what you’re doing. Go back and listen to our episode with Dallas because now we’re here for part two with Haven Builders. You’re listening to “The Building Code.” We’re going to dive in with Charissa Surine, who is their design manager at Haven Builders. Welcome to the podcast, Charissa.

Charissa Surine:

Thanks for having me.

Tom Houghton:

We are very thankful you’re joining us.

Paul Wurth:

Special two-parter, first timer.

Tom Houghton:

That’s right.

Paul Wurth:

It’s exciting stuff.

Charissa Surine:

Record breaking from the prairie’s.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right. Wait, who’s in the Prairie’s? Us or you?

Charissa Surine:

We are.

Paul Wurth:

Oh my God, so are we.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, that’s perfect.

Paul Wurth:

We’re a technology company based in Omaha, Nebraska, and they call it the Silicon Prairie instead of Silicon Valley, which is in California. We’ve got a connection. Saskatoon in the Prairie.

Charissa Surine:

Beautiful.

Tom Houghton:

It’s good.

Paul Wurth:

Dallas was telling us a little about Saskatoon. So just to recap, you guys have about 330,000 people. You guys are luxury home builder there. I had a question for him about your clientele that I’ll ask you later. That’s a teaser.

Tom Houghton:

Ooh, so stay tuned to that question.

Paul Wurth:

Hollywood Tom taught me that one.

Tom Houghton:

That was good teasing.

Paul Wurth:

Thank you.

Tom Houghton:

We were just talking about Edgemont with Dallas, the new development. And we want to continue that conversation because again, developments … I don’t know how many, if you can share how many homes that probably will be going in there. One thing I think from a design perspective is that, when you’re building for a development and you have multiple homes going in, how do you approach that to make sure that they’re not all kind of visually the same, if that makes sense. Maybe you can share your insight with that.

Charissa Surine:

Absolutely. Yeah. We’re just in phase one right now. There’s about 45 homes in phase one. There’s going to be a total of 99, lots between phase one and two. And there are hopes for a phase three and four, but obviously that’s down the road. For starters, we have four lots right now, but I feel like for us, we’re always very focused on building unique homes. We’ve never used the same floor plan twice.

Charissa Surine:

A lot of home builders they have their like, top five plans and they might tweak, their exterior materials a little bit, change the pallet up, but they’re using the same floor plan. We never do that. I think it just goes against everything, in our creative bones to do that. From a material standpoint, it’s going to be a high end development. We’re doing either like fiber cement board, maintenance-free wood look products. Like metal siding to give you the wood look.

Charissa Surine:

But yeah, we’ll have some modern farm houses out there. We’ve designed a really cool sprawling, mid century, modern bungalow with like this cupboard pool area. And it’s just going to be the perfect place for clients like your doctors, lawyers. People that want to get out of the city, but they don’t really want like the full rural experience. We don’t want to spend all weekend cutting their grass and pruning their trees. They want a great place to escape the rat race for a little bit, but still be able to get to the hospital within five minutes, which you can do from there if you drive real fast.

Tom Houghton:

If you’re in a Tesla, you got to be Roadster sitting in the garage. You’re probably offering electric charging I would so …

Charissa Surine:

Actually we do. We just put that in our last house. We actually just had a client ask us to design their home based around the Tesla truck prototype.

Tom Houghton:

It is a truck, the cyber truck. That’s actually funny you mentioned that because, their initial design people started doing the math and they were like, “Everyone’s garages are going to need to be so much bigger in order to even fit this vehicle.” And so they’ve had to come back a little bit on those initial sketches to be like, “Maybe we should have made it a little bit smaller.”

Charissa Surine:

Yeah. That’s like not on my top five design priorities.

Paul Wurth:

Same.

Tom Houghton:

That’s a different episode. Garage design.

Paul Wurth:

It’s a really good question because a lot of designers are definitely artists and artists have tendencies. Like musicians have a certain style of music they play and they don’t really go too far outside that. Do you find that it’s difficult to try to come up with something new or is all like construction design sort of in your wheelhouse and there’s just different variations of it for you?

Charissa Surine:

Yeah. You know what? I don’t want to sound cocky, but I actually don’t find it difficult. I find it inspiring and challenging. And that’s why I do this job because I feel like, just when we finally figured out how to do something, we’re like, “Okay, let’s do a complete 180 and do something totally different.” Right now we’re in the middle of a renovation and it’s like a Spanish colonial revival type design, which is totally out of our norm.

Charissa Surine:

If you were to go to our website, if you’d never heard of us, you think, “Okay, they are more a modern builder.” But then you keep scrolling and you see a bunch of craftsmen homes and then you’ll see a mid-century home. And so people are like, “What are you?” Because they can’t nail those down. And that’s what I love. And that’s actually what a lot of our clients comment on.

