kitchens

90% Done, 75% to Go!

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When it comes to closing a renovation project, that old saying holds true: the devil is in the details. It’s a time when having logged your 10,000 hours counts, and we’ve even coined a phrase for it: “90% done, 75% to go.” Because while the big, fancy and expensive pieces are installed and complete, there is still a large pile of teeny, tiny details to get done. It’s these details — the last 75% — that make your project look finished.

Here is a snap of some of the things that still need to be installed at this small, whole-house renovation we’re doing for the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The house is in a nice neighborhood in the city’s East Mount Airy section. It’s not a fancy project, but the details still count.

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Make it Boaty!

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In our work, just as in many other professions, tidiness is important.

Recently, I attended a wooden boat show in Clayton, NY, home of the amazing Antique Boat Museum. Clayton, a pretty old town with lots of cafes and shops, sits on the St. Lawrence River, close to Lake Ontario and Canada. It is a tidy place. Things are well kept and well built, and efficient use is made of space there. I use a catch phrase for these qualities. When I want our designers to find space for storage or for the field crews to make things tidy, I say, “Make it boaty!”

You can see from these images that, on a boat, you must use space very efficiently and make sure that things get put away. Loose items can break or injure people when the boat rocks. In emergencies, items left lying around can cause serious problems.

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Home Changes, Life Changes

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Many of our customers of replica handbags have older homes, in which large, complex or expensive projects have been delayed. Sometimes, the needed renovations are really overdue, but we are glad our customers waited until they found us to work on their homes.

Renovating a home is stressful. It costs money — sometimes a lot of it. Just to remind ourselves of these facts, we renovate our own homes from time to time.

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Photo Tour: A Trip To The Stone Yard

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Many folks who have renovated their kitchen or bathroom are familiar with stone showrooms. That’s where they go to select the stone product to be used in their project.

Because of what I do for a living, I get to peek behind the fancy showroom into the work areas of the fabricator. It’s a very dangerous place. You’ll notice the heavy stone slabs are strapped tightly to their frames so they don’t fall over.

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How Do You Know When It’s Time? Part II

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All of us have annoying things in our homes or offices that we live with but don’t have to. It’s good to watch for the adaptive behavior these things make us do. It tells you there is probably something in your home or office you are making do with, that could be changed to make life easier for you. Sometimes it’s a door or lock that sticks. In this case, we’ll take a look at electricity issues.

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Design to Build = The Better Way to Go

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At Myers Constructs, Inc., we use the phrase “Design to Build”™. It is our trademarked remodeling system.

You’ve all heard about terrible remodeling projects where the project goes over budget and takes forever to complete, while no one knows what’s happening, and the homeowners are suffering while waiting for the next shoe to drop.

That’s not us! Our system takes the chaos and stress out of your home renovations. This system is great for commercial projects, too.

Design to Build™ means we only design what you want and can afford. We don’t design with the aim of piling up billable hours like some people. That’s because our business model is based on what we build, not on design time we bill for.

We won’t design highfalutin flying buttresses (or other misfit architectural details) on your addition just because they’re really cool. We understand your home’s style and we Design to Build™ using that style as a taking-off point. The result is a long-lasting project, built on time and on budget, with few or no surprises.

This means that you can relax knowing that you’ll be pleased with the results of this system. Why not go ahead and schedule that vacation while we complete your project for you? Many of our customers do.

What is an Air Switch?

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Here is a photo of an air switch kit.

We use these all the time in our kitchens. These “air powered” switches use a puff of air to turn on your garbage disposal.

The black box and hoses are mounted and plugged in, under your sink in the cabinet. All you see from the sink side is the chrome button of the switch. A hole is cut in the stone to allow this to be mounted next to the kitchen faucet.

With this air switch, you never have to touch your electrical appliance (disposal) and water at the same time. Neither do you have to put your hand into a sink full of greasy dirty water, using the batch feed handle some disposals come with.

These list for about $140.00 plus installation. We’ve used cheaper in the past, but this brand is the best we’ve used.

Christmas Counter Tops

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We are re-tuning a kitchen for a family who just bought this 1960’s rancher. The kitchen was not very old and the cabinets were pretty good, so we decided to work with them. This kitchen tune-up approach is much cheaper than replacing a whole kitchen.

Here are some photos of the new counter tops going in. You’ll see some of the challenges we had to work with to get things looking right.

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