Process
How a Nikic project runs
From the first conversation to the day you get the keys, you deal with Sasa. Here is what happens in between, including the one checkpoint most builders don’t offer.
What happens, in order
First conversation
The project, the lot, and whether Nikic is the right fit.
Plan review and proposal
Structural drawings checked against the site before anything is priced.
Contract and pricing structure
Scope agreed on both sides. You choose how the project is priced.
Permitting
A realistic window with the variables named, not a date.
Foundation and framing
Progress updates about twice a week. Little needed from you.
Change things here
Framing walkthrough
You walk the framed house with Sasa and move what you want moved. Small adjustments cost materials only; more significant changes may carry a labor fee, as set out in the contract.
Rough-in and finishes
Daily contact. Decisions made on site, in real time.
Inspection and handover
Sasa walks the house first. You get it after the corrections, not before.
Before anything is built
The first conversation is about the project, not a pitch. What the lot is, what you want on it, where you are in the process, and whether Nikic is the right fit — which sometimes it isn’t.
If you have plans and an architect, Sasa reviews the structural package against the site before pricing anything. If you don’t, he can take you through design.
The Belleair Beach catch, in detail →
The proposal comes back with a realistic permitting window rather than a date. In Pinellas that generally runs two to four months, but each municipality interprets the code slightly differently and none of them work to your schedule. You’ll get an informed estimate with the variables named — not a promise that depends on things nobody controls.
Contracts get signed once the scope is understood on both sides. That’s also when you choose how the project is priced.
Construction
Foundation and framing move fast and need little from you. Expect progress updates roughly twice a week — photographs, what’s happening, what’s next.
Once framing is complete and before rough-in begins, the build pauses for the walkthrough below.
Then finishes, which is where the project gets demanding on your time. Mirror heights, light positions, fixture placement — these are decided in real time, on site, and you may be asked to be there for specific installations. Communication moves to daily at this stage.
Before drywall closes the walls
The framing walkthrough
Once the house is framed and before electrical, HVAC, and plumbing rough-in starts, you walk the structure with Sasa. Room by room, in the actual spaces.
This is the first time the house exists at full scale. Drawings and renderings do not communicate volume, sightlines, or how a window sits in a wall — and most people cannot fully picture those things until they are standing in them. What looked generous on paper sometimes isn’t. A wall in the wrong place is obvious in a way it never was in plan.
So the walkthrough is an invitation to change things. Move a wall. Shift a doorway. Relocate a rough-in. Most adjustments at this stage cost materials and nothing else. For changes significant enough to affect labor and schedule, a change-order fee applies — the threshold is set out in the contract up front, not decided case by case after the fact.
“We walk with them to the house and say: okay, is this the layout that you want? Do you want us to change something? It’s time now.”
Most builders treat contract signing as the point after which changes get expensive. Nikic treats framing as a built-in checkpoint, and tells clients about it before they sign.
Changes requested later — after drywall, plumbing, or appliances are in — are handled case by case. Nikic won’t refuse them, but you will get a direct account of what they cost: which trades have to come back, whether the permit needs revising, how far the timeline moves. Then you decide. A change-order fee applies at that stage, because the management scope is real.
How the money moves
Billing is monthly, against work that is complete and has passed inspection — never ahead of the work. Every invoice comes with the receipts behind it attached, so you are looking at what was actually spent, not a summary of it. If a bank is financing your build, we prepare and submit the monthly draw paperwork it requires. Lien releases are available at any draw on request, and we always provide them before the final one. How the fee itself is structured is on the pricing page.
Communication
Sasa is the point of contact throughout. Not for the first month, not until a project manager takes over — throughout.
Every project runs two group threads: one with you and Sasa for decisions, and one that adds the project manager for logistics and coordination. Subcontractors are never added to client threads. You deal with Sasa; Sasa deals with them.
Most of it happens by phone and text, with email for documents. Where a couple divides decisions by domain — one of you leading on tile and kitchen, the other on lighting and exterior — communication follows that split.
“I never ignored one text message or one call from a customer. I always call them back.”
Closeout
Handover and after
Before you see the finished house, Sasa walks it himself. Every door, every light, every faucet, every surface. Anything that needs attention gets marked and corrected before you arrive — so the walkthrough is a handover rather than a punch list.
Then a proper orientation, which takes as long as it takes: where the water main shut-off is and how to work it, where the water heater sits and how to change its temperature, where the HVAC filter goes and when to replace it, what every switch does. You should leave knowing how to live in the house, not just how to open the front door.
Warranty runs in three layers from the Certificate of Occupancy. Nikic’s own general contractor warranty covers structure and workmanship — walls, foundation, structural integrity — for one year. Subcontractor warranties pass through to you, typically one year on trade labor. Equipment and material warranties pass through as well, and run much longer: roofing from twenty to fifty years depending on material, HVAC equipment ten years with one year on labor.
Nikic’s year is the backstop. The other two sit behind it and outlast it.
Questions about any of this?
Ask before you are committed to anything. Sasa will walk you through how a project would run on your specific site.