Tom Erickson of Delta Design: An Honest Living
Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography
Before Tom Erickson, owner of Delta Design, started construction in 1983, his ambitions were to become a teacher. After 33 years in the industry, Erickson might not have ended up standing in front of a classroom but he’s certainly done well with the hands-on approach he takes with each of his remodeling projects. For some, when you love what you do, you just can’t help but teach.
One of the joys of being a remodeling contractor is having the skills and knowledge to take an outdated kitchen and transform it. For the home of Jodi and Gary Duncan, this meant replacing their honey oak cabinetry and old island with a sleek new look and wet bar.
Who do you typically work with and how is the process started?
“Most the time it’s people that are 45 and older. I do charge for renderings or drawings. Once they have the drawing, then they go and pick everything out. A lot of the time, I’ll go out there for the first consultation and it’s free and I’ll say, ‘What are you guys thinking?’ And we’ll go through a list of things they want to do.”
Is it helpful to bring ideas to a consultation?
“Yes. It narrows the field of what they like. Sometimes I’ll look at that and ask, what do you like about it? Do you like the whole concept? Then we’ll talk about it. A lot of fluff is really what it is, you don’t get a lot of bang for your buck. So we’ll sit down, talk and at that meeting I’ll tell them what I’m thinking and what it will probably cost them.”
With the old kitchen’s closed off design, Erickson opened up the wall and put in an archway reconfiguring the existing space. He also added new windows, lighting, backsplash tile, granite countertops, flooring, new sheetrock throughout and dark stained cherry cabinetry. “So this one was pretty easy. I drew this from the start and we have hardly changed anything. They liked all the colors – they asked for a wall oven and a cook-top.”
What does a high-end kitchen remodel typically cost?
“It will likely be around $75-80,000. That’s high-end finishes like cherry cabinets, tile floor, tile backsplash, all kinds of recessed lights. New appliances and everything brand new. So I’ll actually give them a ballpark at that first meeting and they’ll say, ‘Let’s talk about it’ and I’ll charge a $1,500 design fee. They’ll basically call me back and say, ‘Yep, we want to take it to the next phase. We want to pay you to come up with the design and pick everything out,’ because I won’t give them a price unless I pick it all out. Because if I don’t pick it out I don’t know what they like. I do not do that anymore. If you want us to do the job, we refund the $1,500 design fee back, otherwise they can take everything we give them and get other prices if they want. Most of the time they don’t. If I had to guess, people are willing to pay for the design fee at least 90 percent of the time.”
Do you do allowances in your bids?
“I used to give them allowances, so much for the floor, so much for the backsplash, tile and so much for the cabinets. All I’m doing is guessing. If I guess too low and we do the job and go pick out everything, at the end they might do a $1,500 change order or allowance changes at the end and they’ll panic and be like, ‘We didn’t know that.’ So I’d rather pick everything out, right down to the knobs, every single little detail and give them an exact price and say, ‘Here ya go. Here’s everything that we picked, here’s everything that we designed, this is all yours.'”
Do you do the design side of your remodels?
“Yes, because then you get to see the full circle, what they had, what we designed what we picked out and then the finished product.”
Any advice for someone looking for a good contractor?
“Talk to other people, check their references, make an appointment and look at their work.”
Having digital renderings has made it so much easier. The owners came to me and said, ‘We want to remodel our kitchen, we don’t like cooking in it, we don’t like the function.’ They just didn’t like that it was so outdated. Then we sat down and figured out what they liked and disliked, what their needs were and wants. I then came up with a rendering, and they looked at it and said, ‘This is perfect, we love everything.'”
What is your style of remodeling?
“I look at it as we can certainly give you all the fluff you want if you want to spend that kind of money. I’m more down to earth. Function versus value. A lot of people have told me I’m really honest, like overly honest. I tell them I wouldn’t do this because in my own home
I wouldn’t do that, so why would I tell you to do that. I want you to be happy so you can tell all of your friends. Because money is not the golden ticket for me. It’s name recognition. I’ve talked myself and the company out of not doing something. I’ve gone to them and said, ‘Absolutely not, I would not do that.'”
Should I remodel as an investment?
“The kitchen, for example, is a very key component of the whole house, that’s where you meet and congregate at the end of the day, you have supper, you all talk. A lot of times, my projects end up being an addition to the kitchen. Typically, if people are going to put an addition on, they’re going to want to live there for awhile. You’re not going to want to put $75-80,000 into the kitchen and then turn around and sell your house in three to five years. Even with major remodeling like this, it’s still not a great investment. If you want it be an investment, put your money in investment.”
What made you choose to become a remodeling contractor versus a homebuilder?
“It’s much more gratifying. I like to take something that works somewhat for them and make it a lot more functional. You can see what you took it from and see how much better it was than before. When we’ve designed it better than it was, a lot of people ask me why the homebuilder didn’t think about that. I can’t quite answer that, maybe it was a tight budget, or maybe it was a spec home where you don’t get anything extra. My biggest enjoyment is when I see an email that says, ‘It’s changed the way we use our house’.”
