My House Design/Build Team

We hired the My House Design/Build Team to complete a full home renovation and expansion. Undertaking such a major project we wanted a contractor with a lot of experience and a reputation for high quality work. With My House, that is exactly what we got!
Initially we met with Graeme, the owner, to explain our vision for the renovation. Graeme took the time to fully understand our objectives and offered ideas we could consider to enhance the project. During the meeting, Graeme carefully explained the design build process and left us with a positive feeling that the My House Team would be the right company for our project.
After retaining the My House Team, we moved quickly into the initial design phase. The design team's experience was very evident. They worked with us to refine and develop the designs around our goals and put together a budget. During this phase the benefit of the design build concept became very evident as the design, construction and estimating teams work together very closely to achieve a functional and constructible design. This eliminates potentially costly and time consuming coordination issues during the construction phase possible when dealing with separate companies. All materials, fixtures and finishes were specified during the design phase allowing a high level of confidence in the final design and estimated cost. At the completion of the initial design phase we had a complete design package and an agreed to construction budget.
Our interior designer, Becky, was a great fit for us and our project. In developing the designs, she helped us so much with the multitude of decisions and made the process enjoyable. Becky guided us through the design phase providing us with layout drawings to help us visualize the renovation and working with us to ensure the result would be ideal. She personally assisted us with the selection of every detail, meeting at vendor sites as required. She provided guidance and recommendations always mindful of our budget. What would have been an incredibly daunting task on our own, Becky made easy. She remained involved right through the construction phase ensuring that the product reflected the design and was of high quality.
The construction phase took six months and we were very impressed with how the team kept to the schedule. The construction team were fantastic. Everyone was highly skilled, hard working, considerate and polite. Our neighbours were very complimentary on how courteous the construction team was and how there were minimal disruptions. The site was always kept secure, clean and safe. Our construction manager, Bruno, paid close attention to every detail to ensure that the quality of the onsite work and that of all the subcontractors was top notch. My House's use of well qualified and professional subtrades really made a difference for us. Challenges were expeditiously resolved by the construction team. During our frequent visits to the project site Bruno would always take time to explain every detail of the work in progress and answer questions.
The project involved some very challenging engineering and construction. The expansion involved removing the entire exterior load bearing back wall of the main floor of the house creating an impressive award winning open concept kitchen and great room with a vaulted ceiling and massive sky light. The changes required extensive use of steel framing, foundation modifications and shear walls. The challenging design completed by the My House engineers was executed flawlessly by the construction crew thanks to the close coordination of the groups during the design phase. The fit and finish were beautifully completed by highly skilled tradesmen. Some of our favorite features are the beautiful barn doors which lead into our new kitchen, our huge island with a double thick chiselled edge countertop, our new open wood staircase and our rustic linear fireplace. Other highlights included removing an interior wall to create a large laundry room, all new bathrooms, new wide plank hardwood flooring throughout, new windows, doors and trim, lighting, HVAC and electrical service. Exterior work included a new deck and patio, all new landscaping and a new roof and driveway. Clearly, the My House Team can do it all.
The design build concept allowed a seamless execution of the project from the initial design and estimating phase through to completion of construction. All aspects of the project were well organized and completed in a timely manner. The finished product is stunning! Our home was a finalist for the 2016 CHBA National Awards for Housing Excellence and won a GVHBA Ovation Award for Best Kitchen. It is also a finalist for the 2017 Georgie Awards! We are so proud of our new home and highly recommend the My House Team for any renovation project or new build and would not hesitate to entrust them with future work, no matter what the size.

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In 2016, I contracted MyHouse Design Build to renovate my downtown Vancouver condo from floor-to-ceiling. The results are spectacular! I am thrilled beyond words and can't thank Graeme Huguet and the entire MyHouse team enough for their uncompromising integrity and brilliantly executed design and construction. Like mighty renovation superheroes, they transformed my ugly duckling, cookie-cutter, 1980s-era strata lot into an ultra-modern, luxury residence worthy of Architectural Digest and Dwell magazines. Without exception, everyone on the reno crew were five-star professionals -- from the project manager (Wayne) to the interior designer (Helen) to the general contractor (Fred) to all the trades (electrical, plumbing, tiling, painting, flooring, fireplace, drywall, taping). All were extraordinarily skilled, experienced, trustworthy, knowledgeable, congenial and cooperative. Everyone took great pride in their work. All delivered meticulous workmanship -- on time and on budget. Working together, they successfully completed a reno that exceeded my highest expectations and turned out better than I ever hoped. Don't just take my word for it. In November, 2016 the project was officially recognized by the Canadian Home Builder's Association of British Columbia (CHBA BC) as a top-five finalist for a 2017 Georgie Award® -- a premier housing prize program that highlights excellence in BC home building and renovation. This acclaim alone speaks (shouts!) for itself. Looking forward, I plan to renovate additional properties within the next year or so and MyHouse will definitely be my go-to contractors. Ultimately, MyHouse Design Build makes dreams come true -- literally. They created a timeless space of elegance, beauty and simplicity that calms my mind, ignites my spirit, invigorates my work and energizes my play. MyHouse not only refurbished my home, they revitalized my life.

