By Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager We all wish that we could spend a lot of time at a spa. It’s a treat to be enveloped in such a warm, soothing, and aesthetic environment. Well, if you renovate your bathroom, you can bring that spa feeling to your home and enjoy it every day by utilizing…
After more than 30 years as one of the Lower Mainland’s foremost home renovation and custom home builders, Kerr Construction and Design has changed its name to Kerr Design Build. The website address will also be changing from kerrconstruction.ca to kerrdesign.build. The Kerr Design Studio, the brand for our team of incredible designers, will also…
by Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager A client came to us because their kitchen was too cramped and cut off from the rest of the house. They had a busy family life with two growing teenagers and wanted a way to keep everyone together. So our design team spent a lot of time going over various options for…
Some properties in the Lower Mainland are spectacular and deserve spectacular treatment. Kerr Construction & Design had the good fortune to beautify one such property in Harbour Chimes in Coquitlam. An incredible second-story steel cantilevered deck was added to the back of the house, looking out onto a breathtaking vista of Eagle Mountain in the…
Kerr Design Build completed a mind-blowing project to take a client’s home from zero to their perfect forever living space. Small WWII house The house was a single-floor, two-bedroom WWII bungalow in Kitsilano that the clients, a couple and their now teenage daughter, had been living in for years. They had two rental suites in the…
We are pleased to announce that we delivered a nice load of donations to the Coats for Kids drop-off location at Trail Appliances in Richmond this past Friday. A very warm thank you to those who donated to the campaign for us. A lot of children and their families will be happier for it 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…
In many ways, undertaking a major renovation is like buying your first home. It is not something you have done before. So despite everyone’s advice, you tend to worry about your choices and whether you made the right ones. This can be very stressful for a homeowner. Hiring the right company The most important factor…
Kerr Construction & Design is again supporting Coats for Kids, the Christmas initiative of HAVAN, the Vancouver Home Builder’s Association, to provide a better Christmas for families that need it by supporting the Lower Mainland and Surrey Christmas Bureaus. The 27th annual campaign kicks off on Monday, November 7 and runs to Thursday, December 8, 2022. The campaign…
Kerr Construction and Design is supporting the Cloverdale Fury U13A girls softball team this year. Over the past three years, this team has put forth a tremendous amount of time and effort into improving their skills and level of play. They are advancing from the B level to the A level of Rep ball this…
There is a tremendous need in Uganda for many things. Doug Kerr has a couple of friends there working on upgrading the living conditions in the impoverished Wanga Parish in eastern Uganda. The area did not have a school nor a medical clinic nor even a sustainable source of fresh water. Food is scarce as…
by Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager When our client came to us with a leaking, outdated and dark basement in her West Side home, we knew we could knock it out of the park. I thought, “This renovation is going to have some very dramatic before and after photos!” And it sure did. This home, built-in…
Kerr Construction completed a major home renovation for a client in central Vancouver. The homeowner wanted to bring family from Alberta to live with her and desired a total renovation of the house to accommodate everyone. Increase living space and sunlight A major facet of the reno was to lift the house so that higher…
You have decided to build a new custom home or renovate your existing one. Now you are trying to work out what the best type of construction process and contract is to choose. Custom home build contract choices The two main choices are cost-plus and fixed fee. Cost-plus means that all the labour, materials, and…
by Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager, Kerr Design Studio Perfection is in the eye of the beholder, especially the client. When you give them exactly what they want, that is perfection to us. Especially when they keep asking you to come back and do more for them. In early 2020, we started a project for 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…
This past year, Kerr Construction and Design started a major home renovation in Delta, just north of Point Roberts on Boundary Bay. The renovation entails raising the roof by two feet to create 10′ interior ceilings throughout the house as well as an almost total gut of the interior. This allows for the creation of three…
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 Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager, Kerr Design Studio People have different purposes for their homes and those purposes can change over time. One of our clients is a retired couple and their nest has been empty for a while. As the kids had gone and the grandchildren were now coming to visit and they loved to entertain,…
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…
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…