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Most of my clients are surprised to learn that a natural stone counter top can often be less expensive than tile counter tops. The reasons for this are that while material costs have come down, labor to fabricate the stone has also come down. Some shops have very sophisticated water laser cutting equipment. Other shops

Lots of hype has been circulated over the past half-decade or so about the evils of granite versus the virtues of fabricated solid surface counter tops. I’ve designed using granite, marble, and man-made products for the better part of my career and will happily use any of them, if the situation calls for it. That

The first meeting with folks who want to design a new custom home is always a fun and exciting experience. Inside their heads is a pile of ideas that are just waiting to explode all over a blank sheet of drafting paper. Usually, they’ve been looking at magazines, on-line articles, photos, open houses and quite

Below, you’ll find an archived post by Preston written last April for his blog Jetson Green. Although it’s older, I believe it will help to clear up the confusion for those who say , “Show me the money!” when considering energy saving upgrades for their homes. With bank appraisers now using the new Appraisal Institute  

For this post, I’ve collaborated with Kitchen Designer, Greg Fineman of Osborne and Dermody, Sparks, Nevada. Greg has been a General Contractor and has 30 years’ experience in the industry specializing in kitchen remodeling. I’ve always enjoyed collaborating with Greg because he takes a holistic approach to the design instead of trying to sell the

Trolling the internet in search of sustainable housing in the last year, I’ve noticed that the amount of sites offering “Green” and “Passive Solar” homes have sprouted up like cheat grass in the spring here in Nevada. We live in a passive solar home now, but the first passive solar home that I had ever

Continuing with thoughts regarding sustainable design as a key goal for those looking to build “Green”, you’ll find an essay re-posted from Robert Husted’s  most relevant and interesting blog site. I found Robert to be a very insightful and interesting person. Although we have never met, he graciously shared with me that, originally from upstate

What is “green”  How do we know what a green label means except $green$? Are there standards? All good questions and impossible to answer in 700 (or maybe 900)words or less. The word Green has been bandied about for several years. Products are constantly emerging on the market for home improvement that profess to be