The Basement Designer "Providing Professional Basement Design Services" Since 1982

How I Got Started in Design!

The Basement Designer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:44:46 +0000

This is not a short story per say; make note I was born in 1955 and took interest at the age of 3 in Lincoln Logs my Grandmother had at her house along with wood bricks that I figured out more so when I was about 5 years of age. These were mostly yellow and red that resembled what is known as Lego's now but they were wider and longer and only just the bricks, no windows and doors. I had strong interest in playing with an erector set of any size or type but this item never got filled on my Christmas list nor did Lego's when they came out around age 8. I saved money and bought my own. From that point on, I was a builder you could say. I could fit my matchbox cars into the garages I made in the small city's I build. No, it was no Sim City but you get the idea since we had no electronic devises back then to play with. I do recall a 13 transistor AM radio (no FM stations yet) I had when I was 13 or so but what they called portable back then working off a 9 volt battery was larger than todays digital camera's.

All during my youth, I followed my father around the house as he was very handy and knew many trades taught to him by his father I'm sure. He was quick to teach me things; like the time he had me hold the electrical outlet for him. Yeah, I got a big bite from that and he got a big jolt from it too. Some German sense of humor I guess. By the time I was 12, I assisted my best friend Richard Sartell and his family building a cabin in northern Michigan. I dug the foundation, lifted walls and even finished up the roof one rainy morning I recall.

I had always offered to help friends and family out with any project while earning money doing jobs I didn't like. I did my first Formica job when I was 16 on my cousin's basement along with all the framing and other task needed. I did tons of work on my aunt's house around the same age and learned plumbing and more finished carpentry and my aunt didn't care if I screwed it up a bit. She like the labor rate she was paying which was just nice meals and I'm here to tell you; she was a great cook! I bought my first home when I was only 19 for $13,000 USD and I did mostly paint and putty along with new flooring and such but gained more experience over those 3 years of ownership to add to what I knew already which many would consider allot for someone so young. Hell, the USAF tested me before I went in back in 1973 with a very high electrical and mechanical aptitude. I was classified an "Aircraft Maintenance Specialist (Jet Over Two)" for god's sake so you can see I'm not trying to brag here.

So after many years of working jobs I hated which included wax injection, GM Fisher Body and the straw that broke the camel's back, Deutch Electronics in Carlsbad, CA; I got tired of being underpaid for my skills and stopped the insanity. This was back in 1982 as I took out a little handyman ad and just charged time and material to anyone that called and dared to try me out on something they needed fixed, repaired, replaced and or remodeled. This grew into a home improvement business out in CA called Browning Improvements. Yep, you guessed it; I had to design things such as kitchens, additions, sunrooms, decks, baths and even basements. The school of hard knocks as some may call it, as I took every opportunity in figuring out how to do the job and read blueprints I saw and emulated the design techniques. I became a Home Improvement Expert and not just a jack of all trades but a master of all trades more or less. At Deutsch, I trained under a Master Industrial Electrician as well. I worked with old timers that taught me all their tricks and kept adding to my tool collection each time I need to do and learn a new trade. I worked with my ex wife father at the time that was a retired school teacher that taught woodworking. Yeah, this guy made custom furniture too. I learn from so many including a master stucco plaster too. Oh, I messed up a few jobs along the way but this trial and error process made me into a professional over these years. And there's no school that can teach you the hands on experience I achieved. This later on all grew into my having a 5000 square foot kitchen showroom employing over 20 people. This is where I had my first PC experience using windows for workgroups 3.1 and my first CAD software to learn how to draw on a PC instead of paper. Man, what we paid for the R&D on those PC's back then. From my first 33Mhz PC to the Intel Q9650 core 2 quad custom PC I personally built and now using, is such a big change in how fast I can do my work these days as well. I've put more than 90,000 hours of CAD experience on my PC's since then if this is an indication of what I know today!

Anyway, I shut down that showroom in 1998 due to the amount of employees taking from me, my warehouse items and on their time cards and met a guy named Patrick Condon that owns the Finished Basement Company and helped kick start his endeavors as he showed me the high interest in Basements and the designs and construction needed for such. I recall we stopped the car one day after running a lead and he pointed saying, "what do you see out there?" looking over the many subdivisions south of Denver at the time. I said "roofs mostly!" He laughed and said "but what's under those roofs?" I replied "well of course, basements!" and you could see hundreds of roofs that day! He's just gotten very expensive and desires clients that have little to no budget restraints. I later moved on to Basements and Beyond and grew Bill Kennedy's company from $800,000 USD a year in revenue to almost $3,000,000 USD a year in the 2nd year with him. He sold it I heard and it's too bad I didn't get stock options, right? I'm sure I had something to do with his net equity, for sure! I loved it though and how it provided so much more experience for me and it's the reason I now have a record of designing over 2000 basements to date.

