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For Will LeGrand

Fourteen posts. Charlotte Homes, and a field guide to what's on them.

Two series. Charlotte Homes is eight real roofs you built, shot from the air, each one about a detail somebody paid for and would otherwise never notice. The Field Guide is six three-slide carousels: the part drawn and named, then why it matters, then what happens when it is missing or done cheap. That third slide is the one that makes somebody call a roofer. Approve what is right, change what is not, and the questions at the bottom are mostly things I could not check from a photograph.

  1. Any order you like. It saves on this device as you go, so you can close it and come back.
  2. Type straight over a caption to change it. I see exactly what you changed.
  3. Answer the questions. Some captions make promises on your behalf.
  4. Press Save and send at the bottom. It comes straight to me. Save as often as you like.
Step one

Questions only you can answer.

Each one traces back to something a caption says.

New post
Can somebody photograph one roof before we start and again when it's finished? Same angle, phone is fine.

Before-and-after is the single highest-converting thing a contractor can post, roughly three to five times the engagement of anything else, and we have none. One job shot twice is a month of content on its own.

New post
Can we sync the Google reviews, or can you paste me three you're proud of?

You have forty at five stars and not one of them has ever been posted. A buyer at this end of the market weights a neighbour's word above anything we say about ourselves. The card design is built and waiting on the words.

New post
The four crew posts make small promises about how the team behaves on site. Do you board walkways on slate jobs, and is there anything in there you would not want said?

You held three posts in August for exactly this shape. I would rather have you strike a line now than run it and find out.

New post
Can you check the counts? Post 01 says all the valleys are copper, 03 says three dormers, 06 says two chimneys and two crickets, 09 says four dormer roofs.

I counted these off the photographs and I would rather you corrected me than a homeowner did. If you know the addresses I can be more specific about all four.

New post
Do you want the Field Guide to keep running? Next up would be drip edge, ridge and soffit venting, counter-flashing and the chimney chase.

It is the piece of this that builds authority fastest, it teaches people what to ask for, and it needs no photography, which means it runs even in months where nobody gets on a roof with a camera.

New post
Can we name these houses? Street, neighbourhood or nothing at all.

Charlotte Homes gets a lot better if the numbers become places. A reader who knows the street is a different reader. Only where the owners are happy with it.

Post 05
Is the slate in post 05 natural quarried slate rather than a synthetic?

The whole caption is about the stone and the colour coming out of the ground. If that roof is a composite I will rewrite it as a composite, which is still a good post.

Post 09
On the new build, are those dormer roofs formed on site or ordered pre-formed?

Post 09 says the pans get rolled and fitted on site. If they arrive made up, the honest version of that post is still impressive and I would rather run it.

New post
Still open from last round: what weight copper do you use, and are gutter and valley seams soldered?

Once I have these, the small labels can carry a real spec instead of a plain name, and that is the kind of detail a competitor's quote will not have.

New post
August 01, 02 and 07 are still on hold. Retire them?

They have been sitting for a month. If you tell me what you were uneasy about I will rework them, otherwise I will retire them and stop bringing it up.

Step two

How they sit together.

What someone sees when they land on the profile.

The posts laid out as a grid
Step three

Each post, one at a time.

The picture is the post. The caption sits under it on Instagram.

01Charlotte Copper

A roof to last a lifetime

Caption type over anything
02Field Guide

Field Guide No. 01 — The Valley

Caption type over anything
03Charlotte Copper

Curb appeal starts at the roofline.

Caption type over anything
04Field Guide

Field Guide No. 02 — The Cricket

Caption type over anything
Quarried slate, close up
05Charlotte Copper

Quarried slate, close up

Caption type over anything
06Charlotte Copper

Copper has entered the chat

Caption type over anything
07Charlotte Copper

Two copper details, same house

Caption type over anything
Copper accents
08Charlotte Copper

Copper accents

Caption type over anything
09Charlotte Copper

Copper gutters and accents

Caption type over anything
10Field Guide

Field Guide No. 04 — Counter-flashing

Caption type over anything
11Charlotte Copper

New copper. Your neighbors will stop and stare.

Caption type over anything
Copper, left alone
12Charlotte Copper

Copper, left alone

Caption type over anything
There is no off-the-shelf version of this.
13The Crew

There is no off-the-shelf version of this.

Caption type over anything
Will, mid-job
14The Crew

Will, mid-job

Caption type over anything
Your house shouldn't look like a job site.
15The Crew

Your house shouldn't look like a job site.

Caption type over anything
You'll know their names by Wednesday
16The Crew

You'll know their names by Wednesday

Caption type over anything
17The Crew

The best crews in the Carolinas.

Caption type over anything
18Field Guide

Field Guide No. 04 — Four systems, four trades

Caption type over anything
19Field Guide

Field Guide No. 05 — Specified, not packaged

Caption type over anything
Step four

What runs after these.

Tick what you want next and I will build those first.

Charlotte CopperDeep

Real roofs you built, shot from the air, one detail each. Numbered so it runs as long as there are photographs.

Field GuideWalnut

One part of a roof per plate, drawn rather than photographed, numbered so they collect.

The CrewDeep

The people and the experience of having us on the property. New this month.

Anything not on these lists
Last step

Send it back.

Ready when you are.

Press Save and it goes straight to me. Nothing else needed. You can save as many times as you like as you work through it, and I will read the most recent one.

You have changes that have not been sent.