Ceilings Pictures

As a carpenter and builder I have being part of projects with great designs, where every space  have being thought out to accommodate the vision of the client and the type of environment or feeling they wanted to create in every room.

Ceilings are always a good part of those projects and thorough the years I had built so many that I can recall the exact number, but as I always said, ceilings are one on my favorite projects.

Tonight browsing through my pictures, trying to find the right ones to present to clients as suggestions for their project I found pictures and with them memories about passed projects that if

would not be for the pictures I would not remember that easy ....  anymore !
But I do have the pictures.

I remember many years ago when I start taking pictures of my work, I always made emphasis in taking pictures of the process of building, not only of the final product and that have work very well the few occasions  I had to proof to someone that the picture I just emailed  its not a plagiarized picture from a design magazine and it truly is a sample of my work because I have the work progress pictures to prove it


Looking at some pictures now I realize that in some cases I documented the building process and then move to another site and did not have the opportunity to go back and take those finals pictures ...   or as far as I can tell now if  I did I have not run into them for along time.

I have thousands  of pictures of my work in previous projects, so organizing and matching all those pictures can be something I can do once my body can not take the heavy load of this type of physical work anymore, for sure the memories will be a lot more meaningful then.

So, I decided to post some of these pictures, the format of the blog did not allowed me to post them all ( ceiling pictures ) as I would like to do but for sure another day soon I will find an excuse to post another bunch.

Value and Price

“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. 

When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. 

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done.

If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well

to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.” 

― John Ruskin

I “usually” apply this quote to all my personal and business transactions, I try to remember this when I am hiring employees or trades, buying materials and purchasing tools, I found that with time I can’t really remember the times I could overpaid a little bit for something, but I still remember every single time and the consequences of every occasion where at some point I thought I had got a great deal !

I always get a kick out of the employments ads that list all sorts of responsibilities and qualifications and then finish with something like this : “ pay base on experience 12 to 16 dollars “ , ….. 

My fellow employer, who do you think you are kidding ?

First one on line, its yourself, you will be posting that ad again in a week or two looking for someone to come and fix what that person just did. There is a big chance that time and money loses is all you are going to get from employing a person that is willing to work for 16 dollars an hour to perform any type of work that will required some qualifications or abilities on any field of construction these days.

Second one on line, It’s the Client you are working for… believe it or not .. I see it all the time …   people performing tasks they have not proper training for , obviously quality and workmanship will not be parts of that project.  As a dear friend of mine jokes about : the best business to be in three years will be renovations, all the defective work we see around now will be falling apart by then and they gonna need tons of people to fix it.

The third one on that line are us, all the contractors and trade people that feel passionate about the work we do, the ones that try to do it right ! Sometimes, the 16 dollars employers will be chosen over the other guys with decisions based on price and the circle of consequences will repeat itself over and over again.

Vertical Gardens as Interior Scape

We firmly believe that spaces build  for human habitation must incorporate some samples or manifestation of nature and doing so, allow us not only to enjoy nature's beauty but the countless benefits of the cohabitation and living in harmony with nature.

One of the many ways that we can integrate a magnificent  expression of nature into our living spaces is the VERTICAL GARDEN

At the time of planning a design for our building and renovation projects I always give our clients a document under the heading of  " Focal Points For Every Room " , this is nothing more than a sheet of paper with a list of different  things that we could build in every room, things that will turn a normal room formed by four walls, a ceiling and a floor into an unique an exclusive space . It is up to our client to decide if they want it or not and even if they would like to build the necessaries rough ins to add this particular fixture in the future.

One of the suggestions in that list is a VERTICAL GARDEN.

I like Vertical Gardens a lot, I built my first years ago, under my wife's suggestion ( or should I said, pressure ) I did the proper research in materials and procedures but I always had the premonition that our creation  would have a short life and all those colorful plants would never make it to the next summer, Five years later, including two moves, and they are healthier and more beautiful than ever. 

Vertical Gardens are a super nice detail to integrate to any space, residential or commercial, can be customize to any size and shape and it always will brighten the room, but also bring all kind of benefits as a reduction of noise levels,  balancing humidity and of course the most important, making the space peaceful and relaxing.

Acuarium Kitchen Island

This Ocean Kitchen is a massive aquarium topped with an L shape slab of corian that lifts up at the touch of a button.

Designed by Robert Kolenik is a good example of how to bring nature into human spaces and how to blend natural materials with a timeless design.

While the ocean kitchen might not be for every kitchen or budget, its hard to beat as a jaw-dropping statement piece                                                                                                                                                                                                               

  our credits to Inhabitat

The importance of surrounding yourself with good trade people

As a Building Contractor with the obligation of delivering a high quality work every time as the only way to safeguard my company reputation and well being I learnt a long time ago of the importance of surrounding yourself with good trade people.

A good trade person is not only the one that does his job better and faster and not for sure cheaper, in my personal opinion a good trade person is the one that recognize how important his work really is as a part of a whole project. Positive attitude, honesty and decency are all qualities I need in the people I share my work with.  

It can take sometime to develop these relationships but once you find them its very important to make them grow and keep them. 

Its our company policy to pass information to our clients about the trades ( electrician, plumber, tapers ) that we will be subcontracting work to on each specific project, they become representatives of our company abilities to hire and manage good trade people and its my responsibility to stock in the best people to be found.

Sometime ago, in need of a drywaller for a project, a company we used to work with send us someone with a nasty attitude and very poor workmanship, this episode was a deal breaker  as we had to rush and fix and clean before anyone including our client could see such a disaster. Not before taking some pictures to defend our case and have a memorandum of how not to do a job. Luckily having good employees on site helped to catch this situation on time  and minimize the compromising repercussions.                                                                                         I proud myself of being very selective whenever I have to hire either employees or trades to work with but obviously once in a while we will be indirectly expose to this type of workmanship, its our obligation to catch it on time, fix it and do all we can to avoid it again.                                                                                                                      In scenarios like that I always remember what a painter finishing ( painting ) my trim work in a project once told me : he said " a labor works with his back, a trade person with his hands and a craftsman with his heart .... and you will always know looking at his work "

A Full Renovation Story ( page eight ) The finished product

This project, a condominium full renovation was completed in little over three months.