Design Set Match

🎃 When you start opening walls, you never know what you’ll find… Sometimes, the surprises behind drywall can be downright terrifying! 👻

But don’t worry — at DesignSetMatch, we speak contractor. 🛠️ From our very first consultation through post-construction, we’re your advocate and your translator, making sure you always feel informed, confident, and empowered — no matter how big or small your renovation may seem.

Behind every wall there’s a story — luckily, we don’t scare easy. 🏡✨

Together, #WeCanDoIt.

We are proud #WomenInConstruction — and we conjure dreams into beautifully built realities, no magic wand required. 💪🎃

Remodeling your home is an investment. Whether you are remodeling for resale or for your own enjoyment and improved function it is important to know what you are diving into as much as possible ahead of time.

Over the last 10+ years, we have been providing homeowners with schematic designs so they can dip their toe in the water and feel-out their “new” kitchen or bathroom before making a commitment. We find this important to foster early conversations around expectations with their remodeling team regarding timing, costs, and overall feel. Computer generated renderings to compare with an existing space allows everyone, including those who are “not visual” to see how their home can transform, and guide conversations with their designer as they make decisions regarding materials, opening walls, and improving practical items like increased countertop space and lighting.

Now at Design Set Match, we can also provide a 360° panorama of our Schematic Designs, that homeowners can access online (anonymously) at their leisure from their computers or other devices, share with their friends and family, and simply daydream with a realistic vision ahead of them.

We’re often asked to talk about the mistakes that people make when remodeling. Other remodeling professionals ask us. Clients ask us. Mistakes happen. Recognizing that each client and remodel is different – we discover new mistakes all the time – here’s a list we hope you will find helpful.

1. Unrealistic Expectations

So many of us indulge in TV shows that are inspiring and encourage us to improve our lifestyles, declutter, and make our homes beautiful. These programs also do us a disservice. While many of them show some of the costs of products, they neglect to give us a reality check on what the real cost for living and remodeling in the San Francisco Bay Area would be. We need to adjust our mindsets around the cost of living in this market and what it takes to pay quality employees a real living wage compared to other parts of California and across the nation.

2. Not Hiring a Remodeling Team

The best way to start setting our expectations, whether it is planning a wedding, preparing for a new baby or remodeling a kitchen and bathroom, is to make an appointment and interview remodeling professionals. Meet in person, bring photos of what you have now, show them what is and isn’t working and show them some of your inspiration images on Houzz, Pinterest, and even vacation photos of a hotel your family stayed in over the summer. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and ask about the costs of other projects they’ve recently completed that may be similar to your own.

3. Not Trusting Your Gut Instinct

The most important questions you can ask are to yourself. After you’ve met with a Designer, Architect, or Contractor, ask yourself these three simple questions: How did I feel? Could I trust them in my personal space? Did they listen to me and seem to understand, or did they force their ideas instead? These three questions can help keep you honest with yourself and help find the right designer to work with you.

4. Budget Driven Decisions

Buyer beware. During this interviewing process and discussing possible costs for your investment, you will come across a variety of responses. There is almost always someone who was so low it seems too good to be true. This is the same when selecting materials like faucets and cabinets. If you’re remodeling to “flip” or for resale of your home in just a few years you can probably be happy with the lowest end of product selections. But if you’re remodeling to stay in your home for 5+ years. You will get what you pay for, always. The uncertainty is in what will be significantly different than what you are anticipating. It could be the quality and longevity, timing and delays, or communication and lack of customer service.

5. Unprepared Construction Start

Plan your remodel to be a success, be fully prepared when construction starts. Have detailed plans, specifications, materials ordered and on site or on their way and no loose ends so that you don’t end up scrambling at the last minute and sacrificing for what fits your home with an “I guess can live with it” mentality.

In every good novel there is an experience, an emotional roller coaster, that takes us through the dramatic and mundane as well as the ecstatic and chaotic. A remodeling adventure is no different. On a scale of 0-100% I've created a graph showing what our family has experienced up to this point. 

A few weeks ago a colleague thought he was more excited about my new home than I was. But then only a week later, a friend at church mentioned I looked happy for the first time in a long while. When I made this graph a few days later I realized my colleague was experiencing my letdown of relentless paperwork and uncertainty of waiting to close while my friend saw me a few days after we closed and received the keys to our first home! 

While other life factors cause stress and impact how we relate to the world around us, remodeling is one that is known to break relationships. I will I share our personal rollercoaster to create awareness. 

