Green change - Home Makeover Magazine

Advertorial
Co-operative
Effort
By Frank O’Brien
This successful makeover of a large
family house on Vancouver’s
Devonshire Crescent underlines the
strength of the design-build process
and the advantage of working with an
experienced renovation company.
After three years of architectural
plans, budgeting, and price estimates
that had spiraled ever higher, yet with
their renovation plan still stalled, the
home owners turned to TQ Construction
in the fall of 2005.
Fortunately, TQ, an award-winning
renovation firm that has handled many
large contracts, takes a unique, holistic
approach in the busy renovation market.
“We look at the owner’s budget first
and then discuss in detail the vision
they have for their home,” explained TQ
president Ralph Belisle “The renovation
Design/build approach creates
a home to be proud of
becomes a co-operative effort, but we
always keep an eye on the costs, showing
where savings can be made and where it
is worthwhile to spend a bit extra.”
Belisle explained to the owners how
TQ’s design/build process works. The
method outlines an overall vision within
the budget parameters and then decisions
are made on how the work will proceed.
“It is a pay-as-you-go process so there are
no sudden shocks,” said Belisle, whose
work earned TQ recognition as British
Columbia’s Renovator of the Year in
2003 and 2005, among other honours.
TQ’s twenty-plus-years experience
led to suggestions on how the renovation
could be improved, at minimal extra cost
to the owners.
A simple example: all of the solid
hardwood doors in the home were
carefully removed, refinished and
remounted rather than being thrown out
and replaced.
Working closely with the owners, who
wanted a complete interior makeover of
their three-level, 5,000 square foot house,
TQ designed a consistent theme of
materials that allowed the home’s décor
to flow within its various elements.
The plan called for a wall and beam
divider between the kitchen, dining
room and wok kitchen to be removed,
the separation of the wok kitchen and a
pantry, and the creation of a family room.
At TQ’s suggestion, the entire main
level was re-floored in large format tiles.
Upstairs, all four bedrooms and three
bathrooms were refinished. The faded
marble tile floor was ripped up – some of
the shards became the base for the master