Episode 168 - The Finish Line to Mysa Hus with Melissa Oholendt
#168 | Melissa Oholendt | Oho Interiors | The Finish Line to Mysa Hus
Five days before the Artisan Home Tour, Mark and Melissa Oholendt of Oho Interiors snuck away from a live photo shoot to talk about what the final stretch of Mysa Hus actually looks like — wrong-sized sectionals, a Hail Mary pass to a UK lighting CEOs, and a third-generation plumber who showed up unannounced and left with chocolate-covered strawberries. They walk through the 60-day countdown, three photo shoots with three different photographers, and what it means to build something hard with people you genuinely trust. It's raw, real, and recorded while the house is literally still being shot.
Listen to the full episode:
About Melissa Oholendt
Melissa Oholendt found her passion for interior design in her youth; buying shelter magazines with her allowance from picking strawberries in the backyard and painting her bedroom that perfect shade of navy blue.
However, after beginning her interior design college education in 2001, it took more than 15 years, a fast paced career for a distressed debt hedge fund in Minneapolis and a decade long entrepreneurial career in photography, for Melissa to step into her purpose in 2019, where Oho Interiors began.
Melissa has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, LivingEtc, Domino Magazine, Rue Magazine, Business of Home, Homes & Gardens and more.
You can also find her on a few podcasts such as Consider the Wildflowers and Bus Bench Babes with more coming in 2025. In 2024, Melissa launched a shop in collaboration with the luxury brand, Perigold, was named a Top 40 Expert on the prestigious platform The Expert and was a keynote speaker at The Haven Workshop in Sonoma, California.
Resources:
Find Oho Interiors’ Website here
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Melissa Oholendt 00:04
In all my years of going to any parade in any state, I've never experienced a house like we have planned for people to try to experience this house. There are so many elements. I really hope that people do what they can to make it to this house, not just selfishly, but I just think it's something special. I can say objectively it's something
Mark D. Williams 00:21
special. Welcome to Curious Builder Podcast. I'm Mark Williams, your host. Today is our Monday episode, and I've got Melissa Owens in studio, just five minutes from Misa Huss. Hey, Mel.
Melissa Oholendt 00:40
Hey, Mark. How are you?
Mark D. Williams 00:41
So, I appreciate you coming over, because we are in the middle of our third and final photo shoot. We will get into it. Don't worry, people, we are crazy. That's fine. Of our Misa Whose home, many of you listeners likely know about our spec home that we're doing with Curious Builder. It's a partnership between Oho Interiors and Mark Williams Custom Homes, and we have past episodes on Miso Whose, you can back check those, we had, I think, four or five of them. Melissa's full story, I think, was back in June or July. We did the full story a while ago. We'll do another one, but truthfully, I called Melissa, because my editor said, "Hey, you don't have any Monday episodes. I've been so focused on getting this house ready for the tour that I've just sort of cleared my schedule of any podcast interviews, and I always like to have something I could have run some old content or skipped, but that's just not.. I was, you could have made the call. So I called you yesterday on my way home, and I said, Melissa, do you have any interest in..
Speaker 1 01:35
no, no.
Melissa Oholendt 01:36
You said, Am I crazy? You can tell me no. I'm like, uh, oh, where are we going?
Mark D. Williams 01:40
That's like a Minnesota polite way of like giving you multiple exits, but yeah, it was basically like, do we take a time out of a week? We literally have six people at the house right now doing our final photo shoot day three, and but with it, let's get over here over lunch, and let's just, let's just talk about what's happening at Misa, who's because so many people are aware of it, talking about it, and so we thought this episode would be really helpful. We have two more episodes planned, one will be with Carl, the architectural designer, and ourselves in about a month, where we just, we've, the house is done, we've had 1000s of people through the house, and we can just talk about how people interact with it, their special moments, and then we thought, what, two or three months from there, we do lessons learned, because we have learned
Melissa Oholendt 02:23
so much,
Mark D. Williams 02:23
a lot of stuff, of things we shouldn't have done, like anyone, you see, all the, as I'm sitting there now, while we're doing all the photoshoots, all I see is all the things, like, oh, that could have been different, and we're the only ones likely to see this, of course, yeah, so today's episode is really, we're going to walk through 60 days before the end, 30 days before the end, seven days before the end, and then show time. So, the day that this episode airs will be Monday, was it june 1? Which that day actually we have a Channel Five is coming to do a TV interview, a blower door test, which is sexy. We've got what we're doing, a drone shot through the house with a flying drone, and then we have someone interested in the house. We're doing a preview tour. Then Tuesday, we're doing our influencer event. I think we have 100 people showing up for the influencer event.
Melissa Oholendt 03:09
Then
Mark D. Williams 03:10
we have the realtor open on Wednesday, where it'll be the first time we disclose the price to the public. And then two days later is the start of the Artisan Home Tour, and it's really the victory lap. At that point, all the hard work has been done. It
Melissa Oholendt 03:20
better be done.
Mark D. Williams 03:21
It better be done. So we're going to dial back from both of our designers' point of view and a builder's point of view, and just talk about 60, 3070, and show time, like our different stress levels. So maybe we'll start with that. What in the last 60 days, what event has been the most stressful for you?
Melissa Oholendt 03:38
Yeah, I.. well, 60 days prior, we're always in install planning mode, so we're thinking about, you know, all the construction finishes, everything has really been specified, and then in the ideal world, everything's been specified. We're really just there every other week, kind of managing site decisions and questions,
Mark D. Williams 03:55
and everything's in the warehouse, just waiting.
Melissa Oholendt 03:57
Everything's, of course, just waiting for us in the warehouse, because then we got lots to talk about there too, but we are planning for install, so we're our brains are fully on furniture and making sure that furniture has been ordered, it's you know on its way there if it's not like what timelines we're looking at, but then also like you mentioned, like we are there still will be because we are who we are and we do order. We do specify a lot of things from Europe. Inevitably, we're waiting on some light fixtures, like we were until the 11th hour of install. And so we're navigating all of those things. Our procurement team is managing that and trying to figure out where those things are. Are they going to be here in time? Are they going to, you know, will the companies fulfill their promises? It's, it is, it starts to get, it's, I would say, for us, it's probably a little less stressful on the scale of things. 60 days out still feels like we have a lot of time to be able to manage and navigate those things, but it, we're still starting, starting to ramp up on the stress level, for
Mark D. Williams 04:58
sure. So, from my point of view. I see 60 days out. I see it's actually my least favorite time of the build, because I see well, first of all, it's coming all together, which I do like, but all I see is the 1000 things that have to be done. And for this particular home, I was never worried about it being done for the Artisan Home Tour, which is what most builders are concerned about. We got real excited a year ago, because I've done the artisan tour and parade homes now for well, almost 20 years, and we have most builders in general, you're done like the day before, like green side is going up on the sod right before people come in, it's to the ninth hour, I just hate that you don't always get a choice, because sometimes a client will start home later and it just is what it is, permitting slow, something delayed, whatever, but if you don't have a deadline, you can't meet an expectation. So, having a deadline, even if it's an artificial one, is helpful. Mine to the team a year ago was I wanted to be done two to three weeks early before the tour to do all of our photo shoots beforehand, so I could shockingly use those photos for marketing, because I want to sell the home, and then two, you get, you're more likely to get free media, like TV, which we are getting now, because we are done. Most of our peers are not done, you know, they will be sweeping out the garage and painting the garage the moment, you know, an hour or two. I've seen, I've literally seen landscapers like landscaping a yard, when you show up to a house, it just.. it happens in spring. Some, we've been very lucky in Minnesota this year for our weather. It has hardly rained at all, which we actually need the rain, but it has allowed us to landscape at full haste. So, with that in mind, the 60 days for me are very stressful, because of all the things we have to do. I think about three weeks ago is when my peak anxiety of getting stuff done for the photo shoot, so my stress was around the photo shoots. That's my point of view. Where, when you have furniture move in, let's talk about the actual day of furniture move in, and even some of the characters on your team, like some are like, I live for this, and that's not your favorite part,
Melissa Oholendt 06:56
100% I actually really hate install days, weeks, and only because they really bring to light all of the things that maybe there's been an internal mistake, maybe there was an external mistake, you know, all of our furniture is going to receiving warehouses before it arrives, so oftentimes we're not getting actual eyes on it until that day when you know Crown Warehouse or a receiving warehouse shows up with the furniture, and sometimes you're like, huh, that didn't get executed the way we thought it would get executed, and so there's just, and that happens times infinity. I mean, we're, you know, we're often putting hundreds, if not 1000s, I mean, Misa, who's 1000s of pieces, into a home at a very high value, and so figuring out, I mean, this one, Misa had a the stress point of the photo shoots and the artisan tour piece that pressure of it, but when we're doing it for a client, there's even more pressure because you're like people have to live in this space with Misa, who said was a little bit alleviated, but we still had the pressure, which we don't normally have of the artisan tour and and of the photo shoots, but I would say that, like, I hate them, but there are members of my team who are like, if I didn't get to do install days, I would never do this job, and so we have such a disparity between us in terms of, and I think everyone kind of hits somewhere in the middle there of those two extremes, and so for some people it's a really stressful time, for some people they're thriving, and so it just really becomes, you know, we had all 10 members of our team at install for two days, because we condensed our install to make sure we could meet the deadline of the first photo shoot, and so it was, it was chaotic. We found out that there was a sectional $25,000 sectional that was ordered in the wrong size. It ended up all working out, but man, that those are those are stressful days for me.
