CB Ellis is the only permit expediter you should ever work with. Full stop…read more The City of Austin's Dept of Development Services is a mess of sub-departments run by people who all have different answers, interpretations of code, etc. Unless you're a large company and/or rich, the permit process can completely wipe you out, financially and emotionally. For our small business, what should have been a simple series of small hoops to jump through became a full-on nightmare, with us being sent on a wild goose chase of emailing, calling, video conferencing with people in permitting. We were given completely different answers at every turn, and none of the other permit expediting services we contacted responded to our pleas for help. Except for CB. He knows the ins and outs of permitting in Austin, he's personable and honest, he's not here to rip anyone off, and he makes you feel like he's on your team during a very stressful process where it seems like everyone else's job is to make your life hard. I'm just echoing what all the other reviews here say, but it's all true. CB Ellis is a magician.

CB has been an absolute life saver. The permitting process in City of Austin is extremely a…read morenightmare, and its 100 times worse when the permit is for a grease trap for a daycare kitchen. CB got my plan approved less than 2 months after I had struggled for over a year and half. He is also a gentleman and goes out of his way to guide me step by step after I had permit on hand, checking on the project periodically to make sure all the construction / installation went smoothly. The grease trap just passed City of Austin final inspection! I can't wait for the day we start serving hot & healthy food to our little friends! Thank you, CB, for your wonderful work!

Daniel designed our custom home in a gated community outside of Austin in the Hill Country. We was…read moreimpressed with his architectural vision from the beginning and after 10 in-person meetings ( 3 in person and 6 via zoom ) we had a fully developed architectural 3D model that we give you from all sides. Daniel was very generous with his time and since we have quite a few impressive views we wanted to capture all of the views perfeand all of the Hill Country ambiance

5 star Architect for a reason!…read more Daniel has an architectural approach that I believe people will find very rare and refreshing these days. He is very giving of his time, knowledge, and is the most collaborative of the 3 Architects we have used on the 2 other custom homes we have built. As an example, even before we signed a contract he made multiple site visits to give us his friendly professional insight about several lots we were considering before we selected the property we ultimately purchased. He was extremely accommodating and friendly throughout the entire process. Collaboration is his priority from the beginning and he made it very convenient through the use of screen share as we designed the home together. We were really impressed with the architectural 3D model that Daniel created. It was amazing that we were able to have a computer-generated 3D model to visualize the complete exterior as well as the outdoor entertaining, outdoor kitchen, and the pool and spa area. We were able to have the majority of our meetings in the evenings after we got off work and we even did a screen share to collaborate on our laptop while we were out of town visiting family. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable about both the architectural and contractual aspects of building, but he seems to have a great instinct for what the client is looking achieve. He also had the desire to study alternatives and create several layouts that might make the most sense for the lifestyle we described. Our custom home is amazing and we would definitely recommend him to our friends. We enjoyed the process of the architectural design of our custom home and even more surprisingly we enjoyed the building process that is often stressful. Instrumental in our smooth building process was Daniel's custom home building budget that he accurately laid out from the beginning giving us many options and associated costs. Daniel's project management and selection of the builder really took confusion out of the process and stress off of our lap. Other critical details that made build successful was his guidance and assistance with the interior design, kitchen, and bath design, and selection of all of our interior finishes and fixtures. Our kitchen and bathrooms really stand out with exceptional design and we are very grateful for that. All in all the 3% that he charged to be a complete steward of our project was an easy decision. We will definitely be using him in the future and so will our friends that are very impressed with our the result as well as our highly detailed and accurate design and building process.

We cannot say enough amazing things about Trinity Architects! Matt and Britni truly go above and…read morebeyond for their clients. In the world of construction, timeliness is invaluable. Both Matt and Britni, always responded back to emails or calls immediately. No matter how many questions I had, they were so willing to answer them or research them for me. Because Matt knew we had no construction/buildout experience, he spent extra time explaining everything to us and making sure we understood each step of the process. Most importantly, Matt and Britni are extremely thorough and detail oriented in everything they do. They made sure we had all the support we need in other areas of the project and constantly gave us recommendations. Because of their knowledge and attention to detail our plans were approved by the city without receiving any comments back from the city, which meant no delays for us and most likely saved us thousands of dollars. Lastly, after submitting to the city we experienced some issues not relating to our architectural plans and Matt was so willing to help advise us even when he did not have to! Matt/Britni, you have gained us as clients for life and I hope we reach the day were we can expand our business and use you soon again!