Charissa Surine:

Or people that like, when they first come in the door, they’re like, “We just really love your style. You have so many different styles.” Because if you put yourself into a little box like, we are the craftsman builder, that’s not going to work. That’s not feasible for us in a market where we have 300,000 people in my city. You’re going to like reduce your ability to serve a lot of people. I think being diverse is crucial to surviving, just in general.

Charissa Surine:

But yeah, I definitely love the challenge. Right now we’re doing a reno where it’s like modern Victorian, and that’s totally out of anything I’ve ever done before. And I think, as the designer you grow. You might start out and feel like you just love modern, but after a while you’re like, “Oh, well it’s a square box. There’s only so many things I can do with that.”

Charissa Surine:

So I really love mixing styles. Lots of people will be like, “Oh, I’m eclectic.” But they don’t really know what that means. So I think it’s really fun to go through that process with people and get in their head and feel, find out what makes them tick. And …

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, that was the question I had. I’m glad you just brought that up. Many people don’t know what they like or they don’t know what, what they like is called or-

Tom Houghton:

Or how to classify.

Paul Wurth:

They can’t define it. How much is your job is education, asking the right questions and this sort of guiding people down a path, which is your expertise?

Charissa Surine:

Like 94%?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Charissa Surine:

I actually see design and what we do is like 90% psychology and construction and design. It’s crazy. On assignment I usually give my clients if they’re struggling is, I say, “Make a Pin board of everything you hate.” Which sounds negative but sometimes if people can’t dial in on what their style is, it’s actually a lot easier for humans to be like, “Oh, I don’t like that.”

Charissa Surine:

Lots of people already have a Pin board of things they love. But that’s like, I literally need about five seconds looking at that board. And then like, “Oh, okay. You’re modern colonial or you’re traditional, or,” I don’t know. It’s the classic, like a picture’s worth a thousand words and …

Paul Wurth:

Great tip for the designers listening.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. And we’re going to do this. We’ll do this little experiment, Paul and I will create pin boards of what we hate. So check out the show notes, buildertrend.com/podcasts.

Paul Wurth:

Tom, I didn’t get into podcasting for homework. It took me six and a half years to graduate college.

Tom Houghton:

Why do you even go to college for six and a half years? They’re called doctors.

Paul Wurth:

There you go. I’m not doing homework.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Maybe just check out the show notes anyway, see if Paul did his homework. Tom’s going to go do his homework. I’ll make sure I put something in there for you. You can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. That’s also a great way to find and follow Haven Builders. You can find out the information to follow them on social media and check out their website as well, to see all the great work that they’re doing and the eclectic work they’re doing.

Tom Houghton:

I love talking about, like you said, you’re a designer, you are truly a creative, you’re speaking to me at heart here just because I’m a creative as well. And you always looking forward to that next challenge. You don’t want to just rinse and repeat everything over and over again. Paul already asked this a little bit. I just feel like it’s a struggle for designers when it comes houses because you have like the same components.

Tom Houghton:

Like everybody’s got to have a kitchen and everybody’s probably going to want a living room and everybody’s got to have a master bathroom. You said none of the designs are the same. How do you push that box knowing that you only have certain components?

Charissa Surine:

That’s a great question. I think for us a really big part of our process is getting to know our clients and know how they live. At the beginning of our design process, we sit down and we have like a two-hour meeting of course, with good treats and good drinks. It’s casual, we’re like, “Describe your perfect day to me.” And like, “What’s your ideal holiday destination? What’s your favorite restaurant?” Just things like that, that through asking those questions, we find out things we would never find out.

Charissa Surine:

If I say, “Please tell me your favorite color, do you like symmetry?” That was there just like one word answers, where you really can’t get into their head. So through that process, we’re able to find out, “Oh, maybe you have four kids and your kids love music and they love art.” Like a house we’re designing right now, just off of the living room, we have a library. It’s like 16 feet tall, floor to ceiling millwork for bookshelves, we’ve got the ladder, we’ve got a little window seat bench, there’s a spot for the cello, there’s a spot for the easel because it’s a North window, which apparently is the best for art. I don’t know these things. I still have so much to learn.

Charissa Surine:

There’s different things like that where we really get inside their heads. We figure out how they live. And then we’re adding those special elements into the home. Because for sure, like you’re saying, we’ve got the classic, kitchen dining or whatever, but I feel like another part of it is like so many people are like, “Okay, this is in style right now, I want open concept.” But they don’t actually, if I ask them how they live, they actually would hate open concept.

Charissa Surine:

It’s like going through those questions and finding out about their life that it helps us to learn, “Oh, you actually host people three times a week, and there’s 16 of you. Okay, well, let’s give you a dining room.” It doesn’t have to be stuffy and formal, like the ‘80s, with carpeting and we can freshen it up and make it still flow with the home.

