About Good By Ecake
An independent home design publication covering renovations, floor plans, and what residential projects actually cost — reported from the job site, not the showroom.
Our Story
Good By Ecake launched in 2025, but the reporting behind it started twelve years earlier on a 1970s ranch renovation in the Texas Hill Country — the first project where I learned that the gap between design magazines and job sites is wide enough to park a truck in.
Since then, the work has taken me through dozens of residential projects across the country: tract-home updates in Phoenix, whole-house remodels in suburban Atlanta, small-footprint rebuilds in Portland, and a lot of kitchens in between. Good By Ecake exists to document that work — the measurements, the budgets, the contractor conversations, and the things you only learn after the drywall comes down.
We don't cover every trend. We cover what homeowners are actually calling their GCs about this year.
How We Got Here
The reporting pipeline behind the site — twelve years of field notes, not a content strategy.
A 1970s ranch gutted to the studs. Permits, subs, change orders, inspections — the full education.
Short reports on what was working and what wasn't, cross-checked with GCs across Austin and San Antonio.
Started reviewing builder plans for traffic flow, HVAC runs, and the trade-offs the renderings hide.
Transformation posts with line-itemed numbers — not "around $30k." Became the most-read format.
Floor plans, renovations, and regional cost reporting — published from Austin, read nationwide.
Editorial Principles
Four rules the site operates under. Every post has to clear all four.
Honest Cost Breakdowns
Ranges backed by contractor quotes from at least two regions. When a line item is a rough estimate, we say so — in the sentence, not the footer.
Ground-Level Experience
If I haven't walked a site like it or interviewed someone who has, I don't write about it. Renderings and press releases aren't sources.
What Can Go Wrong
Every renovation guide includes a "watch for this" section — permit snags, subfloor surprises, vendor delays. The stuff magazines leave out.
Regional Reality
"National average" cost data is misleading. We publish ranges for specific markets — because Austin isn't Seattle and Phoenix isn't Minneapolis.
What We Cover
Four beats, each built from on-site experience and contractor interviews — not Pinterest summaries.
Floor Plans & Layouts
Bed/bath configurations, square-footage ranges, traffic flow — from 1,200 sq ft cottages to 3,500 sq ft family homes.
Before & After
Honest transformations with the numbers attached: scope, timeline, permits pulled, what went over budget.
Real Cost Breakdowns
Regional pricing for labor and materials across the Sun Belt, Pacific Northwest, and Midwest.
Room-by-Room
Kitchens, primary suites, mudrooms, outdoor spaces — what works, what dates fast, what you can skip.
How We Use AI
We're transparent about this because Google requires it and readers deserve it.
AI helps us scale research across regional cost databases, standardize floor-plan measurements, and draft first passes for long-form guides. Every article is then edited, fact-checked, and signed off by Jon Ecake before publishing. Cost ranges are verified against contractor quotes, and renovation timelines come from real projects — not model estimates.
"AI handles the scale. I handle the judgment. Nothing goes live until I've read it the way a homeowner would."
— Jon Ecake, EditorWhat Makes Us Different
Four things we won't budge on.
One editor, one standard
No rotating freelancers rewriting Reddit threads. Every post is edited by Jon Ecake, with 12+ years of on-site experience as the baseline.
Regional over national
Cost ranges published by specific market — Austin, Phoenix, Atlanta, Seattle, Minneapolis — because that's how budgets actually work.
Budget numbers, in writing
Every renovation post lists labor, materials, permits, and overruns. No vague "moderate investment" language.
No affiliate-first writing
Products are recommended when they've been used or vetted — not because they pay the best commission. Disclosure on every affiliate post.
Our Mission
Help homeowners make five- and six-figure decisions with better information than a glossy magazine or a sponsored blog post will give them.
That's the whole mandate. Practical, regional, honest about costs, and written by someone who has actually held the tape measure.