In this snack-sized episode, we lay out three simple phrases that help when a construction project starts to feel tense or disorganized. The focus is not on winning an argument. It is on getting everyone back to the same set of facts so the team can move forward. The first phrase is, “Let’s look at the contract.” When communication breaks down or stress rises, the contract is often the best place to start. It defines what counts as completion, what counts as a delay, how payments work, and what happens when part of the work is in dispute. Instead of reacting emotionally, we can return to what was already agreed to and use that as the basis for the next step.
The second phrase is, “Let’s look at the drawings.” The drawings are part of the contract documents, and they show what the team agreed to build. In the middle of construction, it is easy for everyone to rely on memory, especially when there are multiple projects and many revisions in play. Looking at the drawings brings everyone back to the same information. It can also calm a charged moment because people stop speculating and start looking at the actual plan. Sometimes the drawings do not fully resolve the issue, and sometimes they reveal that something was missed. Even then, they still give the team a clear place to begin solving the problem. Drawings can say, in pictures, what would take far longer to say in text.
The third phrase is, “Let’s look at the minutes.” Weekly meeting minutes create a record of decisions, responsibilities, and timing. They help track who agreed to what and when an issue first came up. The episode makes a strong case for architects keeping and organizing the minutes, because that process helps shape an accurate narrative of the project. Marilyn and Sheri also talk about AI tools for meeting minutes. They see value in them, but they do not think AI is fully reliable yet. It can miss context, confuse speakers, and create concerns around confidentiality and recording. For now, they describe a hybrid approach as more useful.
The larger point is that custom residential work is complicated, and perfection is not the standard. Problems will come up. The goal is to keep the team aligned, reduce finger-pointing, and stay focused on solutions. These three phrases help do exactly that by bringing everyone back to the contract, the drawings, and the written record.
(00:00) Intro
(01:30) Phrase 1: Let’s look at the contract
(05:18) Phrase 2: Let’s look at the drawings
(13:24) Phrase 3: Let’s look at the minutes
(15:23) Why owners need to review meeting minutes
(16:01) AI for meeting notes: benefits and limits
(19:05) Who should receive the meeting minutes
(22:07) Final recap of the three phrases
(23:06) Outro
049_2026_05_26_3 Things to Say_SNACK Audio
Speakers: Marilyn Moedinger & Sheri Scott
Marilyn Moedinger (00:00):
Hi, and welcome to a snack-sized episode of Home: The Second Story. I'm Marilyn Moedinger from Runcible Studios, located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Boston, Massachusetts.
Sheri Scott (00:09):
And I'm Sheri Scott with Springhouse Architects in Cincinnati, Ohio. So, today on our short episode with just me and Marilyn, we would like to talk about three phrases to say when things aren't going well. And these three phrases came from Marilyn, for good reason, because she's so organized with these three things, and I think it makes a lot of sense.
So, Marilyn, what was the first one?
Marilyn Moedinger (00:37):
The first one, and I guess we should say when things aren't going well, specifically during construction. So, we're in the middle of construction, things are coming off the rails, maybe communication is breaking down. Maybe some tempers are flaring, stress is at an all-time high.
When things aren’t going well, it's helpful to have sort of these phrases you can just pull on to recenter yourself, recenter the project, sort of get back to the essence of what we're trying to do here, and have it be less personal.
So, the first phrase, which I think is maybe the most important (laughs), is, “Let's look at the contract.” What does the contract say? (Laughs).
Sheri Scott (01:30):
What’s it say? Because we try to make all of this figure-out-able in the contract. And to foresee some of these problems. A lot of these problems you can foresee, and they're already decided how to handle it.
Marilyn Moedinger (01:48):
And a good contract will also have definitions of all kinds of things that are useful to have. When is the project done? What counts as done? What counts as ... so, that's called substantial completion. And it is defined or should be defined in your contract. So, what does it mean to be done?
Sheri Scott (02:13):
A delay. What’s a delay?
