All hands on deck as we try to beat the stormy weather!

Thank You Houzz Community!

We are very excited about 2014!

Maple Stained Tub Panels

TUB & SHOWER - AFTER
A Solid Piece Of Granite Around The Tub Created A Beautiful Seamless Shower Seat Inside The Frameless Shower Glass.
(Professional Photos To Follow - Please Check Back Soon) 

 

Maple Cabinet Panels Were Added Over The Unfinished Maple. 
These Match The New His & Her Vanities Not-Shown. 
(Please Check Back Soon For Those Photos Also)

 

Unfinished Maple Was Applied To Rough Framing.
Flooring Covered & Protected As Standard Procedure.

 

The Rough Framing For The New Drop In Tub Also Created A Shower Bench.
A Beautiful New Picture Window Took The Place Of These Small Windows. 
(Please Check Back Soon For Professional Photos)

 

TUB & SHOWER - BEFORE

Remodeling Professionals MUST Be Resourceful!

Remodeling is very much like performing surgery on a house.  You can’t just tear into it and hope for the best.  Often times you’re trying to match materials that may or may not be available.  Sometimes you have to get creative to tie the elements together.  Sometimes you just get lucky.  Either way, as a Remodeling Professional, you have to be resourceful and you have to put forth the effort to find the matching components whenever necessary.  This resourcefulness doesn’t take decades to develop, but it does take effort. 

 



As you can see in the photo above, the family dog took issue with this beautiful wood casement window.  We could replace the entire unit (very expensive) or attempt to repair the existing window (with no guarantee we could find the matching trim).  So we set out to find the matching trim in order to make the necessary repairs.

Photos of the existing trim were e-mailed to our various suppliers.  None were positive they had a match, so the next step was to visit a few showrooms.  An older window sample in a Kolbe showroom yielded a match.  However, they no longer made that profile.  Luckily there is a Kolbe warehouse in Dallas which gave us some hope.  In the back, hidden behind the newer style trim, was the match we were looking for!  Comparing it to the new 1x4 wood (bottom right photo), you can really see the old trim had been sitting (yellowed) for quite some time.




 

Just Like New Without The Added Expense! 

Cover & Protect Procedures

 

We are all too happy to work around the larger items that a Homeowner may not have room to relocate.  In this event we'll completely encapsulate the items with plastic to protect them from dust.  The floors will be completely covered, as usual, and the A/C vents taped off.  This makes cleanup a snap and assures the Homeowner that their belongings will be protected.

 

 

Meet The Contractor (Video)

Getting Creative To Save The Homeowner Money

This 1960’s constructed shower pan failed (as many do) causing a lot of perimeter water damage.  In particular it damaged the exterior wall sheathing.  Commonly used in that era was exterior gypsum (think drywall); when that stuff gets wet it crumbles. 

Fortunately for the Homeowner only the lower portion got wet.  So in this particular case, it wasn't very practical to remove & reinstall a full masonry brick exterior wall just to replace fewer than 20 square feet of sheathing.  So we had to get creative.

We installed treated 1x2 blocking and wedged the new treated sheathing behind it.  The new sheathing has a small finger sized hole we drilled into it.  This gave us a way to hold the sheathing in place so it could be attached to the 1x2 blocking.  We had to work in small sections, but this approach was very effective and it saved the Homeowner a lot of money.
  
Also of interest, the exterior brick wall was tied to the existing wall framing so we couldn't remove it or risk damaging the brick.  So the newly installed treated wall studs were attached to the old ones so as to transfer the load of the brick ties over onto the new wall framing.
  

SHOWER SIDE

 

BEDROOM SIDE

VIDEO

Wall Mounted Vanity Faucets

The homeowner of this guest bath has opted for wall mounted vanity faucets. These will be gorgeous, but require a lot of careful planning to layout and install. For starters, you can see the existing wall framing had to be cut out and new framing installed for the valves. The valves also needed cross blocking and must be perfectly level. You can see in the above elevation that these valves have a precise finished destination; so we measured more than twice! Check back soon for what will be great finished photos.

 

 

Hand Scraping Hardwoods! (Video)

This is a labor intensive process but there's nothing quite like the look of a genuine hand scraped hardwood floor. 

New Yard Signs have arrived!

BUY. FILL. GONE.

I've been looking for the right opportunity to try Bagster on a smaller demolition project.  This is a 3-yard "bag" that serves as a dumpster.  The bag is sold at your neighborhood big box hardware store.  Once full, call them and they'll send the truck out to haul it off.  It worked great and I'm impressed by the amount of weight it handled.  This is a very user friendly service that would also be ideal for the DIY homeowner.  Just be sure and verify the service is available in your neighborhood by visiting their website below.  www.thebagster.com

Grand Entry - Updated

BEFORE

AFTER

Tile incorrectly installed directly onto sheetrock!

We recently demolished this shower inside a semi-custom production home built in the 90's.  On the left side you can see where the original builder of this home decided to install tile directly onto sheetrock.  Those tiles fell off the wall during demo like butter.  Interestingly enough, on the right side, they installed the tile over green-rock which did not allow any moisture to get through to the layer of sheetrock below.  In fact, we could not even break the tiles off of the green-rock and the entire wall of tile stayed in tack.  The fact that the builder used green-rock on at least one side shows that this builder knew at least one acceptable construction method and chose to cut at least one corner.   

Before and After

Heights Park kitchen and living renovation. This project was a lot of fun and these Clients were a joy to work with! Walls demolished = a truly open layout for some serious entertaining! More photos coming soon.