Carlson Projects INC.

Carlson Projects INC. Carlson Projects INC is owner operated with over 20 years of industry experience. Expect integrity! Expect integrity, honesty and nothing but professional work.

06/10/2026

This is the stage where you find out if you hired a good painter.

We're nearing the finish line on the 1926 Addition, and we're in paint. What you're looking at is the second coat, not even the final, and the walls already look clean. That's the tell. A good painter gets you most of the way there before the last coat, so the final pass is polish instead of damage control. It starts before paint too. The drywall work gave us a flat, true canvas, and paint only ever looks as good as what's under it.

These are the steps nobody posts about. They're also the ones you feel the day you move in.

DM if you want to see how a Lincoln addition gets to this point.

06/09/2026

Sometimes you can do everything right and it still goes wrong.

We were wrapped up on this bathroom, tile in, ready to grout, and we started seeing micro-cracks in the glaze. Never had it happen before. Our tile supplier, Emser, never had it happen before either. Because we've got a real relationship with them, they pulled the original lot, tested it, and they're covering the replacement. That's one of the big things you're actually paying a builder for.

So before you hire anyone, ask them one thing: what happens on my job when something goes wrong?

Big shout out to Scott and Mike at Emser. Save this for when you're interviewing builders.

06/08/2026

Last time we were here at the 1926 kitchen, none of this was here.

Countertops are in, and now you can finally see what the box window is doing. It's pushing space and light into this room in a way the bare walls didn't show at all.

Most people see a kitchen this size and want an island. We didn't. An island would have killed the work triangle. Sink, dishwasher, range, fridge all need to sit within a few steps of each other or the kitchen just makes you work harder than you should. So instead we took out the old wall, added a peninsula, and ran the countertop all the way through. Same footprint. Twice the counter space.

The apron front sink is in. And there's an air switch at the counter instead of a disposal switch on the far wall. You push it, the outlet fires below. No reaching across the kitchen. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of thing that quietly drives people nuts in a kitchen that didn't think it through.

Really, really close on this one.

Save this if someone's trying to talk you into an island.

The 1966 kitchen is complete.We helped our client take a closed-off 1966 kitchen and open it into one clean, continuous ...
06/05/2026

The 1966 kitchen is complete.

We helped our client take a closed-off 1966 kitchen and open it into one clean, continuous space. A wall came out, and all the storage moved into a single white oak cabinet run with the fridge built right in. Her ask from day one was to keep it simple, so the daily-use stuff hides behind cabinet fronts and the appliances disappear into the run. From across the room you can’t tell where the pantry ends and the fridge begins.

As always, we aren’t ones to gate-keep the people who built it with us:
countertops
custom vent hood
windows
electrical ⚡
HVAC
brass and fixtures
custom cabinetry
lumber
paint
Cabinets installed by our guys Rob and Mark.

06/04/2026

It's when your contractor makes you the middleman when they're supposed to be the contractor. That drives me absolutely insane.

Here's what it actually looks like, because it never shows up this obvious until you're already in it. The electrician wants the panel one place, the plumber needs the run somewhere else, and instead of solving it, your builder texts you: "hey, these two don't agree, what do you want to do?" Now you're fielding calls about conduit and venting you have no business deciding on. You signed up for a house. You ended up being the general contractor on your own project.

That happens for one reason. The trades never got coordinated up front, so every conflict that should have been worked out on paper shows up in the middle of your job, and it lands on you.

A real contractor takes those questions and comes back with a plan: "I talked to the electrician. I talked to the plumber. Here's what we came up with. Do you want to go this way or that way?" You're still deciding. You're just not refereeing.

So ask this before you hire anyone. When two of my subs disagree on the job, who makes the call? If the answer is anything close to "we'd run it by you," keep looking.

You are the owner. Not the general contractor.

06/01/2026

Here's the other thing about trim, especially in a historic house.

We make the trim feel period correct. That means solid poplar, run with a custom knife ground to match the original profile, with a plinth block at the base that everything dies into. Same detail runs through the whole house.

