2010s

  View Fullscreen Stark Residence Bright and Sunny Master Bath 2017 | Oceanside, CA Master Bath Installed wider tub for two Created [...]

  View Fullscreen   Premdas Residence Eastlake Condo Makeover 2017 | La Jolla Kitchen Kept old cabinets and added pantry cabinet to [...]

  View Fullscreen Reed Residence Serra Mesa House Flip 2017 | San Diego, CA Kitchen Removed existing bearing and non-bearing walls to [...]

  View Fullscreen Sellers Residence Oceanfront Bath With a View 2017 | Mission Bay, CA Master Bathroom Shower built for two with [...]

Lynch-Baranoff Residence
2015 | La Mesa, CA

The objective in this detached basement (no interior access from the main floor) was to upgrade the existing kitchenette, bath, and laundry to make it more presentable and livable for guests or visiting family members. We expanded the main entry door to the patio from a single door to a double French door, opening up the basement to the patio outdoor entertainment area. This made the functioning kitchenette in the basement fairly critical. With the homes main kitchen an entire floor above without a means of direct access, this kitchenette is the kitchen area most used when using the patio to entertain guests. Having it fully operational and readily available to the patio area greatly reduces the need to go up and down a long flight of stairs to the primary kitchen in the residence.

Weiss Residence
2016 | Fletcher Hills, El Cajon, CA

This project was a major kitchen remodel and room addition. The client’s vision and need was to create a great room that included a relocated kitchen. The addition only added 6 feet to one entire side of the home, but the technical difficulties of the project were substantial. The client wanted a clear open room with no posts holding up the old or new ridge beam. All the other contractors who consulted with this client told the client the normal way of doing this job: remove the entire old ridge beam and roof structure, and rebuild the entire roof over the area that included a new larger ridge beam.

Masson-Johnson Residence
2016 | Chula Vista, CA

As is the norm in most kitchen projects, the kitchen upgrade included getting more countertops and storage areas in the right places to make the kitchen a lot more functional than the typical builder layout. Even though this condo kitchen was not very big to start with, it was expanded by using space the builder had left for an in-kitchen eating table that was in the way of the sliding glass door, and never used for a table by this owner. We put the wall ovens on that unused wall to free up more storage near the cooktop for pots and pans. The unique and custom corner sink application in this kitchen allowed very good use of counter and storage on both sides of the sink. Note the angled wire baskets under the sink to utilize the sink cabinet for storage.

Lynch-Baranoff Residence
2015 | La Mesa, CA

This homeowners primary issue was finding a way to enlarge the 1930’s kitchen in their home and open it up more to the dining area. The home was a 2 bedroom 1 and ¾ bath home with a full detached basement (not connected by interior stairs) containing another ¾ bath, laundry, and potential living space or bedroom that we remodeled a year after this kitchen project.

  View Fullscreen   Yagura Residence Bay Park Baker’s Kitchen 2014 | Bay Park, San Diego, CA Kitchen Moved existing [...]

Rodriguez Residence
2016 | Pacific Beach

The other downstairs bath is a regular rectangular shaped bath like the master bathroom, so its layout is similar: one long wall with cabinets, a very large 48″ wide trough vessel sink, the other wall with walk in shower and toilet. With the exception of the full length tiled-in mirror in the master bath, this bathroom has all the same elements only in a smaller footprint with different material choices save for the cabinetry, which preserves both the style and material choices made upstairs.

Rodriguez Residence
2016 | Pacific Beach

The middle bath with the Wind tub by Neptune is a very unusually shaped tub. The shape of that tub, in my opinion, is the only thing that made the space viable for this room to house a full bath with tub, which was imperative because of very young grandkids. You will see this same tub in other projects in similar unusually shaped rooms. It is my go-to tub for rooms like this. The client chose floor-to-ceiling subway style 3 x 6 carrara marble tiles for the entire room, creating a very clean and simple look that’s very different than the master or the other downstairs bath.

