Learn everything you need to build your dream home.

Building a home is one of the most complex, expensive, and high-stakes projects you’ll ever take on.

Yet, most people walk into it totally unprepared — relying on contractors they barely know, fumbling their way through permits, budgeting reactively, and hoping things won’t fall apart mid-construction.

We created Building Blueprint to help fix that.

Our story

We are May and Peter and we're from Queens. May's background is in fashion and tech, while Peter is a corporate lawyer by training. We have been building things together for as long as we've known each other.

In 2017, we were 31 and expecting our first child. One winter day, we walked a 8 and-a-half acre parcel of raw land that was for sale in New York. And it was raw. Accessible by a narrow dirt road of of another narrow dirt road, the terrain was steep and rocky, and the mature trees and the tranquility of the property - we felt immediately that we were in a special place. 

We didn't let our excitement blind us. We put our heads down and did our diligence. We spoke with neighbors. We pored over the complex zoning laws of the jurisdiction, and the conservation easement that the property was subject to, just to figure out what was possible. We engaged engineers and tradesmen to calculate what developing the site infrastructure would cost. With that data in hand, we then negotiated hard. We were ready to walk away if the numbers didn't work out, but we ended up striking a deal.

The following year, we commissioned an architect. Not just any architect, but the architect we had dreamed of working with for 10 years. Thrilled with the possibility of what we could come up with, we went into the design process, and after a series of site visits and design meetings over the next year, we had a fully developed set of plans.

By 2020, we were ready to hire a general contractor, and well, you can imagine the rest of that year put the entire project in jeopardy. We hired two different general contractors, but various factors led to us deciding to part ways with each of them. Not ready to throw in the towel, we decided we would just build it ourselves. We figured out what we had to do, and put together a system, leveraging our years of collective experience in running complex deals in our day jobs.

In 2021, we broke ground. We had our high points, but just as many lows. We kept going, taking it one day at a time, catching up on plans and calls after the kids were asleep. We started documenting the build on Instagram, and made some friends along the way, including the nice folks at Dwell.

Two years later, we moved in. We still had some things to finish, but we were done. We met our deadlines, we met our budget, and we were done.

We spent $1.5M in hard costs (vs the $2.4–$3.0M GC bids we had). We spent less than $2M in total, including land and soft costs. Our home was then appraised by our bank to be worth $3.9M, a conservative estimate based on sales comps. A luxury vacation rental company forecasted that we would achieve $525k of annual gross rental proceeds if we were to list it as an STR. We made the numbers work.

That Instagram page we mentioned? It led to some interesting conversations. We also got a lot of questions. 

How did you find land?
How did you manage this without a GC?
How did you stay under budget?
How did you even know where to begin?
Can you help us do what you did?

Those questions in turn led to us forming a boutique owner representation firm, MAOR.

Today, we have helped over 15 clients solve countless problems, and avoid countless more. We are involved in projects from a $300k self-built cabin to a $5M+ project built by a top general contractor.

We then decided to democratize our process, and from there, Building Blueprint was born.

We’re not theorists. We were in your shoes and we’ve done it — and we did it in some of the most difficult conditions possible. And now we'll give you the blueprint on how to do it too.

Our system is designed for you.

But the construction world is not. It’s designed by contractors, for contractors — with incentive structures that aren’t in your favor.

You’re the one writing the checks. But you’re rarely the one in control.

Here’s the truth:

Most homeowners doing major construction projects overspend by 20–50%

Many GCs aren’t transparent about true costs, and are incentivized by profits rather than your best interests

Many mistakes happen before anyone breaks ground

And once you’re in too deep, it’s hard to pull out.

Whether or not you have a GC on board, you still need to understand the key systems at play: land, zoning, design, budgeting, team-building, timelines, permits, and contracts.

Building Blueprint gives you that mastery — in a way that’s clean, clear, and built around your goals.

Succinct, yet comprehensive courses, taking a deep dive into topics that no one else is going to explain to you. Not your realtor, your lawyer, your builder, or your architect. 

Comprehensive tools, including:

feasibility and financial models that help you assess what you can and should spend

land purchase diligence charts

GC bid comparison tools

real world line-by-line budgets (from our own build), Gantt chart sequences, comprehensive checklists.

More importantly, our experience has been shaped by the unique aspects of building modern construction. Steel and glass that requires a crane to install, and concrete that requires the finesse of a finish carpenter to form and pour. Things that you don't find in your everyday home. If your project involves these types of construction methods, you'll find invaluable and relevant information in these materials.

 

We built Building Blueprint for people like you:

• Design-driven and detail-oriented, with curiosity about how things are really done

• Discerning enough to know not to hand over blind trust — or unlimited checks — to strangers without doing their diligence first 

You don’t need to know everything there is to know. You just need a system.

This is our system, and it can be yours too.

 

 

We measure success like this:

• You save six figures by asking the right questions before you hire anyone
• You avoid months of delays because you understand the sequencing of permits, plans, and prep
• You build a home that reflects your values and gives you value — not just an exercise in maxing out your budget, but instead, an immediate positive ROI on your investment
• Whether you act as your own GC or hire one, this course will give you the leverage, the vocabulary, and the tools to lead your project with clarity and confidence.