Here's why that matters, because you can't see it in a 30 second clip. Most builders run one by four MDF and call it standard. MDF is fine until it isn't. It swells the first time it meets humidity, it won't hold a crisp profile, and the seams eventually telegraph through the paint. In a hundred year old house that's still moving and settling, that shows up fast.

Solid poplar cut to the original profile holds the detail, takes paint clean, and makes a brand new addition read like it's been part of the house since 1926. That's the whole game with historic work. Nobody should be able to tell where the old stops and the new starts.

We could have run one by four MDF. Everybody would have hated it.

Save this before you sign with a builder who calls trim "standard."

05/30/2026

Performance is never a solo act.
A driver does not win Le Mans alone. They win because of the pit crew, the engineers, and the thousands of hours spent perfecting the machine.

We did not create our process to be a monument to ourselves.
Too many in our field operate on the solely on one individual/owner. They rely on a single mind to govern an infinite number of variables. We want to change the way you live and a reliance on the individual is a vulnerability in our option.

Our role is to find extraordinary people and integrate them into our process and values. When every component of a team functions in absolute harmony ex*****on becomes seamless. Mistakes are corrected quicker every job.

It is the highest compliment when we see our team adored!

05/29/2026

Your last $600,000 project, and your wife still hates the tile.

She got pressured into picking it under a deadline, and that traces straight back to how the job was scheduled.

Here's what's actually going on underneath. Tile, stone, anything specialty order runs weeks out. If your selections aren't locked early, the install date starts making the decision for you. Somebody calls and says we need this picked by Friday or the schedule slips, and now you're choosing a finish you'll look at every single day, in an afternoon, in a panic.

A real ordering process flips that. Every selection gets a decision-by date, set early enough that there's room if a sample comes in wrong or your first pick is backordered. You pick when you actually have time to sit with it and get it right.

So before you sign anything, ask one question. When do you need each of my selections, and what happens if I'm a week late? If the answer is vague, you already know who ends up feeling the pressure.

Send this to the friend who's been "planning" for three years.

Especially for us as remodelers, the highest point in the space is your control. Everything else is dictated off of it.H...
05/27/2026

Especially for us as remodelers, the highest point in the space is your control. Everything else is dictated off of it.

Here's how it goes:

1. Layout and measurements first. Then find the highest point.
2. Lowers first. For us specifically. Some people do uppers first. We don't.
3. Fill pieces in, everything level and plumbed to the laser line.
4. Uppers next. All the fill pieces, all the scribe pieces. Make sure it's nice and tight.
5. Crown. We typically subframe the top of the cabinet to attach it to, then the crown goes on.
6. Doors get adjusted. Hardware drilled with a jig.
7. Appliance furniture fronts have to be plumb, level, and oriented to the rest of the cabinets. Sometimes there's a fill piece between the unit and the cabinet, sometimes a gap. We tell you which up front.

Save this. Cabinet day's usually invisible.

05/23/2026

This is the moment she knew the contractor was lying to her.

She'd heard "two weeks" so many times the phrase had stopped meaning anything. "Next week for sure." "I'll have the guys out Monday." "We just need one more thing." Different packaging, same conversation. By the time you recognize the pattern you're six months in and the project is still open.

Construction is project management. It is mostly project management. Quality work without a system to deliver it on a schedule is just a pretty house that never gets finished.

Before you sign with any contractor, ask the four questions that tell you whether they actually run a schedule:

What software do you use to schedule the project? If the answer is "I keep it in my head," that's your answer.

When you commit to a start date, how do you hold it? Are subs locked? Are material lead times verified, or are you guessing?

How will I get updates? A weekly meeting? A client portal? Or do I have to text you?

When the schedule slips, what is your workflow for telling me?

A contractor with answers to those runs a real schedule. A contractor with charm and no answers will tell you "two weeks" until you stop asking.

If your contractor doesn't have a project management system or a process, run like hell.

Send this to anyone who's already six weeks past "two weeks."

Address

3421 S. 7th, Suite B
Lincoln, NE
68502

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 6pm
Tuesday 8am - 6pm
Wednesday 8am - 6pm
Thursday 8am - 6pm
Friday 8am - 6pm

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