Consider it 10 stars....Matts and Britni are excellent architects. They are currently working with…read moreme on my home plan and kind of professionalism that I am getting from this company is just incredible. I waited for an other architect for 4 months who was busy and tagging me along. I also talked to several other architects in town before I found Matt. Within less than a week, I had my home plan confirmed. Britni is very talented and I always find her advices very useful. I would recommend these two awesome architects to everyone.

I can't say enough about Nick at Cen Tex Blueprint! My husband and I are building a custom home in…read morethe middle of nowhere. After working for months with a builder without getting the results we wanted, we chose to call Nick to help with our floor plan and design. He carefully listened to what we wanted and made wonderful suggestions. He was honest with us and helped to achieve a beautiful, realistic plan based on our wants. He was able to do most of the work online by us sending pictures and drawings. His attention to detail was perfect. He was able to do in one month what we had spent almost a year trying to do. We were able to take the plans to a builder with no issues. They were very impressed with how well it was all done. Now our dream home will become a reality thanks to Nick. If we ever build another house, he is our guy!

From the owner: Draft. Design. Plan…read more Centex Blueprint is a locally owned and operated business that specializes in drafting, home design and construction planning. We have extensive experience in real estate sales, construction and drafting which gives us the edge on the competition. We offer plans that are builder friendly that include key components that helps with he re-sell of your home.

After receiving a quote from another draftsman connected to the landscaper we are using, I called…read moreJohn to get his take on the quoted price. He was kind, easy to get in touch with, professional, and offered genuine, industry-informed feedback on the quote. The info he provided was so helpful. I was very impressed with him and his knowledge and definitely recommend his services!!

Chris and John provided excellent quick development of CAD files for a new home addition. We hired…read moreATX Drafting Services to prepare As Builts for an existing home we recently purchased. Their team came out and completed the survey within the estimated time and were professional while on site. The CAD files prepared were to a high quality and we used them to develop the architectural plans for an addition. They are competitively priced, responsive and worked within our schedule. I plan to work with them in future projects!

This general contractor was very inconsiderate to our views of remodeling our home. My husband and…read moreI are both legally blind and express this to him. Every time we would try to make our home blind friendly, he would make us pay extra because it was considered a change order (ended up with 13 change orders by end of project). He would make decisions on materials without discussing with us first. The only true communications we had with him was by email or text. He only came to the job site mainly to get his draw, other wise he may have a total of twenty hours of job site time and that for a year worth of work. Yes, I said a year from the time of permit to completion, if you can call the job completed. He did not even pay his material bill because we ended up having to pay the balance on one of the company before they placed a lien on our home. In order to finally complete our project we had to threaten legal action and we still did not get our electrical punch list done. This contractor will not guarantee or warranty his work. For example, we ordered backsplash for the back of our stove, which was suppose to be 6" instead he ordered the 4" backsplash and told the installers to install it even though it was incorrect and not to listen to what we wanted. If he did not agree to the changes, then he would argue and not complete the task. This contractor is also an architect who cannot measure correctly. He measured our new bedroom and ended up shorting us two feet, which made all the measurements incorrect and having to pay for the extra material that was his mistake. All our recess light and fan are off two feet because of this mistake. He will not admit to any wrongdoing even if it is his mistake. For examples, the contractors shorted out the one ceiling fan and lost parts to two other ceiling fans, but he would not reimburse us for the new ceiling fans. His worker also broke a antique table that belong to his mother and all he said he would do would be to clue it and try to make it our fault because he said the top was already weak. Also, we had to pay for a bathroom mirror in the new master bathroom and have our oven mounted at our expense, which he has not reimbursed us for yet. At this time, we still have trash in our yard that we will have to haul away and would not put a dumpster on the job site. The city threatens to fine us several time because trash was blowing all over the neighborhood. The remaining punch list items, which we will have to pay for out of our pockets. Please do not use this general contractor because he only cares about the bottom dollar and not what your dream home should look like. We paid good money for this project and if it was not for my husband stay on top of the work that was being done we would not have the house that we have. If you do use this contractor, make sure you have someone who know about construction or he will try and cut corner with the cheapest material available. The city inspector told my husband they have heard nothing but complaint about this contractor. We hope this will kept other from living the nightmare that we live

