Merry Christmas

To our valued clients and associates,

We are grateful for the many blessings we have received this year. We have been blessed with good work and excellent clients. We appreciate you and your business! 2012 is shaping up to be another blessed year as well. We hope each of you are blessed with success, health and happiness. May the Spirit of Christ and His joy fill our hearts during the holidays and throughout the year. We thank you for the blessings each of you has brought into our lives.

Merry Christmas and a successful New Year!

10% Home Design Discount

With the housing market in Utah stabilizing and beginning to grow slowly again the cost of construction is also begining to creep up slowly. If you are thinking its time to move forward with you project in the next several months get the ball rolling now to take advantage of the lower materials and prices before they begin to rise next spring and summer.

To add a little extra motivation we are offering a 10% discount on our new home and remodel/addition design services between now and December 30, 2011.

If you would like more information about building and/or remodeling your home give us a call ar send us an email.

Added Design Services

We are pleased to announce that we have recently added the services of the Joe Carrick Design to our team of design professionals. Our partnership with them has enhanced our ability to design and build the custom homes, additions and remodels, and historic restorations you are looking for. You can learn more about them at their website http://www.jc-design.com/

We have also been busy with restoring and replacing windows in a historic home in Springville. To see pictures of the project visit our Facebook page.

We will also be posting information about two new custom home projects that will be starting in the next few weeks for those who would like to follow along.

Happy Thanksgiving season to all. We are extremely grateful for your business and friendship!

Success to all,

Matt-

Porch Restoration

We recently started working on a restoration job for a home built about 1892. The porch was originally built with square cut nails and all the spindles and columns were turned by hand. Time has taken its toll on the porch and we have started deconstruction, saving as many of the elements as we can to be restored and used again. We will post photos of the progress on our Facebook page and show how we are able to save the old elements and reuse them in the reconstruction.

The objective of this type of restoration is is to provide new solid construction that will last another 120 years and still have it look like it is over 100 years old. We love these types of projects and the unique chanllenges they provde.

Completed Foundation

The foundation and drain system work is completed and we have moved onto framing the basement and building the new stairs. If feels good to have the basement "space" in and move on to making it part of the home. We have added several pictures to the album on our Facebook page.

Basement Addition Progress

We poured the final sections of the new foundation yesterday. It is a big milestone on these projects. I sleep better at night knowing that the house is on is permenant foundation once again. I've added several photos to our Facebook page album for the job. The next stage is building the drain system that will keep the basement dry. We are adding full drain under the entire floor. I'll post photos of the drain system this next week and talk about how it works.

Warmer Weather is on its way

The spring weather has kept the ground wet and prolonged the ski season and made for adventurous working conditions on our projects. It looks like warmer weather is going to prevail over the next few weeks and summer is on its way. The basement addition in Park City is moving along nicely. We will finish pouring the foundation this week and begin installing the drain system. We will add more pictures to our Facebook page later today. Other projects are also moving forward. We are building a large retaining wall and landscape in Springville, and will be starting a historic restoration on part of a home in Provo soon. We are also beginning the preliminary work on remodeling another home in Provo and adding an elevator. We appreciate your continued support and interest in our work and projects. If you have been thinking about starting your project we still have capacity to add additional work to our schedule and would be pleased to take care our your home building and remodeling needs. Thank you for your patronage and for all who have expressed their interest in our services. The first of our summer BBQ series is this Saturday April 23. The Address for the BBQ is 359 N 200 E American Fork, beginning at 1 pm. Several of you have already sent an RSVP and we appreciate all you who want to attend but have conflicting plans. We will have other events throughout the summer that are available to all our friends and clients and hope you can make it to some of them.

Progress on the Basement Addition

We have most of the basement excavated and started forming the fisrt sections of the new foundation walls. We will pour the fisrt sections today. Progress has moved along steadily hampered only a little by the spring weather. It has been a challenge to get remove the excavated soil with the ground outside so wet. I have added several photos of the progress to our Facebook Page. We will continue to add additional photos to the album on Facebook as we progress.

