aMortonDesign

We are happy to say that we had the great delight of working with Andrea Morton during the major renovation of our home last year. She was recommended by friends of ours who thought she would be a good fit for our project. They couldn’t have been more right. We had quite an extensive project before us, a near full renovation of our 2 family home in Somerville. We were so unprepared, and I must say naïve about the extent of details that had to be addressed, from the design process to permitting. Overall, our project lasted for close to a year, and through every step of the way, Andrea guided us and was always available to answer questions, provide feedback, design ideas and recommendations. I don’t think we could have managed this without her. She is extremely knowledgeable and has a keen sense of what needs to get done and when. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have had the pleasure of working with Andrea and after many months of planning, decision making and renovations, we now live in the home we always dreamed about. Our most heartfelt thanks go out to you and your team for making our dream a reality!

AMorton Design gave me the kitchen and bath of my dreams, expertly handling the renovation from concept through design, construction, and management. (There are pictures in her Projects section.) Andrea was fastidious, efficient, and extremely pleasant to work with. She’s a masterful architect – none of the contractors thought a jacuzzi tub could fit into my small bathroom, but she found a way. I paid a bit more for her to be the Project Manager, but it was worth every penny; whenever there was a hiccup with delivery or an issue with the contractors, AMorton handled it. I got to focus on the fun things, like choosing fixtures. Years later, I still love my kitchen and bath everyday – I could not be happier!

My husband and I have used aMortonDesign on three major projects on our 100-year-old center entrance colonial. Andrea's great! Her design is spot on. And, she has the communication skills and attention to detail that keeps bids flowing and projects on schedule and on budget. Andrea's design of our front entrance is perfect... it fits perfectly with the style of our house. She recently transformed our galley kitchen, dated half bath and unheated back hall into a glorious, high-functioning kitchen, powder room, and mud room. Her design fits in with the house, and her communication skills helped us navigate through competing bids, selecting contractors, and keeping projects on schedule and on budget. She also was our architect on renovations to our 2nd floor bathroom. I highly recommend Andrea. She helped my husband and I define the scope of all three projects, a tricky process because we had no idea what was feasible within our financial constraints.

We loved working with Andrea! She is smart, clever, patient, thoughtful, organized, professional, and kind. Our project hit a snafu right right before construction, we ended up redesigning the whole thing, and Andrea guided us through the whole project very skillfully. We added a mudroom/bathroom off our dining room, an office upstairs, and finished our basement. We love everything we did, it improves our house immeasurably, and cannot thank Andrea enough for all the great ideas she had.

After interviewing a number of architects, we hired Andrea to help us with a first-floor renovation on our essentially untouched 1910 Victorian, including a new kitchen, the addition of a half-bath, and the transformation of a tacked-on (and tacky!) 3-season front porch into a finished 4-season entry way. We had never undertaken a major renovation before, and largely selected Andrea because of her style and her expertise with urban spaces. We were not disappointed. She found creative and unexpected solutions for our small space, maximized functionality, and was responsive to our ideas and feedback while also gently pushing us towards decisions that, in retrospect, were very smart. We are very pleased with the finished project, in terms of both aesthetics and function. We did not anticipate how essential it would be to have Andrea’s expertise with our local zoning and permitting. She guided us seamlessly through a special permitting process, and responded quickly and effectively when there were roadblocks with our city’s notoriously complex building division. Andrea is honest and her processes are transparent. We never had any concerns about her charges and she remained conscious of our budget throughout (even encouraging us at points to avoid letting the scope of work creep up). She is extremely professional, but also funny, personable, and easy to work with, which made the process much more enjoyable. We would recommend her without hesitation.

Andrea helped me design an update to my 3-fam house: house siding, picking colors and edgings, and the addition of front decks for each unit. Andrea was exceptional in providing ample choices in color design and siding design all while listening to what appealed to me (and what didn't) and applying that feedback in next design iterations. As the project moved forward, she always kept an earmark on how the overall design would be received and/or be "approvable" by the city Zoning Board (because of the location, the project had to get Zoning Board approval before a city permit could be issued). Andrea handled all the zoning board applications, gathered all required technical documents (CAD drawings of project, certified plot plans, etc. We even went over/practiced the presentation together). Because of Andrea's forethought and previous experiences with getting Zoning Board approvals, we got approval for this project on the first attempt!

We loved working with Andrea and her staff while designing our addition in Somerville. She took the time to listen to our ideas and opinions. She understood exactly what we were trying to accomplish and presented numerous viable options. She took the time to discuss the pro and cons of each. Andrea helped guide us through the zoning board process and even handled the preliminary discussions on our behalf. She put us in touch with different contractors that she had used on previous projects. Ultimately, we decided not to pursue the addition due to lot constraints and trying to live through a renovation with two toddlers. As we renovate our new home, we'll once again hire Andrea and her firm to help us maximum our renovation investment.

My husband and I concluded a kitchen renovation for which Andrea was the architect. Our experience working with her was excellent. In the early stages, she brought a very clear vision to the possibilities for our space, which is small and required creative solutions to maximize countertop space, appliances, storage, etc. She also provided advice on everything from materials and wood treatments to many small details that we probably would have otherwise overlooked. We would recommend her highly.

Kitchen re-design and back porch with screen porch design. Kitchen was totally redone right down to the studs. The porch was from the ground up, and needed a creative touch since we are so close to the property line.

Andrea and her team have done a great job for us. As an architect myself, I have high standards, and I have nothing but the best to say about Andrea. She is professional and highly competent, and is able to negotiate the sometimes tricky interfaces between client/architect/contractor with confidence. We first hired her for a bathroom renovation, where we went from 1 poorly planned and oversized bathroom to 1.5 baths and a small entry alcove in the same footprint. Her design proposal was excellent and her drawings were complete and well-executed, making for a tight bid with the potential contractors. The construction process went well, with hardly any unanticipated changes, and I had confidence that she was able to represent us with the contractor at all times. She was very good about keeping us informed about the progress of the job and relevant discussions with the contractor. When it was time to start thinking about our kitchen renovation, there was no question about who to call. We are currently partway through design, and again, Andrea's skills, expertise and design ability have been invaluable. I have already recommended her to several friends and acquaintances and will continue to do so.

Working with Andrea of aMortonDesign was a fantastic experience. She is thoughtful, creative, intelligent and resourceful. She always listened to our ideas, paid attention to our tastes, yet she always offered solutions to space problems that we would never have thought of. All around she made the renovation process enjoyable (and who can say that?!) and we would hire her again for future projects.

Andrea was awesome. She worked closely with us on our needs and wants, coming up with several options before zeroing in and expanding the best one of these. She handled the contractor interviews expertly and translated all the "read between the lines" moments for us. Once construction began, we were able to take over more by ourselves, but she was there whenever we needed a consult, and particularly at the end, swooped in to solve/mediate a messy conflict with the contractor. For all these reasons and more, i would highly and without reservation, recommend andrea at aMortonDesign…