house-stethescope-sm

Remodelers are Like Surgeons for Your Home

by Remodeling Tips

You Need A Proper Diagnosis Before Being Prescribed A Cure

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Your home is one of the biggest financial investments you are likely to make. It is also the hub of family life. For these reasons, when renovations become necessary it is important to select a remodeling contractor with great care–similar to selecting a physician. After all, home remodeling is a lot like surgery. Before any procedure is completed, it is critical to perform a thorough examination.

Understanding Patient History

As time consuming as it is to complete the survey forms before your doctor appointment, providing your physician with that history is important. Those factors need to be taken into consideration when analyzing your current condition and developing an appropriate treatment plan. The same concept holds true for your home. At Custom Craft, we dedicate the time to conduct a thorough interview with you to understand the circumstances that prompted you to contact us in the first place. Just like a doctors appointment, this initial assessment can be somewhat time consuming, but is essential to the success of the project.

Where Does it Hurt?

Like a doctor, we need to know what is causing your pain. Is your room too dark? Are pathways cramped? Do you lack storage? Are appliances in need of replacement? Is anything broken, leaking, or otherwise malfunctioning? These issues are what we commonly refer to as your pain points. Understanding these frustrations helps us to identify the sources of the problems, and plan appropriately to resolve these challenges to your satisfaction.

Forming the Diagnosis

Once Custom Craft has performed a thorough assessment of your home, we are able to identify the sources of the pain you are experiencing, and develop a custom solution to meet your needs. By necessity, these solutions are unique because you, your home, and your needs are also one-of-a-kind. We never use off the shelf designs. In medical terms, trying to utilize a cookie-cutter solution for a unique problem would be about as effective as applying a bandage to an ankle in order to treat a sprained wrist.

The Renovation Remedy

Similar to a surgical procedure, a remodeling project can sometimes be painful–especially during the construction phase. Let’s face it, remodeling is disruptive to daily life. That said, Custom Craft will work to ease that pain by communicating with you throughout the process, and taking measures to remove irritants like dirt and debris. We will also create temporary spaces for cooking and even doing laundry if necessary. In the end, our objective is to ensure that your renovation remedy will be well worth the investment of time and resources.

Have a problem area in your home in need of a diagnosis? Give Custom Craft a call at 610-584-0665

french door wall oven

Save Space with a French Door Wall Oven

by Remodeling Tips

french door wall ovenWhen it comes to designing kitchens, creating a safe, congestion free environment is always one of our top priorities. One of the most troublesome spots we address is the area around the oven–particularly when the oven door is open.

Traditional oven doors open from the top and extend about 20″ into the kitchen floor space on average. These drop-style doors force cooks to navigate around, and bend over, hot oven doors to get items in and out. Whilst the cook is tending to the oven, foot traffic in the immediate vicinity comes to a halt. To avoid this sort of congestion, we endeavor to place this style of appliance strategically. Because the oven needs to be located within easy proximity to the refrigerator, as well as the sink, this can create challenges and design limitations–especially in smaller spaces. Fortunately, appliance manufacturers have recently begun offering ovens with French doors which open in the middle.

When open, French doors take up significantly less floor space making them much easier for home chefs to maneuver around. In addition to their space saving benefits, French door wall ovens are easier on the back. Cooks can easily place and remove large sheets or roasting pans without awkwardly bending over a hot oven door. French doors are also easily opened and closed with one hand. In short, French door wall ovens provide home chefs with a safer, more convenient meal preparation experience.

We incorporated the GE Café Series 30” Built-in French-Door Single Convection wall oven (pictured here) in a project we recently completed for homeowners in Plymouth Meeting, PA. Follow this link to view the project photos. If you are curious to learn if a French door wall oven would be the right solution for your kitchen, give us a call at 610-584-0665. One of our designers will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

3D renderings enhance home remodeling process

How 3D Renderings Enhance the Remodeling Process

by Remodeling Tips

3D renderings enhance home remodeling processOnce we have developed a floorplan for a project, the next step is to work through the style and finishes for the space. Among other things, this step involves selecting cabinetry, flooring, lighting, countertops, and fixtures. It can be challenging for homeowners to communicate their style preferences in this stage. From traditional to contemporary, and everything in between, the options for finishing a space are seemingly endless which can make establishing a style preference complicated.

