I don’t get called in. I’m already here.
I’m the in-house interior and exterior designer at Ceci Bates Custom Homes — one point of a triangle with architect Roberth Jordan and the crew who build every home.
Scroll
How the three of us work
Most interior designers are hired separately from the builder and spend a fair part of the job working across a gap between two companies. That isn’t how this goes. I’m in-house at Ceci Bates, which makes me one point of a triangle: Roberth Jordan draws the homes, Scott Bates and the crew build them, and I take care of everything you’ll see and touch when it’s finished, inside and out.
Each point leans on the other two, and the part people find surprising is the order I do things in. I meet with Roberth before I ever meet
you. There is always a reason behind what he has drawn — he isn’t simply drawing, he’s reasoning — and I want to understand the intent behind a room before I start choosing what goes into it. By the time you and I sit down together, I already know what the house is trying to do.
It also means I’m not a late addition to your project. I’m in it from the early architectural conversations through the final walkthrough, which is a different job from picking finishes at the end of one. Here’s what that actually looks like, step by step.
I meet with Roberth before I ever meet you.
Who does what
The simplest way to explain the arrangement is to say plainly which of us is responsible for what — and to be just as plain about what isn’t mine.
The architecture — Roberth Jordan
Roberth draws the homes. By the time I’m selecting, his plans are usually well resolved, though he’s genuinely open when I come back with an idea, and adjustments do happen. Where a house hands me two storeys of glass or a run of black window frames, that’s a condition I’m designing around — his thinking, not mine, and I’d never claim otherwise.
See the architectureThe build — Ceci Bates
The crew puts it all together, and the pre-construction system prices the whole thing before anyone commits to it. The building, the engineering, the scheduling, the trades — that’s the half I don’t do and wouldn’t pretend to.
The building side is over hereThe interiors and exteriors — my part
Everything you’ll see and touch. Inside: flooring, tile, countertops and their edge profiles, cabinetry and stain, hardware, lighting of every kind, plumbing fixtures, and fireplace materials — plus the finer details most builders leave for owners to sort out later, like drywall texture, corner styles, and trim. Outside: stone and brick, exterior paint, roof and gutter colors, outdoor kitchens and fireplaces.
The full scope of what I chooseWhat being in-house actually changes
Three practical things, and none of them are abstract. Your selections are priced into the budget during pre-construction rather than bolted on afterwards, so the number you’re working from is a real one. Every material we choose gets built into a 3D model of your actual room — your countertop on your island, under the pendant you picked, beside the stain I mixed — so you’re not deciding from a showroom board and hoping. And when a cost does move, you see it written down and approve it before anything happens.
The third thing is simply that I’m here. I’m on the job sites anyway, so I can check that what we chose is what’s actually going in — which matters most to the owners who live somewhere else and can’t drop by. None of that works the same way when the designer is a separate firm on a separate contract.
Where the rest of the story lives
I’ve kept this site to my half of the work on purpose. If you want the other half — how the homes actually get built, the engineering underneath them, the process from first conversation to keys — that all lives on the Ceci Bates site. The same homes are over there as well, told from the builder’s side, and the films of owners talking about their builds were made by them, not by me.
I’d far rather point you there than pretend I do all of it. The reason this arrangement works is that none of us is trying to be all three.
Want the whole team?
If you’re thinking about building out here, you don’t hire me separately — I come with the build. Tell me what you’re imagining and we’ll start where we always start: with the place, and how you want it to feel when you walk in. No pressure, just a conversation.
Tell me about your vision