The clients, both organic cooks, wanted a kitchen for their Washington home that nourished their desire to create meals using homegrown ingredients. From a functional point of view, this required more space. Aesthetically, they wanted a look that represented their nature-based perspectives. An avid cook himself, Jonas Carnemark, president of Carnemark Systems & Design, knew that...

There's only so much a job interview can tell you about a prospective hire. "People can tell me whatever they think I want to hear when I'm interviewing them," says David Heaney, president of Rockland Architecture and Rockland Builders of Newport, Del. That's why Heaney uses personality profiles for anyone who interviews for a job with his high-end remodeling firm.

One of the best ways to learn is at a time of adversity. It's unpleasant to go through short-term adversity and it is definitely unpleasant when it's long-term. The old saying "No pain, no gain" is often referred to with sports, but it applies to business men and women in the remodeling industry as well.

Welcome to the new and improved Professional Remodeler. As I write this, it's three days before Christmas. By the time this issue hits your desk, all the holiday hubbub will be over, New Year's resolutions will have been pledged and the books will be officially closed on 2006. It's a great time for a fresh start, both for your business and for our staff at Professional Remodeler.

When Byrd Development principal Richard Byrd — whose company currently does almost 100 percent of its projects as spec work — saw this 1980s harbor home, he knew it had the potential to retain its architecture without being both unapproachable and passé. "The home had great bones, but it stuck out like a sore thumb in its neighborhood," he says.

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Sometimes remodeling projects come about because a family needs more room. Other times because a homeowner wants a new look. But in the case of remodeler Michael Pollard's home, it all started because of a driveway dispute with his neighbor. While Pollard and his wife were away from home, his new neighbor tore up timbers that ran along the driveway, stacking them on the edge and blocking entran...

Terri King, Co-Owner, Blue Canyon Construction Located in Seattle, Blue Canyon Construction is a remodeling firm and custom home builder. In business since 1992, most projects are in the Seattle and Puget Sound region. King's husband, Rick, who has been in the business since 1976, serves in sales and manages the field.

Here we are at the beginning of 2007. All is possible at this time of year because we're leaving the past behind. Working in the remodeling industry is certainly a good way to learn about new beginnings. Change has been one of the few things we can count on! As a high school student working summers starting in 1965 with a builder on Long Island, N.

Though the homeowners had high hopes for the remodel of the lower level of their home, their project had been in limbo for some time given discord with their neighborhood association, which did not approve a previously designed addition that drastically enlarged the home's footprint. So when the homeowner brought Wright Street Design Group of Ann Arbor, Mich.