Most homeowners we meet need help in defining their style preference. To get things started, we have our clients prepare ideabooks in Houzz with photos of homes they find appealing. While ideabooks can be helpful in advancing the material selection process, they have their shortcomings because what works in someone else’s space may not work very well in yours. Enter 3D renderings.

A 3D rendering brings the floorplan to life. Because it is an illustration based on the actual dimensions of the space, it enables a homeowner to better visualize how their design features and material selections will look when the project is complete. Take this image for example. The top photo is how the back wall of the kitchen looked prior to our client’s renovation. The middle image depicts the 3D rendering of the floorplan we designed. The bottom image is a photo of the finished space.

As you can see, the rendering closely reflected how the finished space would appear. By providing this tool, our clients gain greater confidence that the designs we have created for them are going to suit their style tastes and preferences. 3D renderings also reduce the incidence of expensive change orders, since our clients can see how the colors and finishes will work together within the space, and make any necessary adjustments prior to ordering materials.

fireplace renovation

Fabulous Fireplace Ideas

by Interior Renovation

fireplace renovationWhen it comes to adding warmth to a home, nothing does it quite so well as a fireplace–both literally and figuratively. Fireplaces are the focal point of any room and offer a wide variety of benefits including:

  • Versatility! A fireplace can be installed anywhere in a home, from family rooms to outdoor living areas
  • Fireplaces can reflect any style, from traditional to modern
  • They offer a cozy place to congregate with family and friends
  • Gas fireplaces offer a cleaner heat source than their traditional wood-burning counterparts and can be used to create heat efficiency in strategic areas of the home

On the downside, old fireplaces are often a significant source of heat loss. When we perform energy audits in homes, we frequently find that fireplaces are a major source of drafts. The good news is that they can easily be updated to be more energy efficient and attractive.

I’ve pulled together some of my favorite fireplace photos in a Houzz Ideabook for you. Check it out for some design inspiration. If you have any questions about updating your fireplace, feel free to give us a call at (610) 584-0665.

CotY-Award

Custom Craft Wins 4 Awards for Home Remodeling

by Awards & Accolades

Custom Craft Earns Multiple 2016 Best Home Remodeling Contractor Honors

CotY-AwardWe are thrilled to share that Custom Craft Contractors has been awarded two 2016 Best of Houzz Awards for Design and Customer Service. We were also just awarded two 2016 Contractor of the Year (CotY) Awards by the Bucks-Mont Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). Each of these industry awards is prestigious, but the four awards combined mark Custom Craft as an exemplary remodeling firm among our industry peers.

Our 2016 Best of Houzz awards are the result of superior customer reviews and overall popularity among users of Houzz—an online community connecting homeowners with home improvement professionals. There are over 4 million home remodeling professionals on Houzz, but each year less than 3% of those remodeling pros are honored with Best of Houzz awards. Only a small fraction of those companies are awarded Best of Houzz in both the Design and Service categories–indicating that Custom Craft is in an elite category of remodeling contractors nationwide.

Custom Craft was also recently awarded with two CotY Awards at the local chapter’s Evening of Excellence. The awards dinner was held at the William Penn Inn in Lower Gwynedd Township on Saturday, January 30th. Custom Craft submitted two residential kitchen renovations for consideration in the awards competition in the $60K to $100K, and $100K to $150K categories. Both projects won top honors, earning us two more CotY Awards to add to our lengthy list of achievements.

We could not have achieved these honors without the support of a talented team of designers, estimators, administrative staff, and craftsmen. And, of course, none of it would have been possible without the support of our loyal customers. You all have our sincere thanks for your continued hard work and support.