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What makes us different
For Tim, remodeling isn't a job. It's a vocation.
Let's cut to the chase: Tim Hmelar loves what he does. He loves making people happy, and he loves the feeling of seeing the finished improvements in a client's home and how happy they are with the result.
How Tim was raised
Do something nice for someone outside the family, every day.
Growing up, Tim's parents and grandmother told him and his siblings: find something you truly love doing and you'll never have to work a day in your life. They also raised him to be grateful for his talents. Tim took that to heart, and it shaped the contractor he is today.
He doesn't believe in a separate work life and personal life. There is one life, where work, family and friends all meet, and you either bring integrity and purpose to all of it or you don't.
“Am I bringing the best of me to everything I'm doing, and how can I improve my relationships?”
Experience
Few contractors in Palo Alto have more local experience.
For more than 20 years Tim worked as a contractor for Palo Alto's Avenidas senior center, painting and repairing hundreds of homes across Palo Alto and Stanford.
He sharpened his construction and project management skills building stores at the Stanford Shopping Center and commercial spaces in downtown Palo Alto. In 1990 he co-founded Access One, a kitchen and bath cooperative showroom in Menlo Park, which is where his passion for kitchen and bath remodeling took hold.
A few of the commercial projects Tim has worked on:
- Gordon Biersch
- The Nature Company
- Benetton
- Andale Taqueria
- The Body Shop
- Cache
- La Baguette
- Jamba Juice
How we work
Three things that keep a remodel on budget and on time.
Itemized bids
Every kitchen and bath proposal is built on a spreadsheet of all the labor and material costs, and we share it with you, so you can see exactly how the total was reached.
Weighing more than one version of your project? We build a separate spreadsheet for each, so you can compare the differences in cost. Because kitchens and baths are our specialty, we can usually get your budget back to you quickly.
Detailed specifications
Most homeowner and contractor disputes start when the contract doesn't spell out what is, and isn't, included in the work.
Over the past 20 years we've built a specification list of more than 5,000 items so everyone's expectations match before work starts.
A day-by-day schedule
You get a schedule for every day of your project: the tasks, the inspection dates and the calendar dates.
- We don't start until the critical materials are at your home.
- We don't start without your building permit, when one is needed.
- We schedule inspections promptly to keep the job moving.
- You don't make progress payments until each milestone, usually an inspection, is complete.
Why specifications matter
One vague line can triple the cost of painting.
Here's how it typically goes wrong. A contract says paint colors will be chosen after the cabinets and counters go in. When the time comes, the homeowner asks for a bright white ceiling, bright red walls and off-white oil-based trim. The contractor had budgeted for one off-white latex color throughout. The homeowner's request costs three times the painting allowance, and now nobody is happy.
“Paint colors to be determined.”
Leaves the number of colors, the type of paint, the number of coats and where the painting stops all open to interpretation.
How our specifications describe the same painting
- Paint colors to be chosen once countertops and cabinetry are installed.
- Ceiling primed with PVA primer and finished with two coats of acrylic paint.
- Walls painted a different color than the ceiling; PVA primer plus two coats of acrylic.
- Crown moulding, window trim, door casings and baseboards: one coat of oil-based primer and two coats of semi-gloss oil-based paint.
- Includes only the kitchen-facing side of doors and the kitchen half of door jambs; the dining-room side is not included.
- Any additional coats are a change order, billed time and materials.
Looking for a contractor who loves what he does? Call Tim.
Transparent budgets, detailed specs and a schedule you can hold us to. Call or email Tim at Tim@KitchenBathPaloAlto.com to get your project rolling.