Mark D. Williams 08:39
It's funny, I think this is an obvious statement, but we all have to go through it. I think being able to pivot your emotional swings and being able to pivot some of your expectations, and this would probably show up in the lessons learned episode, you know, a couple months from now, of all the things that we would likely do different, and I think having some grace with ourselves, realize, like, this is a prototype, but honestly, every home is a prototype. High-end custom homes, everyone is a one-off. Nobody ever does multiple versions of the exact same thing. And so we're always learning, and you'd think after this much time you would learn, but I mean, we're human, there's mistakes made. Sometimes it's not even like truly a mistake, it's just an observation. You've literally built something that has never been built before. Then you walk in, and you're like, you know what, I think if I did this again, I would have it 14 inches deeper, or whatever it might be. And even with the best software, you know, walk your plans or 3D modeling and all that stuff, there's there's nothing quite like being actually in the space. And how does it feel? And there's a number of things that change that, furniture, color, textures, all the wonderful things, of course, that we love, but I think also realizing, like, well, this is real, yeah, and and then some things that we think are gonna be an issue are not,
Melissa Oholendt 09:52
aren't
Mark D. Williams 09:52
in the one I'm speaking of, is the master or the owner's best bathroom, I was, I thought, for sure, for nine months, my one of my biggest mistakes. Plan wise, was I wish that that owner's bathroom was about four feet deeper, and when it finally was unveiled, I'm like,
Melissa Oholendt 10:08
it feels,
Mark D. Williams 10:08
it feels great. I don't think anyone's even gonna say anything. No, and I thought for sure everyone was gonna be like, well, man, they really missed the boat on this, and now I'm like, this is great.
Melissa Oholendt 10:16
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 10:16
so anyway,
Melissa Oholendt 10:17
yeah, no, I think, and it's, I think one thing that has been so, you and I talked about this, but so interesting for me is that because you and I have the relationship that we do, I can, I've been able to kind of ride your, like, in both of our, like, our stress points, like I'm understanding when you're stressed, but because I am on such a different perspective, I haven't understood what it is that is stressing you out at that time, and so I feel like that's been the most interesting part of this project, is kind of understanding there were trigger points for you that would become really stressful, like the light fixtures that we just, full disclosure, there were some light fixtures that we had ordered from the UK that were promised on a timeline, they were ordered in December, and then come what, two weeks ago, we were like, are these.. they were promised that they were going to ship, and we weren't going to have any issues with customs or tariffs or any of those things that end up becoming an issue. I literally got the CEO of that lighting company on the phone. Did I tell you that?
Mark D. Williams 11:13
No,
Melissa Oholendt 11:13
I literally.. I contacted him on LinkedIn, and I threw out a hail Mary of, like, hey, we are working with your team, they promised us something. It's not being delivered. I'm throwing out a Hail Mary here because we have a home that's on the tour, and it's being photographed, and we are all spending a lot of money and time to make this happen. And he called me.
Mark D. Williams 11:33
Wow,
Melissa Oholendt 11:33
and like, he made it happen for us. Now, unfortunately, two of those light fixtures accidentally got thrown away, not by no one's fault, just the chaos of an install day, they got tossed, so we still had to problem solve for that, but he really came. There were 14 light fixtures that we were still waiting on as of when we were installing, and we were that install day, we were on top of electricians, and which is fine, like those things happen, and I think the thing about Misa is like every trade was just so wonderful, and it was such a good experience, but like those are things that you just cannot predict at the 60 day mark that like you're going to be at that point where you're on top of each other,
Mark D. Williams 12:11
and I think it's interesting, like you know, we had a couple things, you know, we have an international photographer who's currently on a three day shoot at the house right now as we're playing cookie for this podcast,
Melissa Oholendt 12:19
buddy
Mark D. Williams 12:20
Patrick's amazing.
Melissa Oholendt 12:21
Shout out,
Mark D. Williams 12:21
yeah. We had Taylor Hall for locally here in Minnesota. He was our first photo shoot.
Melissa Oholendt 12:25
Love Taylor,
Mark D. Williams 12:26
and you know that was the first one, because we knew we'd make Patrick's, but Taylor's was actually the most stressful, because he was the first one up. Yeah, and you want to respect people's time. They book out, like, I understand their currency is, hey, this is, we booked them out six months in advance. Yeah, and that's not easy to do, but it's like, you know, we're installing 16 light fixtures, you know, while you guys are styling and staging, and it's funny because you and I know the full story, and I don't actually blame any of the subs or even people on your team, because there are people on your team that would be like, why are they still doing light fixtures, and then the electrician would be like, well, if we had these two weeks ago, it's like you and I know the whole backstory, but we still sort of have to like navigate all of that, and we, and we're not always at our best. There are times that I'm just like, there are easier ways to build a house, yeah, but like, but there's none that are more rewarding and more fulfilling. And so it's part of that process, it really
Melissa Oholendt 13:17
is. I agree, and I think that there's, despite best planning scenarios, no matter what, there's just going to be things that are not quite, I mean, and not quite right, or that need to be adjusted after they go in, or you couldn't have predicted. And I'm thinking about the metal doors in particular, like,
Mark D. Williams 13:31
oh yeah,
Melissa Oholendt 13:32
these insane, beautiful custom metal doors that Mark and I sat in the house for days with, and then suddenly I think it was like last Friday, we were kind of staring at them, and Mark was like, 'Do you see that? And I'm like, 'No, I don't see anything. And we found out we needed to add an extra piece of trim there, because there was like a gap that no one really could have predicted, just by the way that the doors had to be installed and leveled. And it's, I, it's such an easy solution, but it still has to get done between now and the tour happening.
