The challenge
Grain Construction had built its reputation on Salt Spring Island the traditional way: good work, word of mouth, and an Instagram account. No website, ever. When Dan and Kaitlan reached out, the timing had a deadline attached — they were printing stickers for the company vehicles, so the domain had to be locked in before anything else. grainconstruction.ca was still available, and it was theirs within days.
The bigger challenge was the portfolio. Years of projects lived across a photo library of over three hundred raw shots — resort cabins, residential builds, renovations — with nothing organized or ready for the web.
What I built
A four-page site shaped around the way construction clients actually evaluate a builder: they want to see finished work. I curated the photo library down to 291 web-ready images across thirteen distinct projects, each with its own gallery page, so a visitor can walk through a single build from start to finish rather than scrolling a wall of unrelated photos.
The homepage leads with a featured project and the company’s own branding — their real logo, their copper-and-black palette, their fonts. Services, the project gallery, and a contact form round out the site, with every path pointing at one action: get in touch about your build.
The whole site runs on a simple editing dashboard. Kaitlan handles updates herself — new projects, new photos, wording changes — without touching code or waiting on a developer. Even the testimonial section is built honestly: it stays hidden until real client reviews arrive, rather than padding the site with fakes.
The result
grainconstruction.ca went live about a month after the go-ahead — the company’s first website, on a domain they own outright, matching the stickers on their trucks. Dan and Kaitlan signed off on every detail, and the site now does the quiet work a builder’s site should: showing the craftsmanship before the first phone call.
“The entire experience was outstanding from start to finish. The process was seamless, his communication was excellent, and the attention to detail he put into every aspect of the site was exceptional. He made everything easy and delivered a website that exceeded our expectations.”
— Dan Smith, Grain Construction