Charissa Surine:

But yeah, I feel like so many people, they’re just used to looking at Pinterest and house, and they don’t know there’s another way. And so that’s what I love about custom homes is it’s totally for that them. It’s not about, “Oh, this appeals to 80% of the masses.” No, this is your home. Let’s make it work for you.

Tom Houghton:

That’s great. I want to talk about your design process a little bit more, dive deeper because Dallas had mentioned that you have a two-month design process. That’s what he said. So I don’t know if that’s give or take or he’s like, you only have two months. He’s like, “Got you on the clock. You better get going.” But tell me about this process, because again, what I appreciated about how you approach this with your customers is that it’s a holistic approach.

Tom Houghton:

You’re in this for the long haul with them. You want to provide them a great service, great value. But that’s a lot. I think for our listeners who are probably out there thinking, “Wow, two months just on the design upfront.” That puts a lot of pressure on you. Maybe you could speak to how you handle all of that, what that looks like. Give us a little more details on that.

Charissa Surine:

Absolutely. I love talking about this because nobody believes this. Even when our clients come in, they’re like, “Oh no, they must be saying that, but it can’t be true.” We have found through trial and error and through much pain that it actually can be done. And it’s actually better to do everything at once and keeps the momentum as opposed to the alternative, which is selecting things throughout the process, in the middle of the build, when you’re stressed and you’re tired and then things get discontinued, and you’re picking things twice. And by the end, you actually get to a point where like, “I don’t care. I don’t care what color my carpet is, I don’t care about my paint just figure it out.”

Charissa Surine:

And that is like the most sad thing to me. My brother just went through this process and that’s exactly where he was at by the end. Was just like totally burnt out. And so for us, I think the cornerstone of our business is providing a positive, emotional experience for our clients. And the way that we do that is, we keep it fun and we keep it stress free, we keep it engaging. Basically we bring them in, we do that interview meeting that I was telling you about. We get inside their head, we learn everything about them and then we take two weeks and it’s like pedal to the metal.

Charissa Surine:

David, our architectural designer is coming up with the floor plan and doing his little bubble diagrams to figure out the space planning of the home. And I’m locked in my office. I have this sign. It’s like a construction sign and it says women at work, that goes on my door and I’m like, “Do not come in here.” Crank the tunes, get my latte and just go to town whether it’s, different design books that I have, obviously lots of Pinterest or just going to different places in the city that inspire me.

Charissa Surine:

And then I put together mood boards, just conveying the whole look and feel of the home. We work together, David and I work really closely together. Right from the beginning, we’re figuring out, what’s the furniture layout going to be, what kind of landscaping are we doing here. We’re thinking about, like you’re saying this holistic approach, we’re thinking about the day you move into your house, what’s it going to feel like.

Charissa Surine:

When you host Thanksgiving and Christmas, where are the stockings going to go, where’s your Christmas tree going to go. We’re thinking about this as a home, not like, “Oh, this is just a project and we’re going to do it in two months.” It’s like, we do it in two months because we want you to love it. And we want it to be fun and we don’t want you to get burned out.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. That’s great.

Paul Wurth:

Is there one you are most jealous of that you don’t live in?

Charissa Surine:

Ooh, that is such a good question.

Tom Houghton:

That’s like asking which child is your favorite.

Paul Wurth:

Kind of.

Tom Houghton:

A little bit.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Charissa Surine:

I literally feel like I’m giving away my baby when we have possession. It’s so emotional for me. I feel like a lot of them are really awesome, but I would say there’s two. One is a cabin at Okema Beach, which is a lake, two hours north of here. When you’re in Saskatoon it’s like, you’re in the middle of the prairie. There’s trees, but only because people plan to them, but you drive two hours North and you’re in like the Boreal Forest and it’s just amazing and beautiful.

Charissa Surine:

And yeah, we did a pretty sweet cabin up there. I wouldn’t mind unplugging up there, but I think my favorite would be, it was the 2018 hospital home, lottery show home. We did like a true mid-century modern it’s 5,500 square foot sprawling bungalow. It had a bridge with the wing of all the bedrooms and then like an open door living courtyard underneath, and this amazing concrete fireplace around and an Eames chair and it was just wonderful.

Paul Wurth:

Maybe we’ll get a picture of that one.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. We’ll put that on the show notes and you had me at bridge. I think.

Paul Wurth:

Why?

Tom Houghton:

I just think that’s so cool. What I appreciate about you is, what I’ve learned through getting to know you guys from following you guys on social media is, you’re not afraid to do unique things. You’re not afraid to approach something that’s different. Something somebody else might go like, “Why would you do that?” You’re not afraid to do those. And I think taking those risks, obviously sometimes they don’t pay off that’s fair, but more often than not, I think they do.

