Bespoke Understanding & Direction
Trying to make changes to your house, but
BUD helps you understand what’s keeping you stuck and find a clear way forward.
SEE HOW BUD WORKSThe problem
Maybe you know exactly what you want to change. Maybe you're not sure where to begin. Either way, something keeps getting in the way.
It's hard to know who to ask for help when you can't quite explain what you need. We can start with what's bothering you about your house, even if you're not sure why. Figuring that out is part of the process, and you don't need to have a solution in mind before we begin.
Everyone has an opinion. Your friends, your family, the architect you talked to, the contractor who came by. And they're probably all giving you different advice. The challenge is figuring out which advice actually makes sense for you and what you're trying to accomplish.
When you're talking about spending serious money on your home, you want to know it's worth it. But worth it means something different to everyone. We'll explore what you really want from the investment, what compromises you're willing to make, and what would make you feel comfortable moving forward.
Things were moving along until something changed. Maybe the price was more than expected, someone had second thoughts, or the decisions became overwhelming. Whatever happened, there's a reason the process stopped. Understanding that reason is the first step toward figuring out what comes next.
Every option has advantages, costs, and compromises. An addition might solve your space problem but stretch your budget. Moving might get you the house you want but mean leaving a neighborhood you love. The right answer depends on what matters most to you, and that's what we'll work through together.
You might both agree that something needs to change, but have very different ideas about what that change should look like. Sometimes the disagreement isn't really about the house at all. Understanding what each person is hoping to accomplish can reveal possibilities neither of you had considered.
Choosing someone to work on your home is a big decision, especially when there's a lot of money involved. A great portfolio or a friendly first meeting doesn't necessarily mean someone is the right fit. We'll help you figure out what to look for, which questions to ask, and how to evaluate whether a professional is right for you.
Maybe you’re trying to figure out whether their current house can keep working for them, whether changes would help, or whether it’s time to consider something different. There may be health, money, family, and emotional considerations all tangled together.
Another year living in a house that still doesn't work the way you need it to.
Paying for drawings, quotes, or a project before you're sure it's the right one.
Having the same conversation over and over without getting anywhere.
Meet the founder
I'm TJ Monahan, an architect and founder of Designed Happy. For about 25 years, I've helped homeowners work through difficult decisions about their houses. I know how much can be riding on getting those decisions right.
I created BUD to help homeowners work through these decisions with the same kind of questions, exercises, and perspective I use with Designed Happy clients. You can work through it on your own, with Scout, or directly with a credentialed industry professional.
How BUD works
Every BUD experience starts with a diagnostic questionnaire that helps identify what you’re trying to solve and what support will be most useful.
Work through the BUD program on your own, using the exercises, education, and resources selected for you by our diagnostic based on your specific situation, priorities, and decisions.
Scout-directedWork with Scout, BUD’s proprietary AI, to explore your situation, choose the right exercises, make sense of what you discover, and build your plan with thoughtful support.
Work directly with a credentialed industry professional through three one-on-one virtual conversations, tailored assignments, reviewed recaps, and a final plan.
Start with the level of support that feels right. If you want more help later, everything you’ve already done comes with you.
Where this leads
What's included
$200
The diagnostic and your personalized BUD program, worked through on your own.
Scout-directed$1,800
The same foundation as Self-Directed, plus Scout working alongside you.
Everything in Self-Directed, plus:
$4,000
The same foundation, directed by an experienced, credentialed industry professional.
If you sign an agreement for qualifying Designed Happy design services within six months of enrolling, we’ll credit your full $4,000 toward your design fees.
Start where you’re comfortable. If you decide you want more support,
100% of what you’ve already paid applies to the next level.
Why BUD exists
A woman contacted me because she wanted to expand her kitchen, but the prices she'd been quoted made her nervous. I asked what she hoped the expansion would change. Then I kept asking why those changes mattered to her.
Eventually, she told me something about her childhood. Growing up, she'd been so embarrassed by her family's kitchen that she never invited friends over. Now her own children were getting old enough to have friends over, and she didn't want them to feel the way she had.
"Oh my God, I had no idea I felt that way," she said.
She'd come into the conversation thinking she needed more space. What she discovered was that she wanted her children to feel comfortable inviting friends into their home.
I don't know whether she'll ultimately expand her kitchen. She might. But she now understands what's driving that decision, which opens up other possibilities worth considering.
