Touchless Faucets

Since its initial inception in 1700 BC, the faucet has continued evolving to accommodate the end user. In today’s kitchens a touchless faucet is a must-have, cutting down on germs that can be left behind to thrive and transfer on faucet handles. From a hygienic standpoint, a sensor faucet in kitchens and bathrooms makes sense, especially in todays’ world with the COVID-19 virus.

Initially, I started utilizing the touchless faucet in my kitchen designs seven years ago to conserve water and prevent accidental water overflow from an unattended faucet. Many kitchen and bathroom flooding incidents are because someone has left a faucet running.

Trinsic Touch 2.O

Today, when I design, my focus is still focused on functionality, safety, and aesthetics. In addition, I must now address the client’s need for sanitation and well-being. In January, a kitchen I designed incorporated Delta’s Trinsic Touch 2.0 faucet, which is activated by a simple touch of the arm or wrist anywhere. Other safety features include an automatic shut off and LED color changing indicator light (blue - magenta – red) to signify temperature. Red is hot. Blue is not.

As with all technology, touchless kitchen faucets started out being quite expensive. Now, you can buy them in every price range or design to fit your design style. 

As the demand for creating spaces that focus on sanitary environments and reducing the risk of spreading disease increases, manufacturers continue to create technology to address homeowner’s demand for fixtures that reduce spreading bacteria in their home. We are seeing increasing demand in kitchen and bath remodels for touchless or even voice activated faucets. Many homes today have smart technology like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Voice, Kohler and other manufacturer’s have created voice activated faucets as the latest advancement. Kohler’s Sensate and Artifacts, pull-down kitchen faucets, operate via voice commands to dispense specific amounts of water, turn the faucet on / off, as well as  with a wave of your hand with touchless motion.

Whatever your concerns, options among faucets are growing. The only limit seems to be our imaginations. 

Kohler Sensate

New Showroom Experience

Houzz Ideabook with Metro Lighting Traffic Light Pendant

With the onset of COVID-19 and shelter in place policies for the San Francisco Bay Area counties, showrooms and designers are making changes to assist our clients virtually.

Irma and Alisa have been meeting with homeowners via Zoom calls to review material selections online. We use Houzz to collect a variety of ideas that we review together. We are still asking questions as we go through each item to be sure that the faucet is just right, and to narrow options down. Ordering samples for tile, countertops and cabinetry helps us to get important colors in their hands so they can make these important decisions.

Recently, local showrooms have also been working hard behind the scenes. Many have taking this opportunity to start remodeling and cleaning up. One of Berkley’s own small businesses, Metro Lighting, has recently created a 3-d walk-through showroom experience.

While life is still chaotic and the “new normal” hasn’t settled in. We encourage anyone who is stuck in their Home to start day dreaming about their space. Go online to destress, browse and imagine your home of the future.

National Home Improvement Month

PPE is important for our Employees & Clients

Celebrating isn’t easy, as the shelter-in-place restrictions are relaxing for remodeling, we are taking as many precautions as possible to keep our employees and our clients safe. Reducing exposure is still the best practice, when it’s not possible and we need to meet in person, the Design Set Match Team is washing hands, using sanitizers/wipes, personal protection equipment, and material samples. We are adhering to the construction guidelines outlined by the Bay Area Counties.

Even when our clients‘ homes are not officially under construction, we are wearing gloves, masks, and safety glasses to drop samples off on our clients‘ doorsteps. We are maintaining safe distances while fine-tuning details and looking at tiles side by side on their front porch.

Our website content is being updated each week as we build homeowner friendly tools for planning our clients‘ investment, timeline expectations, and other helpful tips before starting on their remodeling adventure.

We are excited to be are able to offer new clients who sign up in the month of May, 50% off the wood species upcharge on Dura Supreme Cabinetry or 50% off drawer box upgrade charges on Canyon Creek Cabinetry for new projects in May with orders placed by June 26th!

