A friend recommended Jerry for my kitchen remodel. He came to my home and had some great…read moresuggestions. After a few adjustments, he gave me a final design which I loved. Now my project is finished and I love my new "great room" which includes the kitchen, dining room and living room. My friends call my house "a party house." Which it totally is! Everyone loves hanging out in the kitchen but now there is nothing separating the 3 rooms so parties are a blast! One of the best things is the garbage pullout which is directly under the prep station. I would highly recommend Jerry for any design work.

Beware. Colleen Mahoney, the principal and owner at Mahoney Architects earned my trust in November,…read more2021 by relating to our remodel objectives and budget. I've done two large remodels in the past so am experienced with the process. As far as remodels go, this was considered on the small side and largely consisted of opening up the kitchen to the living & dining room and opening up the space to the outside. We allocated a budget of $230,000 for this project. Colleen said that was reasonable and estimated her architectural services would run 10% of the total budget or $23,000. She assured me that her firm was excellent at managing their services to a budget. Short story is Mahoney Architects completed about 35% of the project for 100% of their estimate. Their invoices reflected rework and unnecessarily working on designs that did not meet project objectives and could have been easily resolved by talking to the client. Perhaps worse, is that Colleen never saw an issue with her invoices. A more detailed account follows. Mahoney Architects started the project on Nov 16, 2021, measuring the house and drafting the As Built Drawings in AutoCad. Because of a bookkeeper error, I did not receive the November invoice until Dec 30. At $5,926, it seemed high but after I asked how much of the project that invoice represented, Colleen emailed that it represented "20 - 25%." That projected total architect fees of $23,704 - $29,630, which is higher than the original estimate, but still in the ball park. On Jan 7, 2022 I received the December invoice for $18,098. I was stunned the two invoices totaled $24,024. There was no communication that their billings were already over the estimate. All that had been completed was As Built Drawings (Site Plan, Floor Plan, Elevations, Cross Section of Floor Plan) and two design sketches that did not meet the project objectives. We still did not have a workable Design nor Construction Documents (Demo Plan, Floor Plan, Electrical/Mechanical Plan, Interior Elevations, Exterior Elevations). After I requested that all work stop until we had a discussion, Colleen took 6 days to write me a formal letter in which she listed everything they did and said it was all appropriate. She never acknowledged that they were over the estimate. She estimated that it would take at least another 100 hours or roughly $19,000 to finish a design and create the construction documents. We met to attempt to come to a reasonable resolution. But Colleen could never answer why the As Built Drawings were so far above the estimate, nor did she acknowledge or recognize why a client would be worried about that. There was no project scope increase and measuring and drawing the existing house is the most predictable part of a remodel project. In the end, I paid her firm $20,426 for the release of the four As Built Drawings. A very expensive lesson for being too trusting on what I was sold.

I have worked with Colleen for the better part of 25 years. She has always been very professional…read moreand has beautiful designs that the client is always happy with. I would recommend her highly to anyone that is interested in new construction, remodel/addition. Walt Kehr

We had Jim do a complete renovation of the Redwood City home we purchased, and we are absolutely…read moredelighted with his design. This is the second home he has designed for our family and in both cases we were 150% satisfied with the entire experience. The first house was ultra modern and I was not sure how he would feel about a traditional home. To say that the design exceeds our expectations is an understatement. He listened very carefully to understand my style and then came up with a very unique design. I have not seen anything like the kitchen he designed anywhere. He is very practical and has been involved in managing the contractor even though we are doing this long distance. He also helped in the selection of finishes eliminating the need for an interior designer in our case. This saved us a lot of money. There were no change orders related to his design. That is huge. His plans are very detailed and he got them through our local planning dept. very swiftly. He is very honest, ethical and has great inter-personal skills. Finally I think his rates are pretty reasonable by Bay Area standards. Whenever I encounter someone this good, I always yelp about it!