Mark D. Williams 13:58
Well, and I think, like, painting, right, is a never-ending, like, literally never ends. There's always some painting to be done.
Melissa Oholendt 14:04
Shout out, Ryan.
Mark D. Williams 14:05
Yeah, Ryan, you're doing a great job. But I think, I think the other thing too is, like, a lot of times, like, I had a painter come up to me, not Ryan, but one of his painters, and he goes, "Wow, you really see everything, and
Speaker 1 14:18
they do,
Mark D. Williams 14:19
and I take it as a compliment, actually, and it's.. I don't have a.. I don't have a false.. it's not a false judgment's the wrong word.. I don't.. it's not an accusation. I'm trying to remove anything. I think it's what makes us.. you and I have talked about this.. is what makes us.. I think good at our jobs in our career, in why we're able to execute homes of this caliber. And I did tell the painter, like, I don't expect perfection, because I don't think it's attainable. Perfection, in fact, if a client ever says the word perfect, I actually have this pretty dad moment with them, where I'm like, okay, that's a prototype.
Speaker 1 14:50
It
Mark D. Williams 14:50
doesn't mean that the pursuit of getting it perfect isn't worthy. It's just that I don't believe in perfection, because we're not perfect, and one thing that I've really come to embrace with this home. In particular, is Misa Hus is meant to be authentic, and the whole mantra, the whole story is it's meant to patina, to age, to move, to, because we're humans, to be like, we change, yeah, and so I want the home, so I'm fine with that, but if we can make it better,
Melissa Oholendt 15:17
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 15:18
I don't think perfect, I like the word better, I can make this experience better. I want someone that comes through to love it, and to feel the energy and the care that we put into it, and it is the details. It really is. It
Melissa Oholendt 15:29
is the details. I even think it goes down to, you know, yesterday we were photographing the living room space, and there, that fireplace, that again, future conversations about how insane that fireplace was to come together, but we had the, you know, we, the photographer said, "Could we get a fire in the fireplace? And I was like, "Oh, we're gonna need to ask Mark about that. And so I, I texted you, and you're like, "Let's get burn it, let's get it going. And then afterwards, we were like, "Oh, soot, there is a natural patina that happens the first time you use a fireplace, and you had asked me, like, do you think we need to
Mark D. Williams 16:04
clean it,
Melissa Oholendt 16:04
clean it, and I was like, no, I think that that it feels so much better now that it has a little patina, and I'm so glad that Patrick wanted to take that shot with the fire, because I think it's, it feels so much more authentic now, and no one's going to be afraid of doing it the first time, like they would when they moved, we've already done, we did it.
Mark D. Williams 16:21
Yeah,
Melissa Oholendt 16:21
you're welcome.
Mark D. Williams 16:22
You know, shout out to Renee Keller. She has that great line: burn the candles and use the china.
Speaker 1 16:27
It's
Mark D. Williams 16:27
like, burn the fireplace, because, like, literally, Mark, because you're like, we got to ask Mark. I was like, I got the torch, I'll be there in five
Speaker 2 16:32
minutes. Yeah,
Melissa Oholendt 16:33
yeah, yeah,
Mark D. Williams 16:35
yeah. I think the other thing, too, when you're in a home, and I think this is anyone who sat in a model home or a tour home during the duration, like you just keep a list, because when you're sitting in a home you see hundreds of things that you don't see when you're walking through, because you're sitting there all day, like I typically, you know, picking up my kids every day at 5o'clock so it means I usually leave the office at 420 and I'll make phone calls on the way, but I'm not usually there in the evening, so light is light, natural light does wild things, right? The morning light, so we were there this morning at 645 and that light looks different, and you see different things, and then in that you have the bright sun of like noon, 1o'clock sun, high sun, and then you have the evening sun, and it's I think what's kind of nice about that is is for builders and architects and designers to be aware that their clients experience the home at all hours, but as professionals we often don't, and so I don't really have an epiphany about that, other than just consider that when a client calls you and says, "Hey, I see this thing, a lot of it is the time of day,
Melissa Oholendt 17:38
yeah.
Mark D. Williams 17:38
So anyway,
Melissa Oholendt 17:39
I think that that's one of the benefits you and I have both had some early mornings and late nights there, just in the last two weeks of installing photo shoots, and being able to experience the house in ways that we might not otherwise get to. I mean, you know, I think it was last week I was there late one night, kind of cleaning up after everyone, trying to get prepped for the photo shoot, and we had, I had all the lights on, or at least in a cozy way, I had, I had overhead lights on, people believe it or not, I had overhead lights on, but we had the lights on, and we were working with Admit One on the lighting, and it was like it was beautiful, it was cozy set, and I had them on, it was like 930 at night, it was really late, and then all of a sudden they all turned off and I was like, hello, like just a girl alone in a house, I don't know if the doors are locked, what's happening, and it found out the next day, I mentioned it to Mark the morning after, I was like, hey, I don't know if like there's something wrong with the lighting, or they just all turned off on me, and what had happened is that, you know, one of the admin, one guys was looking at his phone and noticed that all the lights were on, and in a moment of care was like, "Oh, someone must have left them on and forgot to turn them off and turn them all off. It was just one of those moments where I was like, "This is a really interesting.. just because the team cares so much. But I also love.. sorry, that was like a long-winded way of everything. I got to experience the house in the evening, and I never get to do that, and it was really, really special. And actually, like, we joked that I slept over a lot there. I did bring a toothbrush there, that was for different reasons, but I did. I love that house, and I want to spend time in there, and being able to be there outside of normal working hours was just a delight.
Mark D. Williams 19:19
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Melissa Oholendt 21:26
Yeah, that's a really good question. I feel, you know, Kate and I really tackled the design of this house together, and so she, we split rooms and we kind of tackled our own rooms. I ended up doing all of the furniture myself, and so I had a very direct hand in that, but there was one bath or one room, the primary bathroom, where I just didn't have a handle on kind of what Kate's design really was for that, like I knew what it was, but I couldn't, I hadn't painted it in my head, and seeing that come to life over the last few months, but even on that final stretch, where I, there, I remember standing, and both Kate and I did this, we stood in the bathroom, we were like, I don't know if this plaster color was the right color, but then the shower doors went in, and we were like, that is the piece that put everything together, and we were having that as designers, this like moment of doubt, and so it made me have it, gave me another level of empathy for our clients who go through that moment of doubt, where, like, we had Kate had the full vision, I had a moderate amount of vision for it, like, but our clients would not, you know, it would not have had that vision, and we were having this moment of doubt, so it gave me another level of empathy. I really loved that moment. I will say also, the living room itself, like, there is, you know, the ethos of who OHO is, is really to make sure that the architecture of the house feels really interesting, without any layer pieces of furniture styling and decor, art, any of that. We want to make sure the architecture feels beautiful and construction finishes feel beautiful, so even if nothing else is there, it feels interesting. But having that added layer of furniture made it sing for me in a way like the Mora clock and the gingham sofas, and the, you know, the armchair fabric that feels like it could have been needlepoint, and these antique cricket tables, and it just like it makes it sing in a way that makes the house make sense for me, of like this is the place where a family sits around in a conversational way, but can sit and pull a tape coffee table book, or a book off the table, and sit and read, and enjoy what's happening around them, without having to participate. It just.. it was such a.. it's my favorite place to be. If I on the tour, you're probably going to find me sitting there, maybe a little bit, because I just love it so much. It's just.. it feels so good in that space to be surrounded, but not feel like you have to be in the middle of everything.