What is a new homeowner to do when they inherit existing conditions that are “illegal”? In some cases, Design Teams can help homeowners convince the Building Department to “grandfather” or accept weird situations. These are usually minor infractions and/or not connected with a remodel directly. One case of “grandfathering” Design Set Match assisted was in regard to rebuilding a carriage house on the back of a lot in Alameda. The agreement with the Building Department was that the building could only be rebuilt to this size and distance from the property line once.  

In most cases, such as with my new home, the nonconforming alterations are documented by the building officials and must be corrected. According to Section 28 of the Disclosures and Disclaimers Advisory (Contra Costa County, also other counties), “Nonconforming improvements may be subject to removal by local building inspection and code enforcement agencies… rental units may be required to be vacated and possibly torn down”. All potential home buyers should be aware of this before considering to make an offer on a home. “Real estate brokers and agents are not required by law to inspect public records and cannot determine the legal status of improvements based solely on their required visual inspection of the property. While it’s likely that the nonconforming 1st floor rental unit was built prior to the 1960s, the Building Department still has the right to require that we change its conditions and build an entirely new space for safety reasons alone.  

As the homeowner and as a Design Professional, I couldn’t feel comfortable with renting out the lower unit because of the following safety reasons:  

Upon walking into the lower unit there’s an obvious dampness that could grow mold which is hazardous to breathe.  

The window in the smallest bedroom is too high and too small to meet egress and allow a child or adult to escape during the event of a fire.  

The restroom toilet is too close to the walls on either side and the vanity sink is under the stairs to the 2nd floor space and most people will hit their head when trying to wash their hands.  

We’ve started to pre-plan by considering this space and our options for keeping rental income. At a recent San Francisco Bay Area National Association of the Remodeling Industry meeting, I learned about the possibilities of ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). When planning for an ADU, it is important to remember that one of the two units must be inhabited by the building’s owner and is not to be rented out. This is a benefit for the neighborhood property values. California has made them easier to be approved and local jurisdictions can’t add more restrictions to these regulations. 

At this point, our plans for the lower level ADU are: 

Increase floor to ceiling height from 6’-6” to 7’-6” by removing the raised floor. This raised floor isn’t off the grade by the required minimum standards of 18”. As a result, it's causing dampness to be absorbed into the floor framing which is causing dry-rot and possibly mold. 

Rework entire floor plan layout to allow for egress windows at all bedrooms. 

Create a space that is good for aging-in-place by creating wider doorways and bathroom facilities that are universally accessible.  

When we embarked on the home buying process I initially thought the 1st floor rental unit was legal but not up to today’s code standards and needed only minor repairs. During the disclosures process and surface level investigation, we discovered that the Planning Department didn’t agree with the listing and had evidence requesting previous owners to cease renting it to anyone and to demolish the possibility of renting it out since 1962. To make this happen we realized we needed to change the ceiling height from 6’6” to 7’-0” (or taller), which is more remodeling than we hoped for. To make matters worse the Planning Department immediately jumped to the conclusion that “the house is over the ‘easement’ and needs to be moved”. This felt like a slap in the face, but also a challenge to be accepted. It looked like I would need to fight to prevail. 

Changing the ceiling height to be compliant looked possible because the existing floor is raised with framing about 12” above the soil/grade and the floor to ceiling height at the garage, also on the 1st floor, measures at 7’6”. But move a house that is 104 years old?! I don’t think so, not when the house is 3 years older than the city. I decided that I’d start researching the history of the home and the community as much as is reasonable. We realized, that though this illegal condition wasn’t disclosed by the seller, we have to continue because there is too much to lose, both for us and for the building's potential.  

I was granted permission, from the seller, to come into the home on my own time to measure both the main living level on the 2nd floor and the 1st floor rental unit. Measuring is a bit like being an archeologist. I recognize that the home is in the Italianate style and was probably built here to replace a lost home from the 1906 Earthquake and fires in San Francisco. Because I have studied Architectural history of the San Francisco Bay Area, I discovered where there would have been original walls for a central hallway, a porch that has been enclosed and where the original kitchen plumbing was located. I also realized that the lower unit is in worse shape than I originally imagined; the floor of the living room is curving down into the foundation at one side of the room. I also noted that the toilets are only inches from adjacent walls and that there is aluminum siding over the original shiplap wood siding. I document as much as I can in the few short hours I have been allotted with my camera and tape-measure as I am unsure if I will have permission to come in again before closing right before the holidays in December. 

