“Every facet of the company is involved in this project, it’s been cool to see all of gears essentially of New Energy Works revolving around to make this project come to life,” says Jake Desmarais, Site Supervisor for New Energy Works General Contracting division who is overseeing the Otisco Lake build.
Developed by our in house design team, with a timber frame and high-performance enclosure by New Energy Works; the house also features details from our fine craftspeople at NEWwoodworks and sustainable wood products from our sister company Pioneer Millworks.
Tucked on the shoreline of Otisco Lake, this custom residence is our client’s legacy home, built for them, but also for the family’s future generations. Spotlighting massive intersecting gable roofs, and a rustic timber-centric lake side porch, the homes crowning achievement is its great room. Designed for socializing and embellished by high craft Douglas fir trusses, the room is interred with our high-performance wall enclosures and thoughtfully detailed by our talented NEWwoodworks team.
The homeowners live just next door to the build site, so keeping them up to date on the work has been special for our team, who get great joy out of seeing our clients’ reactions to the daily progress.
“This has been a labor of love,” says Desmarais. “There have been some tiring days but there are other days when you get that instant gratification which is what being in the trades is all about. Days where you can step back and say, ‘Oh my gosh we got all of this stuff done.’ The site supervision is so important and gives the homeowners piece of mind.”
Being the site supervisor of a New Energy Works project is like being a musical conductor. It takes a great communicator with a deep understanding of craft and also interpersonal relationships. It requires the focus of getting every partner to work to a common goal. Most importantly it requires someone who can build a team, with a focus on quality, personalities, expertise—finding the perfect subcontractors to bring a project to life.
“Having someone on site that knows everything about the project I think is very good for the homeowners,” says Desmarais. “They get the reassurance that someone is there taking care of their investment. It creates leadership, someone on site that knows the project well, and the client’s intentions, and can communicate with the subcontractors. Overall, it gives piece of mind to the clients and allows them to step back and know that we got it, we know what we’re doing.”
Once the partners for the project have been gathered, the New Energy Works team needs to keep all of the disparate elements of the job organized. In order to keep everything working in order and at its optimal level, the New Energy team uses an interface called Buildbook.
“It all comes down to transparency, I don’t want to keep any cards close to my chest,” Desmarais says. “I would rather have clients know if we have a problem or an issue as soon as we know. To keep the clients informed with all of the things we try to use BuildBook as much as possible. It allows us to document day to day with pictures and descriptions—it allows us to outline the job from start to finish with the client having continued access. They get detailed notifications written simply and concisely from me onsite nearly daily so we can address issues and make decisions as a team.”
Balancing the project moving forward at a reasonable pace with the amount of buy-in and decisions that need to be made takes expertise. New Energy Works General Contracting team works alongside the client as a true partner make their vision a reality within the budget and best craftsman available—and do that in a way that is good for people and the planet.
“At the end of the day, the goal is a high-craft home that we can stand behind for the next 100 years,” says Desmarais. “We want to make sure that our homeowners are extremely happy when they walk through that front door, but I want us as a company to be happy too. Because in the end we are building a family’s legacy home; a home to last for their great-great-grandchildren. When that generation learns it was a New Energy Works home, I want them to know that it stood the test of time because of the love and the quality craft from the many hands that went into building it.”
