Building & Design
Checking a Contractor in Portugal's Public Registers
How owners in Portugal verify a contractor in public registers, read an alvara and its classes, and compare estimates before signing a private building job.
Building & Design
Plan for snow, sun, materials, and the small construction decisions that make a mountain home easier to live with.
Use these notes to frame the next question, record the constraint that matters, and decide which local record or professional conversation should follow. The guides are written for practical preparation, not as a substitute for parcel-specific advice. Keep the resulting record with the property file so it remains useful to the next person who needs to understand the decision.
Guides
Read by decision
5 current guides
Building & Design
Home and Yard Maintenance: Order of Work
A practical order for exterior envelope work, buried drains and sewer lines, then surfaces and interior projects on a single-family house.
Building & Design
Thermal barriers, earth tubes and a roof that collects: passive systems in a mountain build
How a thermal barrier works in an external wall, what earth tubes and ground heat storage do underground, and how far a roof can act as a solar collector.
Building & Design
Passive solar orientation on a forested mountain lot
How south glazing, thermal mass, and tree shading change the first sketch of a mountain home.
Building & Design
Designing roofs and entries for heavy Colorado snowfall
A clear framework for metal roofs, snow-shed zones, and covered entries in heavy snow country.