We were fortunate a few years ago to pick up a tiny cottage in Carmel By The Sea. We realized in order to make this something that we could potentially retire to we'd need to expand it a little. For that we needed an architect or draftsman that could design something that was sympathetic to the existing structure, the cottage is pretty funky being built in the 30's and remodeled by no other than Hugh Comstock 10 years later so is bursting to charm and quirks.
One of our neighbors has just remodeled their orig. Comstock and used Darren so introduced us. Yes he's a hard man to pin down but the way in which he embraced the brief was just the ticket. The point of the extension was to expand the property but ultimately make it feel like it was all there from day one.
In working through the process with the city (not the easiest process I must say) and all the fees and approvals you need, it was clear we chose well as on every turn Darren had the schedule mapped ahead and in every case the officials had nothing but fantastic words for his work and integrity.
I assume if we got this choice wrong then the whole project would have been a miss but it set us up for what I think has been an epic result.
One further thing, we decided to daisy chain all the contractors from this relationship forward so we asked for referrals on a general contractor, got 3 and picked 1. Each of the contractors from this point on (except for 2 minor subs) had worked with each other on scores of homes over a period of 25 or so years so it made relationships between each party very smooth.
I can't speak high enough about Darren, so if you have the good fortune to use him I would highly recommend it. I hope we have the occasion to collaborate with Darren again. read more