A couple came to me convinced they needed an addition to create a suite for her parents to live in.
I started asking why they wanted to do it. At first, the answers were practical. They needed room for her parents, and they wanted them to be comfortable.
But as we kept talking, she began describing everything her parents had done for her growing up. Now she had an opportunity to give something back. She said doing this made her feel like she was being a "good kid."
That was the first realization. What mattered most wasn't the addition itself. It was being able to care for her parents the way they'd cared for her.
Once we understood that, I asked whether we could explore another possibility. Their house already had rooms they rarely used. What if we rearranged those spaces instead of building new ones?
That was the second realization. They'd never considered that the space they already had could accommodate what they wanted.
They found a way to give her parents a comfortable place to live without building an addition, and avoided spending money on an addition they didn't need.
A couple had decided to act as their own general contractor on their primary bathroom renovation. They'd gotten through framing, rough-ins, and closing up the walls, but then everything stopped.
When I visited, a five-foot-wide double pocket door in their bedroom opened onto a bathroom full of plywood and raw drywall. Boxes and boxes of samples from different vendors were scattered across the floor.
They'd talked to so many vendors and gotten so much advice that they didn't know whose recommendations to follow anymore. Everyone had an opinion about their particular product, but nobody was looking at the bathroom as a whole.
She preferred one tile combination. He preferred another. They both loved the same stone for the tub deck and vanities, but he thought the fabricator's price was outrageous. With every conversation and every new sample, making a decision seemed to get harder.
We spent our time looking at the entire bathroom, talking through how the different materials would work together, and sorting out which choices made sense.
When we got to the stone, I explained how fabrication is priced and what some of the alternatives might cost. Once he understood what went into the quote, the price didn't seem nearly as unreasonable. He felt comfortable choosing the stone they'd both loved from the beginning.
By the time I left, they'd agreed on the floor tile, wall tile, vanity color, and stone.
After years of living with an unfinished bathroom, they finally felt comfortable with the decisions they needed to make to finish it.
Story 1 of 3: The Kitchen
FAQ
If you’ve been going in circles about what to do with your house, BUD might be exactly what you need. Maybe you don’t know where to start. Maybe you’re considering several options and can’t decide between them. Maybe you already have an idea, but you’re not sure it’s the right one. BUD is designed to help you understand what’s really driving the decision and find a clear way forward.
Pro-Directed includes three 60-minute Zoom conversations with an experienced, credentialed industry professional. Your conversations are supported by a personalized BUD program, tailored assignments, and reviewed recaps. The goal is to use the time together where professional perspective will be most useful.
It depends on how you choose to work through it. Self-Directed and Scout-Directed move at your pace. Pro-Directed normally runs over two weeks, from the first conversation to the third, with time between conversations to complete tailored exercises and assignments.
Usually, yes. Each person gets their own secure account and completes the diagnostic and exercises independently. Your answers are private by default, so everyone has space to think honestly before deciding what they want to share.
You’ll finish with a personalized BUD Plan that captures what you’ve learned, what matters most, and the next steps that make sense for you. It isn’t a design plan or a set of drawings. It’s a decision-making plan for what comes next.
No. BUD is a complete service on its own. Your next step might be renovating, moving, building, changing less, waiting, or doing nothing at all. If Pro-Directed leads to a qualifying Designed Happy design project, your Pro-Directed fee can be credited toward that work for six months after enrolling.
BUD can help you think through your own priorities and decisions, but it isn’t a construction-management or dispute-resolution service. We don’t evaluate construction quality, determine who is right in a dispute, or step between you and your contractor.
Scout is BUD’s proprietary AI. It’s trained on TJ’s books, podcast, blog posts, in-studio seminars, and the same questions and decision-making frameworks he uses with homeowners. In Scout-Directed, you can work with Scout by voice or text as you explore your situation, complete exercises, make sense of what you discover, and build your BUD Plan.
Yes. You can move from Self-Directed to Scout-Directed or Pro-Directed, or from Scout-Directed to Pro-Directed. One hundred percent of what you’ve already paid applies toward the next level, and the work you’ve already completed comes with you.
Yes. Your information is private and is not shared publicly. If more than one person participates in a household, each person has their own account and their exercise responses are private by default. Participants control what they share with one another, and private answers should never be revealed to another participant before the person chooses to share them.
Start with the level of support that feels right, and get clear about what comes next.
