In this snack-sized episode of Home: The Second Story, we shift gears from our usual format and instead take a behind-the-scenes look at what’s happening in our practices right now. This is the kind of conversation we usually have among ourselves—comparing notes, sharing site challenges, and navigating the daily curveballs of architectural work. We figured it was time to let listeners in on that part of the story too.
Sheri kicks things off with a construction tale from a high-end custom home in Columbus, Ohio. The project includes modern detailing with integral gutters—beautiful in theory, but tricky in execution. A suggestion from the roofing contractor about increasing gutter size triggered a domino effect across multiple components: the fascia detail had to be reworked, structural concerns had to be addressed, and everyone from the architect to the structural engineer to the truss designer had to weigh in. The clients didn't know it was happening at the time—it’s one of those moments where the team just quietly collaborates to get it right. We highlight how small changes can ripple across a whole system, and how critical the architect's role is during Construction Contract Administration (CCA), even when the client doesn’t see it firsthand.
Marilyn gives an update from the design side. Her team is in the final push to complete a full interiors package for a gut renovation. With decisions flying—from towel bar placements to floor outlets under rugs—she’s witnessing full-blown decision fatigue from the clients. Even with our guidance and proposed solutions, the sheer volume of micro-decisions in custom home design is overwhelming. It’s a reminder of how much care, precision, and stamina go into making a house truly personalized.
Taylor shares how a medical situation with one client caused schedule shifts across multiple projects. But instead of creating delays, it opened up the chance to move some projects forward. She reflects on the nimbleness smaller firms can offer—being flexible, responsive, and willing to pivot when life inevitably gets in the way. We all agree: we aim to serve, adapt, and show grace when the unexpected happens—whether it’s a health issue, a hacker, or a graduation party.
Ultimately, this episode is a snapshot of the real-time, human-centered work of architecture. It’s not just plans and permits—it’s relationships, collaboration, problem-solving, and a lot of deep listening. We love our clients—even the ones who text too early—and we’re proud of the invisible work we do to make the process smoother and the end result stronger.
Rec 2025_09_03_Whats Going On_SNACK Draft Video
Speakers: Marilyn Moedinger, Sheri Scott, & Taylor Davis
[Music Playing]
Voiceover (00:02):
Everyone says how horrible it'll be to renovate or build your house. We're here to say, it doesn't have to be that way.
Join three seasoned architects as they interview homeowners who recently completed a large project, and ask them one simple question: what do you know now that you wish you knew before you started?
Welcome to Home: The Second Story Podcast.
Marilyn Moedinger (00:26):
Hi, and welcome to a snack size episode of Home: The Second Story. I'm Marilyn Moedinger, and I am from Runcible Studios, located in Boston, Massachusetts, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Today, I am joined by …
Sheri Scott (00:41):
Sheri Scott with Springhouse Architects in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Taylor Davis (00:46):
And I'm Taylor Davis from TPD Architect in Birmingham, Alabama.
Marilyn Moedinger (00:50):
And today, we're going to do a little something different. We're going to talk about some stuff that's kind of happening right now in our practices. We do a lot of different things, whether it's design, we're on site, that kind of thing.
And these are a lot of the conversations that we have amongst ourselves, and we share the insights with each other and sort of the stories and whatever. And we thought, why not just have this conversation sort of live with you guys, and kind of talk about some of the stuff that's happening and what we're doing and whatever.
So, Sheri, I think you should go first. Sounded like you had a fun construction story for us.
Sheri Scott (01:21):
Oh, yes. They're always fun in construction.
Marilyn Moedinger (01:24):
They're always fun.
[Laughter]
Sheri Scott (01:27):
So, just a little bit of background. This is a high-end custom home, about 6,000 square feet finished in Columbus, Ohio. Beautiful home. The one thing that's different for this home (a couple of things), with design, it's very modern. So, for the first time, we designed integral gutters so that we don't have gutters and downspouts coming through.
Marilyn Moedinger (01:55):
We’ve done those.
Sheri Scott (01:56):
Everybody loves the idea. Execution is difficult. Execution is difficult for us because we had to learn how to do it well. And it's difficult because our builder has not done it before. So, we have a great team on this project, and the builder is very collaborative. The framing crew out there is very collaborative. So, it's the best setup that you could hope for, for something that's custom, and new and working through things.
So, with the integral gutter, the roofing guy, he came in and said, “I don’t think your gutter is big enough.” And I don't know if you guys have run into this lately, but lately, everyone is saying gutters are not designed big enough because our weather patterns are changing. Here in the Midwest, we are getting big rainstorms. Not more inches per year, but faster. It's falling faster.
Marilyn Moedinger (02:59):
Yeah, like these downpours. We're having that too. Actually, that's a great thing to bring up just generally.