Tom Houghton:

And I think that’s what people like to see when they’re approaching a builder that they want to work with. They don’t want to go to a builder where all they hear is, no. You’re a builder that says yes, and you’re willing to work with them. And I think that’s an important thing for our listeners to remember is that, don’t be afraid to approach something new just because it’s new and different.

Charissa Surine:

Absolutely. We actually literally just had a client meeting, brand new people, never met them. They came in. She’s like, “I just don’t want to hear somebody tell me, no, you can’t do that.” And after like our one-hour meeting of sharing what we do and how we do it in our process, she was like, “I love you guys.” Then her husband’s like, “Excuse my wife. She doesn’t have much of a poker face.” We called them a few days later. They’re like, “Yeah, we want to work with you guys.”

Charissa Surine:

Yeah. People want to like heard. And I think that’s a huge part of it. This is your home. There’s nothing really closer and more personal than your home. You’re getting right into, people’s like inner sanctuary and where they raised their kids and where they make all their memories. And so I think it’s really important that people feel comfortable and safe and like you’re listening to them.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely. It’s so easy for builders to get caught up in the actual construction of it that you forget that, there’s so much emotion, there’s so much, like you said, the psychology of it that plays into what makes a house a home. I want to turn the corner a little bit here and talk about some tools, do little tool talk here. Because I’d be curious, we don’t really need to typically do this on the show, especially with designers.

Paul Wurth:

We’ve never done this on the show Tom.

Tom Houghton:

It’s a first time for everything.

Paul Wurth:

I know but- [crosstalk 00:17:47] .

Tom Houghton:

It’s a podcast of first year. But I want to talk a little bit more behind the scenes about some of the tools. You mentioned, how you get your inspiration from books from going out and seeing things. But when pen meets paper, what is that as a digital stylist? What do you use to help design, you mentioned Pinterest as well, which I know is really popular, but what other platforms, what other tools are you using?

Charissa Surine:

That’s a great question. I thought you were going to ask me [inaudible 00:18:10] .

Tom Houghton:

We had that conversation, that was a different podcast.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Charissa Surine:

You know what? I am actually pretty old school. I need a pencil and my graph paper and my scale. And I sketch things. When I was doing my diploma in interior design, of course you do your section on hand renders. And I always think, “Oh, I should have more time and practice that.” But in reality, there is no extra time. I feel like once I’ve looked through lots of images, and I mean Pinterest sometimes people are like, “Oh, you just copy other people’s work.” And any other designers out there and we’ll totally back me on this.

Charissa Surine:

It’s actually not copying at all. It’s like, you’re taking like 50 different pictures and there’s maybe like one element from each of them. Maybe you like the crown in one, maybe you like the way the windows are letting the light in the second one, maybe you like the Chevron pattern of tile in the third one. And it’s taking all of these different images. But that’s why I always end up with my pencil and paper because, you could look at other people’s projects forever. But the only way to really get down what it is that we’re going to do is just by sketching it. So yeah, there’s no secret sauce here. It’s just the old school for me.

Tom Houghton:

There you go. And I love that you talked about iterative design, that you’re always looking and, pulling from something else. That’s really what design is, is there’s nothing new under the sun. It’s just constantly evolving what you’re seeing out there.

Charissa Surine:

Absolutely.

Tom Houghton:

Well, I feel like we’ve talked your ear off.

Paul Wurth:

I thought both conversations again, this is a continuation from an earlier episode is, the thing I’ll take away from all of it is, I think that your company seems to take a different approach to building a construction company and speaking to clients. And this idea of taking your time on the front end to deliver on what you say and not over promising and not having all these changes. I think speaks to what we spoke to earlier with Dallas, which is something like the top five things people think negatively about the building industry. I would just say kudos to you guys. It is a very unique approach. I think Tom and I can both say that and it’s fun to hear. So congrats.

Charissa Surine:

Thank you very much. Thanks for having us on. We’re very excited to talk with you guys.

Tom Houghton:

Keep up the great work. And again, don’t forget to check out those show notes. See what that personality profile for design is for Tom. If Paul even does this homework, we’ll see.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I’ll get right on that.

Charissa Surine:

I can’t wait to review it. I’ll design you guys and Buildertrend office. How about that?

Tom Houghton:

There you go.

Paul Wurth:

I like that.

Tom Houghton:

I love it.

Paul Wurth:

Sounds perfect.

Tom Houghton:

All right, thanks.

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate you.

Charissa Surine:

Thanks guys. Take care.

Tom Houghton:

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode, you can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. Thanks for listening. And we’ll see you next time on “The Building Code.”

Charissa Surine | Haven Builders


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