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What makes Mazmanian, a certified professional behavior analyst, so certain of the qualities of his client's employees is a combination of experience and tools. He has been working with contractors for 15 years and uses the DiSC, a behavioral profiling tool used since 1945 on about 20 million...
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Go it alone or team up? The rewards and perils of partnership.
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By adding just 800 square feet to this 1960s rambler, Minneapolis design/build firm Sylvestre Construction was able to create a more family-friendly house. The designers enclosed an adjacent porch to make room for a new kitchen with a long, sleek island and create a larger dining room with a...
Designer Ramina Kashani transformed an outdated guest bathroom into this serene, spa-like retreat by stealing just a little space from an adjacent closet and putting her mind to work.
To list “add a level of polish” as one of your goals in remodeling an AIA-award-winning house demands a bit of hubris; architect Andre Fontaine complemented his with greater measures of skill and restraint. His design ties the addition so seamlessly into the existing house that one judge on a first...
Talented subcontractors, cooperative homeowners, efficient production — these may be important to the success of a remodel. Even more important to unlocking a room's potential, however, is a fertile imagination.
Often the most glaring flaw in a poorly designed addition is that the new work screams out its newness; it shamelessly calls attention to the place where one designer's vision ends and another's begins. This addition to a Second Empire home, on the other hand, creates a whole new house.
The architect/contractor team crafted such a dramatic transformation of this 1940s neo-Colonial house that the final structure is barely recognizable, the judges said. The original house had box-like rooms and bad circulation. The homeowners asked the architect to expand the space on both floors to...
Unlike in Washington, D.C., 40 miles east, space in rural The Plains, Va., is not so dear a commodity; with their property encompassing 32 acres of fields and rolling hills, the owners of this farmhouse had plenty. What these clients of Anthony Barnes and Timothy Clites needed was for the...
Impressive as they are, the towering front elevations of this historic home say little about its latest renovation. To see what architect Stephen Muse and remodeler Carl Petty's LifeCraft accomplished, you have to begin in the back.
Though the owners of this 1920s Craftsman house wanted a larger home to accommodate their six-member family, it was important to them that the new design have traditional features that fit the neighborhood. They also wanted details and products that matched the original house.
The addition is not only angled outward — it is angled upward. Otjen raised parts of the ceiling from 8 feet to 15 feet. During the first drafts of the design, Otjen thought about creating an open loft above the kitchen. But the vaulted ceiling fit better with the rooflines of the original house...
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The winners of this year's REMODELING Design Awards showcase the best in residential and light commercial remodeling. From historic renovations that nod to the past to contemporary projects that wink at the future, the projects highlight the work of talented design and construction teams. A...
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Anyone with an Internet connection can log on and see for themselves the customer service record of most remodelers. And there's nothing wrong with that. But what happens when the remodeler needs protection from the homeowner?
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In late June, Hayward, Calif., replacement contractor American Home Craft settled its lawsuit with the California attorney general.
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Despite a recovering economy and other positive economic indicators like continually low interest rates, now is not the easiest time to be a remodeler. Several factors are contributing to job pricing volatility, making life difficult for contractors already struggling to sell prices to homeowners...
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The 17th Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition, conducted jointly by the American Society of Civil Engineers and concrete supplier Master Builders, was held in Reston, Va.
I spent 20 years as a remodeler and never once during that time took a proper vacation. But those of you reading this still have a chance to turn yourselves around. Here are some simple but critical rules.