Posted on
January 12, 2021
I'm sure many of you share my relief in saying goodbye to 2020 and welcoming the new year. I think many of us in the local design & building industry were surprised by just how busy 2020 was in our little corner of the world. With so many people able to work remotely, we saw many of our second homeowners spending a lot of time in their cabins and motivated to make some changes. We also saw a lot of long time visitors who decided to become...
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Now that many of us are spending more time at home, some of us are getting inspired to do a few updates in our home or garden. Now's probably not the time to start tearing out walls unless you are very handy but a fresh coat of paint in the spaces you use the most can make a world of difference. I've been helping clients with color selections on a couple of projects and choosing just the right paint color can be very challenging. There are so...
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Posted on
September 26, 2018
As much as I hate to say it, for most people, buying is the way to go. Right now, in my region, you can almost always buy something for less than it would cost to build exactly the same thing. There are many reasons for that situation including increasingly high labor and material costs (not to mention a shortage of builders), changes in the code and zoning requirements, higher utility connections and impact fees and the natural inclination to include many upgrades in your new dream house. I always recommend...
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Posted on
August 15, 2018
I sit here breathing our smokey air and continuing to count my lucky stars that our local Cal-Fire folks have been doing an extraordinary job of putting out local fires. As I meet with clients, the subject of how to make their new homes as safe from wildfires as possible always comes up. Is it really possible to make your new home completely fire safe?
I suppose it would be possible but it's not likely to be the home you want to live in the rest of the time. Most of...
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So you've found someone you'd like to work with on your new home design or remodeling project and you are going to meet to get started on the design. Now what?
You may have already met with your designer just to get a feel for each other or you may have already provided some of these things, but let's pretend you're starting from scratch. Some of the items listed below may only apply to new homes while others may be more appropriate to remodeling projects so don't worry if something seems...
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Everybody has an idea of what an architect does but most people aren't sure if they really need one for their new home or home renovation project. The answer, of course, is it depends. You are going to see that answer a lot in these blog posts.
Since I'm located in California, my answers are based on what's required or typical in California but the answers will apply, in general, in most places. In California, only architects and engineers are considered licensed design professionals and only a licensed architect may use...
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