About Us
The Predicament
- Do you spend hours interviewing architects and then even more selecting among several general contractors once you’ve settled on the design of a renovation project?
- In conducting your due diligence on both, how systematically do you dig down in assessing their past performance other than asking close friends of yours who may have recommended them?
- How confident are you in:
o fully understanding exactly what tasks an architect and general contractor are proposing to undertake and what are excluded?
o interpreting blueprints and design drawings?
o deciding among the variety of alternative construction approaches that often can be taken to achieve virtually the same outcome but have different economics? and
o comprehending the technical terms electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. are conveying to you when they uncover a problem and propose a specific solution?
- In reviewing your renovation contracts, do you engage a lawyer who may well be an expert on legal terms related real estate purchases and sales transactions but who is much less familiar with the economics of renovation and how best to contractually govern what are necessarily dynamically changing conditions that necessarily define the renovation process, including the discovery of hidden conditions that can alter the scale and time of the work needed to be done?
- Are you overwhelmed by the time spent:
o thinking through how alternative formulations of your ‘dream’ renovation project might best fit in with the overall design/ambience of your home as well as your day to day routines and family uses of living spaces?
o deciding among plumbing and electrical fixtures, as well as flooring options, tile choices and other materials and furnishings?
o shopping for and figuring out a practical process of how to decide among the myriad of choices of paint colors and their textures?
Birth of a New Firm
Over the last two and a half decades our founder, Harry G. Broadman, fully renovated three of his houses: one in historic Georgetown, Washington D.C. (where Harry and his wife have raised—and are still raising!—their three kids) as well as two in historic Talbot County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In all three cases, Harry served as either the general contractor himself or hired a general contractor to perform very large structural multi-person construction tasks (such as popping on a new roof) while he undertook many other significant portions of the renovation himself.
Because of his absolute love of the mixture of the design, contracting, problem-solving and construction elements that are the bread and butter of renovation, coupled with his multi-decade long expertise in finance and economics, Harry recently decided it is time to share his knowledge and experience with other homeowners, and to do so in the form of a commercial venture.
Why?
Well, many friends over the years, observing the renovations that in his “spare time” Harry was undertaking or those that he had completed, kept asking him for advice about their own projects, to which he happily agreed. The vast majority kept telling Harry—seeing his eyes light up as he spoke—that he really should go into business doing this. Harry guesses they also liked his taste, his complete attention to detail, and how he systematically was managing the process, including the financial aspects, especially with third-party professionals that he had directly contracted.
And to be honest, they marveled about the fact that Harry taught himself how to do his own electrical wiring, re-fitting copper plumbing pipes, putting up drywall, developing a clever process for choosing and applying paint colors for interior and exterior spaces that complement one another, replacing HVAC parts, laying and staining wood floors, re-building furnaces and hot water heaters, designing landscapes, welding, fixing drainage and gutter problems, repairing/rebuilding ovens, dishwashers, refrigerators, and washing machines and clothes driers that repairmen said unequivocally should be wholly replaced. And the list goes on (seriously)!
Alongside Harry's still-very robust career encompassing negotiation of international trade and finance agreements, structuring complex corporate cross-border commercial transactions, private equity investing, capital raising, management consulting, journalism and university professorships, he honestly could not see himself taking on an additional role. To be sure, it certainly was not part of his game-plan in getting a doctorate in international economics and finance in 1981 !
Well…now at the tender age of 62, it finally dawned on Harry that his friends may well have a point. Hence the launch of Renovation Navigation LLC.