PLANNING LIBRARY
17 guides on basements, kitchens, bathrooms, additions, timelines, permits, contracts, and hiring, written from the projects Built by Design has documented in Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, Leawood, Shawnee, and Parkville. Each one answers the questions homeowners actually ask, cites the code the cities enforce where a number matters, and shows the decision on a finished project.
Planning decisions land cleaner when they are made earlier.
RECENTLY UPDATED
Every guide carries the date it was last revised. These are the most recent.
Bathroom Planning
10 min read
Basement Planning
11 min read
Budget & Costs
10 min read
Whole-Home Remodeling
9 min read
Johnson County Guides
9 min read
Design-Build Process
9 min read
The guide directory
18 guides 7 topics 15 trade partner guides
Your project, on one page
Start here / Featured guide
Fifteen questions, what a good answer sounds like, and the short brief to bring to the first meeting. Written for homeowners in Johnson County who want fewer surprises once the walls are open.
Prepare your project briefTopic 01
Give the lower level a purpose, then work through the layout, lighting, storage, and features that support it.
Plan the whole lower level
Most Johnson County basement finishes need a permit, ceiling height and egress are the two code questions that shape the plan, and BBD basements have run $80,000 to $550,000 and 9 to 16 weeks of construction. Start here.
Read guide
Make room for entertaining
Every idea here is a bar Built by Design actually built, from a beverage niche to a walk-in wine cellar. Photos, the decisions behind each, and the sizes, plumbing, and wiring that make a basement bar work.
Read guideTopic 02
A kitchen has to work on paper, in the budget, and every day you're living in it. Start with the decision in front of you.
The scope + estimate worksheet
Built by Design kitchens have run $100,000 to $300,000. Here's what puts a kitchen at either end: cabinetry, trades, counters, and appliances, the three scope tiers, and the code items that show up on a real kitchen.
Read guide
Tight aisles, islands that fight the room, appliances with nowhere to land, and one switch for the whole kitchen. Here are the seven layout mistakes and the actual measurements that prevent each one, on three finished Johnson County kitchens.
Read guide
Cabinets are usually the largest line in a kitchen remodel, so “do we have to replace them?” is the right question. The answer depends on the boxes, the layout, and the storage you want. Here's how to check each one.
Read guideTopic 03
Think through the hidden work, the everyday comfort, and whether the plan needs to reach beyond the bathroom door.
Layout + systems
A bathroom has nowhere to hide a mistake. Two inches in a shower, an outlet on the wrong wall, or a fan that vents into the attic shows up every morning. Here's what to decide, in order, before anything is ordered, and where BBD's $80,000 to $250,000 bathroom range comes from.
Read guide
Comfort + finishes
A spa bathroom is a set of systems, not a fixture. Heated floors need a circuit, steam needs a sealed ceiling, body sprays need water volume. Here's what each feature needs, what it costs to maintain, and when it's worth it.
Read guide
The room + the suite
A primary bathroom remodel turns into a suite remodel the moment a wall, a door, or the closet gets in the way. This guide covers when that's worth it, the clearances that decide the layout, and what moves with the plumbing.
Read guideTopic 04
Understand what happens in what order, what it means to live through the work, and why dates can move.
Understand the sequence
Two clocks run on every remodel: the months of design, selections, and permits before the first hammer, and the 9 to 16 weeks of construction BBD’s recorded projects took. Here’s what happens in each phase, what can overlap, and why BBD’s whole-home projects start at $400,000.
Read guideChoose how to phase it
Phasing protects cash flow and keeps the house livable. It also repeats demolition, protection, permits, and trade mobilization, and finishes drift between phases. Here's how to tell which one your project is.
Read guideKnow what can change
Late selections, a failed inspection, a cabinet order placed after demolition, a wall that hides rot. Each one costs a predictable number of days, and most are preventable before construction starts. Here are the eight causes, ranked, with the fix for each.
Read guideTopic 05
Look at an addition from both sides: whether the house can support the idea, and what the extra space would change for you.
Can we build it?
Building up adds rooms without losing yard, and it changes the whole house: the foundation carries more, a stair takes a room downstairs, the roof comes off. Here's how feasibility is checked and how it compares to building out.
Read guideWhat would it change?
An addition can change how a house works for twenty years and still not return its full cost at sale. Here's how to keep those two questions separate, what an appraiser actually counts, and how to compare adding on with remodeling or moving.
Read guideTopic 06
Get clear on who does what, how decisions are made, and what's included before you commit.
Take these questions with you
The conversation
Fifteen questions, what a good answer sounds like, and the short brief to bring to the first meeting. Written for homeowners in Johnson County who want fewer surprises once the walls are open.
Read guideThe responsibilities
The difference is who owns the decisions between the first sketch and the last inspection. A side-by-side table of the two models, when each one fits, what design-build doesn’t fix, and how Built by Design actually runs a project.
Read guideThe written scope
“Fixed price” fixes the price of the scope on paper, not of the wall nobody has opened yet. Here's what the number covers, what allowances and change orders do to it, and the clauses to read before signing.
Read guideTopic 07 / Local planning
Your address. Your scope. Your local review.
Requirements depend on the property's jurisdiction and the proposed work. Start with the questions, then confirm what applies to your home.
Walls, wiring, plumbing, structure, additions, decks, and egress windows need a permit almost everywhere in Johnson County. Paint, flooring, and cabinet swaps usually don’t. Here’s the line, city by city, and what happens on the schedule.
Read guideFrom our trade partners
Fifteen short guides written around the specialists BBD coordinates with: what each trade does, which choices you settle before it starts, and where those choices land in the schedule.
Gordon Energy & Drainage
Bin There Dump That
KC Dumpster Co
United Heating & Cooling
Brian Miller Plumbing
Amped Electric
RockTops
ASMI Surfaces
SVB Wood Floors
Next Level Quality Painting
Ferguson Home
Wilson Lighting
Locks and Pulls
McCray Lumber and Millwork
Century Roofing
From reading to planning
Explore the service behind the guide.
READY TO TALK?
Tell us what you're considering, what isn't working now, and what you want the finished space to become. We'll help you understand whether the project is a fit and what the next step should be.
