Photos are BEFORE photos.
My husband Aldaron and I cannot speak highly enough about our experience hiring Compass Carpentry to remodel our kitchen in our 1939 Craftsman Tudor Revival home in Arcata, CA. Prior to engaging Compass Carpentry, I had contacted multiple contractors regarding our retro kitchen project, and 3 had met with me to evaluate the space. Of those 3, we hired one company to first update our bathroom and then remodel the kitchen. An issue arose at the end of the bathroom update regarding the quality of trim painting. When brought to the contractor’s attention, I was informed that the contractor’s employees would complete the bathroom to my standards but that the company would not be going forward with the kitchen remodel because they did not believe they could produce a work product that would make me happy. Suddenly, the kitchen job was dead in the water!
Researching on line, I encountered the houzz.com website where Compass Carpentry was listed. I emailed through houzz.com and Shawn Herlihy responded to my enquiry in very short order, sharing that he and his partner Ryan Barlow prioritized working on older homes and they may be interested in our retro kitchen project. This was music to my ears; I was very encouraged by their older home affinity. Shawn and I spoke on the phone and I described the update I hoped for and we ultimately met for a walk-through. I had designed the remodel and had my vision board prepared and product sources to share. After the very first meeting, I had a very good feeling about potentially working with Compass Carpentry, and Shawn appeared impressed with my design ideas and choices. At subsequent meetings, Shawn was an excellent communicator and listener, did his homework and research, and provided a detailed scope of work and timeline for the project. He also took the initiative to arrange for 6 subcontractors needed for different tasks, to meet us and bid for their parts of the project, using 4 subcontractors who had worked for us previously and who had familiarity with our house. We chose Compass Carpentry as our general contractor and calendared a start date of September 23rd. It was very reassuring to us to know that the actual owners of the company would be working in our home as opposed to employees without a principal on the job site.
On September 23rd, we met Shawn’s partner Ryan and their assistant Lauren, and we were off to the races on demo day. We lived in our home during the entire remodel, where Aldaron and I both work in our home offices. For weeks, we were displaced out of 5 rooms in the house, but due to the consideration of our contractor, with an abundance of screening and floor protection, and care of our belongings in the cordoned-off rooms, we managed quite well. Shawn, Ryan, and Lauren were very respectful of our space and continuously tidied up after themselves. They were easy to work with, frequently sought our feedback and weren’t threatened by it, punctual, professional, skilled, communicative, physically strong, adept at managing other trades persons, incredibly hard workers, excellent problem solvers, and fun to be around. The problem-solving skill was extremely valuable when we ran into some obstacles that caused the project to morph into a much more involved effort, including the dismantling of a failing walled-in brick chimney, and installation of new intake and ducting for our heating system.
Our kitchen hadn’t seen an update in 30 years and was practically falling apart around us. There were, however, some aspects of the room that we wished to keep intact: the perimeter built-in Shaker cabinets, the custom counter top tile and back splash, and the cast iron and porcelain drainboard farmers sink and its faucet. Because Ryan built our new additional cabinets and drawers himself, he was able to give us our total wish list for utility and maximum storage. He exactly matched the design of our recessed cabinets, beveled drawer fronts, and Shaker framing, so the new cabinets in the remodel seamlessly match the originals. He also built pull-out drawers, and updated hinges and placement of knobs and drawer pulls on the originals, so they are more utilitarian and attractive. Additionally, Ryan designed a surround to screen the galvanized boot atop the new range hood, matching the trim to that elsewhere in the kitchen. Mounting the range hood with the wooden surround and DuraVent steel chimney flue proved to be a real challenge, but Ryan and Shawn thought outside of the box and installed it perfectly and it is gorgeous and hugely functional. Another challenge, tackled by Shawn, was the design, custom build, and install of a 2-part pull out storage system for a hidden lower corner cabinet that had previously been inaccessible as usable storage space. Now it houses small appliances.
The room required that the ceiling be removed, replaced, mudded, and sanded, and all other wall, door, and cabinet surfaces needed to be prepped and primed as the crew would be painting over 30-year old alkyd paint with new latex. I have done a great deal of painting and faux finishing throughout our house and am fanatic about proper preparation of, and attention to detail in, painting any surface. Shawn, Ryan, and Lauren didn’t disappoint. Their skill in this area is enviable and absolutely met my high expectations.
Lauren tiled a back splash around the farmer sink and did a beautiful job matching the custom counter tiling across the room. She created a template to exactly mark the rounded edges of the sink, so she could cut the tile to perfectly curve around them.
We couldn’t be more pleased with our new retro kitchen and the work accomplished by Shawn, Ryan, Lauren, and the sub-contractors. I am so glad I discovered houzz.com and Compass Carpentry. Shawn put our Idea Book up on houzz.com under the title ROSE COURT COTTAGE KITCHEN REMODEL, so the kitchen’s components are on line, including the inspiration for the room, our restored late 40’s Buttercup-Yellow-topped “Cooking with Color Western Holly Gas Range” coupled with retro-look new matching yellow appliances from the Big Chill company (bigchill.com). We would engage Compass Carpentry for any future work in a heartbeat and have already recommended their services to others. Their mission is to do the work for their clients that will make dreams come true in their homes and they have certainly made our kitchen dream come true. Everyone who has seen the remodeled space, has been tremendously impressed, and that has been quite a few people, because once we had our “reveal” we had 4 parties in 5 weeks. Everything in our kitchen is working perfectly, efficiently, and is pleasing to the eye. Thanks to our “Dream Team.”