At Design Set Match, we do a Schematic Design with our clients to get a better initial grasp of what a remodel might entail. In the case of my own home I had to break this order of operation. I moved as fast as I could with these floor plans and I didn’t give my husband the full package I would give to my clients because I had to work overtime and after hours to keep pace in order to have something to provide to the Planning and Building Departments before January 1st as new code changes took effect. He wasn't happy about it but it was the best I could do. I was exhausted and caught myself making mistakes, so I turned them over to the architect I collaborate with for a reality check. He told me that the new floor plan layout would work fine except for one major factor.  

Finding an affordable home in the Bay Area is a nearly impossible task. We need to be close to public transportation for an easier commute, and we desire restaurants and shopping centers nearby to increase quality time with our families. I am excited that my family has found one of these homes with a walkability score of 87. As my husband says, this is my birthday and Christmas present for the rest of my life. 

This was only possible by the help of our “fairy godmother” and significant sacrifices. As a Designer, I usually recommend that our Clients move into their home and plan to remodel simultaneously to avoid paying rent and a mortgage. Often, these homes are in good working condition, looking tired, worn and out of date but can be lived in with relative ease. Moving in gives an opportunity to fully understand how the space is and is not working so that remodeling will be more than a beauty makeover.  We want the investment of remodeling to be a long-term, functional solution for our clients of every generation. The largest sacrifice we made in this decision-making process was to find a major fixer upper in “as-is” condition.  

With preliminary research, we discovered that the 1913 duplex (2 bed, 2 bath each unit) was illegal. Upon measuring, I discovered that the lower floor to ceiling height is only 6’-6”, and current code requires it to be 7’-0” at the minimum. When looking at its bathtubs I can tell that this situation was created around the 1930s. A visit to the planning department indicates that this lot is zoned for a single-family residence and that they had been writing letters to previous home-owners since the 1960s to cease renting it out with a homeowner’s response that the ceiling height wasn’t a problem as the renter was “short”. This news was a drastic blow to us as we can only afford to purchase this home if we have renter’s income to supplement our own personal payments.  

Thankfully, we have hope for future rental income. Recently the state of California has made restrictions easier to achieve multifamily dwellings out of single family homes. ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) (LINK: http://www.hcd.ca.gov/policy-research/docs/2016-12-12-ADU-TA-Memo.docx.pdf ) are most commonly known as “in-law units” and “granny flats”. As the code states, “ADUs are a unique opportunity to address a variety of housing needs and provide affordable housing options for family members, friends, students, the elderly, in-home health care providers, the disabled, and others. Further, ADUs offer an opportunity to maximize and integrate housing choices within existing neighborhoods.”  

While we won’t be able to move into our new home as early as we thought, we have begun the planning process. In my personal time, I am developing plans to reorganize the floors to meet current codes and meet our lifestyle now and for years to come. As Bay Area housing market costs continue to rise in our current economy and tread water in a recession, it's likely that this will be our forever home. My family will experience the highs and lows of remodeling and share them to reveal the truth of what a remodel entails.

As California rebounds from our recent drought it's still hard to imagine the many places which don't have clean drinking water readily available. Recently, Jeri Stein, our showroom representative from Jack London Kitchen & Bath, embarked on a new career path with Watering Minds which brings clean drinking water to children in the developing world.

With illness as the leading cause for absences in schools, providing water in the classrooms pulled on Jeri's heart strings in a way that her passion couldn't sidestep. These statistics are beyond what the imagination can grasp.

50% of students globally don't have clean water,

50% of schools lack clean water for their students

70% more children attend school when water is provided

3rd leading cause of death in children is diarrhea

6,000 children die each day from a lack of clean water

  As Bay Area residents, we tend to choose the long-term most sustainable solutions as our 1st measure. The trouble is the long-term... Finding a water source, shipping the equipment and constructing a pump should be our ultimate goal but what do we do until that objective is reached? With the excessive death rate, sometimes we need to grasp the stopgap at our fingertips. 

Watering Minds provides a life sustaining solution. Right now they are delivering bottled water to over 146 schools in Haiti.

It's common for homeowners to have trouble visualizing the impact a remodel will have on their daily life. It can be difficult to see past the ugly, outdated and broken cabinets, dirty grout, dull lighting and cramped spaces they've lived with for years. It's even more difficult for a new homeowner to fully understand how they will function in their kitchen or bathroom because they haven't moved in to fully experience the space..  