Sheri Scott (03:07):
So, we have this conversation about gutter size all the time. So, he wanted to make these gutters bigger. Well, what that did in the detail was. without getting too technical, it lowered part of the blocking. And so, the fascia, which is the trim board, didn't have enough mass to stand up straight.
Marilyn Moedinger (03:29):
It was flopping. Flopping fascia.
Sheri Scott (03:30):
Yes. So, on site during our typical construction CA site visit, the builder was like, “Hey Sheri, what do you think of this?” Acting like it's all casual (laughs). And I'm like, “Oh yeah, I think that's probably going to be a question.”
And so, builder, me, framer, we stood out there with a pencil on a two by four and tried redrawing this detail and figuring out what the best way would be. And we came up with the best way. And then at the last minute, I'm like, wait a minute, we just added a whole bunch of weight to the end of this already large overhang. And the longer the overhang is kind of like a lever, the more force it's going to put on.
So, then, not only did we all have to put our brains together to figure it out, then we had to send it to the structural engineer and get a reading back from him. He kicked it to the truss designer because we're extending truss tales. That's where we are right now.
This all happened at the site meeting last week. That's where we are right now. Everyone is still trying to figure out and find the best way and make sure that it's structurally sound.
And honestly, on this project, the client doesn't even know this is going on. Not that we're hiding anything, it will be in our field report. But it's just something that we wouldn't bring the client into because it's not going to change the look of it. We're just trying to figure out the very best detail for it.
Marilyn Moedinger (05:13):
One thing I think is really important about that story is how one seemingly tiny thing that is coming from a place … the roofing guy is bringing up something that's really important, and that should be considered. But that one thing has this domino effect throughout a whole series of details. And then suddenly, the whole team is evolved as they should be.
Sheri Scott (05:37):
Yep.
Taylor Davis (05:38):
It highlights the complexity of homes. Residential construction is so customized in general, but there are very few custom details that we repeat on a regular basis, because every house is different. Every condition is different, every builder is different and likes to do things different ways. So, it speaks to the fact that there is this idea that you can buy a set of house plans, throw it over to the builder, and have it done.
Well, you can, but it won't be A, tailored for you or your site or anything else. And if something like that comes up in the field, you need to have like a good set of eyes and hands and ears and brains around how to address that particular problem. Because without that team involved in construction, who knows how that could have gotten solved. And you could have end up with fascia that was wavering or gutters that were undersized or whatever that is.
Sheri Scott (06:42):
Or we wouldn't never have known. So, we do have clients that waive the CA part, which there are some architects that absolutely will not waive that. We have taken the stand that we sometimes will, depends on the project. We take it on a case-by-case basis.
But this is a good example where I can actually help, the architect can actually help on site to come up with the best solution, and it helps the builder too. The best builders are so happy to have me there on CA because we work as a team.
Marilyn Moedinger (07:20):
That's right. And just to make sure everyone knows, CA is construction — they're now calling it CCA (Construction Contract Administration). And that's the construction phase. And I think that people forget or don't even know that architects are actually doing some of our most important work during that phase, and that builders want us there. I want to underline that.
Sheri Scott (07:45):
Yes. The good ones.
Marilyn Moedinger (07:46):
The good ones.
[Laughter]
Taylor Davis (07:47):
The good ones. That's just what I was about to say. You totally took the words out of my mouth.
Marilyn Moedinger (07:52):
So, this is actually one of my little mini tricks or hacks here in the industry, is if you are a homeowner and you're trying to figure out whether a builder is a good one, ask them how they feel about working with architects. Don't even wait for them to say a word. Even if you're not working with an architect or whatever, don't even wait for them to say a word, just look at their body language. For those of you who are on video you can see-
Sheri Scott (08:20):
They melt, yes.
Marilyn Moedinger (08:22):
But like do they immediately go, oh, like uh, and roll their eyes and make a face? Do they look frustrated? Are they just like, “Yeah, architects are great.” Get a good one, it works really well. Same as builders, get a good one, it works well. That's your guy right there or girl. That's like the quickest tell.
Sheri Scott (08:41):
Okay. Enough about my story. What do you have Marilyn?
Marilyn Moedinger (08:46):
Well, I've got a couple things going on right now. We're a little bit slammed at the moment, but I guess one of the big ones is we're cranking away on a completed set of drawings. So, hoping to have those done for next week.
So, this is a full, basically interiors package for a home. So, we're not really touching the outside of the house, but we're doing full gut inside, finishing a basement, doing all sorts of stuff. We actually had a meeting this morning, I don't know when this is going to air, but whatever. And I've been doing this a long time, just reminds me just how many decisions there are to be made.
So, we're on a Zoom and I'm just like, oh my gosh, you guys, you're doing so well (laughs). You're making gajillions of decisions. And I'm like, “Do you want to put the towel bar here or here?” And they're just hanging in, they're doing great. But I just know the decision fatigue. I can just see it. It's just so real.
