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.

06/13/2026

So we're upstairs. This used to be part of the old house, and right about here is where the addition starts.

Beautiful windows up here, tons of light. The detail we actually care about is down at the floor: the hardwood meets the tile flush, no big chunky threshold strip. That only works if you plan the heights before either floor goes down, which is the kind of thing that gets skipped when a job is moving fast.

Double sink vanity. Linen tower. Shower with Emser tile run all the way up. A shaving niche. And instead of the little stub of tile you usually see where a wall ends, we ran a full return piece so it reads on purpose. French doors out into the primary.

06/12/2026

This is how you double the storage and the countertop in a kitchen without changing the footprint.

So this whole side used to be a blank wall. We ran cabinets up over the fridge and dropped a pantry in next to it, so now there's a ton of storage where there used to be nothing. The wall on the other side came out, and that's all drawers now. The countertop runs all the way back into a bigger window instead of stopping at drywall, and that's what makes it feel way bigger than it actually is. We also took the ceiling up about a foot.

Same footprint. A good design will do that for you.

Save this if your kitchen feels small and the only fix anyone's offered you is knocking down a wall.

06/11/2026

There's something called avoidance math, and most people do it backwards.

The logic sounds responsible. Wait a year or two, save up, do it when it's comfortable. But here's the math nobody runs for you. A project costs 8 to 12% more every year you wait. That's not me wanting the work sooner. That's the track record, and coming out of COVID those numbers have only gone one direction.

Run it out. A $400,000 project you put off for two years isn't a $400,000 project anymore. At 10% a year it's closer to $480,000, and that's before you count the two years you spent living in a house that doesn't work for you. Materials go up. Labor goes up. They compound, they don't take turns.

So the wait-until-we've-saved-more plan usually costs more than just starting. And money is rarely even the real blocker. People wait because they got burned last time, or they haven't found a builder they trust yet.

That's the real problem to solve. Find a contractor with the plans and the process so that number stops climbing on you.

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

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!

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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