Unfortunately we had a very disappointing design and business experience with Skip Sroka, Liz Bausch and their firm. We hired them to design a master bath in fall of 2019 with a strict budget of $100K. After assuring us at every point throughout the process that we were on target to hit that number and "it would not be a problem," multiple final bids came in starting at $175K. Even accounting for COVID issues, 75 percent above the promised budget (to start, before construction issues/change orders/etc) seems a stretch. Skip was entirely unfocused, unresponsive and unrepentant from start to finish, and offered no viable explanation or path forward other than "This is your decision as to how much you want to invest in the house. You are in a good neighborhood, when things are done right, they represent value." He then went on to say the the $9K we paid him FOR A COMPLETELY NON-BUILDABLE PLAN was "pretty fair."
Budget issues aside, both Skip and Liz were difficult to pin down and get in touch with, and connectin/getting answers often required multiple follow-ups on our part. In addition, they consistently put the horse before the cart and were far more focused on how things looked from a design perspective - finishes, wallpaper, furniture - instead of focusing on important considerations such as lighting placement, spatial planning, etc. The end result is that we now have a plan that, while it looks cool on paper, we cannot afford to build - despite constant upfront reintegration of our budged and reassurances on the company's part. To sum up: this was a horrible business relationship that resulted in the loss of nearly 10K for us, with absolutely nothing to show for it.
Do not recommend. read more