Marilyn Moedinger (02:14):
What's a delay? That's a great one. What counts as a delay? I remember when I was working as a contractor, we used to have weather days. So, you would have to look up the contractually defined weather day based on the National Weather Service report from that day. And you could say whether or not that was a weather day.
You couldn't just say, “Oh, it rained today, we couldn't work.” It had to be X number of hours of this much rain, and then you could count it as a weather delay.
Sheri Scott (02:47):
I haven't seen that. Do you see that now in contracts?
Marilyn Moedinger (02:51):
No, I don't. Those were some commercial contracts and some other things. Some bigger institutional-type stuff. But yeah (chuckles), I remember seeing that and being like, “Oh, wow, we're defining.” So, no one's bickering over, “Well, it rained.” No, it didn't. It didn't rain enough. It rained more so.
Sheri Scott (03:09):
And that actually is a pretty big topic because it's easy for contractors to be like, “Well, you know the winter we had,” and just use it very generically. And the homeowner is like, “No, I think there were plenty of workable days.” So, that is a sticking point.
Marilyn Moedinger (03:27):
It is. Think about all the sticking points: payments. What counts as something I should pay for? When do I pay? What counts as a late payment? When can I hold back payment? And how much? So, let's say the contractor is not doing something up to — let's say the plumbing isn't going well.
But the contractor bills you for that month's work, and it includes framing, HVAC, electrical and plumbing or whatever. You can’t. Well, according to whatever your contract says, of course you have to look at your contract.
But oftentimes a contract will say something like, “You can't hold all the payment back, but you can hold the payment back for the scope of work that is in dispute. And here's how you work through that dispute.”
So, when things get tense, it's really helpful to just go, “Wait, everybody, let's just look at the contract. Let's remind ourselves what we've already agreed to (laughs) and just see what it says.”
Sheri Scott (04:27):
And a lot of times, that will resolve it. There will be an answer there and sometimes not. And then you have to kind of go to some other solution. But that's a great place to start.
Marilyn Moedinger (04:38):
Well, and fun fact, in a lot of the AIA contracts (which are sort of industry standard contracts that a lot of people use on projects), the first stop to mediate a dispute. So, if there is a point of clarification that's needed or if there is a point of contention, and it's unclear, the first stop as to who decides what's going on is the architect.
So, the architect is often the one who says, “Hey” … because the contract is between the owner and the contractor. So, the architect is a third party saying, “Hey, this is how I think we should resolve this.”
Sheri Scott (05:18):
Yeah. And speaking of the architect, the second (chuckles), the second phrase is, “Let's look at the drawings.” Because the drawings (I guess it is a second phrase) are technically a part of the contract. You are agreeing on those (the dated drawings) when you sign the contract. That's what it's based on.
Sheri Scott (05:44):
And there's sometimes questions about addendums that come up or revisions. And all of that should also be addressed in the contract to point to the latest published or issued set of drawings.
Marilyn Moedinger (06:01):
Well, and the drawings are (I just want to underline that 100 times) part of the contract. They're part of the contract documents. And the way I always explain it is, if we were going to write out a contract word for word for building a house, imagine, it would be millions of pages long.
Where you say, “Okay, the front door is 3 ft by 7 ft, and it's 1 foot to the left of the window …” – that's silly. So, you make a picture. Because a picture is easier to describe everything. And then you staple those pictures to the contract.
[Laughter]
Pictures meaning drawings. And you say, “This is what we're agreeing to build. This picture right here.” And the architect draws it. Or whoever, but usually the architect draws it. So, when we're looking at the drawings, we are looking at another part of the contract.
And you know what, I find this one the most useful is when you're under construction, it's been months or even a year since you've drawn that as the architect. And I remember as a young architect getting in trouble sometimes, thinking I remembered what was in the drawings. And then saying something and being like, “Well, this is supposed to be like this.” And I was going from memory, and I learned early on that that was dangerous.
