How to design or select a bathroom vanity

Custom wood vanities, like the one pictured, take a bathroom from vanilla to hot fudge sundae. Today’s bathrooms are “practical sanctuaries” and custom cabinets bring the warmth that fine furniture brings to other rooms in the home. Whatever design style you chose, a vanity made especially for you makes the most of the space. Homeowners have not always given such careful consideration to bathroom décor. Bathrooms used to be purely functional, non-public rooms that weren’t worth the effort to make into special places; the designs and finishes available were generic—one size (and one finish) fits all—but not anymore! With all of today’s choices, choosing the right vanity for your space is an exciting process . Solid design is the basis of good function with many factors needing to be considered. A great vanity design considerings space limitations, storage requirements, light and mirror placement, and sink style. Would a corner unit work best, or are his-and-hers on your “necessary list”? Does your room contain an awkwardly shaped space? Perhaps you could get rid of an underutilized closet if the vanity allowed enough storage…

Mahogany vanity hand-crafted by Meadowview topped off with a vessel sink from Porcher

A custom design will provide the solution to all these layout dilemmas. After the practical logistics are decided, the vanity then becomes a way to add extra luxury and personal touch to your bathroom. Style shines with the perfect wood, wood finish, countertop, sink, and cabinet hardware. Many of the wonderful accessories incorporated into modern kitchen cabinetry design also function perfectly in the bathroom and make the most of even small spaces and powder rooms.

Gaining the trust of your clients

My wife and I had the good fortune of adopting a new cat this afternoon and it immediately struck me it might take some time to earn the trust of this new cat. We basically removed Benny from his nice comfortable home in Ipswich with 3 other cats and thrust him into our home which must be a tremendous shock to his system considering he lived there most of his life. Consider the fact that he’s only 9 months old but he had his family already established, he was the leader amongst all the other cats and he had his own space. After his previous owner left our home, Benny was very quiet and has been snuggled up in his new bed with what looks like a pout on his face. Let’s face it, he’s not happy right now and I’m sure he is feeling very vulnerable with the expectation that he will soon be back in his normal environment. “When is mommy coming to get me?”, he meowed.

I guess I just assumed that we would bring him in to our home, provide him with the things he needs to live and he would instantly bond with us. Wrong answer! I can’t recall how many times we’ve gone into someone’s home to do a remodeling project and we just assume everything will go well and that they will trust us as if we are part of their family. Most times it goes that way but every so often we encounter a cat (read as: client) who does not immediately trust us. It is hard not to take personally because deep down inside we know we are “trust worthy” and overall good people. How could anyone not trust us? I think the builder/client trust is something we just take for granted some times and it is something that has to be earned and not assumed. For the time we are working in their homes they are at the height of vulnerability with little privacy and few places to escape to. Having gone through a major renovation on our own home 3 years ago I can honestly say that I do know how stressful it can be and let's face it, it stinks.

Trust means being able to predict what other people will do and what situations will occur. If we can surround ourselves with people we trust, then we can create a safe present and an even better future. I can imagine Benny feels this way in his own little kitty way. Generally I find that a failure in trust may be forgiven more easily if it is interpreted as a failure of competence rather than a lack of honesty. Therefore honesty is one area I place the greatest importance on and I really like to show how much I care about my clients by my actions and not by how much I know. It is easy to get sucked into trying to “show off” in front of a client by blurting out all that I know and how great our crews are and what awesome subcontractors we have. I love the following quote - “People Don’t Care How Much You Know, Until They Know How Much You Care”

I have never taken Performance Enhancing Drugs

In the aftermath of yesterday’s confession by Alex Rodriguez it only seems appropriate to add my 2 cents. But first I just want to start by declaring that I have never used Performance Enhancing Drugs. As hard as it might be to believe, my on-field performance has and always be au-natural. Over the years in this crazy construction business I, like A-Rod, have felt incredible daily pressures to perform at high levels by my clients, my employees and even my wife. It has never occurred to me to resort to cheating or taking “The Juice” to get ahead of my competition. Remodeling someone’s home involves a far more intimate relationship with our clients than being on the baseball diamond looking into the stands. Our work is not judged by the immediate results shown in the box score but rather by the long term happiness of our clients and how well the work holds up over time. The “Meadowview Experience” is something I am constantly trying to instill with my lineup of craftsmen and office staff as it is the first thing our clients observe and the last thing they will remember when the project is long complete.

What excites me when I watch a baseball game are the special moments in the game where a player makes an amazing play or when a pitcher gets himself out of a bases loaded situation with no runs scored to preserve the lead. I have to believe that our fans (read as: clients) also appreciate when we pull off the unimaginable or when we act quickly to avoid a major problem on the job site. Now that I think of it, what could possibly go wrong on one of our job sites? Believe it or not, just about everything has and it’s happened more than once, even with our talented bullpen of starting pitchers (read as: lead carpenters) and well-intentioned coach (read as: production manager). The truth is, sometimes things go wrong and it is critical to have the correct people in place to deal with these eventualities. I’d like to think that we go about as far as any company would go to please their clients on day to day basis. And we don’t “Cheat”.

feel free to email me at davewest@mvconstruction.com

Strange Last Voyage

I was going to write about ice dams today but as timely as this subject is around New England, I thought it might be a bit boring for people outside of New England. The truth is, I am so anxious to get out on the local ponds to start largemouth fishing again. I have had several invitations to go ice-fishing now that we have 8 inches of ice to stand on. After hearing of the Lake Erie ice tragedy yesterday I am not too sure I will be ice-fishing any time soon. The fishing part sounds fun but the thought of not being able to feel my extremeties has little appeal to me and the only thing I am likely to catch is a cold.

