Sue Rutherford Home Design

Sue is a warm, easy to talk to person who was glad to come out to my home and help me brain storm a complete kitchen renovation.  I was going to be changing the foot print of the kitchen and didn't have the skill to know what to look for and how to design it.  I could find no one else in the area who was independent of any construction business.  I wanted to be independent of a construction business so I could get an accurate competitive bid from the companies by using her design; otherwise you have to agree to work with a specific construction business in order to use their on site designer; which is usually just their wife, who may or may not have any actual training.

Sue came out to my home and I told her my vision.  She listened carefully, giving me some alternate suggestions and helping me see the potential and pitfalls of what I was seeking.  At the end she went home with all the measurements and my goals and developed a beautifully designed kitchen, that featured where and what kind of cabinets would go in; where the appliances would be; windows, etc. She also gave the exact measurements and dimensions so anyone looking at it; such as plumbing, electrical, or general contractor, would be able to make an accurate bid.  Her business can go much further than this, including making the design so complete a permit can be issued and the contractor can work from her blueprint.  I didn't need a design that detailed.

I believe Sue's price for the first visit was $100.00.  With this she sent me the design online and I downloaded and printed it off.  We went over the design by phone.  A couple weeks later or so I wanted her to come back out a second time and paid her to do so.  I can't remember the cost, but it wasn't more than $100.00.  I wanted to change a few things and just needed her expertise to bounce things off of.  I was/am doing this whole project alone.  I had no one else advising or helping me so she was absolutely a life safer.  I felt her fees were incredibly reasonable.

I have been able to print off numerous copies and used them when I hired my contractor and because I was doing the sub-contracting myself, to save money, I have used them with the plumbers, electrician, and big box stores when I am talking with them about the renovation.  By using this design, I have saved so much confusion when talking with these other individuals.  By far, that design, made my life 100% easier doing a very difficult project.

We broke ground on this kitchen renovation three weeks ago and hope to have it complete at the end of May.  Again, if I had found Sue three years ago I would have had my kitchen then but I didn't know she existed and I was stuck being unable to figure out the design myself.  As I said above, she is very approachable, warm, and easy to communicate with.  I would highly recommend her services.

I needed to completely remodel our 1955 kitchen.  The floor layout needed to be revised.  I struggled trying to figure out how many kitchen cabinets I would need in order to figure out the cost of those cabinets.  All the so-called kitchen designers were all attached to companies that did the complete remodel..............I wanted to work with an independent designer who could give me an unbiased opinion without any obligation to hire them for the whole project.  
It was only luck that lead me to find Sue Rutherford.  She does have a website but if I hadn't been given her name by a realtor friend of mind, I wouldn't have known she existed.  She came out to my house the first time and stayed an hour.  She was so easy to communicate with.  She wasn't in a hurry and had no "agenda" of her own.  She listened to what I wanted, even though my ideas are outside the mainstream of what most people want in a kitchen.  She took measurements of everything and went home to work on the draft of my new kitchen layout.  I was able to communicate further with her by email to change a couple of things as well.  Once the draft was completed, she emailed the draft to me.  It gave me a visual to finally work from.  The design of the kitchen was one part and then she listed each cabinet.....its' dimensions and where it was on the design.  It was the perfect draft to take to various cabinet makers.  
I asked Sue to come to the house a second time as I wanted to go over the draft in person and ask her a few other questions.  She came to the house and spent about an hour.  At the end of that hour she asked me what I intended to do about 'lighting'.  In truth that was not something I was thinking about because I was so consumed with worry about the cabinets.  But she took a copy of the draft and she started marking out in pencil where and how the lighting fixtures/sockets might be placed.  I realized I should have had her specifically draw that into the original design when we first met; it wouldn't have cost me any more, but I wasn't thinking.  But even with the pencil fill ins, she gave me a lot of information from which I can work with an electrician as well.
With the kitchen design draft in hand, I can now go to several different cabinet makers and even electricians to get their quotes and compare them to each other.  I have already been to Home Depot and that draft she created did all the work for them and they were able to plug in the cabinets/cost within a short period of time.    I had been stuck for a very long time and Sue was able to give me a professional working tool to use towards completing the kitchen remodel we have been needing for a very long time.  
The cost of her services would have been less if I hadn't requested a second in-home visit as she charges $65.00 an hour, but I really wanted to sit down with her one more time in person and I am glad I did.  I anticipate I may use her again, for advice, once my project gets underway with a company.