Hey! We moved.

The continuing Gilday Renovations blog now has its own room on the new Gilday Renovations website.  

But, no need to rush right over there.  There's some pretty good stuff here, too.  So take your time.  And thanks for reading.

Kitchen Additions, Porches, Interiors and... People

Custom Renovations that Transform Life at Home
This is Gilday Renovations at a glance.  Five years of work represented in 95 seconds includes interiors, kitchen additions, bath additions, porches--transformational renovation projects and the people who make it happen.



Make the Most of Your Home
Gilday Renovations is a green certified, integrated design and construction firm specializing in high-end custom home renovation in the metropolitan Washington DC area.

From Bird House To One-of-A-Kind Kitchen & Bath

A KITCHEN WITH WINGS
The story began with a one-of-a-kind kitchen transformation inspired by a birdhouse.  It (the birdhouse) featured a roof line that mimics the graceful curve of a wingspan.  See kitchen photos here and here.

The story continued fifteen years later with an ambitious open plan bath design that carries out curvature themes introduced in the kitchen renovation.

To view award winning bath photos in Chesapeake Home Magazine click here.

SEVEN DESIGN AWARDS

Pardon this one braggardly sentence, please.  Both projects turned out to be design awards magnets.  Gilday design work was recognized by NARI, MICA, MCBA, and Qualifed Remodeler Magazine (Chrysalis).  There.  Done.  No more bragging for now.

The bird house with wings that launched thousands in
renovation project dollars.

NEXT ON THE LIST
What's next for the homeowners?  It's for sale! Yes our friends Steve and Peggy Schaars are moving.  They aren't quite sure where yet--but someplace good, they tell me.

They are listed with JD Callander of Weichert Realtors.  The home set on a curvy, woodsy section of country road in McLean is available now.  To view the listing click here.

Architectural Licensing Exam Number...... 9!

Now that I've been admitted to the high priesthood of art and architecture I can look down on everyone--which is what I've really always wanted to do.  Plus, my mom always wanted me to get my license, and now I have....

Not really.



Gilday architect Dan Morales has successfully completed the 9th and final session in a series of architectural licensing exams.  He is now officially licensed by AIA, the American Institute of Architects.  Congrats, Dan.  It's been a haul.

Typically, a young architect will spend their entire first year out of school completing all of the tests to get them out of the way.  Dan did two.  Then he got busy working, designing, getting married, becoming a father, buying a house--and renovating that house.  So,  last year in his "spare time," he studied hard and aced the remaining seven.

During that year Dan was rising at 3:00am most days to study before the kids (two of them now) woke up at 5:30.  Then to the office by 8.  Dan thinks it was easier to succeed at the tests at this point in his life because he's learned so much working as an architectural designer.  The hard part was getting up at 3am every day and working full time and supporting a family with young children.  How does one do that?  It's all math, he says, you to to bed at 8:30 every night.

The process of taking the exams has been valuable for his professional development.  "There are real practical things in the exams that, without being forced to study them, would take a lifetime to get acquainted with".  "Being licensed doesn't mean you are talented but it does mean you have command of a body of knowledge and that you are disciplined and professional enough to acquaint yourself with all aspects of the profession."

True enough, a license or certification or degree is no guarantee of talent and creativity.  One either has it or not.  Dan has it.  He has contributed very fine work to the firm portfolio since he joined us.  Click here  to see the Home & Design Magazine article that features one his projects.

Remodeling Contractors for Hire Now at Bargain Prices All Over Washington DC!!

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF RECESSION PRICING WHILE IT LASTS!!

Excuse me.  What?  WHAT?

Please, let's not confuse what's going on in the home remodeling business with what's been happening in the retail business (see GAP, Bloomies, et al for the 40% and 60% markdowns).  You are familiar with the term "apples to apples," right?  It doesn't apply here.

Prices have definitely dropped for commodities produced overseas for a pittance and marked up to an extravagance back in the old US of A.  I need not point out (but will anyway) that REMODELING is neither an import nor a commodity.  It is primarily a service.  As Gilday practices it, it is a suite of professional services--advice, ideas, design and craftsmanship provided by smart, skillful people working together for the benefit of the client.  And, yes, we are currently doing business (if you can call it that)  in a "recession changed landscape."

Listen to me.  The "landscape" may have "changed" due to the "recession."  The cost of doing business (recession or no) has NOT changed.  Once again:  Landscape changed.  Cost unchanged.

