by Elton Donald, Senior Project Consultant When you’re trying to figure out who you want to work with, don’t put so much focus on what the price is. Of course, it’s going to come down to price. Of course, you have to get value for what you’re getting. You have to have an understanding of…
by Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager, Kerr Design Studio For this client with a young family, we were engaged initially to update the exterior of their W 12 Av. heritage home. But the extensive nature of the modifications first envisaged would have been a challenge to get approved by the city’s Heritage Commission so only a minor update…
Just because the real estate market in Vancouver is not as hot as it once was, does not mean that the housing supply for the rental market in this city has changed. It is still very tight. Cost and availability of rental housing tight The cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment is roughly $2,100 a month and…
Elton Donald has been with Kerr Construction almost his whole working life. He started here when he was in high school. His Grade 10 summer was spent painting basements and carrying out garbage on construction sites. Today, he is a partner and sales manager. Quality of workmanship is a point of pride When you ask…
by Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager, Kerr Design Studio Traditional style At Kerr Construction & Design and the Kerr Design Studio, we don’t have a particular house style that we specialize in. Don’t specialize in a particular house style No, we believe our job is to find out your particular style and incorporate that into your home…
If you live in an older or heritage home, there are tremendous advantages in lifting your house as part of a home renovation. In fact, I can think of eight great reasons for doing so. A house lift is done by digging out the current basement to a new depth and then extending the foundation…
If you are embarking on a kitchen renovation you need to consider these ‘top 10 kitchen renovation must-haves’ when planning your kitchen to be not only good but great! 1. Timeless Design Consider your house as a whole. What year was it built? What is the overall style? Ideally, your home should flow from room…
Vancouver has lost many of its character buildings that have history and heritage to replacement by condominiums and other multi-dwelling properties. It has been a sad trend. The City of Vancouver is concerned about heritage conservation and has an active heritage management plan. You can download the latest staff report to see what is going…
by Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager, Kerr Design Studio It may not be a trend, but several homeowners have recently asked our designers at Kerr Design Studio to develop traditional designs for their homes. This is something novel for Vancouver, which generally has been on the cutting edge of modern design. I can’t say it is a…
Doug Kerr, the founder of Kerr Construction & Design, is proud of the lengths our company will go to improve a client’s project in even small ways. Our staff is imbued with concern about the quality of their work and are constantly thinking of improvements that can be made to benefit the client. Recently, we…
In 2020 and early 2021, people in the Lower Mainland spent a lot more time at home. Today, many are still working from home and some children continue to be homeschooled as an option. “Home” still more important today Today, the home is still the heart of everyone’s activity and, if you are reading this,…
One of the things we do at Kerr Construction and Design when we first talk to a client about their renovation is something we call a “pre-construction process.” But when we talk to them, we call it our “design process.” What this entails is making sure we can build what they’re asking for with the…
by Elton Donald, Senior Project Consultant If you go on your site and some guy meets you one time, measures two things, and goes away and then issues you a quotation for construction, I find that to be hard to want to emulate and follow that process. For me, it would not even hit the…
Kerr Construction & Design last year completed an alteration and an addition to an existing single-family dwelling on a beautiful property in North Vancouver. The home, although trendy when first built in the 1950s, had fallen behind the times, and the owners decided it needed some tender loving care to improve their quality of life…
Our years of experience at Kerr Construction and Design have taught us that there is a natural law at work in home renovation costs. We call it the “1-10-100 rule.” This little rule makes or breaks a client’s budget. Violations of it can destroy a client’s peace of mind. How the law works The rule…
by Elton Donald, Senior Project Consultant Almost every day I go to meet someone and they ask me, “Can I do this addition?” or “Can I add this square footage?” or “Can I put on this window on this section of my house?” All these types of questions I get asked all the time. Another…
On July 18, the staff of Kerr Construction & Design enjoyed a day out on the polo grounds at the Vancouver Polo Club in Ladner. Along with the staff of sister company, Absolute Roof Solutions, they got on their polo ponies and made a valiant attempt to learn the “sport of Kings.” They met with…
This past weekend Doug Kerr, founder of Kerr Construction, participated in the 2021 West Coast Classic Polo Tournament at the Vancouver Polo Club as a member of the winning Domino Ryan team. Doug, who has been getting proficient at polo the last few years, donated his $500 share of the $2,000 winnings along with another…
BUILD Magazine, a prestigious monthly publication based in the UK that follows the global construction and property industries, has recognized Kerr Construction & Design as one of the top design-build firms in the world. For the last seven years, BUILD has acknowledged premier construction, design and architectural firms around the world with their annual awards….
Feeling cramped in your single-story house, with seemingly nowhere to go? Even if your lot is relatively small, don’t despair. Starting out in a bungalow or other one-story structure gives you some great opportunities when space gets tight. A wise and practical solution to gaining more usable room is to literally go up. Whether you…
by Elton Donald, Senior Project Consultant Developing in Vancouver is a tough gig. But for clients who have homes that can qualify under the Heritage Action Plan, I do believe that there are opportunities for those owners to realize some development in the area of multi-unit conversions on homes deemed to have character merit. I think there are…
So, you’ve decided to renovate your kitchen. The first thing you may wonder is how much it will cost. If you’re new to renovations, like many homeowners, the idea of investing thousands of dollars in your home is probably quite scary. What can be even scarier is if you call around to get pricing and…
No matter how much storage we have, we always need more, right? But what happens when you think your home has no room for anymore? Forget renting an external facility. Get creative by having shelving and storage solutions built into the structural features of your home. You’d be surprised at how incredible design ideas can…
by Elton Donald, Senior Project Consultant Years of experience and thousands of renovations have taught me some very valuable lessons about home additions. So when I speak to someone interested in adding square footage to their home, I share these lessons as they provide some good points of consideration when trying to get the most out of your investment dollar. As…