Sheri Scott (07:23):
Yeah, it is dangerous, especially when you have multiple projects going on. And in your office, you go through a lot of iterations of different details, and you can't always remember, “Oh, that's right, we landed on that.” Because of these other 10 things that we worked through on paper.
And I have found that, especially on-site, if you're on-site with the owners, the contractor, and the architect, a lot of times you stand around and look at something, and everyone's throwing out, “Oh, we could do this or we could do that.” Or “Oh, maybe this would be better.”
And we say, “Let's look at the drawings.” And then all three groups stand around, look at the paper, the piece of paper, the drawing, or on an iPad these days, whatever, and say, “Okay, now I remember we made these decisions, and this is why it's this way because of A, B, and C.” Now, that's not to say somebody doesn't have a better idea or a different idea, or everyone's on board with changing direction.
But if we start with what was agreed to in the contract documents, then we can move forward with alternates or, “Yeah, that makes sense. We will do it that way.” It just kind of recenters everything and everyone, looking at the exact same thing, talking the same language about the same picture instead of everyone just brainstorming.
Marilyn Moedinger (08:55):
Absolutely. And it's a moment where you say, “This is a thing we've already agreed to. This is a thing we've already figured out, so let's not waste any time refiguring it out. Let's go take a look over here.”
And I think that your comment about recentering is important too. Because sometimes these moments can get a little contentious and someone says, “Well, it's not in the drawing and I can't fit, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
And there might be a little bit of a stress-inducing moment. And even the act, the physical act of pausing and walking over to the drawings, flipping to the page, gives everyone a minute to come back down and go, “Right. This is solvable. We're going to get to a solution.”
“Everybody's fine. We just kind of got a little riled up there for a second,” or “We got a little stressed or whatever.” And then the owner can also see this was the value of these drawings because the drawings are going to solve this question.
Sheri Scott (09:49):
Right. And to be honest, sometimes they don't (laughs). Sometimes as the architect—
Marilyn Moedinger (09:56):
I was going to say, or they don't. Yeah.
Sheri Scott (09:57):
(Laughs) Sometimes as the architect, you look at the drawings with everyone, and you're like, “Ugh, you're right. It didn't happen that way,” or “this doesn't really work,” or “we missed that detail. We didn't give you enough information.” And then we figure it out from there. But at least we know where we're starting.
Marilyn Moedinger (10:13):
Right. And I will say as a small parenthetical here that the drawings and the architect's work are not expected to be perfect. So, that is a whole other episode where we can talk about errors and omissions. And the level of care and the level of professional care that is expected of the architect. But perfection is not it.
So, if something is missed, especially in a renovation. Or things happen where you have to substitute a material, or different things happen where it isn't what was planned from the beginning anyway.
So, what is expected is that the architect and everybody else on the team will use their best professional judgment to solve the problem and to get to a solution. And it doesn't often really help to be pointing fingers and say, “Well, you missed this in the drawings, and you did this and you did that and you didn't do that.”
Sometimes that is important to go through and establish, “Okay, how did this happen?” Or “Is there something we need to track through?” But at the end of the day, what matters is getting to the solution.
Sheri Scott (11:22):
And at the end of a project, I hate to … it just goes on with the idea that nothing's ever perfect and these projects are not perfect and we have to get through them. Because at the end of the day, there is plenty of blame to go around. On me, on the contractor, on bad homeowner decisions, on so many things. We really just need to focus on working together as a team. Because everyone wants this to be a successful project.
Marilyn Moedinger (11:53):
That's right. And no matter how many times we have done what we've done (how many houses we've built), this house that we are doing with this client and this contractor is the first one we've done. And I think that's an-
Sheri Scott (12:09):
Custom. The word’s custom (laughs).
Marilyn Moedinger (12:12):
So, that means that it requires a lot more planning ahead because it isn't the same old rubber stamp thing that's been figured out 100 million times. We do have our standard details, we do have our standards of care, we do have all of that.
