Well hello there! If you have been following my social media for the last week or so, you have noticed that we are putting on a one hour class to teach the public how to get a proper contract and good financing for their renovations. Why? You ask, would we do this? I guess the truth is, that both Jonathan (handsome guy in photo above), and I are very nice people. Hah! It’s true. And these two very nice people are very very tired of seeing other very nice people get into financial trouble with shady businesses. When I started my business 17 years ago, I set up accounts with all my suppliers, and they asked me what terms I would like for paymet. 30 days? 60 days? (this means, how long after they deliver the goods do i need to pay for it) My answer was actually this: I will give you a deposit for the goods as is required, and the balance will be on delivery and inspection of the goods. So a day. Why would I do that??? Well, because if you are using a client’s money to pay for goods, then you better use the […]
Well. I don’t often write about what can go wrong on a jobsite. But, being in the world of design and construction, the odds are, something will go wrong every once in a while. Welcome to the bathroom renovation project we are calling Murphy’s Law. What ever could go wrong, did. BUT, because our team is so dedicated and so honourable, our client never had a thing to worry about, and in the end, their master bathroom is just perfect. When our clients called, I was very happy to hear from them. Several years ago we did their kitchen and main floor. Last year, it was his parents kitchen. And now, they trusted us once more to renovate their bathroom, and do a few other things in the house. Before Here is a before photo of their bathroom: The bathtub took up a LOT of space. The shower was super tiny and the vanity didn’t offer the type of storage they wanted. To save a little on the budget, we tried our best to keep the plumbing as close as possible to it’s existing location. That’s a cost savings that most people don’t really consider. It costs a lot […]
April is national stress awareness month. Sounds gross. Feels worse. Stress is a real thing, unfortunately. My assistant found this statistic: At least 1/3 of Canadians feel that they are constantly under stress because they are trying to accomplish more than what they can effectively handle and not taking the time to decompress often enough. That’s a mouthful. It gives me a headache just reading it. So, how can we help? No, I am not coming over with a giant glass of wine. I am not babysitting your kids or making breakfast. But here’s some really good advice, and a few things we can do to ease your troubled mind. You aren’t a contractor or a designer. So plotting to do your own renovation may be a little overwhelming. I can most definitely say, do a little Google-search, and find the perfect team to help you with whatever you plan to do at home. If you’ve read my past blogs, I have discussed at length, the things you should look for in a good team. But what are some essential things a designer can do to guide you into a less stressful life? Here’s a list: 1.We can create […]
Our final goal at this residence was to make the very small and outdated bathroom more functional, and, of course, more visually appealing. The clients originally intended on increasing the size of the bathroom, but time constraints and the loss of much needed bedroom space quickly changed all of our minds. As you look at the ‘before’ photos, notice how the space between the bathtub and the toilet was severely limited. The vanity came past the doorway, an ouchie almost every time someone walked into it. The tiles were, well, not so pretty, and all the fixtures were old, moldy and basically falling apart. The most interesting part of the bathroom was the space between the end of the tub and the window. It was almost a no-brainer. The vanity needed to be custom built to fit into the space allotted for it. That meant a thinner vanity with a very limited sink area. The bowl style vessel sink fit perfectly! What a coo! And the faucet, narrow and high, literally just fit. The drawers underneath the sink have cut-outs in them for the plumbing, and maximize storage space in an area where getting down to open doors and search […]
Well, it was a beautiful morning in July, and my brand new clients asked me to come over and take a look at their bathroom. Ron, my contractor, told them how great I am and that before he even put a quote together, I should come up with a design. That’s how it works, you see….how can the contractor quote something if he doesn’t know what crazy stuff the designer is going to ask for? So after a nice coffee and some good conversation, up we went (up a very super narrow staircase), to take a look at the bathroom. And, well…it’s pretty…petite? About 45 square feet in total. Let’s think of it this way. A bathtub takes up 15 square feet (3’ x 5’), so the rest of the bathroom is about 7’ x 4’. The existing vanity was quite the sore point. Literally…imagine going into a bathroom in the middle of the night and BUMP, into that jut-out? Oh! And there were the tiles, the tape, the weird storage, the ancient rad, the original medicine cabinet and so on and so on. Before Shots: We came up with a pretty classic design. Beautiful black and white tiles, basket-weave […]
