Once and awhile I get a frustrating call about someone hiring a contractor where the skills did not match the promise. Sometimes the work is poor, isn’t finished, or is in such a state that it needs to be redone. …
Craft vs Assembly
Closets and Storage
Choice? There is no choice. We must. A house with no storage cannot work. We must gather, organize, store, and hide it. It has to be reliable. We must have access. We must be organized. Chaos is not an option.…
Shelving and Storage
Choice? There is no choice. We must. A house with no storage cannot work. We must gather, organize, store, and hide it. It has to be reliable. We must have access. We must be organized. Chaos is not an option.…
Saving Rhode Island’s Architectural Treasures
Rhode Island has some of the oldest, greatest architecture in the country. Our built environment reflects our ability to adapt and create. It’s a response to our environment, politics, culture, and art. It reflects function and our industrial and mechanical…
Designing to Fail
I have often wondered why windshield wipers don’t last longer. We have the technology to send stuff into outer space, but cannot make an everlasting wiper that can remove bug splats, tree droppings, or water. Architecture and building components have…
How to Pick the Right Bid
Invitations for Bid (IFB), or basically asking multiple firms for a bid, based solely on price are bad. The trouble with a priced based IFB is while you may have the most detailed specifications and drawings, you have no idea…
Decorative Concrete
Concrete has become increasingly popular in many decorative applications like floors and countertops. It can be polished, colored, and textured with decorative aggregates. It is durable, cost effective, and easily maintained. Concrete is primarily a mixture of water, aggregate, cement.…
Reducing Clutter Frees the Mind
Organization is the key to success, right? Or is some level of disorganization supposed to keep our minds sharp? There is a tipping point for short-term brain capacity, where we either lose it or take away from things that move…
Communication gets the job done….or better yet, started.
The biggest complaint I hear from people is contractors do not communicate well. The top of the complaint list is they don’t call back after they look at a project. I am here to tell you that it may not…