For more information contact:
Delta Design
100 16th St N, Fargo
701-235-1212
deltadesign.biz
Tim Rosene of Studs to Rugs: Grateful Growth
If you’ve lived in Fargo long, it’s likely you’re familiar with a local contractor called Studs to Rugs. Clever name, but an even more interesting concept. Owner Tim Rosene has made a career of finishing basements on the thousands of new builds going up every year. With the demand for finishing and now remodeling, we sat down with Rosene to find out more on his current expansion to kitchens and baths and get some tips on how to avoid costly mistakes in your remodel.
Within their new 12,000-square-foot shop, Rosene plans to turn this space into his kitchen and bath showroom within the next six to eight months. “Soon, instead of just being the ‘basement experts’, we plan to be the ‘basement and kitchen experts’,” said Rosene.
“So, in my team at Boeing, everything had a process, same here. You start at the front and you work the assembly line. So everything comes out of here and this is the final staging area. We also have all of the shelving, baseboards, casing all wrapped up and ready to go. These are all the pieces and products that are going to go out next week for a job, so we start one every week and we finish one every week,” said Rosene.
Expanding Services
Moving from a small space in North Fargo a year and a half ago, Studs to Rugs flew south to spread their wings. The move to South Fargo meant expanding their services and adding a selection room with a kitchen and bath showroom in the works. “Our selection room is where clients come to choose their banisters, cabinet hardware, doors, millwork, concrete tops, so we now have everything located right at our shop. On top of that, we now have our own cabinet shop in this location as well,” said Rosene.
“Another part of our expansion is doing home theater systems, speakers, surround sound, big movie theaters, whatever the client wants. We also have all of the appliance selections in-house now. So, when somebody wants a kitchen or basement remodel and needs to update their appliances, they don’t need to go to another store. In eight years, it’s really turned into a one- stop shop,” said Rosene.
Building A Dream
Before starting Studs to Rugs, Rosene honed his skills as an aircraft mechanic. “Back in 2008, when the housing market crashed, I had to finish off my basement because I was upside down on my house. The house was worth less than the mortgage payment was worth. So, I had to finish the basement so the house was worth more. Then some of my neighbors needed theirs done, so I helped them out. All of a sudden a new career was born. I had never ran a business before this, so I found myself in Barnes & Noble every night reading books on how to start your own business, and really it takes a lot of work,” said Rosene.
Niche Demand
Finding a niche in the building industry proved to be a success. As Rosene explained, “There wasn’t anyone in Fargo-Moorhead doing specifically basements at the time, and then once we started, the demand came when they saw the beautiful finished product. After that, people started saying, ‘Well if you can do this in our basement, come and do our kitchen.’ Now, about half of our work is kitchens and half is basements. I actually don’t like to call them basements, I call them lower levels all the time. Now, there’s about 17 team members that we have and they’re all like family.”
Big Dreams
“I had dreams of this coming, but I couldn’t do it by myself. I will say we have the best team in Fargo- Moorhead hands-down. Because of them, that’s allowed the company to grow. Each one of them is like family to me. After eight years, I think we’ve made a pretty good name for ourselves,” said Rosene. To remind him of his path and passion, right above Rosene’s office door, you might notice this quote made famous by Walt Disney, “If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”
Getting Started
“Once we see clients, we talk numbers with them right off the bat. We don’t hold back. We do all of their drawings and then we start giving them 3D drawings on everything, so they sit in our conference room and we design everything for them right there. Everything is custom, we don’t pre-order anything. We have our own master electrician, we have our own master plumber, so we actually hold six licenses, a construction company in both Minnesota and North Dakota and we’re electrical and plumbing contractors in both states as well,” said Rosene.
Remodeling Timeline
How long does it take to finish a basement? “We get the basements done in four weeks – five if they go into the home technology side of things and if they want granite and things like that. We mainly hold off and put these things into the fifth or sixth week just due to the dust on the job site,” said Rosene.
Custom Builds
Rosene now has an in-house cabinet shop, where they custom build cabinetry for lower levels, kitchens and baths. “We don’t do any pre-fab cabinets, we don’t order it up from anybody. Everything is custom built right here. We have all of the different wood species on-hand. All of our cabinets come standard with soft close drawer side, soft close hinges. It’s not an extra charge for us, so everything is standardized,” said Rosene.
What are the most popular wood selections right now?
“Right now, it’s a toss up between the white, painted or the real dark, stained alder. Kind of like a rich, chocolate brown is what we’re seeing. We’re not seeing a lot of the oak anymore, people are leaning toward the alders, poplars, maples; wood that’s less grainy.”
What does the average basement finish cost?