Mark D. Williams 23:42
I've sort of enjoyed. I always knew the breakfast nook or the breakfast area was going to be my favorite, but seeing the plaid, the bench, and while I thought I would sit in it in a different spot.
Melissa Oholendt 23:53
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 23:53
sitting in it, how like you and I've been working together over the last couple days during the photo shoots. Yeah, and you know, I feel like we're little kids, just like, you know, on our homework together, and you know, kind of chit chatting while we're working, but like it's just a very comfortable place to be, and you know, whether it's formal dining, informal dining, I found that like that's just a room I want to stay in. I just love looking back in the light, so that I knew it would be special, but actually working in the space and feeling it, even though I haven't had a meal there, it's a space that I just, it feels very like a refuge, because it's the way it's sort of encapsulated and cozy. It just, for me, really feels like that's a spot I would spend a lot of time in. Yeah,
Melissa Oholendt 24:32
I one thing I've noticed too, over the last couple weeks of being there every single day, which has been, honestly, I loved every minute of it, but I've noticed that both sets of our teams find different reasons to be there, and, like, you know,
Mark D. Williams 24:48
interesting.
Melissa Oholendt 24:49
Angie will come, obviously. Mike's there because he's finishing up things. I, you know, he, poor guy, gets my to-do list, he gets all
Mark D. Williams 24:55
my to-do list too.
Melissa Oholendt 24:57
But even members of my team will be like, hey, yeah. I'll come and like drop off that thing, or hey, yeah, like no problem. I'll swing by and go do that thing, and I think there's something about that house that kind of calls to people once you get to experience it. It really calls to you in a way that I think is really unique, and I don't want to toot our own horns, because that's not the intent. I just think there's a, there's a loveliness there that kind of attracts people that I've found really like a proud mom, kind of sitting back and watching that.
Mark D. Williams 25:25
I'm, it's funny you say that, the proud mom thing, I'm debating how much to tell people when they walk in the house versus letting, letting them experience the house without me guiding them through.
Melissa Oholendt 25:35
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 25:36
because if it's a one on one, like I could spend an hour, hour and a half going through everything, but but there's also part of me that just wants to watch them, and I kind of feel like we do have a lot of our super fans that come multiple times. I suspect that we'll have lots of people that will come more than once,
Speaker 1 25:51
because
Mark D. Williams 25:52
a lot of times what I've noticed over the tours over the years is the missus will come through, and especially if they're serious about buying, and then they'll, then they'll.. it's kind of like the scouting mission, and then they want to bring their husband, or you know, other people through, or their parents, or whatever the reason is. I was like, people will come back more than once, and it's really interesting, because the app now that the Artisan Tour has, you can actually see what percentage of people are repeat visitors, and so it'll be really interesting to see what percentile that do that?
Melissa Oholendt 26:22
Is there anything you're worried about with the tour?
Mark D. Williams 26:24
Not at all. Okay, that was very fast answer. Sorry, yeah. Like, why would you offend me? No, I'm really excited. You know, a lot of people, you talk about different temperaments for people, and you know this about me, and so does the audience, but like, I'm extreme extrovert. I love people. So, the idea, like, honestly, my favorite part is the iteration, the very beginning, the design, getting the team together, building it is not actually my favorite part, and then the end, showing it off. So, like the middle part, the 90, I don't hate it, I'm just saying it's part, it's a means to the end, right? But, like, now that we're all done,
Melissa Oholendt 26:56
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 26:57
like, my energy, I'm really good at getting, getting people's emotions up, and like, because I'm emotional, like, I'm very excited, so like, I can't wait to get people excited about the house and watch their experience, but it's a little bit akin to, like, having, you know, your kids in the playground and watching other kids play with your kids, or other parents interact with your kid, and you know, and just like the other day, it was just kind of beautiful, like, every parent would like this, my, you know, how, like, your kids are always better for other people than they are for you. Oh, yeah, and so my kids were at my aunt's for the weekend because Mel and I went out to do a little mountain trip together just to get away before you know the tour starts here, and my aunt sent this beautiful text to my wife, and she said, "Your kids are so well behaved, they bring the plate their dinner up to the their lunch silverware or whatever, plates up to the sink, put it away. They'd never do that at home. They said please and thank yous. They cleaned up, and they're so self-sufficient. She goes, "Your kids are amazing. And my wife and I are just like, "Wow, it's a) you want to hear that, yeah, b) they don't do that at home, but my point in saying that is, like, I want to see how people interact with Misa, and just, and just kind of out of curiosity, like, what do you like? I'm just generally interested to hear their feedback, and I, I'm actually fine with controversy. Some people I've talked to builders and designers, like, some people don't want to hear the negative comments. Actually, does it? It kind of rolls off my back. It doesn't. I know it's amazing. I know we've done great work, and it's not going to be for everyone. There will be plenty of people that are like even people on my team, you know, Joel, my controller, went through. He's like, you know, the quality is outstanding. He's like, and he's someone who doesn't BS anybody. He's so black and white. I appreciate Joel that way. Perfect for the controller. He's like, but the style is not a modern. This is not my house, you know. There's too many, too many patterns, too many things. And that's what that's one of the main reasons I chose you, other than you're a phenomenal person, like I liked that traditional layering. There will be people that can't see past that, but it was interesting, his point of view, and his wife's was like, the home quality is unlike anything I've ever seen. The furniture isn't for us, but that doesn't matter, that can always be changed, right? And so I welcome feedback, because I'm just interested in how people receive it. It's no different than cars or people, or honestly, anything. I don't like fake. I don't want people to come in and give you platitudes. Oh, it's great like that. There's nothing there that doesn't help me. Yeah, I know it's great. What do you like? What did you experience? What don't you like? Yeah, what can we change in the future? Am I interested in changing it for you? Maybe, maybe not. That's the decision I get to make. Anyway, that's how I, so I get excited about for the tour, because I like to engage people and see, you know, what their response
Melissa Oholendt 29:26
is. Interesting, I think the biggest.. I think the thing that I am most excited about, I feel like I've gone to tour homes in the past and felt like I couldn't sit down anywhere, or like actually kind of have a moment to breathe within a house, and maybe that's just not what they're meant for. That's very possible as well. I think the thing I will feel like is the biggest compliment is if I notice that people are sitting on the furniture, and maybe you know, maybe that needs to be like a welcome kind of moment for us to tell people that they can do that, but I think that that. It's sort of like that exhale of like I can sit here and I can just spend a minute just sitting here instead of feeling like I've got to run through this to our house because I got to get to the next one like I think that will be the biggest compliment that I ever
Mark D. Williams 30:11
funny you say that I have this idea I haven't brought this out to the tour yet and you have to have a really experienced person to do this I think I've maybe mentioned this to you but I think the home is best experienced with fewer people in the home. It's not that the home can't handle a party or it can't handle a large crowd. There's details on details on details on details, and if you blow through it, even if you're an experience built, you're just going to miss everything. And so there's a part of me, because usually when you have, so we have a trolley, and which is, we'll talk maybe next about the different experiences that people are gonna get, because that's, I think, that's entertaining. I like that part of it, but whenever you have a shuttle, it slows down traffic, because when people are looking at the book, they're like, I have to get out of my car, I have to get into a shuttle, I'm just gonna skip this one, unless there's a special reason. Yeah, so one of the special reasons is, of course, the home, the area, cottagewood store, the cottage would area, but then this open air trolley is just kind of fun. Yeah, you know, so you've got air blowing through, it's like you're in the streets of San Francisco, but by having a trolley it helps it. We're going to get traffic and waves, so that bus can only hold like 2030 people, so you're going to get a wave, and then they come through the, you know, and they come in. But there's a part of me that wants to have someone at the front door, somebody like Angie or my friend Susan, who helps us out, that really can read body language with the ideas that they would engage people in conversation outside in the driveway, and I don't know what our signal is going to be, but something to the effect of, for your the best enjoyment, we're just going to ask you to wait for a few more minutes before you go in. We really want you to be able to walk in and go at your own pace, and right now you know something to like kind of basically meter out the flow in which people come. Yeah, it will see, because I could see some people being like impatient in that role. You sort of have to navigate it very carefully, but I think also we have the coffee cart there, we have live music, so we have other things for people to do, you know, while they're waiting, and so I experience how you experience the house does matter. Yeah, so anyway, just see what people do with it. Yeah, I
Melissa Oholendt 32:10
think it's gonna be, it'll be interesting. I don't think I've ever, you know, in all my years of going to any parade in any state, I've never experienced a house like we have planned for people to try to experience this house, so I think it'll be maybe a little uncomfortable for people from the perspective of, like, there's gonna be so much, there's so many elements to it that we, like, you know, the QR codes and the, you know, maybe the pacing of people, and you know, I think it'll be really interesting, but I really hope that people do what they can to make it to this house, not just selfishly, but I just think it's.. it's something special. I can say objectively, it's something
Mark D. Williams 32:48
special. There's a.. I mean, you touched on it, and I think we've mentioned before, but you have this great term, moments of delight, and so you and Carl and I recorded our own voices, like 90 seconds or less, these.. we have 22 little QR codes around the house, so that you could hear us talk about what's the story behind why we did the fireplace. What's the story behind the brass stars inlaid in the, in the floor? What are the reasons for, you know, whatever the plaster and some of the health benefits and things like that. And so it'd be really interesting to see how many people engage on this sort of audio tour, so I think giving different people different things, because you and I can't talk to five 6000 people in that period of time.
