Case Studies

A commercial laundromat tenant improvement in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County was already underway when the original contractor, working without a valid license, left the project in a state that put the client at risk of financial ruin. Code violations, incomplete utility work, and unsafe electrical conditions meant the space couldn't legally or safely operate.

The permitted plans were 2D AutoCAD drawings that left too much room for error once subcontractors were on site. Using Revit, Marjin built 3D models from the 2D plans so every sub could see exactly how systems needed to come together, preventing costly on-site mistakes before they happened.

Beyond the trades work, Marjin personally hand-selected and managed every subcontractor, sourced all materials from the smallest fittings to major equipment to control costs, and kept the project moving on a tight budget.

A fully code-compliant, fully operational commercial laundromat, brought back from a near-total loss to a completed, permitted, functioning business.

A homeowner reached out after a home remodeling project had already gone through two contractors and taken a serious financial toll.

The first contractor, referred to her by a personal contact, delivered poor-quality craftsmanship. When the client pushed for better quality, he asked for more money instead of correcting the work. When she stopped payment, he threatened to file a lien, and she later discovered he wasn't even licensed. He abandoned the job after taking a significant amount of her money.

To keep the project moving, she hired a second contractor, who took advantage of the situation differently. He repeatedly asked for more money to pull additional permits, one after another, until he ran out of permits to pull. When the client asked for progress and results after all the money she'd already paid, he stopped answering her calls. When he finally did, he introduced a new charge: payment for an "inspection fee" before any further work would continue.

When the client brought in Marjin for a consultation, the underlying problem became clear: the second contractor had pulled a stack of permits with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS), roughly 90% of which the project never actually needed. The client was left holding a pile of open permits with no clear path forward.

Rather than taking over the project, Marjin provided the client with a clear consultation: what permits were actually necessary, what could be closed out, and how to move forward with the remodel herself, free of the manipulation both prior contractors had used to keep extracting money from her.

The client was able to understand exactly where her project stood, cut through a manufactured permit backlog, and continue her remodel on her own terms, without another contractor exploiting the situation.

Marjin represented an elderly client as her real estate broker in the purchase of a new property. After closing, the client decided to remodel the kitchen and bathrooms on her own, hiring a subcontractor directly. She didn't realize that as a general contractor, this was still something worth a second set of eyes on, even for a smaller-scope project.

During a follow-up visit to check in on the client as she settled into her new home, Marjin found the remodel already underway, and found problems immediately. The subcontractor wasn't using the correct tools to cut materials, and measurements were out of compliance with approved residential building code. The client, without a background in code or regulation, had no way to know she was being taken advantage of.

Understanding what substandard work like this would mean for the client's living conditions and the future resale value of her home, Marjin brought the issues to her attention and explained what proper, code-compliant work should look like. When the client raised the concerns with the subcontractor, he responded by asking for more money, framing the correction as a change order. The client paid again, without looping Marjin in first, and the subcontractor took the payment and never returned.

Marjin connected the client, free of charge, with a trustworthy subcontractor offering fair value. The remodel was completed properly, and the client's home now looks and is built the way it should be.

A neighbor's new home was undergoing landscape work when Marjin walked in to check on progress. The driveway project had stalled for months after the original concrete was demolished. When work finally resumed, Marjin noticed Belgard pavers being installed, but something was off. The base gravel appeared insufficient and wasn't properly compacted, and the driveway lacked the correct slope toward the drain area, meaning water would run toward the garage instead of away from it.

Before long, the contractor stopped showing up and abandoned the job, demanding more money for work he wasn't equipped to deliver. Marjin approached the neighbors, having already recognized the underlying issue: the contractor had a concrete background, not paver installation experience: a different trade with different requirements. As a licensed general contractor who continually studies other trades and proper installation standards, Marjin identified that the gravel base wasn't sufficient to support the weight of parked cars. Even if the original contractor had finished the job, the driveway was set up to fail.

After explaining what was actually going wrong, the neighbors asked Marjin for guidance, which grew into full project management, overseeing and monitoring the trades they hired to get the project completed correctly.

A driveway installation that will actually hold up under real-world use, guided by someone who caught a structural problem before it became an expensive, possibly dangerous, failure.

A homeowner pulled a city permit to replace two windows and hired a handyman for the work. To increase the job's value, the handyman convinced her to replace every window in the house instead. Believing she was getting a good deal, the client agreed, not realizing the consequences.

The homeowner had only pulled a permit for two windows, not for a whole-house window replacement. Permits aren't a blanket approval: a permit for one specific scope of work doesn't open the door to unrelated or larger changes; each scope requires its own permit and its own inspection. The homeowner was never informed she needed a separate, expanded permit for the full scope of work actually performed. Once the handyman finished the job and left, the client was left with a completed project that didn't match what the city had approved, and a hurdle to clear before it could ever pass inspection.

The client had no interest in learning the ins and outs of permitting or navigating the correction process herself. Dealing with the city wasn't a trade she wanted to take on, so she chose to outsource it. Marjin was brought in to resolve it, handling the situation per city regulation, getting the permitting brought into alignment with the actual completed work so the project could move toward proper, legal inspection.

A homeowner no longer stuck between finished work and an unresolved permit problem, with the project back on track to close out correctly with the city.