Update: We are delighted to continue celebrating with Nickels Cabinetry! New projects in the month of June can save 10% Off All Custom Orders that feature any of their “Pre-Finished” Materials with orders placed by June 30th!

Ugly House, Chapter 4: Emotional Check-In

In every good novel there is an experience, an emotional roller coaster, that takes us through the dramatic and mundane as well as the ecstatic and chaotic. A remodeling adventure is no different. On a scale of 0-100% I've created a graph showing what our family has experienced up to this point. 

There are highs and lows during every remodeling project

A few weeks ago a colleague thought he was more excited about my new home than I was. But then only a week later, a friend at church mentioned I looked happy for the first time in a long while. When I made this graph a few days later I realized my colleague was experiencing my letdown of relentless paperwork and uncertainty of waiting to close while my friend saw me a few days after we closed and received the keys to our first home! 

While other life factors cause stress and impact how we relate to the world around us, remodeling is one that is known to break relationships. I will I share our personal rollercoaster to create awareness. 

Every homeowner considering a remodel should consider the full impact on their lives. As a professional, I didn't expect the level of challenges our new home is presenting us, but I know we need to expect the unexpected in remodeling.

My “Cheap” Mistake

I recently made a mistake when I tried to “save money”. A few weeks ago, I traveled to Chicago for a small business education class with other kitchen and bath design companies to learn techniques to run Design Set Match more efficiently. Not being a frequent flier, I simply did what has worked well for me in the past. I went to one of the travel websites and then a couple of others to discover that they’ve been bought up by the same company and are essentially all the same site now. Ok, so I didn’t see as much variety as I have before, but the rates looked reasonable.

A previous homeowner "saved" money by adding multiple pipes to raise this shower head

The trouble is what I didn’t see coming. I booked a cheap flight on a “young” airline. I’ve done this before without any trouble from other airlines. Sure, I usually sit towards the back in economy, but that's not a big deal, I almost always get a window seat. Then I went on to select my hotel room. It was a little more than the cheap hotels, but it was within walking distance to the Häfele showroom where the training classes were to take place. I even upgraded because I didn’t want to be in a “dorm style room”. I felt good, paid for the trip, and was all set.

Not so fast, I immediately got an email from the airline about their “bare fare” to discover that they charge extra for everything! Ok, so I need to pay for a meal, that's pretty typical, I prefer the airport restaurants… wait, now I need pay for my carry-on luggage too, it's a basic essential for a 4-night 5-day trip! So I fork it over… select a seat? Forget that, it is additional money for even the farthest back seat! If I was flying with my family I would have needed to do it though (to be able to sit together), so I opted for a “random” seat. There’s more… or I should say less. They don’t even provide the most basic human necessity of water on this 4.5 hour flight without charging for it! And just to grind in the nickel-and-dime insult they have billboard advertisements on the interior walls and they have a long-winded flight attendant trying to “sell” their MasterCard at the end of the flight to get a discount on the food they just charged an arm and a leg for! Ok, rant over. 

What does this mean for remodeling? What can a homeowner like yourself take away from this? Learn from my mistake. Ask questions. 

1960's Blind Lazy Susan

When a contractor, cabinet company or plumbing shop says they can do your kitchen for less what does “less” mean? What are they removing to make it a “bare fare” like my flight? Often with cabinets they haven’t paid attention to the details of functions that have been painstakingly poured over by you and your kitchen or bath designer. 