One way to alleviate anxiety of the unknown and unexperienced is to work closely with a trusted design professional and remodeling team. They listen to current problems, even if experienced in another home, to address them from the start with a Schematic Design phase. As a result, homeowners gain a greater level of comfort and trust before tearing up their home and spending money on their remodel. 

We recently came across the concept of how "learning styles" impact the way we communicate design changes when we realized one of our clients would benefit from us mapping out changes in blue tape on her bathroom floor. She learns by experiencing, versus the way most of us learn, which is visually. 

According to the Social Science Research Network, 65% of us are visual learners. Designers are particularly high in this learning style. This means we can picture the remodeling outcome in our head and imaginations before we can describe it to our clients. Usually we use tools like 3D, photo-realistic perspectives to help homeowners understand the transformation on a computer screen before their existing kitchen or bathroom has been taken apart. In this way, most homeowners get excited as the designs take hold in their imaginations. They can feel comfortable with approving designs. 

Others, may need a different approach; a Verbal/Auditory learner (about 30% of the population) responds to clearly explained details. And an Experiential learner (a mere 5% of the population), like the client mentioned above, needed a more physical approach. That's why it was important that we took the extra time to use blue painter's tape to mark the new layout in the existing bathroom. Only after moving around the space and experiencing the new configuration, could she be confident enough to move forward. At the end of the exercise, this client asked, “Does this make me a visual learner?” This was an interesting question causing us to wonder and ask ourselves the same thing. We did a bit of research and found a useful tool. By taking this quiz ourselves, we confirmed that she is a kinesthetic learner and we’ve changed our communication style accordingly to help her feel more comfortable.  

All of us have a combination of the three learning styles, to varying degrees, usually with one or two stronger than the other(s).  

Our team took this quiz to discover our own learning styles, so we could relate to each other and our clients more effectively. While the quiz is geared toward students, it still provided interesting insight. Our results:

Alisa, Principal Designer, is 55% Visual, 30% Tactile and 15% Auditory

Irma, Senior Designer, is 70% Visual, 0% Tactile and 30% Auditory

Peggy, Project Coordinator, is 50% Visual, 25% Tactile and 25% Auditory

At Design Set Match we desire every remodeling process to be as smooth as possible for our clients and we're always looking for ways to communicate effectively. Being transparent with each other increases our opportunities for success. 

A few months ago at a NARI (Nation Association of the Remodeling Industry) chapter meeting this came up in conversation. It was said in a lovingly snarky way by a regular guest and it made me think to myself, “why do I participate fully and joyfully in NARI?”

It’s not my religion, but it is part of my faith structure. I realized that just as I am involved at All Souls Parish in Berkeley in helping members get meals and rides, and in my leadership responsibilities in Bible Study Fellowship International (BSF) to have a deeper relationship with God and my church community; I fully believe that making connections at the monthly San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) and North Bay meetings is valuable for me, for the contractors, architects, showrooms, and other remodeling industry professionals and homeowners.

Since starting Design Set Match five years ago, I desired to make connections that had meaning, connections that could take root. I’m skeptical by nature, but I knew some of what Paul and Nina Winans had poured into the organization and that there is often value that words can not describe so at the end of my first year as an entrepreneur I took a step of faith and became a NARI member. Now some might ask if I “got any business” from other members that first year, I don’t think I did, and that's ok.

I became a board member so that I could know and fully understand more about the organization for myself. And I’ve since become the board secretary, taking notes of each meeting, and I’ve joined Dave Freer of the Collier Warehouse on the Membership Committee after having an opportunity to watch and listen to see where I felt that best fit for personal and association growth.

So what do I get out of NARI? Nothing. Well not completely. I love that even if the topic was about concrete or something else that might bore me, the SFBA meetings are in showrooms so that every meeting is four-fold with great locations, educational topics, networking and industry politics (I’m glad others can represent me in this). I probably put more into NARI than I receive in “instant gratification”, but I believe that with small steps of faith, the services I can offer to homeowners in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Marin, will grow in quality. I attend meetings, invite new comers and reach out to members to build relationships with the company owner(s) and their staff. I find it is critical to know who I will actually be working with. I nurture those relationships each month and look for opportunities to improve my businesses quality of service by introducing homeowners to General Contractors I can trust and introducing contractors to showrooms and trade or sub-contractors that I believe they can trust too. Is it perfect? Nothing in remodeling is, but integrity and passion for remodeling is key for any professional I trust.

