Michelle was the worst professional I encountered in my building planning expdertience. I was trying to get a sense of the space on a measured floorplan and how I might arrange furniture She returned to me a drawing NOT-TO-SCALE with a gigantic bed nearly filling the room, and similar drawings with furniture in the great room -- all completely useless as I could think on your own how to orient beds and sofas for the views, but could not get a sense of the total space. Less than 25 days after I paid her %500 build fee, I had a procedure on my eye that caused me to rapidly loose eyesight. In less than 6 months time, I realized I would never be able to live in this community as I had to stop drifing due to the lose of vision. I am now nearly blind, Nevertheless, Michelle refused to refund the balance of my deposit, which was substantial, and would also not apply to it to mold or ycotoxin testing in my current residence. All truly profesinal architexts and designers returned the balances, as I used other healthy home professionals for consults. read more

I want to warn you in advance of purchasing from Michelle at DesignWell Studios, that she will not accept a return on products purchased from her. She did not inform me of this at the time of purchase. My first purchase from Michelle was an air sampling lab test that measures Total Volatile Organic Compounds, TVOC, & formaldehyde levels in one's home. The test came back that the 8-month-old manufactured home that I was currently renting & considering purchasing had a high TVOC level at the 95th percentile compared to the average home & an elevated formaldehyde level. I had a consult with Michelle to interpret the test. In our discussion based on her understanding of the chemicals picked up by the test, Michelle identified the vinyl wallpaper that had come pre-attached to a thin layer of sheetrock that made up all the walls in the house as the likely main source of the high TVOCs. Michelle led our conversation in the direction that there was no easy fix for these problems, so I would be better served by building a new healthy house with her acting as my healthy house design consultant. In talking with her about healthy house design I soon realized that she knew less about house foundations than I did, that was the first red flag in our conversation. I agreed to purchase from her an additional air purifier machine & an ongoing air quality monitor each costing about $500. When I received the air quality monitor, I found out that it required a smart phone to set it up. It cannot run without taking this step. I cannot use smart phones because I am EMF sensitive. I don't have one. I had just received the air monitor, it was unused, so I immediately contacted Michelle indicating I wanted to return it because I don't have a smart phone & had not been told I would need one. She kept trying to get me to make other choices. I kept indicating I wanted to return it, brand new, unused, just received. She would not accept this & ended up telling me that she is in her words, "stubborn." I now agree, she is the most stubborn business person I have ever interacted with as a consumer. She pushed me to send the air monitor at my expense to the manufacturer to have them activate it for me. This is not what I wanted or asked for, but it was the only choice she offered, so I gave in & did that. When I got it back it was 4-5 weeks since the original high TVOC test. This air monitor gives an ongoing TVOC level, it always told me that my house had exceptionally low, very low TVOC levels, in direct contradiction to the original test result. Because of the dramatic contradiction I could not trust the readings it was giving me. If I actually have exceptionally low TVOC readings, why would I need an air monitor? I only bought it because I had lab results showing very high TVOC readings. I kept telling Micheel that I wanted to return it, she then informed me that the manufacturer does not accept returns once it has been activated unless the unit is proven by the manufacturer to not be working correctly. She had not told me this earlier when she would not accept a return of the unused just received monitor, but insisted I have the manufacturer activate it for me which made it nonreturnable to them. Perhaps the monitor does not measure as broad a range of TVOCs as the original test, maybe it works, but doesn't measure the specific chemicals that are a problem in my house or maybe it doesn't work. It was Michelle's job to pick the right monitor for the chemicals picked up in the original test. Michelle believes all of these devises are accurately measuring TVOCs, but it is not realistic to think my house could have improve that much in a matter of a few weeks & Michelle had led me to believe my house's problem was so significant & so difficult to fix that rather than buying it, I should start over and build a new non-toxic house. All these views contradict each other. So, my work with Michelle has led me to confusion rather than clarity. I purchased the air monitor from Michelle. She is the responsible party. When I sold products as a business owner, I would have never told a customer who bought a product from me, that they could not return it to me, but had to deal with the manufacturer rather than the seller. In my mind & experience this is not right. I sent the air monitor back to Michelle at Design Well Studios requesting refund of the purchase price. Michelle did not accept the shipment & UPS returned it to me at my expense. What good is it to me to have a monitor that always tells me my air quality is exceptionally good when a higher quality lab test said it was exceptionally high in toxic TVOCs. Why, when she is the one I paid for the product, will she not accept multiple reasonable requests to return this expensive product for a refund? I have never previously left a negative review for a business. I felt compelled to do so. I believe I have been mistreated as a consumer by Michelle Ifversen. read more

