Turning Disaster into Design: a Bothell Family Recovers from Flooding

When Bothell homeowners Frank and Marie finally decided to remodel their hall bath, they looked to a local, independent worker who had recently worked in a neighbor’s home. Shortly into the project, the toilet plumbing was compromised, and Frank and Marie were faced with three floors of water-damaged living space.

With two small children and health concerns, Frank and Marie quickly moved in with a relative for temporary housing while they searched for a reputable builder to work in their home. A friend’s referral led them to McAdams Builders, where Frank and Marie met with Mark Jensen to repair their home. Mark negotiated with the homeowner’s insurance company to assure they would receive full replacement value, and began instilling new peace of mind right away.

We teamed up with them to add new tile floors and carpeting, updated electrical fixtures, and new millwork. Frank and Marie upgraded their master bath from oak and laminate to rich, dark beech wood, marble tile, and a frameless shower door. The much-used laundry room and hall bath both received new porcelain tile floors with the look of natural stone.

With a little planning and help from our team, Frank and Marie were able to move their family back into an updated, safe home in time for Christmas.

“Small items that would have been overlooked by other contractors were a priority with McAdams. Even our contractor friends were impressed. Everyone was always polite, pleasant, and dedicated to a top-notch quality product.” – Marie, Bothell homeowner.

Create a Cleaner, Brighter Bathroom with a Frameless Shower

It’s time to carefully weigh the tedious maintenance framed showers add to your regular cleaning. Small rooms are often taken up by bold brass statements of framed glass, and your tile, fixtures, and cabinets can be lost in an old, outdated shower. Frameless showers let your new tile and plumbing fixtures speak to sparkling, spacious design, giving you a practical shower made for real use.

Custom-made to fit your bath, frameless showers are elegant panes of glass held together by minimalist brackets that form your shower space. Open, airy glass without heavy metal or bulky edges opens up smaller bathrooms and gives the illusion of more space. And if you’ve recently remodeled, a frameless glass door with polished edges shows off artistic tile choice.

Choose a glass shower, like from the Agalite Estate Collection, that’s strikingly modern, luxuriously simple, or uniquely original by selecting glass, hardware, and handles in a spectrum of styles. You can install bypass doors, which slide behind each other to open, or hinged doors. Agalite even has ShowerGuard glass and EasyClean10 treatments to keep glass looking newer, longer.

McAdams Remodeling & Design clients love that there are no more tracks to collect dirt, mold, and bacteria in Seattle’s damp climate. Instead of time-consuming daily scrubbing, using a squeegee after showering and switching on the bathroom fan help keep your frameless shower clean.

If your remodel is prompted by Lifestage Design or changing physical needs, frameless showers will let you and your family spend less time cleaning soap stains or worrying about the effects of mold. And with a simpler, more open design, you’re less likely to have broken, hard-to-repair hardware.

More attractive and easier to clean? Frameless showers are the easiest option to choose and use. We’ll help you find the frameless shower that reflects your design choices, budget, and needs. Call us at (425) 822-6555 for a free consultation to start 2012 off with a bath that’s fresher than ever!

Let there be “natural” light!

Seattle is known for its gray days, rainfall, and unpredictable weather. As we head toward winter, the shorter days mean even less natural light. Many Seattle and Eastside homeowners opt for bringing the natural light in, but can’t afford expensive windows and skylights, or the costly remodeling projects they call for.

How do you bring more natural light inside affordably, even in tight spaces or tiny floorplans? Brand-new Solatube solves every need for natural light, and even adds a few attractive perks. Smaller than skylights, Solatubes bring daylight and save space. No major remodeling is needed—installing a Solatube is quick and clean, so you won’t have to schedule your holiday plans around a lengthy building process.

Solatubes are attractive, compact, and easy to install. And homeowners love Solatube’s Glass Distractions line, with beautiful glass, frames, and even shades that fit daylighting into your décor. If you’ve been worried about realistically adding more light to an older home, you have the perfect solution that won’t disturb your home’s character or go over-budget.

Which room in your house needs more daylight? Let us help you brighten up your home! Contact us for a complementary consultation and we’ll show you how Solatube can reveal your home in the best light possible. We’ll help you find which rooms will benefit the most from Solatube to enhance your everyday living.

Add “Splash” to Your Kitchen

It’s the practical barrier that protects your walls from everyday use, culinary efforts and cosmetic spills. Thanks to the centuries-old concept of tile as art, backsplashes have become an important part of kitchen and bath designs.

Mosaics of glass, stone, ceramic, even metal, transport a room’s tone in the tiniest details. Tiles effuse country charm, Italian flavor, or modern serenity. Until it comes time to remodel, it’s easy to forget the influence a span of wall has.

But why wait until you’re installing major appliances and rethinking floorplans to add a piece of practical art? Today’s backsplash is what wallpaper once was—an easy, affordable way to upgrade design or add personality. Some ambitious homeowners even design their own backsplashes.