So, that's not to scare anyone into thinking that custom is somehow a brand-new voyage of discovery for a bunch of professionals. That's not it at all. But if you think about it, that level of perfection can't be achieved when you're doing something for the first time. That exact project in that exact way.
So, rather than focusing on that, we say, “Let's come back to the drawings, let's come back to what we know and what we've agreed to, and we'll figure it out from there.” And I don't know about you, Sheri, but I've never been on a project where we didn't figure something out (laughs).
Where we didn't get the project done, we didn't figure it out. And where we came together and got to a solution. And that's the point of having a good contract, good drawing, good team.
Sheri Scott (13:17):
And the final phrase.
Marilyn Moedinger (13:19):
This one's my favorite (laughs).
Sheri Scott (13:21):
I know, I know. I know you're just dying to get to it.
Marilyn Moedinger (13:24):
So, the first one was looking at the contract, second one's looking at the drawings. Third one is, “Let's look at the minutes.” So, I'm obsessive about keeping minutes on our weekly owner, architect, contractor meetings.
Because if it's not written down, everyone forgets what happened, who agreed to what, the flow of the project. So, just like you said earlier, if the contractor says, “Oh, well, we've had a tough winter,” or “Oh, well, you guys didn't make that decision in time or whatever.”
And I can go back to the minutes that I can say, “You only told us about this last week.” Or “We asked for this information in the past six meetings. For every meeting we asked for this.” So, something a little bit controversial I'll say is that I find that it is best if the architect keeps the minutes.”
So, a lot of times in commercial projects or larger projects or whatever, it's the contractor's responsibility as part of the construction management process. But he or she who keeps the minutes controls the narrative of the project, and I want to control that narrative. I want to make sure that what is being said and who is saying what and what decisions are being made are being recorded.
Sheri Scott (14:43):
This just popped in my mind, so I want to say it now. When your architect sends you (as the homeowner) meeting minutes and says, “Please let me know if there's anything that is wrong or missed or misunderstood in these minutes,” please look at them (chuckles). And let us know.
Because I think that's easy when things are going smoothly or even when they're upsetting to not want to delve into that and make corrections. But it's important that everyone agrees on it. And legally when we email that to you and you don't respond, that means that you approve it.
Marilyn Moedinger (15:23):
You've accepted it. That's right. That's super important. And I'll also say something here, because this is coming up more and more where people are like, “Oh, writing minutes. That's so, two years ago. We use AI to record everything, and AI summarizes it.”
So, that is certainly a path that you could take for sure. I find that us, old school (chuckles) writing our minutes (and we have a very specific template that we use), organizes the minutes so that it isn't just all over the place. It's organized by chunk of work.
So, HVAC, electrical, foundations, framing, whatever. It's organized by the 16 divisions basically. Which is a way that you organize information in a construction project.
And so, AI can certainly do that, but there is also something very powerful about taking notes, processing the minutes, and getting them out so that then you — every time I write minutes, I will find something that triggers me to think about something else.
If I'm just passively accepting an AI recording, and even worse than that (an AI summary is one thing) is just recording everything, and you need to go back in time and find out how many times this particular issue came up or whatever, it's going to be very difficult. If it's organized in a template, it's much better.
So, I'm sure AI will get there, and I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune, maybe even by the time this comes out. But we have-
Sheri Scott (17:01):
(Laughs) Change is fast. It does. It changes fast.
Marilyn Moedinger (17:03):
(Laughs) We have used AI specifically for meeting minutes for construction and have not found it to be as accurate or as helpful as us still doing it. So, we'll keep our eye on it.
Sheri Scott (17:16):
I would say we're learning our way through it. Right now, we're hybrid. We do use AI for meeting minutes, and then we edit those. Additionally, I always have my notebook, and I jot down important topics for myself to jog my memory.
Because there is a difference between hand-brain connection and remembering things. I typically write down my to-dos in my own notebook to make sure that I have those clear in the meeting minutes.