Sheri Scott (09:48):
Are you at the end? Like the minute decisions that-
Marilyn Moedinger (09:52):
Tiny little decisions. And things that they forgot to mention or all of a sudden are coming up or little stuff like, well, if this is going to be the office and someone's going to be working from home a lot, well, we want a wired internet connection. Well, the desk is in the middle of the room, so are we putting in a floor outlet for like to plug stuff in?
Well, yes, we can totally do that. But are you going to put a rug in the office because the rug's going to cover the floor outlet. So, are we cool cutting a hole in the rug?
And the next thing you know, this very simple question turns into like this whole — and you can just kind of see it on a client's face where they're like, “Oh my gosh, like please make her stop asking me questions.”
[Laughter]
And I know like it's the world between like a production build where you get to make like three decisions. It's like buying a car. You can pick out like the interior color, the color of the outside, and like three different features. Full custom means full custom. That means I'm asking you where do you want the towel bar? Here or an inch over there? And obviously, we as designers and architects are suggesting a lot of this stuff, and we're not literally asking them every single little, tiny question.
Sheri Scott (11:12):
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Do we ask them every single thing, or do we propose and say, “This is what I would do?” But they're included, we don't just do it.
Marilyn Moedinger (11:22):
A hundred percent. And that collaboration I think is like one of the most fun parts of the work. I think that's probably why the three of us do this. I mean, there's other types of architecture you can do where that collaboration isn't as intense or personal.
Sheri Scott (11:38):
Yes.
Marilyn Moedinger (11:39):
But like at this point, we're like talking about … like the kids, we've been talking about the kids for months and months. Who does what? Who likes this? What's happening? Who plays what sport? How are we planning to make the house work for everybody? But yeah, so that's what we're doing now. We're wrapping up the set, we're getting ready this Friday to send them.
So, what we do is we send like a final, final check set, like 99% complete. And we ask people to take real time over the weekend and sit there, and just really look over the whole set of drawings. And by that point, they've looked at the drawings many times. They should be really good at looking at the drawings. There shouldn't be surprises. But it's like kind of the last chance without me yapping in their ear, take a look.
Sheri Scott (12:30):
Do you think they look?
Marilyn Moedinger (12:32):
I would say some of my clients do and some do not.
Sheri Scott (12:36):
Yeah, I would say the same. I can usually tell when they don't. When I follow up, they're like, “Oh yeah, they looked good (laughs).” And that's part of the fatigue. Like gosh, Sheri, I've looked at these a hundred times, they're fine, but we really do have to give them that last opportunity.
Marilyn Moedinger (12:55):
Also, not to be too weird about it, but in writing, because yes, I've reviewed this set, and I'm signing off on this set. And it doesn't mean that later if someone says, “Oh my gosh, I didn't quite realize that it was going to be like this …” Obviously, there's still room to change things, but not really. Not like, “I didn't understand that the kitchen was going to be pointed this way. Can we flip the whole thing?” No, I mean, yes-
Taylor Davis (13:21):
We can move the towel bars.
Marilyn Moedinger (13:22):
It’s going to cost you (laughs).
Taylor Davis (13:25):
But flipping the kitchen might have some other ramifications.
Marilyn Moedinger (13:29):
So, yeah, I mean, in conclusion, I guess my report is we're deep into that and I love it. It's like the race to the end. We're putting all the finishing touches on, we're exporting sets, we're finding mistakes and little things, getting all that cleared up, coordinating with engineers, making sure everyone's got everything in. So, yeah, it's very exciting.
I think the set, just for interiors, it'll be dang near … it'll probably be 30 pages.
Sheri Scott (13:57):
Yeah, that's intense.
Marilyn Moedinger (13:58):
Yeah, four pages of schedules (laughs).
Sheri Scott (14:01):
Oh my gosh.
Taylor Davis (14:02):
That's a lot of stuff.
Sheri Scott (14:03):
That's what keeps it working.
Marilyn Moedinger (14:06):
There’re five and a half baths, six baths, something like that. You got-
Taylor Davis (14:09):
Yeah, that's a lot.
Marilyn Moedinger (14:10):
Anyway, Taylor, what's up with you? What's happening over there?
Taylor Davis (14:13):
So, we've got 1, 2, 3, 4 projects currently under construction, which means we make a lot of site visits. Luckily, they're not too far away from each other. So, our Wednesdays and Thursdays get kind of stacked with site visits, which is fun.
Actually, I think one of the things that when we have an initial conversation with a client, we want to be able to tell them how long it's going to be before we can start their project. So, we sort of like give them an estimate and say, “Okay, we anticipate that we could start this work on or before X.”