Here we are, its Earth Day, the one day we focus on how our decisions impact our climate. Did you know it goes deeper and can be applied to any decision we make? Its not just about coffee cups or the big developer planing a building next to our creeks and watersheds. 

Last week, as I was watching Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos on Netflix , I realized how incredibly uneducated the public is about our built-environment’s poisonous components. In episode 7 “the Clean Room,” which originally aired April 20th 2014, he mentions that Ancient Romans had inadvertently poisoned their own water lines by using lead pipes in their aqueduct systems and that they realized it and mandated a change to their fresh water systems. In our very own time, lead was brought back and in full force by manufacturing companies pushing their own agenda, much like how “Big Tobacco” has pushed theirs by publishing partial data and quieting the hazardous effects caused by their “natural product” and ignoring the symptoms of their workers because they were of a lower class.

The thing is “natural” isn’t always best. Mercury is natural, it brought many Victorian women a clear porcelain complexion… just before causing untimely deaths of many and the poisoning of global fish (aka food) populations today. Lead is a naturally occurring element too, but while health officials simply ask parents if they live in a home built before the 1970’s with pealing paint, most people are simply living with it. Dr. Tyson’s show goes on to show how Clair Cameron Patterson created the first “clean room” just to eliminate the interference of lead present within the laboratory he was working in. As he was performing his experiments examining lead’s decaying values in from a meteorite to accurately calculate the Earth’s age his data was thrown off significantly even after he swabbed and cleaned the laboratory in detail. It causes me to wonder, if this is the effect of lead in a “stable” environment, how much more are the effects of lead in a remodel when walls are being torn open and fine dust particles are flying everywhere?

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has realized the dangers of dust and is continually making efforts to implement restrictions for our safety. Many of these measures started in California when I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s. If you’ve been searching for stained glass windows or their repair recently, you may have noticed that you can no-longer get “real” lead for the joints only simulated materials are available. Lead based paints are no longer sold, and that “un-leaded” option at the gas pump, if you haven’t noticed, is the only option unless you have diesel engine. So they’re doing a good job of keeping toxic metals out of our current economy, but there is still the remodeling issue.

Most of the homes I’ve been involved in remodeling were built before 1978, and all of them needed to be gutted to the studs, thus removing the drywall and its lead based paint. Today there are abatement (hazmat) regulations for remodeling professionals to contain the lead, keep it from becoming air-born, and preventing it from being absorbed into the soils and natural resources. Too often homeowners mention that they want to save some costs by demolishing their space first. While this seems like a “good idea” it scares me to think of the toxicity they will be exposing themselves to at the expense of their health, their children’s health, and the increase in Dr’s visits paying in small increments co-pay after co-pay not to mention the unknown underlying their symptoms. The EPA has considered Do-It-Yourselfers by setting forth some guidelines, but there are still health risks. 

So where do you turn? Unfortunately the State of California, who is a self-certifying state, only lists the individuals who are certified, without their firm name, for the East Bay, San Francisco and Peninsula areas. I typically introduce homeowners to contractors who are NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry) professionals  . NARI has offered Lead Removal Certification training programs for the cleanest demolition possible. Why? NARI has high industry standards and health and safety are at the top of the list. Lead exposure in any amount is not good for the human body, so why take the risk  ? Even if you’re not doing it yourself, be sure to ask your general contractor if they have a certified team to remove the lead from your home.

It's not unusual for young couples to contact me for their remodel with only a few weeks to go before their baby is born. Expecting moms, and sometimes parents, get a little extra hormone boost that instinctively tells us to make room, tidy up, and prepare safety for the blessing that is about to be. It's a good thing! Unfortunately, it isn't always conducive to a smooth remodeling process. Typically homeowners who contact me want to have everything complete before baby is born, unfortunately this is almost always unrealistic. Sometimes they contact me and plan to live in their home during construction before and even after birth. This can be complicated for health reasons. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself and be aware of in conversations with your interior designer and general contractor.

When is your due date? Is it 3 or 30 weeks out?

Will you be living in your home during construction, moving out temporarily, or going on vacation?

How much work are you planning to do yourself?

What is your main reason for remodeling now? Are the surface materials just ugly, or are things broken and you're concerned for safety?

Now see last week's article and consider how long a typical remodel takes, possible setbacks, and safety concerns before jumping head first into a kitchen or bathroom remodel with your growing family.