Melissa Oholendt 33:29
Yeah, and some people probably won't want it, they'll just want to experience it how they experience any other tour house, which is great. I think that that's what Misa is going to be so good at offering, is the ability for people who do want to dive deeper, they can. If they do want to sit in the house, they can. If they just want to breeze through it, they're welcome to. Like, I think that's.. I think that's a really cool thing.
Mark D. Williams 33:49
What is.. So, let's talk a little bit about photo shoots. I think early on we mentioned we have three photoshoots. I think people are very curious, including myself. Like,
Melissa Oholendt 33:59
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 34:00
we did three photo shoots, and I mean the reason being is we have three different objectives, and I think you know, without going into too much detail, the first one is to have photos to obviously use in marketing, and that we have a lot of brand partners, you know, this particular home, I think, has 32 brand partners, and so a lot of our responsibilities in exchange for the goods that we received, and what we've done with it, like their marketing departments are going to want these digital assets to market, and so we have to, we have to deliver that, obviously, as part of our arrangement. We have a one photo tour that also is, you know, part of our fees for the Arson Tour, which is amazing. A lot of builders don't, maybe, think about marketing the way you and I might, and so having that service and ability is amazing, and we, we gave them very specific direction for like micro shots or maybe more social clips, so we had a different sort of design, you know, the first one with Taylor is more editorial for us and for our brand partners, and I love different people's eyes, so. A respecter of the talent, everyone's eye
Melissa Oholendt 35:02
sees
Mark D. Williams 35:03
so differently, and I love.. I can't wait to see, like, three different shots of a great room and realize that they're totally
Speaker 1 35:10
different.
Melissa Oholendt 35:10
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 35:11
I think that, you know, what I just thought that would be an amazing, like, blog or a post of, like, why multiple photographers on it would actually be really cool, wouldn't see the three photos naturally each, and then, of course, the last one, the one with Patrick Biller, is we're we're trying to pursue, you know, publications nationally, and so working those relationships and seeing different stylists at work, so that's why we have three different photographers with three different agendas.
Melissa Oholendt 35:36
Yeah, and I think it's been so interesting to see, you know, we had Leah from Creekwood Hill, and then we have Kate Regan out of Chicago, and both of them beautiful, incredible interior stylists, seeing how they approach each room, and it's been so interesting to see just like what gets moved, what gets tweaked, what florals they use. It's been a like really interesting experience to see how they see the house, because I think you and I have been pretty hands off for both photo shoots, in terms of, like, you know, looking at images and being like, yeah, that looks amazing. I think partially because we hired people we could really trust to care for it, but I think also because from a voyeuristic is not the right word, but from an anthropic perspective, it's been so compelling to watch people experience this thing that we've experienced, and in their own eyes, and making it look even more beautiful in their own eyes. I think that that's just been like such a delight for it, for me personally. I can't speak for you, but it's been so fun. It's
Mark D. Williams 36:32
funny, I literally had this conversation with Kate two hours ago, the stylist, and I was sitting there, and I just asked her, I said, Do you get energy out of what you do? Because sometimes work is work, and it drains you, and for those of us that are lucky enough that love what you do, doesn't mean it's not hard, but if you get energy, hopefully everyone listening, hopefully you can find something that that you can enjoy doing that gives you energy. Now, every day's gonna be easy, we know that, but I love Cave's response. She goes, I love people, I get to be around people, and I don't have to be in front of a computer all the time, so I get to be in these beautiful homes all over the country, and she's like, I love what I do, and I said, from my point of view, I haven't experienced that many stylists, you know, Leah and pretty much Kate is my experience watching how and how hard they work,
Melissa Oholendt 37:17
oh, so hard,
Mark D. Williams 37:18
and it is physically taxing as well, but I love the idea that they're their craft, and they see things like, you know, every one smile, someone will throw the courteous, like, Mark, would you like to weigh in on this picture? Like, I'm gonna, like, I don't think they need my opinion, so, like, I'll walk over, and I'm like, it's amazing that some of the photography makes the.. Is this even the same house? It looks so much more elevated than in the house is elevated, yeah, it's just their gift in lighting and in composition, and all the stuff. I don't even hardly know to talk about it. All I can say is, like, you know, well done, yeah. And so I appreciate watching them work. I think it's really fascinating,
Melissa Oholendt 37:56
yeah. And I think, you know, we, we picked people for these, you know, all of the shoots for a very specific purpose, but part of the instruction that you know I had given them was make sure it feels like people have just left the scene, and they both did that in such different but incredible ways.
Mark D. Williams 38:14
Oh, is that why, like, when I went for the owner suite, like, there's the towel that's kind of like kind of thrown over the edge of the sink, because I could totally see, like, oh, I gotta go get the kids, and you're like, you throw the towel, and you don't hang it up, so that that makes me real sense,
Melissa Oholendt 38:25
yeah, because it leads to that kind of the ethos of what we've had for Misa, which is really that we don't want it to feel perfect, it should feel lived in, it should feel like someone can come and have a glass of red wine, and not feel like, oh my gosh, I'm worried about staining the marble, or you know, it really is meant for someone to come in, put their toothbrush down, and live. And, honestly, I have a toothbrush there if someone wants it's truly unused. I brought it's fine. It's a long story. It's a long story, but I think it is one of those moments that we get to see the reality of this brand that you have created, really leaning into that cozy lived-in feel, and see it in photo form, but get to experience it and know that it feels similar and wonderful.