Right from the initial planning meetings, My House Design/Build impressed us with their skills in translating our many desires into concrete design ideas, with their attention to detail and knowledge of local bylaws, and with their financial tracking and budgeting systems. My House not only provided a custom, well-built home with all the features we wanted, but they provided what they had promised up-front - that “Wow” factor. After two years in the house, we still look around and can’t quite believe what we have.
Our construction phase lasted 10 months, and involved the complete rebuild of the property. We did make a scope change just after beginning but only after consultation and with costs fully explained. The many trades who worked on our property during this phase were all skilled and the quality of the result is a testament to that. While there were some inevitable project hiccups, My House always dealt with any issues promptly, professionally and to our satisfaction.
Our final result is simply stunning. Our design provided all the items we knew we wanted – open concept, great room, gourmet kitchen, covered deck, walk in master closet and deluxe ensuite, but My House also came up with innovative touches that provide the Wow - two way fireplaces to the deck and in the ensuite bath, and a glass vaulted roof in the nook.
While our design and build exceeded our expectations, I think it also important to call out the team for their follow-up care after the project completes. While our project has only had a couple of minor items needing attention, any item raised has been dealt with promptly, courteously, and professionally.

At the end of our first meeting, Graeme offered the advice of "going with people you can trust". Our ensuite was redesigned and constructed to include a large glass enclosed shower with bench and rain shower, large soaker tub, and heated floor.  Our master bedroom included a dressing room with vanity and enclosed cabinetry in addition to a fireplace at the foot of the bed (TV above), sand-on-sight oak floors throughout and French doors to a future planned outside deck overlooking the backyard.  The choices of paint and tile colours, stone and cabinet design were all expertly suggested by Linda.  Linda soon became our confidant due to her vision and professionalism.  It remains one of our favourite parts of the home.
In 2012, we once again contacted Graeme and his Team; this time to focus on the exterior envelope of the home.  At 23 years in, our house had a tired roof, weather stained vinyl siding and (well) 23 year old windows.  It is during this phase of remodel that we became familiar with Bruno; Project Manager and absolute master at virtually every aspect of construction and design.  Bruno's accessibility, open ears and open mind, along with his intuitiveness for what the client wants (both husband and wife) are extremely appreciated.  Bruno exemplified the trust that Graeme spoke of at our first meeting.  Many times we found ourselves trusting Bruno's suggestions for construction and/or design when faced with a decision - we were never disappointed.  With the help of Linda, Bruno led his team through a phase which included a new roof with redesigned front gables, soffit, fascia, hardy board siding, stonework and windows.  We must also call out the attention to detail that Norm provided as he installed the siding and Jason when he installed the doors and windows.  We continue to have passersby compliment us on our beautiful home.  The project also included a backyard composite deck, built-in barbeque and pergola with an adjoining shed which matches the house.  An upper deck was also constructed off the master bedroom with an ulterior purpose of sheltering the barbeque and black granite countertop below.  With our existing landscaping incorporated, this space is truly an outdoor oasis for us.  
In 2015, we contacted Graeme and asked once more for the assistance of Bruno and Linda.  This time, we were ready to transform our kitchen and family room into a Great Room running along the back of the home.  The overall project included raising floors, moving walls, hiding beams and then redesigning the entire space.  Bruno "found" space underneath our stairs to allow for the addition of a beverage centre.  We now have a six-burner gas cook top at one end of the space and a floor to ceiling cast concrete sculptured fireplace at the opposite end.  The kitchen area includes white flat-paneled cabinetry with dark grey quartz countertops and a burgundy painted glass backsplash.  A nine foot island is also topped with a light marbled quartz counter with espresso shaker-style cabinetry.  A 60" TV was mounted in the sitting area with the fireplace; in-ceiling speakers were installed and all other media components hidden controlled via Control-4 integration.  The powder room was gutted and redesigned.  The laundry room was also repurposed to include a countertop and built-in gated dog crate below, mud room sink and drop zone.  We also took the opportunity to upgrade the furnace and introduced hot water on-demand.  Save for the front living room, this project included all of the lower floor of the home.  For the flooring, we chose a long wide plank tile guised as hardwood.  Visitors continually compliment us on the hardwood floors - a testament to Linda for selecting and Oleg (the Tile Artist) for his installation prowess.  Although we had already met Jeff (The Finishing Guy), it was in this phase that he really showed his talents in detail.  And our dog Chili became quite enamored with Jeff.
This year, we decided to complete the home by renovating the main upstairs bathroom, trimming out both bedrooms (including a redesigned closet), new stair railing and metal spindles, and new carpeting.  The front living room received a new vaulted ceiling with lights and speakers and a feature wall clad in repurposed barn wood.  Jeff once again performed much of the work and Chili awaited his arrival daily.
Our home has since been named as a Finalist in both the Ovation Awards and the upcoming Georgies.
From start to finish, the My House Design / Build Team worked with us to determine our vision and provided guidance along the way.  There was always an appreciation for cost and attempts made where possible to save us money and finish under budget.  On a daily basis, work was planned with an appreciation of our personal schedule.   We were never concerned about the security of our home during any of the work; nor about the outcome of the craftsmanship.  We were, after all, in the hands of people we trusted.