 How much time is realistic to do a remodel of this size?

How much is budget a factor in your decision-making?

Are you planning to live in your home during construction?

What steps are you considering that may expose you and your unborn/new baby to lead and other toxins as your old rooms are taken apart and demolished?

I mention this because many of us want the satisfaction of taking a sledge hammer to the walls, etc, to start the process and possibly save costs, but doing so in homes built before the 1970's exposes you and everyone around the area to lead and potentially asbestos too. 

 Even if you're considering painting yourself to save a little money or just to feel more involved, be sure to select a zero VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint, not just one that is low VOC.

 Have you discussed what steps your contractor will take to protect you and the rest of your home during construction? 

Will they include plastic barriers/walls with zipper doors to contain much of the dust? Do you have realistic expectations as to fine dust that will escape and find its way throughout your home? 

How about noise? Are you prepared with sound-canceling earmuffs or planning to work outside of your home?

Do you have pets?  If so, what is your plan for them to be safe and well adjusted?

Whenever I meet someone for the first time to discuss their kitchen or bathroom remodel this question is at the top of the list. So how long will it take? Unfortunately there is no one answer, as there are many factors involved. Discussing and compiling these together during our complimentary consultation will start to gather the right idea, but ultimately it will need detailed focus from your contractor to have a schedule written out as part of your construction agreement.

 As with anything, planning is the best way to keep control on a schedule and in remodeling, that starts with Design. For me, we begin with an initial phone call and a complimentary consultation in my office. If it makes sense we can sign a schematic design agreement inviting me into your home to measure and take preliminary photographs so I can remodel your home in the computer with 2-3 preliminary schematic design floor plans and photorealistic perspectives. Generally this takes 2-3 weeks to complete. When we review the Schematic Designs it is good to meet with you for your feedback on the designs as well as with your contractor or potential contractors to discuss ballpark costs and timing.

The next phase in planning for a remodel is Design Development.  This is when we actually go shopping and select the materials that will be installed in your home. Occasionally, I have clients who can take a full day to go to showrooms to make their selections, but more often than not we need to break these trips up into 3-4 smaller chunks of 2-3 hours, over a couple of weeks. Once this is done it also takes me a few weeks to do the back-end research of specifying in detail what the item is, where it is being purchased from, who is providing it, receiving and checking quotes, and incorporating the decisions into the drawings for a more realistic conversation with your general contractor and their team. Often the waiting in this phase is the toughest. It is very exciting to make decisions and it feels really good when we're done, but often my clients forget that it takes time to pull together all the details and checking for accuracy and they call or email me within a couple of days for a progress check. As much as I would love to say, "okay, here it all is," I've found that it's simply not possible as there are many different people involved in gathering the correct information and preparing the quotes. It's that phase in the three-legged stool where accuracy is the leading factor and sometimes it takes a little more time to accomplish this.

  So far this has all been simply to provide your contractor with enough information to work out his conversations with the trade contractors, like the electrician, plumber, painter, etc. In the pre-construction portion there are a few weeks for these conversations to take place, to meet in your home, to pull together their estimates and to write a detailed construction agreement.

 Construction timing varies by contractor, as well as scope of work. Start dates are usually affected by materials that take a little longer to arrive, like cabinets, plumbing fixtures, appliances and sometimes tile. These can take anywhere from 2-8 weeks to arrive once your order has been placed, approved and processed. Occasionally there are strikes that hinder transportation, such as the recent one at the Port of Oakland.  Sometimes I have clients that fall in love with a tile or a faucet that comes from Germany or Italy and can take as much as 12 weeks to ship overseas, even when the ports have been running as expected. I generally recommend that all materials are ordered and that all or at least the majority, especially anything that is in the walls like recessed lighting or plumbing valves, are onsite and checked for damage in your garage or another room before starting construction. This may delay the start time but it can speed up the construction time and help prevent lapses where no work can be done.

  While a bathroom is typically the smallest room in a home (not including closets) they are also the most complex. Homeowners are often deceived by their size and think that it should be "simple" and only take a week or two. While home remodeling TV shows only take 45 minutes, there is much that is cut out of the weeks that actually go into the detail and installer's labor. The biggest factor in time is actually affected by its size. It's not possible to have the plumber and the electrician in the same space to accurately install what they're responsible for.