Häfele Lemans Blind Corner Solution

Homeowners in the San Francisco Bay Area trust me as their kitchen and bath designer to review their orders before they spend $20,000+ on cabinetry or $150,000+ on their remodel. I often find that from the outside cabinets or other items “look the same”. What they’re actually being sold isn’t a solution to the problems that brought them into me in the first place. Lower cost cabinets usually function like their 1960’s cabinets do now. My clients will continue to lose pantry items in the back of the corner cabinet or deep pantry only to discover them years after they’ve expired. Or they’d be purchasing plumbing fixtures like a Toto wall-mounted toilet with the Geberit in-wall tank through an online retailer only to discover their plumber hasn’t installed one before and needs to spend hours on the phone with customer service because he thinks its “broken” and he can’t get a local manufacturer’s representative to talk him through the process which will prevent leaks in your walls. And worst of all is getting a general contractor who doesn’t meet expectations. They usually are unlicensed, have poor communication during construction, draw out construction longer than expected (even if there are no unforeseen circumstances) are careless with other rooms of your home and nickel-and-dime you because “they didn’t plan to install crown moulding” or the “wall-mounted toilet took more time to install than I had planned”.

Häfele Magic Corner Blind Corner Cabinet Solution

Homeowner beware. Ask questions, get detailed written agreements spelling out what will actually be done, get a written construction schedule. It's worth the savings in valuable time and stress to pay a little more for the proper management and quality materials your trusted remodeling professionals will provide.

There's a difference between "frugal" and "cheap". Don’t make a “cheap” mistake of your own.

Yes, I “Drank the Kool-Aid”

San Francisco Duboce Triangle Edwardian Master Bath

NARI Members involved in this project include     General Contractor: Jeff King & Company     Vanities & Plumbing Fixtures: Jack London Kitchen and Bath Gallery     Shower Enclosure: California Shower Doors     Photography: Treve Johnson Photography

A few months ago at a NARI (Nation Association of the Remodeling Industry) chapter meeting this came up in conversation. It was said in a lovingly snarky way by a regular guest and it made me think to myself, “why do I participate fully and joyfully in NARI?”

It’s not my religion, but it is part of my faith structure. I realized that just as I am involved at All Souls Parish in Berkeley in helping members get meals and rides, and in my leadership responsibilities in Bible Study Fellowship International (BSF) to have a deeper relationship with God and my church community; I fully believe that making connections at the monthly San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) and North Bay meetings is valuable for me, for the contractors, architects, showrooms, and other remodeling industry professionals and homeowners.

San Francisco Duboce Triangle Edwardian Laundry Nook

NARI Members involved in this project include     General Contractor: Jeff King & Company     Electrical Fixtures: Berkeley Lighting     Photography: Treve Johnson Photography

Since starting Design Set Match five years ago, I desired to make connections that had meaning, connections that could take root. I’m skeptical by nature, but I knew some of what Paul and Nina Winans had poured into the organization and that there is often value that words can not describe so at the end of my first year as an entrepreneur I took a step of faith and became a NARI member. Now some might ask if I “got any business” from other members that first year, I don’t think I did, and that's ok.

I became a board member so that I could know and fully understand more about the organization for myself. And I’ve since become the board secretary, taking notes of each meeting, and I’ve joined Dave Freer of the Collier Warehouse on the Membership Committee after having an opportunity to watch and listen to see where I felt that best fit for personal and association growth.

So what do I get out of NARI? Nothing. Well not completely. I love that even if the topic was about concrete or something else that might bore me, the SFBA meetings are in showrooms so that every meeting is four-fold with great locations, educational topics, networking and industry politics (I’m glad others can represent me in this). I probably put more into NARI than I receive in “instant gratification”, but I believe that with small steps of faith, the services I can offer to homeowners in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Marin, will grow in quality. I attend meetings, invite new comers and reach out to members to build relationships with the company owner(s) and their staff. I find it is critical to know who I will actually be working with. I nurture those relationships each month and look for opportunities to improve my businesses quality of service by introducing homeowners to General Contractors I can trust and introducing contractors to showrooms and trade or sub-contractors that I believe they can trust too. Is it perfect? Nothing in remodeling is, but integrity and passion for remodeling is key for any professional I trust.

Investing in a strong building industry is the foundation for success in remodeling for homeowners and business owners a like.