Rodriguez Residence
2016 | Pacific Beach

All of the bedrooms on the lower floor were successfully configured to accommodate a queen size sleeping surface. The two outer bedrooms in the row of three along the beach facing exterior wall have custom built queen size beds with storage drawers, headboards, and shelving made with the traditional charcoal glazed snow white thermofoil used in the other major rooms of the home.

Rodriguez Residence
2016 | Pacific Beach

We put a lot of functionality into the new smaller laundry room, adding storage cabinets above the washer and dryer, counter space, and pull out hampers.

All the closets downstairs have the same color melamine cabinets, Panolam S431 willow grey with combinations of open shelves, pole, and drawer. Depending on the width of the closet, they have either sliding frameless mirrored doors or bi-fold frameless mirror doors for closets with narrower openings.

The Beach Bench and storage area at the back door was created after we talked about what the client needed to store their for use on the beach. We created the bench with storage below, overhead open shelf storage, and a series of hooks and bungee cords to meet their needs.

Rodriguez Residence
2016 | Pacific Beach

The new master bathroom was completely reconfigured. The toilet was moved to the wall opposite its original placement to allow for larger sink storage cabinetry that now runs from wall to wall and a change from a single sink vanity to a double sink configuration. A large deck mount tub shower combination was removed and replaced with a new walk-in shower with no doors. This bathroom incorporates all my functional bath concepts: convenient storage, higher counter tops, functional and beautiful shower with no door, effective venting and heating, and good lighting.

Rodriguez Residence
2016 | Pacific Beach

Most of our work on the upper floor was directed towards making the master bedroom suite more usable. We closed off a large window and installed two smaller ones that allowed us to move the bed along that outside wall. There is no view from this window, only the apartment building next door. Since beach area is notoriously noisy, with lots of short-term renters and late night parties, sound insulating the wall and closing it off with smaller ultra quiet windows was high on our client’s wish list to help them sleep better at night. It also changed the orientation of the king size bed to better fit the room shape and allowed us to place an entertainment system opposite the bed, which covers and hides a curved wall created by the spiral staircase.

Rodriguez Residence
2016 | Pacific Beach

For the upstairs common areas of the residence, we redid the powder room and did some minor upgrades to the family room and dining room areas.

  View Fullscreen Donnelly Residence Earthy Wood & Glass Master Bath 2014 | Bonita Bathroom Moved Interior Bearing Wall 3ft to Enlarge Master [...]

Like most of my clients, the kitchen was the focal point of their most precious activities and interactions. They needed a more functional kitchen that would make their time spent in the room more enjoyable. This couple had two passions that were the focus of this project: wine (and the food that goes with it) and their collection of exotic birds.Our challenge was to create a new kitchen in the same place that did not feel and look as cramped as the original.

  View Fullscreen Orlen Residence Traditional Glazed Thermofoil Bath 2014 | Ramona Country Estates Bathroom Removed Walls and Doorway Separating Shower & Toilet from [...]

  View Fullscreen Degnan Residence Vaulted Greenhouse Kitchen 2017 | Carlsbad, CA Kitchen Customized cabinet locations, sizes, and shapes to fit the [...]

View Fullscreen Blackmond Residence Beach Condo Bath Remodel 2014 | La Jolla Bathrooms Guest Bathroom Removed Sliding Shower Door Cleaned Existing Grout, [...]

  View Fullscreen Mazaika Residence Modern Walk-in Showers 2013 | La Jolla, CA Master Bath Replaced a builder grade shower which had [...]

View Fullscreen Nygaard Residence - SFR Combo Guest Bath/Pool/Powder Room 2013 | Miramar Lakes Bathroom (Work Done) Removed Existing Bathtub with Sliding Shower [...]

Similar to her kitchen and other bath, primary need was to upgrade the baths to a retro style she liked, while improving storage and overall bath functionality. We tried the best we could to conform to my functional bath checklist, with one exception.

The client chose not to bring the sinks close together and place wall cabinets on either side of them with outlets inside which is a hallmark to most of my functional bath cabinetry.

