A general contractor for houses worth doing properly.

Yes — and this is where neighbours confuse each other. The City of Pasadena runs its own Planning and Building department with its own submittal standards and review queue. Altadena, a few blocks north, goes through LA County instead. If your project is in the city, we submit to the city; if it is in unincorporated county territory, we submit to the county. We work in both.

Almost always, yes, but exterior work visible from the street gets additional design review, and windows, roofing and front elevations receive the most attention. The workable approach is to modernise systems, plan and interiors freely while treating the street-facing envelope as something to restore rather than reinvent. We build to that constraint routinely.

Meaningful whole-home renovations in this market generally run $250 to $500 per square foot, with high-end work involving structural changes above that. The spread comes from how much structure moves, the condition of existing systems, and finish level. We give you a real number after seeing the house — not a range over the phone.

Regularly. A great many houses here sit on unreinforced or deteriorated foundations, and a good number have soft-story conditions from added garages or additions. We carry the structural engineering from the start and handle bolting, cripple-wall bracing, partial replacement and full foundation replacement.

Yes. State law sets the framework, and the city applies its own objective standards for setbacks, height and parking on top of it. Lot size, utility capacity and access decide what is realistic. We assess feasibility before you spend money on design.