Custom Design Client Comments

The following comments are from our custom design clients regarding our architectural services:

"We have now been in our Northern Sun home for more than two years. We have been traveling a lot and so often find ourselves going up the drive to our house. And when we go in the house, we are always overwhelmed with joy by its spacious, welcoming light and warmth. It has always been good to return home, but this is the only house that we have had that gives us such pleasure of "welcome home." We are so pleased that we found you as an architect and a local builder who built with pride for a lifetime. And when we have visitors it is fun to watch them look around to take in the space and then listen as we explain passive solar. So again, thanks for your creative work. It has brought much enjoyment to our lives." Shalom, Dave and Sweet

"This house is everything we wanted it to be, and we have yet to make proper use of it (sitting room is just storage right now). Not enough years left in my life to thank Debbie Coleman enough for her architectural work." Andy & Rhonda

"Debbie Coleman has been a delight to work with. We LOVE the plans for The Solstice, which she designed specifically for us, based upon another plan of hers, The Dakota. She has paid attention to all kinds of really interesting little details in the interior of the house that will make it a very unique home. We have never built a house before, and consider ourselves novices. She has answered every single "dumb" question that we have emailed or phoned to her. She even helped us calculate how much the house might cost to build. When one of the builders who was bidding on the job called her with some specific questions, she was more than happy to talk to him. She has also been VERY good about working with us in a scheduled, timely manner. All of our correspondence with Debbie has been either through email, and one or two phone calls. It is amazing to us, but this has worked very well. We still talk to her, just for an update now and then... She is truly vested in the outcome. From the builder's standpoint, everyone that we have showed the plans to has been very excited about the uniqueness of the design of the house. The energy efficiency of the design is a primary consideration for us. We expect to realize considerable savings in the heating and cooling of the house. The energy specifications that are included with the drawings Debbie made are very detailed and represent an important part of the package.… As you can see, we would give Debbie Coleman a VERY high recommendation." Pam and Paul
This was from right after they moved in: "Today was a very exciting day for us---we moved into our beautiful new home. It is truly beautiful in every aspect! Thank you so much for designing our dream house. Everything about it is wonderful. At noon (EST, that is) the sun shines into the south facing windows at a perfect 90 degree angle. In the past month, as we have moved in and around the house working on the finishing touches, the temperature (thanks to the beautiful tile floors) remains a comfortable constant 78 degrees. We have turned our Solstice bungalow home into an Arts and Crafts style home. The interior is full of stained woodwork. The space is full of delicious light. The upstairs is a great space. Our furniture is a wonderful fit! …Everyone who has worked on the house is very pleased with the result. Can you tell how excited we are????... Thank you so very much"! Pam and Paul

“Wow, this process seemed really easy (at least from our viewpoint).“ Kiyomi and Kevin

“It was wonderful to talk with you today. I am very excited and feel we are really homing in…. I figure if I am going to go through all the effort of building a new house, I really don’t want the design of it to fall prey to unproven brainstorms by an inexperienced designer. …Your point of custom design costing less than a typical realtor’s sale commission is right on but until you mentioned it recently, I had never made that illuminating comparison. Custom design may not be for everyone but I imagine that your typical client has more knowledge of the process and has some definite ideas about what they want. Once I realized I couldn’t find anything ‘pre-designed’ to fit the bill, it was clear that custom design was necessary. I made my own efforts at design and that helped solidify my ideas and wish list but I couldn’t resolve spending dollars on my own unproven house design. Hence, I went looking and happily found you! You have an excellent balance of the creative mind for solving design issues while keeping the technical details in mind. Sometimes, architects garner the reputation (fairly or unfairly) of drawing beautiful designs without consideration of how to build it. I found that you can provide both a great design as well as foresight into the engineering issues.“ Steve, Adirondack Atrium

“You are so easy to work with, I really appreciate that! Not only are you a great designer you have a wonderful sense of humor too. Thanks again for working with us. I can not express how excited I am to be started on this project.“ Lisa & Shawn

"THANKS, for your help and advice, on the house your firm has custom designed for us. We have gotten in to it about the first of October this year. The windows are great on the south side. My wife was skeptical, when we started with the non-traditional approach. But, she has changed her mind now. During the solstice the sun line was at the top of each window and you could draw a line from east to west with only fractional variance in height. …and again THANKS to you and your staff." Tim

“This latest is great stuff! We are thrilled; you’ve done a fabulous job! Please feel free to continue to suggest ideas. We remain very enthusiastic about the project and are most appreciative of your patience and assistance. You have great ideas and I particularly like the Susan S. philosophy of efficient space utilization---even if we are planning a larger home.” Dick and Julie

“...the exceptional experience of working with Debbie. Not only is she a talented architect who is informed on passive solar design, but she also has the patience and interpersonal skills to guide you through the decision and design process. “ Van and Karen

For more comments related to comfort and performance of built homes, please click here.

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