Bathroom Renovation

Each and every material has it´s own grace, in this case mineral stone. It has indeed a huge process, however what an amazing final look! Client wanted instead of an existing jacuzzi a comfy bath and extra shower too. A few extra goodies along the way and oh my, what fine style this was. Space might have been reduced, but so many more things were gained. Toilet´s position was changed, plumbing was completely modified, loads of demolition done to concieve a bareback state and so as to save a few cms of space for the extra services. Electric underfloor heating included. I love everything I do, but this sort of things where absolutely all trades are involved tickles al my senses!

Optimizing Time

We´ve all been there – those situations where you somewhat almost feel confronted by something you´re more than clueless about, yet decide to push your luck…after all, we have the capabilities to learn.  A few hours later, or in the case of Die Hards, days later, we end up with a million pieces of something we can´t remember where it fits in. 

Now I totally agree with doing that, me myself have taken VCR players, radios & computers apart, even attempted modifying my xhtml and also opened the car´s bonnet. I´ve spent so many hours exploring the unknowns, some items I could put back to it´s original conditions and other´s…well, ended up in recycling.

I may have learnt a number of things throughout experimenting with foreign objects or doing things unfamiliar to me, BUT I have learnt one thing in particular that stands out above all and still repeat it to myself whenever I find myself in that moment:

OPTIMIZE YOUR TIME

There´s a very famous expression that has been tweaked recently:

“IF YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING PROPERLY, DO NOT DO IT YOURSELF”.

This basically boils down to the fact of “time” where maximising it is imperative. Successful people all around the world have clearly figured this out, deliberately concentrating on tasks they are most productive in – and outsourcing the ones they are less so. There´s no need to spread ourselves thin.

I have quite a few trades below the belt, however it makes sense to outsource those I´m hopeless at if my time can be better spent focusing on something else. (In this case electronics for instance:-) 

So, my advice would be to save yourself some valuable time so keep calm and phone the professionals!

Shopfitting

I´d personally say that communication is definitely the highest on my list. The constant interaction makes all projects either a success or not. Brainstorming ideas are the best way for giving a client the options, possible complications and solutions, and for the builder/contractor to express his/her knowledge and experience. (It´s quite easy to pick up the amount of experience of any builder or decorator bringing forth a slight “hick up”, and that´s also the moment things come together if experienced - of course). The following was an execution of a perfect mind understanding.  Ideas we´re bouncing all over the show throughout the project :-) I´ve only got a few in between photos, but that gives you the perfect opportunity to go and have a look yourself, meet the friendly owner.

Artex Removal, Complete Renovation

Long gone are those days where Artex was fashionable. More and more, perfect smooth & neat surfaces are in demand and dealing with the removal of Artex is very time consuming, yet possible. First of all make 110% sure there´s no Asbestos mixed with it. YES, you can just plaster over it easily, sure... but is that really dealing with the problem? Clients should know that plastering over it could lower the ceiling hight a small bit if just merely plastered over and that will get felt if the ceilings are low already. Removal is obviously the better option, and the cheapest money saving method I found, is to steam it and then scrape it off... not damaging the ceiling too much as you´ll need to plaster afterwards. This was a complete renovation, from the ceiling going down right to sanding down and staining + varnishing the parquet floor. Some walls were wallpapered and others painted. Skirtings were alcohol-stained before varnished and being asked to pay a lot of attention to detail, perfectly flush ceilings and walls were on the menu.