Gracie has been cleaning our office for quite some time, and she consistently does an outstanding…read morejob. She's dependable, professional, and pays great attention to detail. The office always looks clean, organized, and welcoming after she's been here. It's clear she takes pride in her work, and we truly appreciate her reliability and quality of service. I highly recommend Gracie to anyone looking for a trustworthy and thorough cleaning service.

I have been working with Dave and Debbie for almost 20 years. I simply cannot imagine a better…read morecontractor. They build relationships, and are always there if stuff invariably goes a little sideways. They have done at least 20 different projects with me over the years - some big, some small. The result has always been outstanding. They It is so important to have someone you trust, and Del is absolutely trustworthy and does great work.

We worked with Mark Parry/Idea Studios as the architect for the build-out of our fitness studio F45…read moreTraining San Rafael. Mark has a keen eye for detail, listens intently, thinks outside the box, and brings years of expertise and insights to the table. He always made it clear that his primary objective was to make sure that we ended up with a space that we were thrilled with. Despite having to work within the confines of design elements dictated by the fitness franchise, Mark was able to elevate the design of our studio. Indeed we were thrilled with the ultimate result. Mark brought expert knowledge of ADA regulations and was helpful in navigating the county approval processes. We were particularly happy with the design of the bathrooms and showers, spaces in which we were more free to add personal design elements and let Mark work his magic. We take great pride in showing our fitness studio to potential members, especially the bathrooms. Mark really understood our concept and worked passionately to crystallize and realize our vision!

We hired Studio 101 Designs to do an extensive remodel that completely transformed our aging ranch…read morehome into a modern, green, energy-efficient home. Studio 101 Designs has a great process, and immediately understood the kind of home we wanted and did a great job moving the project throughout the various phases from early sketches to schematic design to construction administration. Because they have extensive green building experience, they had great advice on materials and product choices. Our project had a number of issues throughout the construction process, but Studio 101 Designs was always able to deal with issues in a reasonable way. We found them to be very responsive throughout the whole process. They were excellent to work with, talented architects, very honest, and thoughtful, and I highly recommend them.

When we purchased our home 3 years ago it needed a ton of work. The potential was there, but the…read morehouse had no flow (each room had a different theme), was not very functional (i.e rooms dominated by over-sized and outdated fireplaces), and desperately needed a major remodel after +30 years since the last update. Scott and James listened to all of our needs and ideas and were able to transform our home into a contemporary gem within a very modest budget for the scope of this project. Hard to explain in words- I'll let the before and after pics of the "San Rafael Remodel" on their website speak for itself. Beyond the quality of their work, Scott and his team know how to manage expectations and are great people to work with. The only bad news about this house is the projects never end. We're looking forward to working with Scott and the Studio 101 team again this spring to design a guest house/office addition

We worked with Steve on our retirement home in Petaluma. From the first meeting with Steve we knew…read morewe had selected the architect that was perfect for us. Before our first meeting he had already visited our house site and had some great ideas. Steve really listened to us regarding our wants/needs for our new home. Beyond designing the house, Steve worked with us on landscape design and paid particular attention to the kitchen and bathrooms. He not only was our architect but also our project manager, working with several different engineers and vendors to get us to the permit process. Once the plans were submitted to the city of Petaluma, Steve handled all interaction with them through to getting our permits. In addition, to all of this - Steve worked hard to help us find the right builder for our project. Building a home from the ground up is not an easy task and our project was complex because the lot is on a slope. Steve had so many good ideas and was always available for questions. If we ever built again, we would definitely use Steve as our architect.

I called Steve to talk about a project and we met at his studio. He started drawing design sketches…read moreon the spot with his magic marker! I knew right away that I was going to hire him to provide Architectural and design drawings/plans for my tenant improvement project in Petaluma. He was very professional and listened to my needs. I love the designs and the plans passed through the City planning and building dept. smoothly, which can sometimes be a hassle but Steve gracefully navigated the red tape. I highly recommend Steve Charlip Architecture!