Me × ChatGPT × the Market: 251 Days of Negotiations, Fights, and Ceasefires
Quick preface: when I started, the Codex AI Agent (code-writing agent) didn’t exist yet. And even when it appeared, it took me a while to truly “get it.” These days I do the same kind of work about 10× faster, and it usually takes me around 1–2 weeks.
Still, the longer path you’ll read below turned out to be a great boot camp. It taught me the basics that now make working with Codex feel solid.
Official timeline:
December 5, 2024 — start.
August 13, 2025 — the MVP version of the site was ready.
Between those dates I moved from “I don’t understand what I’m doing” to “I understand this 5–10× better.”
Does that mean I’ve mastered website building? Not really. It feels like early-level XP (experience points) in something like Diablo II or Mass Effect 1: the first upgrades are cheap, you hit the first ~10 levels fast, and then the grind begins. That’s the exact vibe here.
At the start I knew f*** all about WordPress (WP). Now I understand it roughly 10× better. There’s also another 50× of depth waiting if I keep going.
At the start I knew almost nothing about CSS. Now I’m better by ~5–6×. And I’m still learning. Still learning. Still learning.
At the start I didn’t understand HTML markup inside PHP files. Now I do more than I did. And I can see how far the rabbit hole goes.
JavaScript (JS) is funny: I’ve grown, genuinely. Maybe 1–2 levels out of 50. For real.
Overall, though, the jump is massive. I can feel how custom site-building on WP is wired. I can read it. I can reason about it. I can fix things without praying.
I built this alongside ChatGPT-4o. We used dialogue to break down structure, copy, and logic. I asked it to generate HTML markup, then “thread” CSS onto it, then add small JS behaviors.
The site was built for a very specific job: qualifying my lead. Its global purpose is to be a magnifying glass. A place where we can be examined as contractors, slowly and carefully.
That’s why there aren’t many buttons screaming “lead form” from every corner. I leaned on my video-game instincts here. Sometimes the user shouldn’t be allowed to skip. Sometimes you guide the experience by controlling the exits.
This site should help a person decide quickly: “Are we heading the same way?” I’m betting on people who enjoy thinking. Let the filtering happen right on the pages.
How well this works will be told by future SEO, traffic management, and analytics. The site is littered with GA4 event triggers. Breadcrumbs, basically. They’ll help me measure the user experience that leads to lead qualification and lead generation.
Five things I’m genuinely proud of:
- The homepage has a clear axis: marketing as a confession of love — my value stance.
- “Why us” shows values, boundaries, and reasons to work together. It’s easy to make a decision if you dig into that page.
- “Services” is a route built around a goal. There’s navigation that lets you assemble a path and understand how we’ll move.
- A calm visual rhythm. It reads easily. Nothing presses on you. Meanings stay intact. Some text is tucked under buttons, so perception stays clean.
- Every block answers “why.” The page is designed to lead you into the next meaningful step.
And still, it’s not all sweet.
A site is a system. Now I’ll be improving situation after situation:
— Desktop layout
— Mobile layout
— A few behavior responses via JS
— SEO, SEO, SEO (plus content)
— Even more event triggers for deeper analytics
— And so on…
Also: I love the system of symbols I hid inside the footer quotes.
Scroll down. You’ll see it.