2011 Open House

Since we had so much fun last year, we decided to welcome the change of seasons with a celebration for family & friends. It was a great afternoon where hungers were satisfied, new friends were made and old ones celebrated, while the smell of fall christened it at. Thanks to all who came and made the event such a special day. We look forward to next year!

Recent Job - photos & review

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER Interior

Project entailed an addition of a sun room & garage, remodeled existing garage to new master bedroom, kitchen remodel & extension featuring custom kitchen cabinets, not to mention numerous other house improvements.

And here is what the client had to say when it was all said & done:

Aiding the Material Selection Process

I've pulled up some of our old Google Sketch-up models and rendered them. I'm discovering and experimenting with its material palette, specifically how I can apply from a picture the actual material to a surface. For example, the first rendering below has the actual tile floor that we used, shower walls & feature strip. And if you notice the mirror has the actual reflection of the bathroom, which I obviously took after the bathroom was finished. My hope is that this can be a tool for material selection for future projects. For example, I can propose say three options to a client and apply actual wall color, granite color, faucets, tile color & texture, etc to aid in the material selection process. Pretty soon running around town to the tile shop, granite shop, plumbing showroom etc will be a thing of the past!

Another Satisfied Customer

This is a recent review we just received on Angie's List & I thought it was worth sharing. Nothing makes us more elated as a company than such a review:

The Meyers completely remodeled our small 32 year old kitchen. The work included gutting the kitchen down to the studs, removing an existing wall, installing new drywall, adding additional lighting and electrical wiring, providing some plumbing and HVAC changes, installing all new appliances, painting, tiling the backsplash, and designing, creating and installing custom cabinets. 

This is a family-owned business and it's evident that all of these men take pride in their work. The custom cabinets are absolutely gorgeous and more beautiful than I had expected. Their woodworking skills are top-notch. They are true professionals and are very easy to work with. All of their sub-contractors are also great.
From the initial design and planning to final touchups, it was a great experience. They were prompt, stayed on schedule, cleaned up after themselves, quickly responded to any minor issues that popped up and just are an overall great group of guys. 

It's very obvious that all of the Meyer brothers and sons are dedicated to their craft and enjoy what they do. It's so refreshing to encounter people who consider customer satisfaction a real priority. They willingly accommodated every one of my "picky" little concerns. I just can't say enough good things about these guys and the quality and professionalism of their work. I was dreading the mess and disruption of a remodel, but they made it almost painless. Not least of all, they all have a positive attitude and a great sense of humor. 

We love our new kitchen. It's so efficient and absolutely stunning. Everything just came together perfectly. I just love every single thing about it. The space feels so much larger and I have lots of storage and counter space which was lacking on our old kitchen. It looks like something you would see on TV or in a magazine. I have my dream kitchen. I wish we had done this years ago.

A must read before remodeling

A well-researched & well-thought client of ours passed this article along to me that he found informative prior to us beginning his kitchen remodel. The article is from Money Magazine, June 2011, entitled How to Stick to Your Remodeling Budget.

"Everyone knows that the four most expensive words in remodeling are 'while we're at it...' Yet as any big project unfolds, you'll face innumerable temptations to upgrade the materials, features, and even layout you originally planned. Spending a few hundred extra for, say, pricier backsplash, tiles or a few thousand to add organizing systems to your new closets may be money well spend, but your cost will eventually soar into the stratosphere. Follow these tips for staying close to the expenses you intended.

The primary cause of busted budgets late in the game is having unrealistic cost expectations to begin with, says Eden Prairie, Minn., contractor Mark Mackmiller. You can avoid them by making as many specific product choices as possible early on. So as you plan your project, go to the tile shop, the stone yard, the plumbing supply, and the lighting store and make your selections - or at least figure out what price range they'll be in. Otherwise your contractor will give you a guesstimated 'allowance' for each item, which may not be enough.

One you've drawn up your budget, add 10% as a contingency fund. That's for surprises that are beyond your control, like termite damage or rotted framing. The good news is that those problems arise as soon as demolition is done and the contractor can see inside the walls and ceilings. Get past this phase, and the remainder of the contingency is fair game for upgrades and extras, says architect Lori Stephens of Corvallis, Ore. Just decide quickly whether you're changing the layout, because once the crew installs framing, plumbing and wiring, undoing that work would add even more cost.

Tell your contractor - or better yet, write into your contract - that you want 'written change orders.' That means you get a black-and-white description and price for any add-ons, which you sign before the work commences. (If your contractor balks at extra paperwork, have him jot the information on the back of your contract and initial it). That prevents surprises - and makes it easy to track your bottom line..."

Latest Kitchen

Here are some pictures of our most recent kitchen renovation. I particularly like this one for it's unique door style, which is an updated take on the traditional shaker door. This is the first kitchen we have done using this door, and it was based on an existing piece of Amish made furniture she had in her dining room. And by removing the wall separating the kitchen from the dining room, we greatly increased the openness of the home which made for a dramatic change.

What is great about making cabinets from scratch is we can do whatever we want, the only limitation we have is our imagination. The owner had the idea to have a glass panel above a wood panel in the same door on either side of the range. Other cabinet companies either said they couldn't do it or had a large additional fee to do so. Since everything for us is handmade, it was not problem to meet that need of hers for minimal cost. With lights in that cabinet, it makes for a great showpiece.  Also, the corner glass cabinets were created to replace the old china cabinet & also were designed to soften the corner, creating a smoother, less harsh transition into the kitchen. The back of the peninsula was designed & built to allow access to otherwise dead space against the wall. Even though it is not a big kitchen, it is packed with unique details & features maximizing storage & aesthetic beauty.

Here is what the kitchen used to look like, highlighting the dramatic change that took place:

Towing the Line

It seems like every project, big or small, perpetuates the epic struggle between total project costs and client wants (less than needs). And as a human, I am in this boat, for I think it is a human condition...or maybe more specifically an American human condition: want more for less. I could go down a philosophical dirt road of the cultural reason behind that, but I'll stick to architecture here. In this same struggle is trying to figure out how far to take a project, specifically in remodeling. We often tell our clients you can spend $ x and get something close to want you want, or you can spend $ x plus say 15% and get actually what you want. The last thing we want for our clients is to spend alot of money and not get exactly what they want when they can spend a little more and get what they want (please bear in mind these are brash generalizations). Short sidedness is hard to come over, especially as money starts to flow beyond expectations. With all that said, I feel we as a company working together with our clients have, project after project, won this struggle and found a balance so that at the end of the day, our clients are thrilled with the project outcome.

The below project is an example of towing that line, trying to make something fit into the site, perform as an efficient home, meet the clients functional needs and excel at the aesthetic value. In design we try to be smart and efficient, spending money where it counts most and trying to save it where it counts least. I will be interested on how this project, like all of them, come together in the end.