After looking around for a designer contractor for our renovation project, we decided on working with My House based on their reputations, reviews on line and their open approach. The project entailed removing the roof and adding a third bedroom, bathroom and closets on the upper level, openning up main floor.

The initial meeting with one of their project managers, was good, they said all the right words. Working with you, listening to your requests, working within your budget, etc. We were impressed, liked them, and wanted to move forward. They asked us for our ideas and wish list for the renovation. We were very clear on what we needed to accomplish for the budget we had given them versus what we hoped to include.

We had a meeting at their offices to review their proposal. The pricing for our wish list came in at our budget and was what we wanted so we gave them a go ahead for the next phase. We later found some inaccuracies in the pricing from the detailed worksheet they had provided. We had a further meeting to discuss this and discovered that their estimates for the project were off and we were double our original $200K budget. They knew the scope of the project, they understood what we wanted to accomplish, all the way through we asked them to advise us on what could be done within our budget. As experts in the renovation field, we thought they would provide guidance. But when the budget came in over there was no effort to work through this. No guidance provided. Their only suggestion was to continue paying them by the hour to start again.

We made the difficult decision to stop the project at this point. We didn't want to incure further costs on the project. We realized that we were paying for things we didn't want and received little to no value and they had little desire to help us meet our budget. With their cost plus model, each meeting added additional costs, regardless of the value we received. Some examples include: an interior designer who sat in on a meeting, even though it wasn't required at that stage, a back office estimator who billed us for time before we had anything to estimate; 19 hours of design time for a layout of a second floor and opening some walls on the main floor; a project manager to oversee each discussion. What is hard is that we liked them as people and wanted to work with them but they left us with no choice but to keep paying them.

We paided roughly $8,000 for the discovery that they were not able to fit everything on our wishlist into our budget. They didn't come back with any solutions on how to achieve the goal on budget, but just said the costs are the costs. Which leads me back to how we initially approached them, we had a clear understanding of our budget, clear understanding of the scope, and a prioritized list of requirement for the project.

Had they would have came back to us with a solution to bring the project back on budget we would have probably been open to moving forward with them. Or, if they came up with some quick drawings to change the estimate, but keeping with our initial goal of a 3rd bedroom. But no, they did not do this. We can only assume that they did not want to provide this without charging the client. Sometimes in the construction business you have to eat some time if you make mistakes. I know this as I'm in the industry as well.

After stopping the project, we requested the digital files for the drawings as we only recieved a 5 page concept report. We sent multiple emails and questions and requests, but no response for almost a month. To us, this shows how they treat clients when things don't go their way. If they can't bill you anymore, then you are the least of there priorities. We still had a deposit which we wanted returned, but it didn't affect them, so would be shelved until they had time to answer my multiple emails and calls. Finally after cancelling the project 2 months ago, I was given a pdf of my file and layouts.

I nievely expected that a professional company would have the experience to lead you in the right direction, but this has taught me that you really need to be knowledgeable on what you are doing. They run a big operation and have a machine to oil with client money.

We hired this company because we loved their work and we believed they had integrity which is very important in this industry. We have been very pleased with our association thus far. They have addressed each of our concerns with our best interests in mind. Graeme, the owner, is hands on. He and his team strive to provide excellence and take pride in what they do. We would highly recommend this company.