Before + After: Down to the Details

Remodeler Alon Toker's system was a perfect fit for clients Mike and Alice Sloan. Mike Sloan is an accountant who was more interested than most clients in the down-to-the penny cost of each item installed in their small cottage remodel. “It's tough to spend money,” Mike says. “You want a contractor who understands business.”

For his part, Toker, president of Mega Builders in Chatsworth, Calif., says his company excels in design/build work in part because its systems help manage homeowner expectations.

Photo Credit: Alon Toker

The Sloans bought the 850-square-foot house in 1999. They liked the cozy three-bedroom house, but it was outdated and lacked storage space. Though they knew they wanted to remodel, it was important to them to maintain the house's charm. They originally envisioned a modest, $50,000 update but then stepped back to consider a larger project. “We thought about adding a second story, but did not want steps in case we stayed in this house through retirement,” Alice says.

A client at Mike's firm had worked with Toker on a project. Because that client had previously had bad experiences with other contractors, Sloan's firm hired a private investigator to conduct a profile on Toker. “Not only did we come through with flying colors, we did the work and the client was thrilled,” Toker recalls.

Toker gave the Sloans three design options. As he sometimes does for his clients, Toker included a ballpark cost for each design based on his experiences with similar projects. “I include a disclaimer that says these figures are guesstimates, because they don't include engineering or full product specifics,” Toker says. Providing ballpark figures prevents the sticker shock many clients feel during the bidding process, according to Toker. “We tell people: You hire us for beautiful design, you give us budget guidelines, we design to those budget guidelines,” Toker says.

When he finalizes construction documents, the remodeler allows clients to use them to get other bids. “If we did our job well, all other competent companies should be in the same ballpark,” he says. “But our hope is that you spent time with us — you have an idea of how well we communicate. For an additional competitive advantage, we also credit back 50% of our design fee toward the construction contract.”

The Sloans decided to upgrade the living room and the kitchen, remove one of the bedrooms to provide for larger rooms, and extend the back of the house by 14 feet.

Photo Credit: Alon Toker

The project took 18 weeks to complete. The Sloans moved into a nearby apartment so they could visit the project daily. Their construction contract was for $170,000, which included the kitchen and living room cabinets. In addition, they spent $40,000 on products and some outside subcontractors. Unlike many design/build remodelers, Toker allows his clients to purchase products and pay subcontractors directly.

To finance the project, the Sloans went to a bank Toker recommended. Toker uses the institution for his own speculative project loans and says they are competent and competitive. He usually mentions this option to clients. “I look at financing as added value. The more value I can bring to the table, the better I stand up in the mind of the prospect,” Toker says. Though it is a common practice in the finance industry to provide the contractor with a referral fee, he does not accept one. “Instead, I ask them to make the loan more competitive,” Toker says.

The Sloans wanted an open living area, so they asked Toker to remove the wall between the kitchen and the living room. The crew installed three floor-to-ceiling windows on the front of the house to replace the two small original windows. The design also included moving the window in the kitchen to center it on the wall and shifting the exterior door to create a breakfast nook. The new door has opaque glass to bring in light while preserving privacy.

The couple originally chose vinyl windows but later upgraded to stain-grade Douglas fir wood double-hung windows with true divided lights. Toker recommended a local window maker that charges 30% to 50% less than some larger, national manufacturers.

Remodeler Alon Toker opened up the cramped living area of this cottage by removing the wall between the living room and the dining room.

Photo Credit: Alon Toker

Alice chose a wood casement above the sink in the kitchen so she could easily open and close it with the crank. The single vinyl window is in the hall bath above the tub. Toker suggested vinyl to avoid the water damage he found in the original wood window. The owners also upgraded from paint-grade interior doors to stain-grade wood to match the windows. In the final stages, they also upgraded to stain-grade casing and trim.

One of Toker's designs had a peninsula dividing the living room from the kitchen, but Alice felt that was too tight and asked for an island. The stove is in the island, and instead of using an over-head hood, which would have made the space feel closed-in, Toker suggested a range with a downdraft system.

