HIS Blog
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- Written by Sara
How a Bathroom Becomes a Sanctuary
Let’s face it. Since being at home for almost half of 2020 you’ve become startlingly aware of the good, the bad, and the ugly in your house.
This includes your bathroom.
Your place of peace and solitude feels stale, tired and worn out. But what if it could become a place that lifted your spirits rather than causing additional stress? What if your bathroom was fresh, crisp, and current again?
Sit back and envision the possibility of our favorite 2020 bathroom trends as the setting of your daily retreat.
Tile
Tile adds a level of class to your bathroom. This year, try dramatic shapes (arabesque, moroccan fish scales), bold colors (saturated jewel tones, anyone?), and high gloss finishes. Or if you prefer a more natural look try earthy tones and natural textures.
This recent bathroom remodel features an arabesque tile backsplash, a subway tile half-wall, and a dark tile floor.
Tubs
The perfect blend of practical and relaxing, tubs are a simple way to add personality to your bathroom. There are so many funky options this year - rectangular tubs? deep tubs? black tubs? tub nook? tubs in open showers? Anything goes.
Two additional recent bathroom remodels showcase a couple types of freestanding deep tubs:
Glass Showers
Offering endless potential for incorporating your own style, glass showers remain a timeless and (dare I say) sexy addition to any master bath.
The beautiful glass doors draw you in to the oasis and highlight unique tile shapes and bold colors.
Mirrors
Mirrors with built in lighting not only update the feel of your bathroom and create an eye-catching focal point, but they are also an efficient and stylish way to include a necessary feature.
This example shows off in-mirror LED lighting (bonus: LED lights are energy efficient!)
Smart Features
Showers that turn on automatically, radiant floor heating, self-cleaning toilets, there has never been a better time to discover what your bathroom can do for you. Check out Kohler's smart features for inspiration and information.
If you’re looking to create a sanctuary, a place of peaceful solitude, talk to us about remodeling your bathroom today!
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- Written by Sara
How can you work at home while we work in your home?
You have made a lot of significant adjustments to your life recently. For a lot of you, that includes the new routine of working from home. What would that look like as you consider starting that fancy master bathroom you’ve been dreaming of or that deck for your (social distancing) summer cookouts?
How can you work at home while we work in your home?
We’re committed to offering creative ways to make it as smooth a process as possible.
It can even be...
- Peaceful: We respect each other’s work. You have an important call from 11-11:30? We’ll take an early lunch outside or make sure we pause the power tools. And if there is a time of day we know will be particularly loud, we’ll give you as much notice as possible.
- Productive: Let’s talk about creating a temporary alternative work space for you in your home further away from construction while we complete a project.
- Fun! We work with fantastic tradesmen who are friendly and respectful.
Along with these promises, we’re thinking about innovative ways to ease communication and provide you with a cozy, productive work space.
Maybe we’ll have a command center where you can write down times of important meetings and we’ll record times of increased activity.
Maybe we’ll find a spot that’s hidden away and a little unconventional in your house for you to work in. We can ensure there is appropriate lighting, ventilation and wifi.
(Photo courtesy of unsplash.com, The Coherent Team)
Maybe we’ll even be able to offer a mobile tiny-office for rent during the duration of your project! Aren’t these the coolest?!
We want to hear from you!
Do you have any unorthodox ideas for temporary, alternative office space?
What are your reservations or hopes in terms of working from home during a renovation or addition?
Or maybe you need a long-term office space since working from home is your new normal?
Watch for an upcoming post all about this!
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- Written by Sara
Your Safety is Our Priority
We’ve been told to stay home, but that doesn’t mean your home has to stay the same. Let’s work together to continue safely creating homes you want to spend all your time in.
Everything around us is changing so quickly and in response we have put in place creative and dynamic measures that will allow us to construct your dream space while keeping you safe.
Aside from following the government's recommendations of hand-washing, social distancing, and mask wearing, we are implementing these job-site specific procedures:
- We offer virtual consultations. Once you have contacted us, you will receive an email guiding you through the types of photos to send us and how to create a simple sketch of your space with measurements to the nearest inch. From there, we can provide you with an initial quote.
- We limit our access to your home by determining the single best way for us to access the work area that ensures minimal traffic through your space.
- We do not use your family’s bathroom. We will provide alternate restroom accommodations depending on the duration of your project.
- We wipe down all surfaces we may have contacted (handrails, door knobs, light switches, etc.) with disinfectant that is approved for each particular surface upon arrival, throughout the day, and immediately before leaving.
- We section off the project area with temporary plastic barrier walls to keep your living space clean and minimize exposure.
- We monitor the number of workers on site to ensure social distancing and adherence to the governor’s mandates regarding group size.
*Please Note* This may mean that the duration of projects will increase but the health and safety of all involved is our top priority.
- We coordinate deliveries to ensure a representative from HIS Corp is present. Delivery personnel will drop off packages/materials outside and a worker will then sanitize and handle the item.
If creating your dream space during times like these means that for a portion of our day we swap our saws for sanitizer, our cords for Clorox, and a little efficiency for distance, then we will happily make those substitutions.
Let’s work together to safely make your house a space in which even the most extroverted among you will love to #stayhome.
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What do the Safety Procedures Look Like in Your Home?
We’ve laid out our new procedures for working safely during this time, but what does this mean for you, in your home?
Your home and the flow of your life within it is unique to you and your family. In addition to implementing our basic safety measures (masks, sanitizing surfaces, appropriate social distance, etc.) we will work with you to come up with a specific plan for your space that ensures safety, health, and efficiency.
To help you imagine what this may look like, here are two examples of recent projects we have completed working within our new safety measures.
Project 1: Basement Finishing
Involving slightly less adjustment to our typical process, this project only required access to the basement which allowed us to simply close the door to the rest of the house at the top of the stairs. We then entered and exited only through the exterior basement door.
Project 2: Second floor remodel with additional first floor renovations
In this case, we were able to use the backdoor which led to the stairway. We sectioned off this doorway and stairway entrance from the rest of the house with plastic to limit exposure to the family and to help keep the rest of the house free from construction dust and dirt (see photos below). Throughout the process, we coordinated with the homeowners to guarantee minimal interaction and in this case, it was necessary and within the family’s ability to leave for the day while we completed the first floor renovations.
No matter your home's layout, the safe and efficient completion of any project is possible. We will work with you to create custom safety measures each step of the way. The extra effort and temporary changes in your home are always well worth it in the end!
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- Written by HIS Administrator
Seeking Lead Carpenter
Do you have experience as a carpenter? Supervision of small groups?
We are currently looking to hire an experienced lead carpenter to manage a small group of subcontractors and perform a full range of rough to finish carpentry work related to residential construction, maintenance, alteration, and repair of building components and structures.
This will not only be a supervisory position but a practical position working
alongside our crew.
Interested? Please email our office or fill out our contact page.
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