Background

With fewer bedrooms than children, Ron and Natalie needed to renovate their shrinking home. Their goal was to finish the basement for their two boys to move downstairs. Because of her experience serving on the North Salt Lake Planning Commission, Natalie realized that sometimes construction projects can be complex, unpredictable, and difficult to lay out.

Experience

"The architects I deal with on Planning Commission issues are professional, and business-like", Natalie said, "but not very approachable or personable. I was a little intimidated to have an architect over, but Ann and Annie were very nice and they made me feel comfortable. They were very friendly. They just listened to our concerns and were interested in getting our input during the whole design process.

Ron and Natalie explained their goals and the ideas they had to solve their problem during the first meeting. "Ann and Annie came back with the plan that we had described, and a plan that they had designed. Their plan had much better use of space than we imagined. We couldn't have come up with it on our own. Our plan was so complex. In order to make it work we would have cut into the steps outside, and thirty inches into our driveway for a new window. We were trying to make these two little bedrooms, one on each side of our house. It just wouldn't have worked as well."

Natalie went on to explain, "Because of Renovation Design's services, they saved us from making mistakes, we would have spent more money and we wouldn't have liked it as much. They saw how we were going to use our home and helped us figure out a better way to do it."