How Lessons from Music and Design Guide Renovations

Builder in 5 is our five-question series with the minds behind standout custom homes. Today, we chat with Michael and Deborah Sauri, co-owners of Arlington, Va.-based TriVistaUSA Design + Build, a full-home renovation firm operating in the D.C. metro area, and just beyond. 

Their philosophy is to "do cool projects for cool people," getting deeply invested in how clients actually live so they can design renovations that help homeowners fall back in love with their spaces.

1.  You came to building from a creative background in music and design. How has that outsider’s perspective shaped the way you lead your firm or approach a project?

Michael Sauri: We both came to building from creative worlds—Deborah through graphic design and branding, and me through music—and that perspective shapes everything about how we lead.

From music, I learned that even the most talented players fall flat if they’re not in sync. You’ve got to feel the rhythm, listen for changes, and build on good ideas no matter the source. That same collaboration drives how we work with clients, blending deep understanding of their home and lifestyle with our design-build expertise to create something truly unique.

Deborah’s design background brought a level of creative rigor and polish not often seen in residential remodeling. She championed collaborative “charrettes” that engage our full team to explore multiple design directions, and her designer’s eye has raised the bar for detail across our company.

That creative approach (listening, experimenting, refining) is at the heart of what we do: crafting spaces that resonate with the people who live in them.

2. What gap did you see in the typical design-build process that made you want to invest in a client experience center? How will it change the way clients make decisions?

Sauri: Making any kind of design decision requires a degree of vision and imagination that can be a challenge. We're asking clients to make hundreds of these decisions throughout the full process, so, for anyone, it can be tiring ... fun, but still tiring, and exhausting.

We're constantly looking for ways to help clients immerse themselves in their new project before it's built. Our new Experience Center will give us the ability to tailor the atmosphere more fully, to help bring the renovation to life, helping clients feel more comfortable with each of those decisions along the way.

The hope is that clients will be able to make decisions faster, more easily, and with a higher degree of confidence, accelerating the process to being able to enjoy their newly renovated home.

3. Looking back over the last 20 years, what's one decision you’ve made that defines how you build?

Sauri: In our early years, a big job went sideways and forced us to lay off most of the team, because I was operating as if I had to know everything myself. That moment hit hard, and I was wrong. The decision I made coming out of it was to stop doing that, to embrace my ignorance, get curious and ask for help.

Since then, I've been much more comfortable saying, "I don't know," and seeking out the expertise that could help. I've realized that you gain trust with clients, and get better results out of your team, when you're willing to admit what you don’t know, and stay open to learning.

Over the years, that mindset has led to countless relationships with experts in all kinds of fields; connections I never would’ve made if I’d kept pretending I knew what they knew. In a strange way, I’m thankful for that horrible experience, because it changed everything for the better. It made me a better builder, and a much better leader.

4. How do you decide where your time makes the biggest impact, and where you deliberately step back?

Sauri: Deborah and I don’t personally touch every project anymore, but our philosophy is in every one of them. We’ve built a team that delivers the same personal, thoughtful experience we always have, just scaled through amazing people who care as much as we do.

In the early days, we were in the weeds on every detail. As we’ve grown, my focus has shifted from training new people in “the TriVista way” to training the trainers, empowering them to lead with the same care, creativity, and responsiveness that built our reputation.

I stay closely connected to how our systems perform and how our clients feel, because that’s what those systems are designed for. Careful training and trust in our team allows us to spend more time looking ahead, studying where the industry’s going, learning from other disciplines, and making sure TriVista keeps attracting and developing people who are as passionate about helping homeowners love their homes as we are.

5. Where are you comfortable taking risks right now, and what informs those decisions?

Sauri: I am always confident betting on my people. No one knows what the future holds, but I know for sure that I want talented, driven, skilled, and empathetic people around me no matter what happens.

We're very transparent with our financials with our team members, so they can understand the kinds of decisions that we have to make at all time. The more they know about our business the more I can trust them to act like owners. So allocating our resources to helping them grow and better understand the business and the industry is going to help us better handle whatever comes our way.

For more insights from the field, read our earlier Builder in 5 interviews, and reach out with suggestions on who we should interview next.