Field notes

Essays from the middle of a renovation.

Teardowns, interviews, and small lessons from the people actually living inside the projects we're building Moodroom for.

Featured
EssayPublishing soon7 min read

The renovation goes over budget the day you stop looking at it.

Of the three apartments we shadowed during the Moodroom beta, all three ran over their stated budget. The difference between the one that ran 8% over and the one that ran 47% over was not the contractor, the city, or even the scope — it was how often the owner had looked at the running total in the last week. The budget doesn’t blow up in a single explosive moment. It drifts, daily, while you’re choosing tiles.

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What we're writing next

4 drafts
EssayDrafting

Why we organise everything by room, not by category

Spreadsheets default to tabs called “Tiles,” “Lighting,” “Furniture.” That structure makes sense to suppliers, not to the people living in the rooms.

Queued5 min read
TeardownDrafting

What an honest capitolato should contain

A two-page document that no one in your renovation can argue with. We break down a real example from a Naples flat, line by line.

Queued9 min read
LessonQueued

The seven supplier conversations every renovation needs

Quotes, lead times, payment terms, returns, on-site delivery, install responsibility, and warranty. Miss one and it costs you a week.

Queued6 min read
InterviewQueued

Chiara, mid-renovation: “I had 14 quotes for one bathroom.”

A conversation with an early Moodroom user about the chaos of comparing suppliers, what she stopped tracking, and what she wishes she had from day one.

Queued8 min read

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