FAQ
Q: What do you make?
A: Primarily wood based products: furniture, bookcases, cabinets, shelves, trim, built ins, you name it, we are interested. It’s just not a simple answer — give us a try and tell us what you are looking for. If we can’t do it ourselves, we will tell you.
Q: What kinds of materials do you work with?
A: Solid wood, exotics, veneers, plastics, and metals.
Q: What do you not do in terms of our project?
A: We are not plumbers, though simple in-cabinet changes are to be expected (hook up a faucet, or a sink drain, etc). If it's outside the cabinet, it very quickly leaves our realm of expertise, or just as important, the limits of our insurance. You deserve to be protected, and we don't want the liability of flooding your home or business.
We are more adept at electrical, but there again we will not pull/install new circuits. In many cases it is simply moving an outlet within a stud bay or to the face of a cabinet or bookcase. We will generally perform that. Running low voltage lighting is within the scope of our work, and something we like to include in our projects.
We are limited in what we can do for countertops. Please discuss your needs with us in this regard. We do not install stone/quartz, or solid surface (Corian) materials.
Q: What is 'aging in place'? How does lighting play into that term?
A: There are organizations with more thorough descriptions. For us it means making a space less likely for you to have accidents in, which means it is a more comfortable space to live in. That can mean added lighting for stair steps (not general lighting -- lighting specific to seeing the treads & your feet), or countertop lighting (sharp knives and dark spaces...). Other options include counter edge, in cabinet, toe kick lighting (improves night time safety, makes a night light if you will).
The reality is our visual sensitivity to light drops fairly quickly from our teens. Having light -- well placed light -- is important to seeing the dog or kids toy that got left. Stubbing a toe is one thing, breaking something and the recovery period is quite another. Good lighting helps solve both issues.
Good lighting should include: no shadowing (blocked by your body), not shining in your eyes (like going up most stair wells), switching (motion detection or always on). There are other details that can help: proper color (simply talking about whites), brightness, good quality (high CRI). Proper placement can make the light helpful for that midnight house tour, but minimize how much it wakes you up; you should never see the light -- just what the light is shining on. Some lights can be dual tone, as well as adjusted via phone or home automation for time of day (ie, a warm white later in the evening, but a brighter white in the morning). Or, simply turn on at dusk and off at dawn. Modern LED lighting adds very little heat, and uses very little electricity. In our installations all work will be done for a finished look: lights will be installed in finished 'trays' with lenses, wires will be hidden as much as possible, etc.
Other factors might include handles and knobs, hand rails, flooring transitions.