Our work

The old kitchen had a soffit above the wall cabinets and a peninsula that cut the room in half. Both came out. Cabinets now run to the ceiling with a stacked crown, which is where the extra storage in this design comes from, and the peninsula became a freestanding island with seating on the far side.

The quartz was chosen for its soft grey veining and then book-matched so the vein turns the corner of the island and runs down the waterfall end without a break. That is a fabrication detail, not a material upgrade, and it is the difference between an island that looks built-in and one that looks assembled.

The wall oven, microwave and refrigerator sit in one tall run so the working side of the kitchen is uninterrupted counter. The custom hood is boxed in cabinet-grade material and painted to match, and the drawer stack under the range holds the pots that used to live in a base cabinet you had to kneel to reach.

This house had a closed kitchen that was fine for the people who built it and cramped for the family in it now. Rather than take the whole wall down, which would have meant a long beam and a steel post in the middle of the living room, we opened a wide cased pass-through and left the structure above it alone. The kitchen feels connected and the living room kept its wall for the sofa.

The cabinets are painted a warm grey with a darker island, and the perimeter gained a pantry cabinet on the refrigerator wall. The granite was selected in a slab yard rather than from a sample because granite varies more from slab to slab than any other counter material.

The hardwood in the adjoining rooms was extended into the kitchen and refinished as one floor. That is the detail people miss when they say the kitchen looks bigger; it is the same size, but the floor no longer stops at the doorway.

Not every kitchen needs to be torn out. Here the cabinet boxes were sound and the layout worked, so the money went into the surfaces: white quartz counters in place of tile, a travertine subway backsplash run to the underside of the wall cabinets, and a stainless hood where a microwave had been.

A refresh like this takes about a third of the time of a full remodel because the plumbing, electrical and cabinet layout are not touched. The counters are templated after the old ones come off, the backsplash goes on after the counters, and the hood is the last thing on the wall.

A two-tone kitchen only works if the two tones are decided together. Here the perimeter was kept light so the room stays bright, and the island was stained dark so it reads as a piece of furniture. The pendants over the island were placed on the drawings before the electrician roughed in, which is why they are centred on the island rather than on the room.

The tub deck and its apron are the same large-format porcelain as the floor, mitred at the corners so the slab appears to wrap. Behind the apron is a framed, waterproofed deck with an access panel for the tub drain; that panel is on the side you never see, which is the point.

The shower is a frameless glass enclosure on a fully waterproofed pan, with the drain positioned so the door swings clear of the tub filler. Wood-tone vanities in a bathroom depend on the finish more than the species; this one is a sealed rift-cut oak that stands up to splashes.

A freestanding tub needs its supply and drain roughed in through the floor at exact coordinates before the tile goes down, which is why the tub is chosen before the plumber starts, not after. Here it sits in its own alcove under the window with a floor-mounted filler.

The shower is large-format marble-look porcelain on the walls with a black-and-white patterned hexagon mosaic on the floor and a matte black fixture set. The wood-look plank tile that runs through the room gives the warmth of a wood floor in a room where real wood would not survive.

Hall baths are small, so the tile pattern does most of the work. The surround uses large-format marble-look porcelain to keep grout lines to a minimum, with a single band of glass mosaic that lines up with the shampoo niche so the accent reads as one continuous stripe. The floor is a high-gloss porcelain that makes a narrow room feel wider.

The tub came out and a low-threshold shower base went in its place, with a short tiled knee wall where the tub apron used to be so the glass panel has something solid to land on. The walls are a soft marble-look subway with a niche framed in a darker mosaic, and the shower head was moved up to a height that suits the people who actually use it.

The backlit mirror is wired to its own switch so it can double as a night light, and the wood-look plank tile on the floor is the same line used in the shower curb so the two read as one material.

A corner tub under a window is the classic layout in these baths, and the trick is getting the deck-mount filler on the side you reach from the room, not from the window. The separate shower keeps a low curb so it is easy to step into, with the fixtures in the same matte black as the vanity faucets.

The staggered joint on the wall tile is the one that hides an out-of-square tub best, and almost every tub in an older house is slightly out of square. The niche is centred on the long wall rather than on the tub, so it lines up with the tile courses above and below it.

The deck is set at the level of the door threshold with the boards running away from the house so water sheds off the end. The posts are set on concrete footings below frost depth and the ledger is flashed into the siding, which is the connection that fails on decks that were not permitted.

The railing is a powder-coated aluminum system rather than composite or wood: it is thinner, so it takes up less of the view, and it never needs paint. The lattice skirt below is a stained wood panel that keeps animals out and still lets the framing dry.

The framing pictures show what the finished deck hides: pressure-treated joists on 12-inch centres for the composite boards, doubled rim joists, and posts carried down to footings rather than resting on the patio. The stair stringers are cut from single pieces and fastened with hangers at the top.

The roof is a white aluminum patio cover tied into the house wall and supported on its own posts at the outer edge, so it shades the door and the seating area without covering the whole deck. The boards were laid in a warm brown composite with a picture-frame border, and the railing is a black aluminum system with a matching gate at the head of the stair.

The stacked washer and dryer sit in a full-height cabinet bay with a pull-out shelf between them and storage above. Building the appliances in means the cabinet run has to be sized to the specific machines, including the door swing and the vent and supply behind, so the models were chosen before the cabinets were drawn.

The mudroom floor is a large checkerboard of two stone tones, laid on the diagonal in the doorway so the pattern is square to the hall beyond. The bench and cubby unit is site-built and painted to match the cabinetry, with a shallow drawer under the seat and a small sink at the end for muddy hands and dog bowls.

The French door between the two spaces and the main house is painted black with a matching black hardware set, which is a small change that makes the whole run of cabinets look intentional rather than utilitarian.

A coated slab is a good first step in a basement that will be finished later, because it seals the concrete before walls go up against it. The slab is diamond-ground to open the surface, cracks and pits are filled, and the base coat, flake broadcast and clear topcoat go on over three days. The picture at the stair shows the coating carried cleanly to the edge of the existing concrete landing.

A detached garage is a small building with all the parts of a house: footings, slab, framing, roof, siding, electrical and a permit. The window in the gable end is there for light in the loft, and the overhangs were sized to keep rain off the door heads.