Aug
24
Sometimes you don’t know where a chance meeting will take you. But a chance meeting with a super charged Half Moon Bay business woman led to a discussion about kitchen design. She said, “I heard you talking to that other woman there, yes, I admit I was eavesdropping, but it was very interesting. You say you are a Kitchen and Bath designer?” “Yes.” “And you were talking about Plans. I have a kitchen designer, we’ve been working on my kitchen for four months and I don’t have any plans. Are you supposed to have plans? All I have is a garage full of appliances, and I can’t park my car in it.”
She was very funny. And we laughed a lot. And exchanged contact informa
tion, but, as I explained, I wouldn’t tred on someone else’s turf. About six months later she sent me a short email. “No kitchen remodel. Appliances too big. Need to sell. Can you help?” So, I started sending out small sensors to find someone who might be interested in a great deal on a 48″ professional Thermador Range and Canopy Hood, a set of Kitchen Aid dishwasher drawers, and a 36″ Architect Series Kitchen Aid built in Refrigerator. A bargain. It took a few months, but one day, a young couple wrote and said they were really interested! They lived in San Francisco, and dreamed of the range, but it was totally out of their budget, unless they could negotiate a deal for these. They were so excited! We all met, and it was a lovefest! The dogs, the Smart Car, the Thermador, the price.
They needed help moving the items, so we helped with that. And my friend who sold them the appliances, highly recommended getting some plans! (From me, of course.) They thought about it a bit, and as they wanted to get the job permitted, get great cabinets, and then do the tile work themselves, they asked Bob & I to work with them. It was an absolute blast from start to finish. We measured and measured, we moved things around, we tried to get in a place for M to sit, but that wasn’t going to happen. J wanted so much to save the old spice cabinet…couldn’t let it go. But finally we were ready to demo and get the job done. It went fast and easy, and, as with any creative project, new things came to light as old things disappeared. M got her counter and stools! There was so much light! And J had his gadget garage located just where he needed it.
Not only fun, but a beautiful result with careful planning at a great price. Thank you 
everyone who brought us 
together!
Aug
20
A low budget can mean choosing a vinyl flooring product, an
d most often I would work with a Marmoleum or Congoleum flooring. They have a good brand name, longevity, and great variety. If you look at the kitchens on our web site and view the beautiful green marble kitchen with Shaker cabinets, you would think that it had a custom wood floor. WRONG! It is a custom laid Congoleum the owner had for years, because they have lots of pets. Hardwood floors and dogs don’t mix well, without a lot of upkeep. In a bathroom, it is even thriftier to choose a vinyl sheet (I prefer sheets to tiles, less messy, less opportunity to fail from corners turning up). There are terrific, inexpensive GREEN options here, Marmoleum and Corkoleum. While having a lovely range of colors, they are mostly swirly looking random patterns, no faux ‘tile’ look or nifty patterns, but you can create your own patterns by using Corkoleum click system tiles. Flooring made from Marmoleum has been a mainstay floor covering for over 100 years because it is one of the few products made from primarily natural raw materials.
T
he next
low budg
et option is Porcelain tile. Porcelain tile comes in so many different styles, you can do ANYTHING with the floor. You just have to make the design decision about the style of the room: is it modern, country, beachy, traditional, any style has a porcelain tile that will fit. Porcelain is so flexible, it can mimic any stone or wood so that you cannot tell the difference from just walking on it.
The options I like best these days are the porcelain tiles that look like real hardwoods. Feataured here in this photo are Graniti Fiandre NIHON floor tiles, that come in various sizes, from wood planks to large squares. There are MANY companies making great looking wood-styles for floors, my favorites come from Eurowest/Graniti Fiandre, because they are well priced, and I can pass this saving along to my customers. My work ethic actually prevents me from gouging my clients! I charge cost +15 or 20%, that’s it. Since we are also a construction company, if we are going to be doing the work, I charge 15%. If not, I charge 20%. Many porcelain tiles provide a good co-efficiency of friction for baths, and look cool in kitchens, and they DO NOT SCRATCH like wood and are so easy to maintain if you have children, pets, or both.
I try to discourage real hardwood floors in the kitchen for families or people Aging In Place. It is much less expensive and easy to maintain a Pergo-type wood floor, and your floor will always look great. If an adult couple with no children want to put hardwood in their kitchen, then that’s okay as long as they are aware of the upkeep requirements. We recommend installing prefinished hardwood, because using unfinished wood is a long and expensive process, best left to to people with a lot of time and money. I’ve seen folks who, after investing a lot of money, loose their passion for the wood floor once the first scratch, stain, or heel mark settles in.
Brands sometimes play a role, as I do direct sell at least 10 different manufacturers tile. So, of course, those are the brands I look to first. And, if something works well for a specific area, I tend to use it all the time. For example, Dal Tile Keystones Mosaics in 2” or 3” size are PERFECT for shower floors. So I spec them consistently, and the range of available colors allow me to always make a design statement if the client is up for it. A stark white bath with a little black accent tile on the floor and in the shower: we suggested the client use BLACK Keystones for the shower pan.. She loves it! In another mostly white bath, with a deco line of mosaic Glasstile in blue/green ocean colors, we used a match to one of the aqua colors, again, playful, but sophisticated. And, at the Beach House Inn in HMB shower remodel I did last year, we used 3 colors of Chiaro glass tile on white walls, and matched a yellow to the flooring in the shower, and it is so pretty. The colored tile floor has the advantage of being easier to keep clean-looking for longer than a stark white or off-white shower floor. Same with pebbles. If they don’t want the Keystones, I try to get them to use Island Stone Pebbles. Again, for the texture and to make it just a little bit more fun.
The higher the budget, the more likely a client will choose a pebble or other textured tile. A low budget or someone with other priorities (ADA remodel) will choose the Keystones. I have not found a product from another vendor quite like this one. If you use the Dal Tile website, you can probably get a 2×2 sample of this tile to see what I mean.
Again, as budgets increase, options increase, and you can move into the natural stone choices, like limestone (I LOVE this on a floor), honed, Marble, Tumbled Marble and Mosaics, or more interesting porcelain tiles. If the client is concerned about GREEN, there are many choices manufactured in Green facilities, but finding “green” porcelain LEED certified is still difficult, because most factories are not within 500 miles of major metro areas. There are other standards being developed to address this issue.
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