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Experience meets inspiration in the form of John Abrams, of South Mountain Company - a $7.5 million design/build firm in Martha's Vineyard, Mass. - and winner of the inaugural Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The qualities that won him that accolade are well on display in his body of work.
Architects who favor a streamlined approach to design in Washington, D.C., have often felt constrained by the city's prevailing preference for traditional styles. But times are changing, just a bit, and local design pros are discovering more clients willing to push the envelope and embrace the unexpected. Architects Janet Bloomberg and Richard Loosle-Ortega, who are principals of Washington, D.C.-based KUBE Architecture, encountered such free-thinking clients on this extensive remodel of a claustrophobic three-level brick home.
A neglected row house in a historic San Francisco neighborhood gets a facelift and an impressive (and expanded) interior update.
The three remodeling business owners profiled here still wear a lot of hats, and still exist -- despite the number of years they have individually given their businesses -- in what remodeling consultant Judith Miller would call "early growth" stages, those businesses with very involved owners. They have spent years honing their craft and learning about business like many remodeling company owners -- the hard way, through trial and error. But they are all in the process of making changes that will lead to growth and profitability. Each has experienced small victories along the way to reaching these larger goals.
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When a remodeler says his company is "design/build" what exactly does that mean?
John Abrams believes that homes, relationships, communities, and small companies should be built to last for generations. Here's why he's the first winner of The Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and why South Mountain Company, with 15 employee-owners and 17 owners-to-be, will be building and remodeling homes on Martha's Vineyard for decades to come.
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How do you control costs in a down market, or when job costs run over budget? What's the hardest part about growing your company? How do you motivate production staff? What's your opinion of cost-plus pricing? In a "town hall meeting" for remodelers, the owners of three successful but very different remodeling companies answered these and other questions from a capacity crowd of hundreds of attendees of the 2007 Remodeling Show in Las Vegas.
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The difference between you and your clients is smaller than you might think.
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It's no secret that the remodeling process is not a pretty one. It's invasive; it's time consuming; it's stressful; and it's expensive. But the remodeler who is able to take that same process and make it feel like something different entirely -- something exciting, easy, even enjoyable -- is the remodeler who will be able to charge what he is worth.
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During the seminar "Blueprint for the Custom Crafted Kitchen," speaker Carol Lamkins covered the 9 centers that designers and remodelers should address in a kitchen design.
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There are two kinds of customers in remodeling: "external" and "internal" clients. External clients are the ones you traditionally think of when you think of your customers -- homeowners who contact your company to replace their windows, or remodel their bathroom, or put an addition on their house. Internal clients are your employees.
Green Kitchen Options
The latest in Green products for kitchens.
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