“For a standard finish in a newer home with bare concrete walls, with their flooring allowance and everything, it’s right around $35 a square foot. Now, if they have things that are already done, it can reduce that cost. If we’re looking at a home built in the ’60s or ’70s, the price will go up. A kitchen’s average is right around $35 to $50. You can go up to $70 to $90 depending on your stone or appliances.”
What’s included in your bid?
“Since we have our own electrician, every kitchen that we do, we put in recessed can lights right away. All the electrical by code needs to be updated now, so we include that in our bid so that our homeowners aren’t surprised. We’ve heard of a lot of other companies that will try to sell them the cabinetry for $20,000 then say, I need to go find this person, this person and this person. By the time they’re done with it, they’re in to it at $45,000. If they would have come to me right off the bat, they would have known that the price was going to be $45,000. It’s situations like these where the client starts to hate their contractor and they don’t trust them. So, the first thing that we do is we talk to our clients about budgets, so we can make sure to work within their budget. “
What do you think of the DIY crowd?
“There’s a lot of people trying to do it themselves. What I recommend to those, as we come in after the project’s been started and they say we got a lot done, but truthfully for us, it was about a day and a half’s worth of work. All the hard stuff’s still left, putting up a few studs and everything is great, but it doesn’t help them out much. When you don’t have a solid design, you don’t have great plans ready to go. What we’re seeing is people starting to sub stuff out on themselves, but they’re getting charged a lot more than what we would charge them to do as a whole.”
What are your best tips for remodeling?
“For people that have never remodeled before, my first thing when I go and talk to them is to explain that it’s not about money right now. What you’re doing is interviewing contractors. You want to find a contractor that you like and trust. Once you meet that person, you start talking plans and budgets, but if you don’t have a great relationship with your contractor you’re going to end up on some show on HGTV where they show all the bad stuff and the contractors and the homeowners are going to battle. That’s what we don’t want to see happen. We trust our clients, they trust us and we work together.”
How can homeowners find a trustworthy contractor?
“Social media is great right now. What I tell people is that if they’re looking to remodel, throw it out on Facebook. Ask if any of your friends and family have done work with Studs to Rugs or so and so. What did they like, what didn’t they like? Then interview, interview, interview. Also, the Homebuilder’s Association is great, Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, so there’s all sorts of places you can gather information. Friends and family though are the best ones.”
What is the trickiest thing people try to do themselves that they shouldn’t?
“Hanging sheetrock. If they don’t want to see cracks in the future, hanging sheetrock is tougher than it looks. A lot of people try it and they’re not saving themselves any money. Some people will try to do their own electrical and won’t get inspections done, which is always a no- no. Get your permits, get your inspections done, that way you’re covered through insurance and you know that it’s done right. You don’t want to put your family at risk just trying to save a dollar or two.”
What are the biggest misconceptions in your industry?
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that every contractor is the same and every contractor’s out to get you. That’s not the way it is. I don’t come from a construction background, so I wasn’t born with a lot of the bad habits. If we say that we’re going to be there at eight, we’re going to be there at eight. We hire guys that understand that change is good in the industry; that just because you’re a plumber, doesn’t mean that you have plumber’s crack. You can be a really excellent plumber and take a lot of pride in your craftsmanship too. Everybody is responsible for the quality of work that they produce around here.”
To view one of Studs to Rugs’ latest kitchen and bath remodels we took a tour with Home Technology Customer Representative, Guy Roper.
1. Remarkably fast, this kitchen and bath remodel was run simultaneously taking just six weeks to complete both. “Both projects were mostly done at four weeks with all cabinetry installed. We used the last couple of weeks to template the granite countertops, shower tile and get the glass door in,” said Roper.
“The homeowners moved here a couple of years ago and hated their kitchen. They entertain a lot, so we came in and put in a new sliding glass door with shutters on it. They needed to have a large, vented hood and a gas range because they love to cook. They were able to hand select their granite countertops. What we do is we take our time when we select a stone. When it’s ready to be cut, we bring them back over if they want to select a certain movement in the stone. We custom built all of their cabinets at the shop. They got new appliances and new flooring throughout. In the kitchen they had inexpensive laminate flooring, so they requested to upgrade this and redid whole floor,” said Roper.
2. “Upstairs, they didn’t like their master bathroom either. We came in and closed off this area. We moved the doorway and took what was a single vanity, making it a double, matching the granite countertops that we had downstairs. We custom design all of our showers, so we designed this tile shower with granite shelving and added in a glass door. They were very specific as to how the stone and everything was to be laid out. Because none of the plumbing was there, the stool was on the other side, the vanity was on the other side, we tore out a wall to make it larger. We had to completely open up the floor, so we could actually get all the plumbing moved from one side to another,” said Roper.
For more information contact:
Studs to Rugs
5289 51st Ave. S, Fargo, N.D.
701-730-0091
studstorugs.com
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