The cabinetmaker who crafted the maple kitchen cabinets also created the built-in entertainment cabinet in the living room. The couple downloaded specifications for their new television from the manufacturer's Web site, but the width and height of the TV were interchanged on the site. The cabinetmaker built according to the specs he was given. When Toker saw the odd tall opening in the unfinished piece in the shop, he knew something was wrong and immediately sent a digital picture to the Sloans. The cabinetmaker crafted a new center unit with the correct dimensions. Toker charged the Sloans a few hundred dollars for the net cost of the wasted materials. “Luckily, the error was identified before the more costly elements (door, finish, install) were done,” Toker says.

The new island (left) allows for good traffic flow and has a high countertop to hide the downdraft range. Toker added a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows to bring natural light into the room. He also replaced the solid side door with one made of opaque glass.

Photo Credit: Alon Toker

The design called for extending the back of the house by 14 feet and the side of the house by 5 feet to line up with the garage. The expansion required changing the roof pitch, which was originally centered on the house but was shifted to balance the new addition. Along the back wall, Toker suggested extending the extra bedroom by 2 feet to break up the large expanse of straight wall on the rear elevation.

The extra space in the master bedroom allowed for a spacious walk-in closet and a larger bathroom. To provide privacy in the bath, Toker installed a horizontal sliding window with opaque glass. It has muntins to echo the traditional windows in the rest of the house.

The owners added interest and luxury to the master bath by lining the floors and walls with marble tiles in a range of sizes and shapes. The frameless glass shower enclosure makes the room feel more spacious.

Photo Credit: Alon Toker

The Sloans chose dramatic marble tiles for the bath, but Toker suggested using different sizes and an accent color to create interest. The final design has hand-cut marble in a subway pattern on the wall, a stripe of blue glass accent tile capped with a marble ledge, smaller subway mosaic tile for the side of the tub, and larger squares on the floor. The team fit two sinks, a whirlpool tub, and a shower into the 10-foot-square master bath.

To keep it from feeling cramped, the Sloans chose pedestal sinks and a frameless glass shower enclosure. With the opening and closing of the heavy glass door, the shower side panels developed some “play,” so Toker returned and added brushed nickel braces for stability.

The Sloans found it difficult to choose all the products required for the project by the deadlines.

“Many clients ask for the full list, but I give it to them a little at a time, making clear what are ‘now' items,” Toker says. As he did with the Sloans, Toker reminds customers about selections at their weekly meetings and asks to inspect the products.

When it comes to product selection, Alon Toker says remodelers have three basic options. The first is to have the remodeler specify the products that will be used in the project. “We price it and name all items, which is not practical from my point of view,” he says. It does not allow the customers to reflect their own style. Also, for larger projects, there might be many months between product specification and when the materials are needed on the job. “The cost could have completely gone out of ballpark, and it's a tremendous amount of work when one does not have a contract yet,” he says.

The second option is for the remodeler to give homeowners an allowance for all the different selections such as appliances, tile, fixtures, etc. Toker is not a big fan of this option, either. “I'd rather keep my markup safe per each dollar collected than collect more dollars with an eroding markup,” Toker says.

He prefers to completely exclude the cost of certain materials from the contract. “Anything that is not an integral part of an assembly is something the homeowners can and should buy separately,” he says. He makes the schedule and gives clients selection dates. He goes through the specifications with them and reviews the products. “It brings more value to the homeowner and liberates us from selections, and it does not compromise our markup,” he says. If homeowners are overwhelmed by selections, they often hire an interior decorator.

Due to the house's proximity to the beach, owner Mike Sloan was concerned about water damage. Remodeler Alon Toker says he uses systems that meet code, but in this case, he went above and beyond to assuage Sloan's apprehension. For stucco houses in California, the code requires a single layer of 20-minute paper under the metal lath. Toker's crew installed two layers of 60-minute paper. To provide extra protection for the new hardwood floor, he included a second vapor barrier between the new plywood and the existing subfloor.

Likewise, he waterproofed door and window openings with both sheet metal and bituthane, a rubberized asphalt membrane. The remodeler now does this on all projects. “It's a marginal additional cost, and I like the peace of mind it gives us,” Toker says.