And I make sure — one thing that I have found that AI is fuzzy on is sometimes when they're listening to voices, they don't know who said what. So, they know it's a to-do to send the specification by Tuesday, but they don't say who's doing that.
So, we're kind of a hybrid because I don't think it's perfect, and it probably never will be perfect. But we do use it as a tool.
Marilyn Moedinger (18:25):
Yeah. It's helpful. And I would say another thing that's come up for us is some of our clients do not want to have AI, they don't want to be recorded.
Sheri Scott (18:33):
Attorneys don't want you recording every conversation either.
Marilyn Moedinger (18:36):
That's exactly right. So, I think there are some larger — the topic of how AI as an emerging piece of technology is being used in every aspect of the world right now is obviously everyone's talking about it.
And I think those are obviously larger conversations that we're able to get into here, but it isn't just a slam dunk. It isn't just a, “Oh, we'll just use AI for that.” There are some pitfalls or some issues around it.
Sheri Scott (19:05):
So, I do have a question for you. Because we've talked about this in my office and we're kind of all over the place: who all gets a copy of the meeting minutes?
Marilyn Moedinger (19:15):
Our rule is all of the client list. So, if it's a couple, then both of them, no matter if only one of them was at the meeting – the contractor, and us. And whoever is at the meeting.
So, let's say the HVAC sub was at the meeting and participating in the meeting that week, and he usually isn't there, but he was there that week, then I would include — so I always include a roster of who was there. And if that person is on the roster of who was there, they get a copy.
Sheri Scott (19:50):
Yeah. If they're noted in those minutes, they get a copy of it.
Marilyn Moedinger (19:53):
That's right. And then they get asked the same question, like, “Does this look right? If it doesn't, please respond or forever hold your peace.”
Sheri Scott (20:01):
We've been caught maybe a couple of times where during the meeting, we've talked about some more sensitive topics or money, or things where it's a two-and-a-half-hour meeting out on site. You start out with the HVAC guy, and then he leaves, and then the trim carpenter comes in, and then he leaves, just all different things.
And so, sometimes there's a little bit of a question of are we sharing too much information? But that goes back to taking our notes ourselves and keeping things confidential that are confidential. And that's our job.
Marilyn Moedinger (20:41):
I think that's true. I also think we've done many minutes for segments of-
Sheri Scott (20:46):
For that section, yeah.
Marilyn Moedinger (20:47):
For that section. If we're talking about more private or whatever type things. We've also had instances and projects where the owner doesn't want us to put something in the drawings or the minutes at all.
And wants no written or drawn record of. So, that would be issues around security, or safe rooms, or safes, or whatever. So, that kind of thing would also be something that we might put in the minutes as a code word or something (laughs).
Because we still have to track, “Was the safe poured into the concrete foundation?” We still have to track some of this stuff. Or if it's a safe room, which has other trades are involved, that kind of stuff can get complicated.
I was on a project one time for a women's shelter that got very complicated because every person who was on that project had to be vetted, and how much can we say about the inner workings of the shelter with the people who are building it? There’s security issues.
So, we've had other projects that have serious security issues as well. And so, we just do it on a case-by-case basis.
Sheri Scott (22:07):
Three good phrases (laughs) just to (I think we've said on every single piece of this) redirect people. To focus them more than redirect them. Let's focus on something and move on from there. Let's look at what's written in the contract. What did we agree to? What's in the drawings? How did we already solve this problem? And is that still the right answer?
And the third one, let's look at the minutes because we've probably already talked about this, and let's see how we solved it two weeks ago when none of us remember anymore (laughs). Or let's not exactly rehash it because we already figured this out. So, yeah, I think those are great.
Thanks for joining us today on Home: The Second Story for a quick snack. Questions for us, topics you'd like us to cover, or interested in being a guest, reach out at admin@htsspodcast.com. And follow us on Instagram. See you next time.
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