  One part of remodeling that adds to the schedule is the "waiting time". Often it may feel that "nothing" has been done or that "no one" showed up. A good general contractor will have this time built into their schedule and discuss it with you before it happens in their weekly meetings. Why do these gaps take place? They can actually take place throughout the project for various reasons and they can be planned for. Once the plumber and the electrician have completed their "rough" work of wiring and recessed lighting, which hides behind the drywall, an inspector must come out to inspect that everything is compliant with current building, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing codes. Unfortunately, they give a window of time when they will arrive and they can often come to a project near the end of that scheduling window, leaving no room for installers to come in for the next step. When drywall is going in it also requires an inspection or two, plus there is time for coats of "mud" to dry before they can put on another coat to close up the seams between the drywall panels. Materials that need to be measured and templated, such as countertops and shower doors, also add time. These times are pretty noticeable because often it feels like everything else is done except that, or maybe the electrician or tile installer can't complete their work until the countertop is in. Remodeler's remorse usually sets in here; it's when you can see the finish line, but not how far you actually are from it. 

Design “risks” are easier to make in a guest bathroom as they are not used in its entirety on a regular basis. By “floating” the vanity cabinet we were able to open the space and light it from below which gives the illusion of expanding the room as the Crossville Porcelain tile continues beyond.

Cabinetry designed with open storage for extra towels, baskets for toilet tissue and a space to sit down for skin care routines is reminiscent of being in a spa, an experience from which everyone leaves refreshed. Cabinet hardware like these 26 Series bar pulls by Sugatsune come in various lengths and can double as hand towels to prevent cluttered walls and dripping across the room.

  ALISA HOFMANN & DESIGN SET MATCH of OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA Receives

Best Of Houzz 2015 Award

 Over 25 Million Monthly Unique Users Rated Top-Rated Home Building,

Remodeling and Design Professionals in the United States and Around the World

 OAKLAND, CA, January 22, 2015 – DESIGN SET MATCH of Oakland, CA has been awarded “Best Of Houzz” for Customer Satisfaction by Houzz, the leading platform for home remodeling and design. The 5 year old design firm was chosen by the more than 25 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 500,000 active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals. 

The Best Of Houzz award is given in two categories: Design and Customer Satisfaction. Design award winners’ work was the most popular among the more than 25 million monthly users on Houzz, known as “Houzzers.” Customer Satisfaction honors are determined by a variety of factors, including the number and quality of client reviews a professional received in 2014. Winners will receive a “Best Of Houzz 2015” badge on their profiles, helping Houzz users around the world who discover and love a professional’s work to learn even more about that business’ popularity and satisfaction rating among their peers in the Houzz community. 

We work with homeowners who are busy professionals working long days or running their kids to multiple activities and don't have hours to spend in showrooms. They have tried working with architects and are overwhelmed when they are sent to select materials on their own, or they are frustrated when they can't read their drawings or visualize their new kitchen and bath remodel. Usually they are trying to make responsible investment decisions but are secretly worried they may make choices they decide they don’t like until it is too late. We start with an initial conversation for about five to ten minutes and we schedule a complimentary consultation to see if we are a good match for each other. If it makes sense, we arrange to do a schematic design where we measure and remodel the kitchen or bathroom on the computer with photorealistic renderings to help us imagine the transformation before investing thousands of dollars and months in a construction zone. We work as a team with the general contractor in the design process and construction preparation to complete the necessary drawings for pulling permits as well as continued conversations and visits during construction for adjustments due to unforeseen circumstances. We have the honor of hiring a professional to photograph to document these fantastic home metamorphoses.

“Houzz provides homeowners with a 360 degree view of home building, remodeling and design industry professionals, empowering them to engage the right people and products for their project,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of industry marketing for Houzz. “We’re delighted to recognize Alisa Hofmann & Design Set Match among our “Best Of” professionals as judged by our community of homeowners and design enthusiasts who are actively remodeling and decorating their homes.”

Follow DESIGN SET MATCH on Houzz http://www.houzz.com/pro/designsetmatch/  

About Alisa Hofmann

From childhood I have always been fascinated with homes of all shapes, sizes, and styles. I found that I was also disappointed when visiting a historic home that had been poorly remodeled by a well-meaning do-it-yourself homeowner who, with a little design guidance, could have a room that functioned and didn't stick out like a sore thumb. When I discovered there was a career I could choose that would appease my fascination as well as improve the life of a family and a building, I knew interior design was the right choice for me.