Blending solid tiles with the natural color movement of stone, this kitchen backsplash we built combines geometric design with organic tones for an unforgettably modern look. It’s also a great reminder that you don’t have to choose just one material for your backsplash. A once-overlooked kitchen becomes your culinary inspiration and background for get-togethers with family. Unsure of what designs will bring out the best in your kitchen or bath? Email us for help on creating the look you have in mind!

Our Mission

To build a seamless remodeling experience for discriminating homeowners, who value creative design and painstakingly crafted construction, through trust, accountability, and genuine care in everything we do.

Accessiblity for the future!

Lifestage Design isn’t just about the present—it’s about design that fits your future too. Long-time friend and designer Tom Nielson introduced us to another Bellevue couple looking for ultimate value in a home they’d shared for over 30 years. We all agreed the existing “master bathroom” had to go!

Although they had no physical limitations today, Carol and Don wanted us to craft rooms that would be accessible for many years to come.. One of the easiest ways to anticipate future needs is to make areas more open, so living with any physical limitations becomes less challenging.

Expanding the master bath, we added a shower door that swings either in or out, and heated tile floors for chilly Pacific Northwest winters.

It’s not so challenging to anticipate the future when you build with your comfort in mind, and add a bit of style. The most powerful part of Lifestage Design is that it can enhance your life in this moment, and ensure comfort and ease in the moments to come.

Your Lifestage is unique! Ask us how we can adapt your current home to enhance your everyday life.

Beautiful roll in showers for ultimate accessibility!

Long time clients John and Gloria were in love with their Somerset View home, but wanted some permanent changes to make everyday life a little easier—and ensure John could still enjoy their home while using his wheelchair.

Limited space called for a design with style and function, just look at the tiny spaces!  What we built was an investment in John and Gloria’s future—for their home and well-being.

How do you best plan for what you can’t predict? Making a home more accessible can be a challenging remodeling project, unless you know how to utilize Lifestage Design.

A walk-in shower was an easy first choice for Lifestage Design. Open enough to be wheelchair accessible, the spa-like space invites compliments.

Using every inch to the maximum, our design even took advantage of what was once a sauna in the covered patio space.

For privacy we added custom etched glass panels that recall the color and movement of flowing water. We placed every tile to match John and Gloria’s taste, looking to a natural color palette and quality fixtures.

Lifestage Design offers long-term comfort—a commitment reflecting homeowners’ choices and a promise for peace of mind.

Your Lifestage is unique! Ask us how we can adapt your current home to enhance your everyday life. And you can read more about Lifestage Design here.

Saving the Sun Room

A leaky sunroom kept Southeast Bellevue homeowners from fully utilizing their space. When we met the homeowners, the room had been leaking for years, and they’d resorted to tarps to keep dry. Like most sunrooms, this area was constructed of large window panes that are difficult to find, and even more challenging to install. By the time we arrived the structure was not only leaking but full of rot as well.

After we reframed the room, plans called for a triple-pane window measuring 10 by 5 feet. Few manufacturers construct windows this large, and for installation, we’d need to lift 450lb of glass up to fourteen feet off the ground!

Built over an existing deck, the old sunroom was a formula for failure. Just look at the rotten support joists that threatened collapse at any time!

Our search for a window manufacturer led us to Vinyltek, the only company that could offer a triple pane in such a large size. Led by lead carpenter Chris Guempel, our carpenters were tasked with creatively moving the extra-large window from ground-level up. One option was scaffolding—four men hand lifting the triple pane one level at a time. Then Dave Cromwell, our Vinyltek Representative, suggested a strategy that had been successful at a West Seattle project—using pump jacks to carefully lift the glass.

Job Manager Chris Guempel orchestrated the window installation with a team of four Carpenters. Using pump jacks and a little hand lifting at the end, our team set the window firmly and safely in place in less than an hour. After solving the problem of a leaky sunroom, Chris casually called our Kirkland offices to say, “We’re done!” as though installing an extra-large, triple-pane window were an everyday project. And the homeowners?  They stayed to photo-document the remarkable installation and are excited to have a sunroom that’s finally sunny again!

Does your house have damage that’s keeping you from being comfortable or enjoying it fully? McAdams can help!

Free Counter Top…Enter to Win!

We are ready for Home Show 2, starting tomorrow October 6 and running through Monday October 10.

Len, Mark, and Lynn will be on hand to show some of our latest projects and see our new and more experienced friends.

To celebrate, McAdams Builders is giving away a FREE Cambria Kitchen Counter Top worth $7000!

See us at Booth 1401 and fill out an entry form to Win!

Howard Schultz Memo

“I love our country. And I am a beneficiary of the promise of America. But today, I am very concerned that at times I do not recognize the America that I love…”

I encourage you to read the entire memo here

Len McAdams