So due to my life long love for building and design and the great demand on me for my natural skills, this is how I got started in this and now own and operate Basement Finishing & Design Service.

Why Finish The Basement?

The Basement Designer — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:27:17 +0000

Why limit your basement to a disorganized storage facility? Basements are typically among the largest rooms in a house, giving them the potential to be redesigned in a variety of ways. Many homeowners like the idea of having a place where they can entertain their friends beyond their living room and or maybe need a place for the kids to play when the weather is bad outside or maybe you need a quest bedroom or in-law space. Just maybe you can't stand that teenagers room on the same floor as you any longer. Who knows what you need but I've seen it all and I have done things you wouldn't believe I've been asked to do.

Old photos of Garcia's basement Broomfield, CO; 2001

One design I recall; I was asked to make an environmentally controlled room for 36 pet snakes. Yeah I'm not kidding, real live snakes and it turned out great, I just didn't stick around to help him feed them. I once deigned a hockey room so the kids could practice every day after school in and one other time in band camp, ops…. I mean one time I designed a basement with a soda fountain shown above just for my clients 13 grandchildren to enjoy. He didn't need to use this space for any other reason. The building of a basement from the final design is made simple when using my email protocol to design it the right way and at your pace, not mine. You can see how fun and easy this design process works at my other yet old fashion looking web site; http://www.basementdesigner.com/Basement_Design_Cost_and_How_it_Works.htm.

At Basement Finishing & Design Service, I specialize in taking ordinary basements and turning them into extraordinary spaces. Most basements are simply unfinished rooms and in my opinion are the left over's of what the builder of the home decided things should go. Like where the furnace ended up and why the stairway is where it is along with all the ducts, post, pipes and wires too. Remember this; the basement wasn't designed around the nice floor plan upstairs, the basement was put there to house the utilities, drains, pipes, where the stairs ended up and everything else you see down there. Yes, they may have put some windows in it but that was to make the home look architecturally correct from the exterior side in most cases and possibly a little thought was made that someone might want to finish it since many of the 2000 plus basements I've been in have the duct work installed close to a beam. Since I do this service nationally, I see the small windows in basements back east mostly and these can be changed to legal egress windows in case you didn't think spaces like these could be used as well. In short; such unfinished space now being used as storage for many things you need no longer, is very useful space and you should allow me to use my creative ability to truly be innovative in not just fixing issues but in turning that space into something wonderful and enjoyable. By working closely with my clients, I strive to create a welcoming and functional environment that blends with the rest of the existing home design and if you're not happy with the existing home design, I can change that too. I can design just about anything; additions, kitchens, Sunroom and even whole houses. Just ask me! Maybe I can make you a unique man cave that totally clashes with the upstairs if that's what you request.

The extent of the Basement transformation depends entirely on; space available, age of home, obstacles & obstructions, ceiling height, overall complications and other factors but I'm a problem solver and I have not found one basement I can't turn into a beautiful living space that's inviting as well. I've done basements in homes aging back over a 100 years with old brick foundations. I love a challenge, bring it on! In many cases, I like to design in a way that will correct many issues that can cause a design not to work well such as my method for getting a higher ceiling height or expanding finished space into a crawl space area. If you thinking of just finishing part of it, I also believe in designing a master plan you can expand into. This includes anything upstairs that you're not happy with. You have no idea how many times I've performed miracles to basements through my study of the existing space thus transforming your once drab basement into your favorite room in the house. My 35 years of experience in the building trades guarantees that I will provide you with the optimal design based on the space and your desire but can really be built due to this knowledge and not just look good on paper. Many designers are only book smart and lack this great hands on experience to assure the plan will work!

Customer feedback is an important part of our design process and I do this all through email. My goal is to take our customer's dreams and turn them into a reality. To that end, I use some of the latest technology available, such as the 3D design software. This allows me to create virtual replicas from any area of our designs in PDF views as if you are standing there looking at it and with each plan revision we work on, I continue to present these views to my clients until they are completely satisfied with the entire design and before any construction has even taken place.

In short, if the basement was finished with a professional plan and an Egress window is installed or walkout door; this becomes legal living space and will add more value to your home, even in this poor economy. In any event, it adds more space to stretch out in and have fun entertaining with.

So for now; if you care to clean out your basement and then contact me (I'm not helping you clean the basement) at Basement Finishing & Design Service you can do that from here and send me a request for a free design cost. I'd love to show you what I can do with that dust collecting storage room you call a basement.

Thanks for reading my first blog it sure is time consuming but feel free to leave a comment or questions!