This spring, as everything started to get weird, my wife and I decided to start thinking about doing something with our small, boring backyard. We'd already put in some beds to grow vegetables (can't be too careful), but figured that it wouldn't hurt to at least get some preliminary design ideas for what we'd like to do in the fall so that we'd have something to look forward to over the summer. Enter Michelle at DesignWell Studios. From the very first moment that we met, we were hooked. My wife started describing a little of what she wanted, and immediately Michelle picked up on the idea and started making it even better. By the end of our initial visit, we had a clear vision and were certain that Michelle was someone who could help us make it a reality. Within a couple of days, we had a blueprint of our new backyard and were so in love with it, and so excited to start working with Michelle that we decided to scrap the backyard "just in case" garden and get moving on our backyard redesign. This was our first time actually working with a designer/project manager and I can hands down say that it was more than worth it! Past projects have been nothing but stress: finding the right people to do the work needed, figuring out the best materials and where to find those materials, feeling uncertain about the actual plan and whether or not we were accurately conveying our vision to the people we'd hired, etc. etc. Seriously, just thinking about it brings back all the stress. There was none of that stress with Michelle at the helm. As great as she was at helping us to get our vision down on paper, she was even more invaluable as a project manager. All that stress I'd mentioned before: gone. Michelle was there to order all the necessary supplies, find the professionals to do the work, and smooth out any hiccups along the way. A quick email or text would clear up any questions we had, allowing us to sit back and imagine the backyard we'd been dreaming of. One of the struggles my wife and I have had with people doing work for us in the past is actually advocating for ourselves. I trust in the experts to know what they're doing and do their best work. Unfortunately, sometimes, things just don't look right. In the past, when that's happened (terrible experience getting a fence built), we would timidly question the professional about our concerns and they'd always come back with the assurance that everything was being done properly. We've learned that properly is sometimes synonymous with quickly and easily which, from the homeowner's perspective does not end up delivering the desired results. Having Michelle as a project manager put things being done the way they were meant to be done at the forefront of our project. She stopped by multiple times during the redesign and had no problem putting her foot down and making sure that we were getting what we paid for and would be happy with the end results. And now that the job is done, we couldn't be happier. Our backyard is more beautiful than we could have imagined. Even though we won't be going on any vacations this summer, just sitting out in our backyard morning, noon and night feels like a vacation. It has literally become an other room of our home. When we share pictures with family and friends, the first comment is always about how professional it looks, "Like something out of a magazine." The reason it looks that way is that DesignWell Studios does professional work. Best money every spent! Zero regrets. I couldn't recommend them more. read more

Designwell Studios - Before - Environmental Testing Near Me

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Very highly recommend them. I needed help detecting cigarette smoke in my unit and ordered the test from Design Well Studios. I screwed up the order and called Michelle for help. She offered to look into my order and call me back. Talk about customer service. Not only did she call me back to let me know when the order would ship, but then followed-up subsequently to ensure the test was received. The test report was provided in a timely manner and Michelle followed-up with a call to recommend mitigation steps. Couldn't be happier with their service and detailed test report. Kudos to Michelle for all her help. Thank you! read more

I purchased consults, VOC testing, and an EMF reader from Designwell Studios to identify sources of chemical/EMF exposures. Michelle was very helpful in helping me select what to buy, with going over the results, and with suggestions to improve my environment. I appreciate her continuing support as I go down the path towards healing. Thanks! read more

Michelle is super knowledgeable and helped me address several air quality issues I had in my home. I recommend Designwell Studios to anyone with any kind of air quality concerns in their homes. I also recommend the AMF Safecoat products; their paint quickly mitigated what had been a strong smell from a previous paint job months earlier. read more

Michelle, owner of Design Well Studios, was a delight to work with. I live in Northern Idaho and needed help with several Safecoat products. She went above and beyond to answer all my questions and did all she could to make sure we got our time sensitive order as quickly as possible. She also helped me with other green building issues I was concerned about. She knows her stuff! I am so glad to have her as a resource for future projects. She can cover all the bases when trying to create a non toxic home. I would highly recommend Design Well Studios! Thanks again Michelle! :) read more