So okay.  Times are tough.  We've noticed that.  We have tightened up wherever we can.  For example, if the going price for some building products or certain sub-contracted affiliate services has become more "competitive" we pass that savings on to our clients.    Hey.  We're nice, but there is a limit.

Here's a new buzz word for you:  Financial Viability.

Financial Viability.  Consider this.  If a contractor under bids or under charges for the scope of a given project, there are three possibilities.  And they are:

1. the contractor is inexperienced and would rather please than make a profit
2. the contractor is desperate and is trying to postpone the inevitable (bankruptcy)
3. the contractor is taking a huge calculated risk in the hopes of making up the loss later in the year

Don't kid yourself.  If the contractor under charges for his services he is on a fast track to bankruptcy.  He won't be around to fulfill the warranty on your project--presuming the job gets finished before he is finished.

Here's the thing.  Forget the bargains.  They aren't real.  Hire a company that is fiscally sound and charges an honest fee for the valuable services they provide you.  Be smart.  You won't regret it.

When the Price Is Right and the Choice is Wrong

You can't always get what you want.  You don't need me to tell you that.  Sometimes you just can't get what you want for the price you are willing to pay.

Everyone knows someone who has had a BAD CONTRACTOR experience.  You've heard the story.  Nice guy.  Grrrreat price.  Off to a great start.  And then.  All quiet on the job site for days and days.  And then.  Phone calls stop being returned.  And then.  The job never got finished.  Or it got finished badly.

I spoke with a person on the phone one time who wanted me to come have at a look a master bath renovation that had been abandoned by the contractor she hired.  How much would it be to finish the job?  Oh, and there was some fire damage.   (I'm not kidding.)  How much to repair that?

Well, that's easy, I said.  It will cost whatever you paid the incompetent contractor plus the cost of a new bathroom at the price point of a competent contractor--pretty much.  Anyway, cut to the end of our conversation.  She thought the price I suggested was too much.  (Too much?!)  Poor soul, she paid too much to the first guy.  But I understand.  She was fixed on getting something done for what she had decided it was worth to her.  And it wasn't worth all that much, I guess.

Let's face it.  Competence is the bottom rung.  It's the least you can expect.  After that, the price goes up as the value delivered goes up.  Up for great ideas.  Up for fantastic communication and project supervision.  Up for skill, efficiency, thoughtfulness, thoroughness and tender loving care.  Up. Up. Up.

Because professional services are worth more, they cost more.  That means that you on the receiving end can expect more and get more--which is precisely what you pay for.  So, why isn't that worth paying for?  Excuse me, I must have missed something.

The Leaning Tower of Tennyson Street

It happens imperceptibly at first.  In time, though, you will notice odd things: the disappearance of right angles in your home, the desk chair that rolls from one side of the room to other--when nobody is sitting in it, windows that won't open and doors that won't close.  And finally, the jagged, step patterned cracks in the drywall near the corners of the room.

Unless you are living in the movie set for a remake of the "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," your foundation is sinking!

That's when you have to call in a specialty company to underpin the foundation and raise it.  And you must have a professional engineer to plan and supervise the project.

Restoring a house to its former position is a lot like lifting an injured patient onto a stretcher.  You want to do it very slowly and gently so as not to cause more damage in the process.

How They Do It
Following the engineer's specs based on the load to be supported, pilings (helical piers) are driven at prescribed intervals and to a prescribed depth until stable subsoil is reached.

An L-shaped bracket at the top of each pile shaft is fitted under the foundation wall.

The piers drive down and the brackets lift up to restore the house to its former alignment.

The weight of the house is transferred to the pilings.

In tight situations like the Tennyson Street property, they use a hand operated hydraulic pump to raise the foundation--much like you would use to jack up your car to change a tire.

They raise the foundation a quarter to a half inch at a time, then let the structure rest in between.

While this is happening, everyone on the crew is listening (for bad sounds) and watching for cracks.

The foreman uses a wirelessly controlled laser level to measure the progress of the lift.

This isn't the type of project we typically get involved with.  But a client phoned us because the addition to their house (not ours!) that they'd inherited from a previous owner had begun to submerge into the soft earth of Rock Creek Forest.

They wanted someone they could trust completely to supervise this simple (but not so simple) task.  So we put together the team and came to their rescue.