Our Stories

Izabela Hodana

Assistant Quantity Surveyor

Qualifications: Bachelor of Laws and currently studying for a Masters in Quantity Surveying.

Izabela is an Assistant Quantity Surveyor in the Anglia Commercial Team providing support to Hopkins Homes and Tilia Homes developments in the region. 

Read on to find out about her experiences at a team site visit.

Getting out on site changed something for me

I’ll be honest: most days as an assistant quantity surveyor are spent working through spreadsheets. You’re deep in numbers — tracking costs, reviewing unit rates, building up estimates — and while that analytical side is essential, it can also feel a step removed from the reality of what’s being built.  

You can read about timber frame construction, study the figures, and understand the theory behind it all. But stepping away from the screen and getting out on site is something else entirely — seeing the frame go up in real time, and having someone explain why the programme unfolds the way it does, brings a whole new level of understanding. 

That’s what the site visit in March gave me. 

Two sites. One day. A lot of questions.

We visited two live developments as part of our team’s quarterly site visits in the Anglia region — Halstead and Woolpit, back to back. On paper they’re both residential sites. In reality, they couldn’t feel more different. 

Bournewood Park in Halstead, Essex is a Hopkins Homes development showcasing their 2025 house type range, and it’s also the region’s second timber frame site.  

Woolpit in Suffolk is a dual branded development comprising of The Elms for Hopkins Homes and Kiln Grove for sister brand Tilia Homes, with its own set of constraints and a completely different product.  

Seeing them on the same day, one after the other, meant every comparison happened naturally — “oh, so that’s why this site does it differently.” 

Site Management and our Contracts Manager came along too. Having them there made a real difference. They could walk us through decisions that had already been made — why something was built the way it was, what the challenges had been — in a way that brought the numbers to life. 

“Going together as a team meant I could listen to everyone’s insight and experience. Seeing two very different projects helped me understand how our products can vary depending on the site.” 

The biggest thing? Understanding that context shapes everything. The same product in a different location, with different ground conditions, a different delivery partner, a different house type range — it changes the commercial picture entirely. That sounds obvious when you write it down, but it feels very different when you’re standing in the middle of it. 

I also came away with a much better sense of how the team thinks. When you’re in the office, you hear conversations, you pick things up. But on site, surrounded by the actual work, those conversations have weight. I found myself understanding not just what people were saying, but why. 

And honestly? It made me feel more part of the team. There’s something about sharing a day like that — travelling together, asking questions together, figuring things out together — that you just can’t replicate in a meeting room. 

The next quarterly visit will be in Norfolk. I’m already looking forward to it. 

If you’re a trainee or an apprentice, reading this: Go. Ask questions. Don’t worry about not knowing things — that’s the whole point. Every person who came with us on the day was generous with their time and knowledge, and I left the site knowing things I couldn’t have learned any other way. 

“I know this experience will carry through into my studies and my day-to-day work for a long time. And I’m grateful for it.”