"Very thorough, prompt and professional."

"It was a pleasure to work with Eric, we hired him for a complete backyard renovation which included tree removal, leveling the surface and place pavers and a deck on top. Also built a retaining wall. The work came out very nice in part because of the great design ideas that Eric gave us. The project ran into some unexpected issues that Eric was able to overcome nicely. We were impressed how Eric handled the project and met all the deliverables, also his team was extremely polite an professional. Our backyard now looks like the ones advertised in magazines. All this led us to start a new project with him to replace the cracked driveway with nice new pavers."

"We worked with Kuertz construction and Nate on a Kitchen, Family room and Backyard remodel project. Nate was excellent in consulting with us and providing creative ideas for the redesign to keep us on budget. The work was of excellent quality, and was done on time and the attention to detail certainly stands out. Overall, Nate was great to work with and we would highly recommend him. We have gone back to him for several smaller projects and have referred him to our friends."

"We hired Shilpa to design an addition and remodel to our existing house in Fremont and we had a wonderful experience working with her. She listened and understood our needs, and designed the house of our dreams in the limited area that we had. She gave us many different design options in the beginning and made many revisions as per our requests. She even helped us with the city permit process and made revisions as per city requirements. The final result turned out beautiful, she used every inch of the space and the addition looks very much part of the original house. I am enjoying my beautiful house and get complements from everyone. I am very happy that I hired Shilpa and her team for my project and would definitely recommend her to others."

"Ovation manages client contracts and finances while Unique Interiors (Kris Tavares) crews do the work. Overall, the construction was of average quality, and am I generally satisfied with the results. Most workers were timely, friendly, and cleaned up after themselves. However, there were a number of issues of missed timelines, demands for early payments (although the total paid was as agreed). Several of the subs or workers were problematic and callbacks from both Ovation and Unique were difficult. His work was often installed where other work was planned. As a result, his work needed redoing. Because he was rarely quickly available to fix his mistakes, these erred installations significantly increased the project duration. He rarely cleaned up after himself, leaving scraps, and construction debris left where he worked requiring other workers or the homeowner to clean-up. His worst mistake was drilling a 3 ½ in a hole in an array of standard 2X4s to accommodate a 2 in conduit to pass through. The result was that the involved wall required reconfiguring to ensure structural soundness. This event was complicated by his using brute force to remove a frozen stud in an electrical meter base, which then broke off. Instead of drilling out the broken stud, he ordered a new service, which necessitated a two-week period with no electricity to the house. Not only did this delay the project, if necessitated people living here to vacate during this time and required use of an extension cord from a neighbor to keep the refrigerator and freezer running. This alone was cause for a 3-week delay in the overall project. A number of other delays were the result of materials not ordered in a timely manner so that when workmen were assigned, instead of beginning work on the ordered materials, they had to go find what was needed at the store. In some cases, this required ordering materials that were back-ordered, adding to the delays. It must be said that this small project was originally projected to have an elapsed completion time of 1 month. In all, the project took over 4 months with many interim completion dates given and passed. These delays were complicated by two international trips the owners took, one of which I hired a person to oversee construction in my absence, the second because of problems in my first absence, I halted construction for 3.5 weeks while I was gone. The person hired to install cabinets, which were very nice quality, were hung in a very unprofessional manner with screw heads exposed inside the cabinets and many of these proud of the cabinet wall, which prevented me from using screw covers. About cabinet designs: I was presented a cabinet plan and pressured to approve it. We discussed the plan and made some agreements of the changes needed and I signed off. Unfortunately, all the changes we discussed were not followed and some original designs were ordered. This was my error for signing off to a plan without better documentation of the oral changes.Part of the plan was the installation of a shallow counter that needed custom fabrication. The finish material had to be repaired and this did not work so it was agreed to replace the counter as warranty work after the project was completed. The person who built this also undertook the redo. The final quality of the work was very poor. The counter was somewhere from ¼ to 1/8 inch away from the wall. He attempted to fill the gap with silicone and smeared it on both the wall and the counter. He left the redo in this condition without letting the owner know he was going. I reported this issue to both Ovation and Unique, without any response. I had to make the repair on the counter myself."

"Michael and team did such an amazing job on our bathroom remodel. They took our tiny, dysfunctional bathroom and turned it into a true master bathroom oasis in a short amount of time during the holiday season. When they had the space down to the studs, Michael sat down with us and discussed in detail the best possible use of the space and we couldn’t be happier with our final decision after going through the options. Michael was great at communicating and we still stay in touch to this day, which we truly appreciate. Great team who does great work and I will absolutely be giving Waters Construction a call for any and all future home renovations. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking."

"Mary helped me with a new barn/adu design and also a second dwelling design. Sheâ s so easy to work with and made the process easy and streamlined. I highly recommend her!"

"Adam provided a permit plan for a bathroom remodel in a short time for a reasonable price. He is knowledgeable and gives good advice. We are very happy with the product."

My office has provided design and architecture services for the past 20+ years throughout the Bay Area. I engage many different project scales, from interior renovations, to small additions, to entirely new homes and sites.\n\nI enjoy collaborating closely with clients to shape their initial goals and needs into a design concept, which helps to guide the project from start to finish. By using plan diagrams, design options explored in 3D, and reference images, we can quickly test different ideas and resolve the look and feel of your project.\n\nI especially enjoy projects that respond to the specifics of each building or site, and strive to creating meaningful connections between indoor and outdoor environments. Regardless of project size, I strive to exceed client expectation and provide complete and professional services from project start, to permitting and on to the construction phase.

We provide architectural design and documentation services for residential and commercial projects, with a focus on clear, practical drawings that support permitting and construction. We work closely with homeowners and contractors to keep projects coordinated, efficient, and moving forward.