So, this week, we actually had some flux in that we had a client who had some unexpected surgery (he's going to be fine), but it caused us to shift some of our schedules. So, we've been actually calling clients and saying, “Hey, you thought you're going to have to wait till October, well we can get started this week. You want us to come and measure?”
So, a little bit of that, because we're rolling with people's homes and their personal lives, sometimes stuff happens, and we can't predict it. And this is one of the reasons I love doing what I do, because we have to be flexible and nimble, and we want to be able to address everybody's concern.
So, I'm not putting another project on hold, but I am saying okay, you don't need to feel pressure while you're going through this health little bump. You need to know that we're going to hold onto your project and we're going to keep time for it. We're going to make room for it further in the schedule by starting these projects a little bit earlier so that everybody is accommodated.
And sometimes, that's a little bit of a scheduling challenge, I'd say, but I like being nimble enough to do that. I think that's an important thing, is kind of a service we can offer to our clients that yes, sometimes y'all are going to have to wait for a little bit, but if there's an opening, we promise we'll like move you up and we'll shift things around to make sure everybody is accommodated.
So, we've been sort of making good phone calls and telling people we can get started earlier, and you ready for us to come measure and we'll handle that today. And that's good.
Sheri Scott (16:29):
Yeah, Taylor, I would say I think you're great at that, and I think all three of us have plenty of experience with that. That is not the part I love though.
[Laughter]
It's hard, and it upsets the train of things that you're working on, and things that are coming behind it. And I do think it's important to be able to do that because it's personal, and all of that, but that's a challenge. It's a challenge. And I don't look forward to that when it happens.
Marilyn Moedinger (17:07):
Yeah, from a staffing and planning standpoint, it's hard.
Taylor Davis (17:11):
But I think if we can serve people through whatever issues they have or they might have, whether it's they're unexpectedly having to host a graduation party, and we need to postpone construction for another three weeks to take care of that.
We do stuff that's very specialized, and it's very personal. And one of the things I do appreciate, and I hope that our clients appreciate, is that we do take that time to be of service to them. All of us do, that we really want to pay attention to what their needs are and where they're coming from. And at a certain point, we have to draw lines. I'm not saying we can sort of be open books and shift things around constantly, but there are going to be hiccups in every project, and sometimes they're going to come from us. Sometimes, it's going to be something that we've got going on.
Marilyn Moedinger (17:59):
We have families and lives too.
Taylor Davis (18:00):
Yeah, it's going to come from us. We were talking about before: we had some Nigerian hackers get into our email system and it caused a little turmoil and a little bit of scheduling delays and some stuff. So, we want to be generous and give grace where we can and sort of figure out how we can make things work for people.
Marilyn Moedinger (18:23):
Yeah. I think that's important. And I think also another factor is that when you've got a lot of projects under construction, that also factors in … I mean, we've got only two right now, which is a little bit unusual. We were supposed to have between five and six under construction this summer, and then four of them got delayed for various reasons (chuckles). And some of them were things like you're talking about, some of them were other things, like that's just how it goes.
And so, we were scrambling to figure out how to get that organized. But it's part of the territory and it's part of what you're getting when you're hiring someone who's on the smaller side because we can be quick and nimble and move things around. But it's also a lot as a practitioner.
And so, I'm just, I don't know, I'm going to gush about my clients right now for a second and just say that I'm just really grateful to have amazing clients who understand that, who see how hard we're working. Who see that we can't predict everything and that we can't control everything, whether it's construction or the weather, like back to the gutters, or just like life happens and we're all just trying to give our best.
And back to my clients feeling decision fatigue, that's what I'm saying to them too. As I'm helping them manage that, I'm like you're giving your best; this is great, you guys are doing great, it's all going to happen. It's all going to be fine. I've never had a project, knock on wood, but in 20 plus years, they've all gotten done one way or the other (laughs). There is an end in sight. So, yeah, I think keeping that kind of attitude is really helpful along the way.
Taylor Davis (20:01):
We love our clients, all of us do. If y'all are all listening, we love you all except when you text at six o'clock in the morning on a Saturday.
Marilyn Moedinger (20:10):
Well, don't do that.
Taylor Davis (20:12):
Just don't do that. That's the only time I-
Marilyn Moedinger (20:13):
Don't text us at six in the morning.
[Laughter]
Taylor Davis (20:15):
Don't text us at six o'clock. But other than that, we love y'all.
Marilyn Moedinger (20:19):
Yep. It's true.
Thank you for joining us today on Home: The Second Story for a quick snack. Questions for us or topics you'd like us to cover or interested in being a guest, just reach out to us at admin@htsspodcast.com. See you next time.
[Music Playing]
Voiceover (20:37):
Thanks for listening to Home: The Second Story Podcast. Feel free to share this episode with a friend. Contact information for all three of our architects are in our show notes. And don't miss future episodes.
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