CHJ Designs

In the past, I have not been one to flood Unilocal or Amazon with reviews on products or services and only making mental notes of whether or not I’ll go back to that store or use that plumber again. However, after using Unilocal to guide me on the selection of a number of purchases and vendors, I feel its my Karmic obligation to pass on the good, the bad and the ugly of my experiences, if only to help them avoid costly mistakes that I have made or to enjoy the rarity of having a professional do what they promised and do it with quality and on time. I am happy to tell you that my experience with CHJ Designs is more about the latter. I was lucky enough to deal directly with Chris at CHJ Designs and if he is not too busy, he is the one to ask for to complete your design. In my case, I had the fortunate misfortune of my master bathroom flooding more than half my house. (It’s amazing how much damage a leaky toilet and a blocked sewer can do over a weekend left unattended. The restoration company came in and stripped 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms down to the studs and I was left with the shambles of what was once a decent house. I called CHJ designs after getting bids from 2 other contractors that told me they would replace what was damaged but if I wanted «designer upgrades» that was gonna cost extra. When I met with Chris I had some ideas, but had trouble articulating exactly what I wanted. I was armed with a Restoration Hardware catalog and another from Pottery Barn off we went on a journey of making my house a home again. The results were spectacular. Of course, the house looked nothing like a catalog picture. It looked like the home I had been creating in my dreams. It was not a designer’s showplace, it was me and Chris helped me get there.
First of all, Chris has an incredible skill of understanding what you are trying to describe. He understands that words sometimes means something different to different people, so every substantive conversation and or decision was accompanied with pictures or photos or links to websites with a question «Is this what you were meaning?». Or «here is what I was suggesting». So I was never surprised about the direction we were going during the remodel. Secondly, Chris communicates! I mean he answers his phone, he calls you, he calls the contractors, he calls the vendors. I was never in the dark as to the status of the project and he was always available to answer questions, discuss changes or entertain additional thoughts. Next, Chris is a problem solver. With any large project, and I guess even small ones too, there is always going to be a problem or two that will rear its ugly head. I have just grown to accept it and actually have used the occasion to observe the how one handles the curve ball when it throws a project off. I think that it is those times that you can measure a professional and see whether or not he has your interests as his primary focus or is he motivated by other things. I’m happy to say that while Chris kept me informed of some problems with the project as they arose, he always took care of it no matter who was responsible. I never had to listen to the tile guy complain that he ran out of that color of grout or the electrician who ordered the wrong size this or that. Lastly, Chris is a real talent. He is creative and works his magic to bring out the creativeness in you so that the end result is a shared creation that in my case, was my home.
If you get a chance and want to see my home, go over to Houzz and look up CHJ Designs and you can view a bunch of pictures of Chris’s work. Check out my totally open shower! With my new commitment to pay back my karmic debt, I am off to write some reviews that will be far less flattering than this one and yet I hope helpful.
LK