I have never owned my own boat (except a 13 foot canoe) so I cannot truly appreciate what goes into owning a boat, caring for it, the navigation tricks and the cost of ownership. This has not kept me from reading some good books related to boats and sailing. Wooden Boats by Michael Ruhlman was a gem and The Last Navigator by Steve Thomas (yes the same person who hosted This Old House for years) had me fascinated with how ancient sailors could navigate at night with nothing more than the stars and wind and no compasses or charts. My senior production manager at Meadowview Construction has always had a fascination with wooden boats and when I first hired Dan he was in the middle of hand-building a cedar/mahogany sea kayak which is a work of art. His love of wooden boats progressed to a larger wooden boat built in the 1960's complete with original trailer, outboard and fish finder. Some day I would like to build my own wooden boat and now that we have the shop space I have no excuses.

Last week I just finished a good read titled The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst at the suggestion of one of my favorite clients and it certainly got me thinking. In 1968, Donald Crowhurst set out from England in his untested trimaran, a competitor in the first singlehanded nonstop around-the-world sailboat race. Eight months later, the boat was found in mid-Atlantic with no one on board. Crowhurst's logs and diaries revealed that, although he had radioed messages from his supposed round-the-world course, he had in fact never left the Atlantic. What he did was hide in the South Atlantic to avoid the main shipping lanes in order to keep from being exposed. The voyage started out with the best of intentions and confidence as Crowhurst thought he prepared to handle what was ahead of him only to find out that he grossly miscalculated. I see many parallels with Crowhurst's story and today's business economic climate. It seems that there are many businesses today sailing in circles out in the South Atlantic trying to weather the storm until it is safe to head back to the home port. Survival is on every business owners' minds today. I wonder if some of us would be better off radioing in for help every now and then instead of circling around with our ragged sails trying to JUST survive. I am most certain that Crowhurst had wished he'd turned back when he discovered that he made a mistake. Instead he continued forward, his lies getting bigger and bigger, and struggled with his dishonesty the remainder of the voyage. Ultimately he and his family both paid the price as he deprived his family the chance to share the rest of their life with him. Don't be afraid to ask for help with your strange voyage.

feel free to email me at davewest@mvconstruction.com

Ice Ice Baby

.....and I am not referring to the song by Vanilla Ice from 1990. I took my first ride this morning up around Southern New Hampshire and was shocked at all the damaged and toppled trees everywhere. See this youtube video clip to get an idea what it looked like the day it hit. On my way to look at a cool kitchen project in Atkinson, this is the first thing that caught my attention and I had honestly forgotten that just a month ago that area experience a legendary ice storm that crippled that region and left it without power for 11 days. My electrician who is from Plaistow (who ironically had no power either) got called out to restore power for over 60 homeowners after their electrical service was ripped off the house by a fallen tree and is still waiting to collect some money from all the insurance companies. Can you say "credit line"? This is one argument for accepting credit cards if you own a company, especially for times like these where people are desperate for the repairs but may not have the cash on hand. My friend is a representative over at Heartland Payment Systems and I am seriously thinking of accepting credit cards soon as an alternative payment solution for our clients. What electrician or trades person has time to sit down and send out 60 invoices on the day they work for someone? The answer is not many. For many small companies with no office staff to handle the billing they were forced into spending the daylight hours out in the field handling the emergencies instead of handling the emergency back in the office of collecting $$$. As a business owner, I struggle with this every week in trying to balance doing the actual work and asking for the money to pay for it. The work is far more fun so inevitably I end up favoring the fun work and procrastinate the billing. Not good if you are a small business and you depend on the cash flow from one job to carry you to the next.
I suspect this situation will probably put many small companies out of business as they struggle to pay their bills with no money coming in. Undoubtedly, much of the work was probably covered by homeowners' insurance so the home owners are still probably fighting to see some money from them which then can be turned over to the electricians, carpenters, roofers and tree trimmers. It is an unfortunate event which at the time seems like a gold mine. Time will tell how it shakes out.
Here at home (Meadowview Construction) we are getting our share of calls these past few weeks from home owners who are experiencing major roof leaks due to ice dams. This is a subject that I could dedicate several blogs to so I will defer it to tomorrow's blog. Let me just end by saying that most ice dams are a perfect storm consisting of heat in the house and poorly insulated/ventilated attics.

feel free to email me at davewest@mvconstruction.com

Green Study Group

On Wednesday of this week I participated in the first of 12 weekly study group meetings that will focus on becoming a Green Certified Professional (GCP). You may be wondering what is a GCP. In the world of Green there are several official designations which relate to being recognized as practicing Green within a certain system of checks and balances. Most people in the home related industry have heard of LEED certified and there are several others although not as popular as LEED. You can see some of the others at this Design Green Construction website.

I think it mostly relates to being held accountable so that builders don't falsely claim to be performing green work. When a builder falsely claims to be doing green work or when a company represents its products as being green or eco-friendly when they really aren't, it is considered Green-Washing. Although having a GCP designation next to my name may not be as widely recognized as being a LEED-AP, the main benefit that I can see is that my knowledge will be verified by an independent organization ensuring that I have the knowledge needed for the job.
The study group will be hosted by the Sterritt Lumber company in Watertown and is facilitated by the local NARI chapter. Two certified contractors (Paul Morse and Daniel Glickman) will be leading the study group and I look forward to spending the next 11 weeks with some of my peers in the industry. At the end of the 12 week study group I will have the option to actually take the GCP exam which, if I pass, will mean that I am officially certified. Until then I guess I am just a wanna-be GCP, or just plain certifiable.

feel free to email me at davewest@mvconstruction.com