Mark D. Williams 39:09
When we were talking about stories, you know, think what's fun about being on set, you know, you're together for like seven eight hours. Usually, most of us business owners, I've actually not really.. you and I are both joking how relaxing it is being on a photo set, like, from now on, like, I will always block out my schedule for photo shoots and just stay at the house, because, a, I find myself, like, I don't even want to go the office, I just want, just like, your employees want to come visit you, like, I just want to stay at Misa, who's, and, but where I was going with this is, oh, just the ideas, talking, you know, the one thing that's, I've always loved about other people, why I love the podcast, getting your points of view. I've talked to a lot of builders around the country, as I'm considering, like, how to price this home. I mean, in some ways it's priceless, because there's nothing really quite like this. The story, the wellness aspect, what we've created, where it is, like, no price is really too high. It's a piece of art. You're it's live, like Ben Ganja said today, when we. We were walking about it. He's like, you're it's living art that you get to experience. Like, how do you put a price on art? Like, I know what the physical thing costs to put it together, but how do you put all the other things that go around with it? And so it's been a very interesting journey as I've wrapped my head around what to do. And spoiler alert, we're not going to announce the price right now. You got to come to the realtor open on Wednesday the third, but anyway, kind of, we get so close to it, we get obviously very passionate, but what I was poorly going with this is like Patrick flies all around the country, and sometimes even the world, shooting homes, you know, Kate style all over, and I was just talking to them and asking them some questions, and Kate had this kind of offhand comment that now, of course, I joke with a team, right, about a book, and it was never on my radar. And now I'm like, I want to do a missa whose book. I would love to do.. I don't know what it is, or how you do it, but I love this idea that there would be this, this hardcover book, coffee table book, you know, of the story of what it is, because the story is so compelling, and as other people around the country want to do something along me, Zeus, you know, we're coming up with a plan to engage with other builders and other people around the country. If someone wants to build this, it doesn't have to be this home, of course, like in Colorado or Jackson Hole or Arizona or New York, or wherever they want to build it, like we want to come up with a kind of lack of a better term, the blueprint to sort of license Misa, whose and work with other people, so that they could build this in their own community, and I have to finish this house first, as you know, and then I need to stop, consider what we've done, and figure it out in more detail, but I'm people keep asking me, what's next, and I'm too focused on getting across the finish line, which is, you know five days from now, but when I do have some time to breathe, because June's going to be a busy month of meeting people, trying to sell it, entertaining everyone, but I'm very excited for that next process of, like, how do we share what we've done in a way, because everyone will have a little different take on it, and I'm sort of excited for that.
Melissa Oholendt 41:58
Yeah, I'm curious, is there anything now that you've experienced the house kind of in its totality, and I think for both, and maybe I'm speaking out of place here, but I think for both of us, being able to see Misa, who's to fruition kind of smooths a little bit of some of those edges that might have happened during the project, like, are is there anything that you would have, like, on the side of things like no, 100% Next time I'm doing that differently.
Mark D. Williams 42:27
It's funny. No, I think two weeks ago you and I had a list of about 20 things we would have done differently, and we will. We will for future episodes. I think it'd be helpful for you and I to sort of do a lot of builders do post op, you know, we sit down with our team, and it's more about how you build a better mousetrap. How do you do it better? Miso's isn't perfect.
Speaker 1 42:47
There's 100
Mark D. Williams 42:47
things that are imperfect, that's also what makes it miss a hoose, and the story behind it is so strong and so powerful that even in its air, it's still right, because it's it is what it is, right? It's like the imperfections of a human, of your kids, or of ourselves, or personalities. And so the fact that this inanimate object can take on a personality, in that even the neighbors refer to it as Misa, like, 'Oh, Misa, how's Misa doing? You know, to me, it's like a little 11 year old girl from Norway, oh Misa, or Sweden, if you rather, but no, I think my first, and I think I'm already starting to get rose-colored glasses on, being.. I think I know 30 days from now, 60 days from now, you look back, and even the people, but like, when you are in
Speaker 1 43:32
it, yeah,
Mark D. Williams 43:32
like, oh man, this didn't go right, this don't go.. it's like we've talked about the Misa curse, like I have never worked on a house that has required this much energy, effort, struggle. It doesn't mean it hasn't been worth it.
Melissa Oholendt 43:44
Oh yeah,
Mark D. Williams 43:44
but it has been hard,
Melissa Oholendt 43:46
been really hard,
Mark D. Williams 43:47
really hard.
Speaker 1 43:47
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 43:54
if you're looking to level up your business in 2026 and beyond, the Contractor Coalition Summit is the place for you? If you've been a listener to the show, you know that this has been the single biggest factor in how I've leveled up over the last couple of years. It's had a huge, profound impact on my business, my personal life. It's what helped me launch the Curious Builder. In fact, our second event of the year is a little change, September 15 in Minneapolis, we are doing a one day event, so for the last four years we've always done three day events, sometimes four day events, and we wanted to recognize that it's a significant investment in yourself, which is definitely worth every penny. I've talked many, many times about that, but for some people it's just out of reach, so we wanted to do a one day crash course event. Obviously, we can't cover all that we can cover in a four day event, but this will be a major, major upgrade to whatever you are doing if you haven't been to one. So, that'll be september 15 in Minneapolis, and then our last one of the season will be another three, four day event in Charlotte, North Carolina. All the details can be found at Contractor Coalition summit.com I didn't know this, but man, am I glad I picked you as my partner on this. I think I told you the other day when we're sitting at.. did I say something like,
Melissa Oholendt 45:14
yeah, and I think you were afraid that I was going to be like, thank you, I don't feel the same,
Mark D. Williams 45:18
because I said something basically in short, it was like I'm so thankful that I picked you to do this, and I wanted you to know how thankful I was, and I am, yeah, and I feel the same way about Carl. It really, the three of us, and Kate, obviously Kate has a huge part to play, and so it just because it's so special, and I think as you get past all the things, you would, you know, once going back to why I said that is when you're in the struggle, knowing that you're with people you trust. There's many times where you called me or sent me a text saying, you know, Mark, I think your tone was inappropriate, or this message
Speaker 1 45:53
many
Melissa Oholendt 45:53
times might be a stretch.
Mark D. Williams 45:54
Okay, like twice. I think it was twice. I can't honestly, I can't remember what it is, but it was something, and I, and I called you, and I apologize, and I said, I'm so sorry, that was not the intent of what I was, but I, the reason I'm saying is, a, I'm glad you felt comfortable enough in our relationship that you could correct me or bring it to my attention, and then two, knowing that, like, I care about you deeply as a person, and Kate as well, and like, and all the people on the team, and when, when not tempers run high, but when, like, when it's stressful, like, like things break, like when the boiler is under a lot of pressure, yeah, like rivets fly, yeah. And so, but then understanding, like, when you're through it, like, okay, if anyone out there is going to do something like this, or honestly, any house, pick people you care about, because it'll, it'll guide you through the storms in a way that you couldn't predict any other way, because there's a number of points in our, in this journey where people could have thrown up the white flag and quit, and there were there were times
Melissa Oholendt 46:52
that are on the border of that,
Mark D. Williams 46:53
yeah, if for whatever reason, we'll talk about that at the future episode, yeah, you know, to unpack that more, but communication, trust, and really, and then letting it go. I think sometimes people can't let it go, and they hold on to it, and like, no, you got to let it go.
