A builder brought us into these two properties on a recommendation, with a requirement that was less about technology than about timing: both homes were going up simultaneously, both were being built to sell, and neither could wait on us. Integration had to move with framing, rough-in, drywall, and finish across two active sites at once.

We designed both homes on one system architecture — the same lighting control, shading, audio, video, networking, and security, laid out the same way, documented the same way. That's what made two builds manageable rather than twice the work. Field conditions still differed house to house, as they always do; wire paths ran into plumbing and structure, device locations moved. Those adjustments got made without either home drifting from the other.

Partway through, one of the houses changed representation, and the new designer brought a different point of view on fixtures and control interfaces. That kind of change late in a build is usually where schedules break. Here it was absorbed — new specifications, revised layouts, same delivery date, and no visible difference in how the two homes perform. Both were handed over on the builder's timeline, working from the first walkthrough.