Paul DeFeis is senior managing partner at Trade Mark Design & Build, based in Hawthorne, New Jersey. He has more than 15 years extensive experience in Residential Design, and has worked on countless projects with literally hundreds of satisfied customers. Here he talks about how a skilled remodeler can add detail to your existing plan:
A good remodeler is defined as someone who has lots of previous experience with challenged spaces. It is someone who has dealt with those difficult spaces, and can see the opportunities and awkwardness of other spaces within a home or commercial building.
However, it takes an experienced eye to see this use of space clearly. It also takes someone who is skilled in conveying the necessary information to a client, without being too pushy or taking his own taste into account.
He should be able to:
- Conceptualize a design from a photo and/or site visit
- Work closely with the client to ascertain their needs
- Help the client understand the area’s strengths, weaknesses and limits
- Suggest detail and improvements, keeping in mind the client’s original vision
- Help the client understand the area’s strengths, weaknesses and limitations
- See how style changes can add to the structural ones
Dealing with a good remodeler who cares about someone’s individual needs can add that level of detail, and do it with grace and clarity. Whereas production builders or people who are interested more in bottom lines than individual needs add considerably less to the planing process. Often, they tend to just kick out designs too quickly, not really considering all the possibilities that could be incorporated.
At Trade Mark Design & Build, we find ourselves tweaking everyone’s plans just to get that personalization to it. You don’t want to ruin their vision, and you don’t know what their relationship with their architect is. So it’s a delicate balance of implementing their needs in the designs and allowing them to feel an integral part of that process.