Melissa Oholendt 47:08
Yeah, I think that that's something it has given me just, and I think due to our relationship, obviously, you and I have other projects, we're going to work with other people, that's how it, that's how it goes, but it has given me such empathy for the build side of things, because I've never had this kind of relationship with a builder, and you and I walked into this with a friendship, but coming to this side of it, I see more of why the stress points of what might not feel stressful for me but feels very stressful for you, and I have a lot more empathy, and a lot more, I think next time we know doing this with other builders, doing it with you again, like I can pre-plan ways to help them not fall into a pit of stress that I can help prevent. Now, there obviously, there's going to be things that are going to happen that I can't prevent, but like having that extra set of, like, I understand you as a human, I see you as a friend, I see you stressed, I know I could have stopped that from happening with like one quick email, like that. Those are things that to me will carry us through and further improve our process for future projects with you and with other people too, which I think is kind of been a beautiful blessing of
Mark D. Williams 48:14
the Misa curse. I 100% agree. I think it's also I've kind of had this rule of threes for a long time that if I work with a new architect or a new designer, a new painter, Ryan, we love you. I need to do three projects with them, because you don't know if the first one, if it went really great, is that all of them? If it went really bad, do they get redemption? Like, I feel like you have to do it a few times, and then you get to really know people, and someone asked me the other day, we were interviewing for a job, and they loved the fact that a lot of my guys are been with me for more than a decade,
Melissa Oholendt 48:49
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 48:50
and he said on our last experience we had a lot of people that our builder had never worked with before, and so I explained the story to him that it's not that I'm not open to working with new people, I think we get this was asked at the Midwest Design Conference, like, how do builders get to work with designers like you, or designers work with builders like me, things like that. And it's not that we don't want to work with, but, like, for instance, this relationship that we have, like, if it falls in line with your schedule, my schedule, the client, and the design, like, I'd be hard pressed to choose somebody else. But those are three Venn diagrams that could change. Yeah, not every project will be with me, and not every project will be with you, and that's totally fine. But, like, understanding that you have to try it a few times to build that relationship, it does take time. It does take work. It's not going to be perfect on the first time. So, I think when you're, when you're looking at experienced people you want to work with, architects, designers, builders, understand that it's going to take some time to get in and under, and if you also maybe go with someone that isn't, you know, high up on the mountaintop,
Melissa Oholendt 49:46
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 49:46
picks you can make your own relationship,
Melissa Oholendt 49:49
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 49:49
and grow together,
Melissa Oholendt 49:50
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 49:50
and there are plenty of subcontractors that would love to do our work, and I'm grateful that they do, but a lot of it is like, I want to go, I kind of want to go into battle. With people I know and trust, because they can cover my gaps, and then I can get a build a better project, better home. That being said, I told this homeowner, like, there will be someone that works in your home that we haven't worked with before, likely, but I will always tell the home, and that's my new rule. If I work, if I bring someone in that I haven't worked with before, I will tell the owner, I'll say, 'Hey, Melissa, we're gonna work with this, you know, this countertop company, for instance, we haven't worked with before, and here's the reason why. I want you to know, as the homeowner, this is why we're doing
Speaker 1 50:34
it.
Mark D. Williams 50:34
And are you okay with it? If you're not, we will go with the person that we have been working with for the last five six years now, usually it's because of price,
Melissa Oholendt 50:43
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 50:43
and or it might be availability, like in framing, sometimes you might miss a gap, like, hey, it might be six months to wait for that framer that you really like,
Melissa Oholendt 50:50
yeah,
Mark D. Williams 50:51
we can't wait six months, you have to have multiple relationships, but I don't know what, how do you view continuity with some of your vendor partners?
Melissa Oholendt 50:59
Well, I mean, it's hard for us because we do projects all over the country and so often you know we're walking into new situations
Mark D. Williams 51:05
all the time,
Melissa Oholendt 51:06
all the time, but I do, I love that thought process because of you know working with someone three times because I do think you're right that there is that element of if we were to have this you know the misa curse or a cursed project and we joke about it but it it has been very, very challenging, and so if we were to have that experience, and you and I didn't have a previous relationship, I probably walk away thinking, like, oh my gosh, like I don't know if we can do another project with that builder, because like things just went so wrong, and of course it, it literally went wrong on our end, it went wrong on your end, it went wrong on trade sense, like there was no one cause of wrongness, but I probably would have walked away without that previous relationship being like, I don't know if I want to do another project with that builder. I think doing another project together will give us a lot more, and maybe two more projects together will give us a lot more insight. But the reality is, even with all of that cursed nature, it still produced an impeccable project that we are both so incredibly proud of, and I think that is a testament to all the people you brought together, but I think the dedication that each person had to that project, and I think that that speaks just, I mean, not to toot your own horn, but like that speaks to you a lot as a builder, because you had to carry the enthusiasm of the project through in more ways than
Mark D. Williams 52:21
one, I think the word that comes, and I don't think about it that often, but like leadership, I think we're leaders of our company sometimes, without.. I mean, I know I'm a leader, you know you're a leader, but it's not like I wake up in the morning and say, like, I'm gonna be a leader, like I don't think most leaders do that, or if they do, I guess go on the podcast and talk about it, yeah, I don't know, but where I'm going with this is like, yesterday was a pretty flattering.. I don't, you probably didn't know the whole story, but like the two plumbers that showed up.
Speaker 1 52:45
Oh,
Mark D. Williams 52:46
you saw Mitch, yeah, and I saw them, yeah. So the story by that, and just to further your point here, I couldn't do what I do without phenomenal people behind me. So Mitch is third generation plumber, and I'm a third generation builder of the same family. He, at this point, his family and my family are the longest relationship bound. It's over 3045 years between the three generations that we've worked together, and Mitch is probably in his early 30s now, right? And so, for the rest of my career, he will likely be my plumber. And anyway, long story short, we had a system issue, we need to turn our outside spigots, because we have really high iron, which is rust, and the waters interacting with the black siding was a string at orange, which neither you or I want our black siding to be orange. It sure didn't. And so I called Rick Mitches, his dad, who's in the office, and I said I need to change this as soon as possible, and he's like, I'm really busy, and I said no, I get that, but I said it's damaging our siding, and I can't put it on the stone, it'll turn it rust color, like I need to deal with it, it's fine. We have a bunch of events next week, could you at least have it done by the end of next week? He says, let me look at my schedule, I'll get back. I don't even know he was coming one hour later, I came to the house because I came back to the office here to deal with something. I go to Misa, who's and Mitch and his other coworker kept blanking his name, came up out of the basement. Yeah, I said, Mitch, you're already here. He's like, yeah. He goes,
Melissa Oholendt 54:11
and I already did it,
Mark D. Williams 54:12
and I already did it. Yeah, and it took us an hour drive. So, what happened was Rick called Mitch after my phone call and said, I know, pulled them off a job, whatever job he was on, and said, I need you to drive down to Cottagewood, fix this, and come back. So that would have cost him three hours, an hour to drive, an hour to go back, that's two hours plus however long it took him. And so then I joke, because you had delivered, if you ever work on a photo shoot with Melissa, come hungry, because she feeds you really well, so do I. But you had chocolate covered strawberries, and like, you always do snacks around three, 4o'clock like cookies and your Diet Cokes, and everything else, but you had chocolate covered strawberries. I just thought it was such a ridiculous parody that I'm like, "Hey, Mitch, has any builder ever offered you chocolate covered strawberries on a job? They weren't even mine, I was giving your yours away, and he goes, "I mean, no, but he goes, "To be fair, you do a lot of things. That no other builder does, it's always is very accurate, but I, anyway, what I really says, like, you can't put a price on that,
Speaker 1 55:09
no,
Mark D. Williams 55:09
and nor would you want to, and they're not going to charge me anything, for in fact, I bet he won't even charge me, he's doing it because he cares about me as a person, he cares about what we're trying to do, that is a relationship, and when you explain that to a homeowner, why you work with the people you work with.