The client chose not to bring the sinks close together and place wall cabinets on either side of them with outlets inside which is a hallmark to most of my functional bath cabinetry.

Bachner-Lasley Residence
2013 | La Jolla

We reconfigured two full baths into one powder room and a larger master bath & closet suite combination. The area where the new toilet is in the master bath was originally a shower in the other full bath, which is now the powder room. This opened up the master bath for a much larger shower area and dual sinks instead of the single one it originally had.

  View Fullscreen   Emler Residence Retired Couple's Cherry Kitchen 2013 | Fallbrook, CA Kitchen Turned the kitchen from one with two [...]

Bennett Residence
2012 | Clairemont Mesa

This home is located in the north Clairemont area, built sometime in the early 1960’s. It had original cabinets and countertops, and it just basically needed an upgrade. The client was striving for a retro look and wanted a very simple sleek and modern cabinet style to go with the retro look of tile counters and white appliances, avoiding the current Stainless Steel trend. The flooring looks like slate and is textured like slate, but it’s actually luxury vinyl tile (LVT). I love that product, it’s a great solution. In this particular case, it was put in over a slab floor, so it was easy to install and resulted in a feel that’s very soft on the feet. It’s a commercial-grade product, so it looks and wears very, very well.

McPherron Residence
2012 | University City, San Diego, CA

The focus of this project was to upgrade the builder-grade master bath and cosmetically update two other baths and some hallway storage cabinets.

In the master bath, we removed a tub they never used in favor of creating a much larger walk-in shower and a sit down vanity. We also reworked the main sink area to fit our functional bath design concept of added storage next to the sink grooming centers. We also added some storage cabinets to the existing toilet room and changed that room’s door from an in-swing to a pocket door to make those new cabinets and toilet more easily accessible.

Labastida Residence
2012 | La Jolla

This master bathroom is in a La Jolla home that was originally built in the 1950s. It was a nicely built home for that time, but needed updating for the present-day homeowners. This bathroom was originally much smaller. The compartment area where the toilet is now did not exist prior to the project. The adjoining room on the other side of that wall opposite shower is a guest bedroom that had a closet spanning the entire length of that wall 10+ feet. We essentially cut the closet in half, built a wall midway, and captured the toilet area portion of space for the bathroom. The bedroom still has a decent closet, but now the bathroom has a semi-private toilet area.

Nakamura Residence
2011 | Serra Mesa, CA

This tiny bathroom was cramped, dark, and damp. Its fixtures were outdated and worn out. In rearranging this bath to open up the existing space to make it feel and function bigger and lighter, the key was to eliminate the original linen closet to your left as you look in the before pictures taken from the bathroom doorway. We relocated the sink to this original linen area, kept the shower in the same place as the original plan and moved the toilet away from the shower.

Tani Residence
2008 | Chula Vista, CA

As you can see in the before photos of this tiny kitchen it was very cramped. It had lots of dead space in corners which made it even more inefficient for storage and usable counter space near the cook top, refrigerator, or sink. The solution entailed moving the door between the dining room and kitchen which eliminated the dead corners on the right of the range and the lack of counter to the right of the range in the original plan. Moving this door also allowed the creation of a U-shaped work area with the sink at the center. This U-system is considered the most efficient option in most kitchens. We also added storage on the family room side of the peninsula, role out shelves, lazy susans, and numerous other storage features.

Boyd Residence
Kitchen Remodel & Addition
2010 | (Fletcher Hills) El Cajon, CA

This kitchen remodel and addition was done to increase the size of both the kitchen and dining room while also making the kitchen, family room and living room more accessible to the back yard and patio for entertaining and daily living. They had just done a major landscaping upgrade of the back yard and wanted to tie in the new back yard to the home. We also added a patio roof over the entire back of the house to enhance the usability of the patio. Also, on their list of details to add to this project were a cat door to the garage and a storage closet area to be used as a drop off catch all when the family members entered the home from the garage door, their main entrance during normal daily activities.