Review for Celeste Reese…read more What a pleasure working with Celeste Reese. I called with a very small (in relative terms) project. Just wanted a porch added to a Georgian home in South Austin. She listened to my wishes and dreams and then asked some important questions that could have greatly affected the project. It looked like my porch was going to be reduced from a splendid addition to just a narrow facade due to a mandatory set-back. Celeste was able to work with city permitting and was able to advocate for a variance that propelled the project forward. With this new information she was free to design a Georgian/Federalist portico that completes the grandeur of our house. Her design elements were exactly what we had talked about and she brought in details that I had not even considered which only made the whole design that much better. Celeste was so delightful to work with and went out of her way to make us feel important and special. The relationship is built for when we design our new house. This project may have been a small one but I know it will lead to bigger and better things for all of us. I can't wait to work with Celeste Reese Design again and would give her my highest endorsement.

I can not say enough about your design of my house, I love it and am surprised it is so beautiful…read more Anyone wishing to see a fantastic home, come drive by 4906 West Market Dr, here in Austin.

Matthew was our architect in designing our new house from scratch on a new near Lake Georgetown…read more Our process started with some simple drawing where we captures our ideas. Matthew was extremely effective at listening to understand what was important for us and providing feedback and inputs to make everything come together. He was instrumental in finding the right balance between what we wanted and what could be built. He helped us position the house on our lot to optimize the available space, preserving the existing trees and setting the stage to design a home with a great curbside appeal. We enjoyed the overall design process and we extremely pleased with the final outcome, now that we have lived here for a few months. We highly recommend Matthew for both hill country or more modern home styles.

From the owner: I can help you design your new dream home or turn your existing home into one. read more

Blue Diamond did a terrific job…read more We had spoken to many contractors, but too many either did not return calls, or wanted to make cosmetic changes but not fix the basics, or wanted to do work without city permits and inspections. Our small 1958 house needed all the basics. Sewer lines needed replacement, water line needed replacement, interior galvanized plumbing lines needed replacement. Unsafe ungrounded electrical wiring needed replacement. We needed more outlets, better lighting, outside outlets. HVAC was in attic, old, not up to code and ripped ducting. Needed to be replaced and relocated. Roof needed replacement, old aluminum single glazed windows needed to go. Cream shag carpet and ugly hard to clean floor tile (which was on counter and backsplash too) had to go. We needed insulation. A proper vent for the stove. New backsplash and counters, new toilet and sinks. We left our fifties single bath and cupboards to save money. In only a little over two months from start of work, working with city inspectors and all up to code, they took our house down to the bare concrete floors, the ceilings down, the bare bones exposed, and built it back up, new, improved, everything safe and working, and much more beautiful. With a working kitchen and finally a dishwasher and disposal and washer dryer! The bones are 1958 but the house is 2020. Shout outs to Hayk the electricIan, Zach the plumber, David the carpenter, all the drywall guys and everyone else for doing a great job. Max addressed any issues promptly, and was very responsive. The team accommodated us staying on site with the cats, and there were no escapes. Having the in-house Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing made all the difference. Sometimes we had multiple crews working simultaneously. Everyone was courteous and wonderful to work with. The whole house was brought up to code and passed all the needed inspections. and even the inspectors commented on the quality work that was being done. We still have a small, three bedroom one bath house, but it's now the house we dreamed it could be. In fact, we had everyone sign the house as they finished! Quality craftsmanship is an art form, and we are delighted with the results. Blue Diamond worked well with outside contractors, too. To save some bucks, we had Window World do the windows and a neighbor did a great job paintIng. This caused no problems. On time, at budget (yes there were a few unforeseen items that brought it up but nothing serious)). And now we have a beautiful home we can retire in. Kudos to Blue Diamond, one and all! Thanks for the terrific house!

They came back and changed the hinges on the corner cabinet and added a piece of filler to make the…read moregaps less noticable.