House Confident

Hi Reader, Last week we talked about how mudrooms are rarely designed for reality. The other room where this happens all the time is the laundry room. I’m going to be honest with you: People invest way too much money into their laundry rooms. It's stupid money. It's almost like they're spending money on their laundry room as if it's gonna become the show suite. Here’s my hot take: Don’t make your laundry room fancy, make it functional. The first thing I always say to a client when we’re...

Hi Reader, There’s a high-traffic room in every house that almost no one plans out properly and everyone overlooks: the mudroom. Whether you have a separate room with lockers for each kid or a postage-stamp-sized landing pad just inside your doorway, in my experience parents dream of a tidy mudroom… while the reality is a tornado. They imagine little Johnny coming in from the park, taking off his shoes and putting them away, closing the door, and saying “Mommy, what’s for dinner?”... … when...

Hi Reader, Renovating your house involves a lot of changes that you need to be prepared to live with for a long time… like the $8k desk we talked about last week! But that doesn’t mean your house needs to be boring. In fact, some of those smaller, more temporary renovation projects can be a great way to revitalize your space and add personality without overcommitting. Three cheap and reversible ways to experiment with adding colour and personality to your home are paint, hardware, and...

Hi Reader, Last week we talked about the challenge of pricing out custom built-ins and how they’re inevitably more complicated than it seems. But there’s another reason to think hard before you splurge on built-ins: they’re permanent. That means you’d better be really confident that what you're putting in there is exactly what you want long-term, because it's very expensive to undo and redo again. Case in point: We have a client who spent an exorbitant amount of money on a built-desk and a...

Hi Reader, “I just need a quote. How much will it cost, and how long will it take?” Why is it so hard to get an answer to what seems like a simple question? If you’re like most homeowners I talk to, you just want to price out your options and timing so you can make a decision and move forward. And yet most of the time I can’t give them the answers they’re looking for. Not because I’m trying to be difficult or make the process harder than it needs to be, but because there’s usually more to...

Hi Reader, The other day someone asked me, “What was the smallest job you've ever done that had the biggest impact for the homeowners?” I knew the answer immediately: Organization. Specifically, organization of STUFF. Here’s an example. Yesterday I met with an architect client who’s now retired and we put drawer organizers in his kitchen. Here’s someone who had spent his career on huge spaces and design projects with a massive visual impact (and a budget to match)... … and he was thrilled....

Hi Reader, Years ago, when my wife and I were building our own house, our contractor came to her needing a decision ASAP. Rather than scrambling to answer, she asked him one question: "When did you know this decision was coming up?" Silence. Her next question was pure project planning gold: "What other decisions are coming that I need to know about now, so we never have to have this conversation again?" This was a big deal because it reset expectations around timelines and communication. She...