Sustainable design was being rediscovered and taught practically while I was in school but has only more recently become mainstream in everyday living. I am not a step-in-and-design-it-for-you person. While there are certain design elements and placements that must be just so, I prefer to work side by side with homeowners to guide in their decision making process. With so many choices in the showrooms it is easy to get overwhelmed. As your designer, I help guide your decisions step by step so that you can focus on what will work best for you and your family and not all of the other distracting eye-candy.

While many homeowners may be adept in construction, I highly recommend choosing contractors and specialty installers who are licensed, bonded and insured, and are professionals certified through the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) and Build It Green (BIG). My goal is, as should be yours, to have the best experience possible. This comes often not through the cheapest bidder on a project, but through companies and individuals who listen, work as a team, document all processes, and desire to provide you with a service that will interrupt your home life as little as possible.

About Houzz

Design Set Match's ideabooks

In my 2 bedroom home this statement is a daily exclamation from my 4 year old daughter.

As a mom of a small child this is not unexpected, you may have seen the images floating across Facebook and Pintrest of a child's hands poking under a bathroom door when their mom or dad is wanting just a little privacy in he bathroom for even two minutes. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is a real practical solution to this world-wide problem other than to wait-it-out and teach them patience until you're an empty nester.

It is also unsurprising as a family living in a small space where everyone is getting up around the same time. Sure, we've learned to work around each other. I take my shower first, my husband gets his coffee and the little one dilly-dallies, looks at books, plays with our kitty or attempts to play Candy Land on her own. But there is inevitably a point in our morning where we just can't not be in each other's space. Daddy is in the shower, the kiddo has finally agreed or has been coherced into having her teeth and hair brushed while I finish doing my routine, and of course as she doesn't want to be left out, Kitty joins us as an additional bathroom rug just as daddy is stepping out from the shower. That's three humans and one kitty in a standing space no bigger than 2.5 x 3 feet! 

My morning experience isn't uncommon in the Bay Area. Many homes in Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland, Marin and San Francisco have the same problem, too little bathroom! Surprisingly some larger homes have this as well! Occasionally they may have a powder room to reduce the wait time to use a toilet, but more often than not, single family homes were designed with single bathroom facilities. Unlike older kitchens without space designed for a refrigerator that I've mentioned in a previous article, I have trouble seeing the logic of the architects and builders after the 1906 earthquake. Bathrooms were a common requirement, the day of the outdoor privy and use of a bed pan for a servant to empty out were gone. I'm speculating, but maybe people simply thought they were still a convienience or a nice-to-have rather than a necessity? 

This poses two important questions:

If I only have one bathroom, how do I remodel and maintain my personal hygiene during that time? There are generally 2 solutions for the common problem 

Move out during the construction time by renting a second home or apartment, going on vacation or staying with family. While this is ideal to keep you from breathing construction dust it is typically unrealistic to many new and retired homeowners financially speaking.

Live in your home during construction. While living in your home during is the most cost effective, it can increase construction costs when your general contractor needs to uninstall and reinstall a toilet every day so that you're not making nightly trips to a porta-potty. Or you don't have a gym membership or a friend who is generous enough to let you use their shower each day and so your contractor needs to do a little more work to set-up and take-down a temporary shower which takes time away from their duties in completing the remodel a few days or weeks more quickly. Its also easier to be frustraited with daily life in a construction zone, there is dust everywhere even in places where you're not remodeling, if you work from home the noise levels can be so much that you buy a huge pair of noise canceling ear muffs that don't even double as a music headset and most people naturally tend to feel like they need to micro manage the work crews which simply adds to everyone's stress levels.

How can I add a second bathroom to my home without changing the overall footprint to keep my costs reasonable and not need to go through a long process to get my neighbor's approval?

In the last few months this has come up and the best solutions have been to absorb another space. Maybe it's a closet, a small office or dressing room or even a second kitchen that was added 30-40 years ago to accommodate student renters near CAL in Berkeley or SF State. Usually the space that needs to be absorbed requires a small sacrifice to get rid of unused items, you may increase your budget slightly to rework a closet in another area for better storage or you simply start to think differently about how you use your home and plan to make changes to your daily routine. Often this question comes up when someone is thinking of selling their home in a year or two. If this is the case its often not worth the stress or expense on your life, leave it to the next buyer. It is better to maintain and upgrade your current bathroom to be appealing than it is to do something with the assumption that someone else will "appreciate" your hardwork.