Speaker 1 55:29
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 55:29
it's not about price, it's value isn't even value is a part of it, but it's it's a relationship that almost it's hard to describe. Yeah, it's people that show up for you in a way that's flattering, and it's.. I don't know if you ever feel that sometimes I feel like a hypocrite when I think, like, would I do that for Mitch? I don't know the answer. I hope the answer would be yes. Yeah, I hope that if he called me and needed my help, I would be there, and I think I would. Yeah, but I think it's important for us to ask ourselves that question.
Melissa Oholendt 55:54
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 55:54
just gave myself goosebumps. I
Melissa Oholendt 55:56
love that. I, well, and I candidly, like, you don't.. we.. we were in the house last week, with, you know, we were with the electrician team, the painting team, plaster was there. Gosh, there were definitely 100
Speaker 1 56:09
people.
Melissa Oholendt 56:10
There were a lot of, there were a lot of people, but I distinctly remember we were all sitting, like, our team, we were just sitting, eating lunch, and I think the electricians were eating lunch at the same time, and we were all just kind of sitting there chatting, and just having, you know, and at the end of the, like, two days later, Kate gets a text from Luke, just being like, "Hey, we just really enjoyed being around your team, and Kate was like, "Uh, same, like, we had such a good time, and that, that is, that's the environment that does not often get created, like, said from experience, like, that is not something that we get on every project, and when we do get it, it's such a delight to have those moments where people, you have the electricians being like, okay, yeah, okay, maybe I hated installing these lights, but they're really cool lights, or the, you know, your plumbing team, Mitch, like when they were installing the primary bathroom fixtures, he was like, these are really nice fixtures, and they are, and they're very nice pictures, but it's really fun to see the trades be excited about the design, but also just have so much camaraderie for the project and love for the project, and I just, I honestly, that will go down in my memory as kind of a core memory for Misa, is just the experience of getting to sit around all the trades that we don't usually get to just sit and hang with, and like, having a really good time together.
Mark D. Williams 57:23
You know, it's funny about that food.
Melissa Oholendt 57:25
Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 57:25
and I think since Angie's joined my team about a year and a half ago, she's been just amazing blessing. I call her my little unicorn, because she can do everything, but part of it's just having people, and what I'm about to say is not rocket science, but it's thoughtful, and it's care. We now supply food on our job sites almost weekly, but on me, so it was like daily, and the electricians, and I think the plumbers, like, we've never been so well fed on a job in our whole life, like, you know, we're catering in Chipotle, we've got Jimmy John's, we've got Chick-fil-A, we've got, you know, whatever, and, and all, all I knew is, because my skill set, as you know, is not actually physically doing the things on the house, that's not my skill set, never has been. It's also not an interest of mine. But what can I do? I just know that if people are fed and you can show that you care. So I do a lot of swag, give away a lot of stuff, and then two, I try to feed people a lot. And on the last three weeks of Misa, who's I bet we had food three to four days a week on the house constantly.
Melissa Oholendt 58:20
Yeah, there's food and fridge, like we found the lower level fridge yesterday. We're like, this is from last week, we don't know,
Mark D. Williams 58:28
but I think I think I think it matters. I think people, I think people realize that, like, you care about them, because I'm, we're asking them to work hard, yeah, because we've, we, you can't meet this deadline. I'm not even gonna say how fast we built this house, because I don't ever want to build a house this fast again. It was so hard, but it can be done, and I think the reason why you do it and who you do it with matters a lot. So, anyway, well, we've got four minutes left to hit exactly at an hour, you agreed to do this podcast. Be like Mark, you and I can't talk for two hours.
Melissa Oholendt 59:05
We got to get back,
Mark D. Williams 59:06
we got to get back inside with who knows what they've done without us. What
Melissa Oholendt 59:10
probably better, probably faster job than when we were there.
Mark D. Williams 59:14
That's yeah, probably when we're not there overseeing the
Melissa Oholendt 59:18
quotation marks right now. For anyone who's not watching, yeah, there definitely were air
Speaker 1 59:23
quotes, air
Mark D. Williams 59:23
quotes, air quotes, a little humor. What is trying to think of a good parting thought? You got anything that would be of interest? Trying to think of what would be
Melissa Oholendt 59:34
pressure.
Mark D. Williams 59:34
I know there's a lot of pressure. Okay, I know. Have you given thought to the couple that buys the home, or whoever buys the home, could be a single person, whatever. What I kind of want to, like, meet them and almost have, like, a meal with them in the house.
Melissa Oholendt 59:50
I do too.
Mark D. Williams 59:51
I think that'd be appropriate, wouldn't
Melissa Oholendt 59:52
it? Is it?
Mark D. Williams 59:53
I don't know. It's almost like, are you giving up a kid for adoption? It'd be like, while this child is going to. Live with you, we would like to have one more meal with our child.
Melissa Oholendt 1:00:02
Yeah, I mean, I think it's fair request, obviously at their discretion, but I, I do, I think a lot about, I mean, we think a lot about our clients when we're designing, and that, that you know, you and I talked about it's been one of the more challenging things of this house, is that we don't have, you have been our prototype for all of the decisions that we're making, and so when we're thinking about, like, do you play golf on the weekends, do you, you know, do we have to have storage for hockey, like all of those questions. I want to sit down with them and kind of say, what are what are the functional needs of your life, because, like, can I help you navigate what we have done at Misa to serve your life in that way, like, that, that's where I come from. Like,
Mark D. Williams 1:00:42
mine was a little more whimsical, and mine was more like, I want to sit, I want to have dinner there, but I would love it if, for you, Carl and Kate and I to sit down and have a meal catered, or have it cooked in their kitchen, and, and just have them hear from us, and for us to tell the story. The one thing that's difficult about a spec home and a story home like this is that they're seeing the end product, but they don't - they didn't actually experience all that we experienced, and maybe it doesn't matter to them. I think it will, though. I think someone that buys this home is deeply interested in the why in the story, because I look at all the people that interact with us on social media or reach out to us. I mean, we have a 30 person list that have reached out through our email, or, sorry, through our website, asking for one to one tours. Now, not all of them are buyers, but they have been following this, and they deeply want to know what's happening. So, I think the curiosity is very high, and so I think I'd be very surprised, I'll offer it, I'd be very surprised if they didn't want it, just I feel like someone who's attracted to this type of home is going to want, I would want to know why, yeah, I would want to know about all the thought that went into it, hear the stories, and I have two, you know, people that are very seriously interested in the home, I've sent them the Jude Charles podcast, where I talked for an hour and a half. I said, rather than me redoing this again, and you giving me an hour half of your time, you listen to this when you're walking the dog, or whatever. Yeah, if you're interested, great. If you're not, don't worry about it, but it might help you understand some of the intent. I'll be very curious when they tour the house if they've actually listened to it or not.
Melissa Oholendt 1:02:15
Yeah, I don't know. Interesting. I can't wait to hear
Mark D. Williams 1:02:18
me too. Thank you for your time. Coming on, we will have Monday episodes. Otherwise, Thursdays are 20 minutes losers or winners. Story of the scar. And thanks for tuning into the Curious Builder Podcast. Thanks for tuning in to Curious Builder Podcast. If you like this episode, do us a favor, share it with three other business owners. The best way that we can spread what we're doing is by word of mouth, and with your help we can continue to help other curious builders expand their business. Please share it with your friends, like and review online, and thanks again for tuning in.
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