Fruit Heights couple locked in battle with homebuilder, city - ksl.com

Fruit Heights couple locked in battle with homebuilder, city - ksl.com


This a KSL story about a couple whose home is failing because the builder cut corners and materials to make an extra buck and the city turned its head the other way. I wonder how many other homes are having similar problems and the owners don’t know what to do.

It is a sad commentary on the building industry. There is a distinct lack of craftsmanship in homebuilding today. Too many builders are more interested in how cheaply they can build a home and still charge top dollar for them rather than building a home that will last for centuries. All too often we are called in to repair failing homes that are only a couple of years old because they were poorly built to begin with. I hope the homeowners are able to get both the city and Richmond America to do the right thing and stand behind their work.

Our driving force at Harper & Company is a passion for our craft and our commitment to quality. We stand behind all of our work and know our clients will never have to worry about their home developing problems caused by poor construction practices and materials. One of our specialties is performing historic restorations. In the older structures we work on you can see the care taken by the craftsmen of decades and centuries past. We are committed to building new homes toady that will still be beautiful and functional homes in a hundred years and stand the test of time.

If you have any questions about your home’s integrity please contact us.

Basement Finish Article

This is a neat article about how you can make your basement a more functional and welcoming part of your home. It fits with the basement addition project(s) we have and are building. Enjoy.

Out of the Darkness: Transforming a Dark Basement Into a Light, Open Living Space - Basement, Design

To better integrate this downstairs space into the home and make it more than just a basement demanded some bold spatial manipulation from architect Joe Eisner...

Excavation Begins

We started the excavation and concrete cutting for the Basement Addition. This is the long, slow part of the process but it's also the most important. We go to great lengths to make sure the foundation is strong and stable. For more pictures of the project and to see the progress as it happens look up the photo album on our Facebook Page: Harper & Company

We will aslo post updates to our Twitter account: Harpercompany

We welcome your comments and insight. Let us know what you think.

New Basement Addition

We are starting a new basement addition project in Park City. It's a unique process to add a basement to an existing home. We have added basements to homes several times now and are becoming specialists on foundation retrofits. We'll post some photos as the project progresses and let our readers in on the details.

We have found that we enjoy working on unique projects that are out of the ordinary and require unique problem solving to help our clients achieve their goals and dreams. As we progress with the project please feel free to ask questions or post comments.

Success,
Matthew Harper

Question: I know I want to build (or remodel) but I don't know where to start. Can you give me some direction about where to begin?

We have many clients and potential clients approach us with and idea in mind of what they want in their new home and/or remodel but aren't sure how to move forward with their idea. We recommend beginning with conceptual designs (sketches) and spending time looking at other homes or projects you like and don't like. You will learn as much or more about what you want in your home from the things you don't like as the things you do. This is a good time to meet with your builder and ask him for recommendations about where to go to look at design ideas and what works well and what doesn't. He should have access to design centers, recent projects you can look at, tickets to home shows, and suppliers who will provide samples for you. It may seem a little early in the process to be looking at material samples but knowing what type of materials you like and want now will help you focus in on the perfect design for you and your home. It will also help eliminate costly changes later on in the process.
Your builder will also be able to help you get a feel for what a given project may cost and ways to maximize its value.
After you have a conceptual plan put together you can begin to move forward with the final design process. Your builder should also be able to provide you with the professional design services you need.

Please feel free to contact us with your questions (801) 472-1211

2011 Home Building and Remodeling Outlook

The past several months have been an economic roller coaster for many and have brought trying times for all. We have been fortunate to have weathered the storms both natural and economic and hope you have as well. The economic ebb has provided the opportunity for you to be able to move forward with your new home, remodeling projects, or restoration in ways that were not available last fall and probably won't be available in the future. While market prices for materials continue to fluctuate most materials prices are still low but may rise significantly throughout the year due to increased oil and gas prices and inflation. Building lots are still available for 50% less than in the past but the existing inventory of lots is being bought up and prices may start creeping up as the inventory continues to diminish.
New home projects are now more cost efficient than they have been in the past several years. The price of materials has dropped to more reasonable rates and labor rates have also dropped with the lower demand on contractors’ time.
Many builders and remodelers have closed their doors and/or shifted their market focus over the past several months. At Harper & Company we have taken the time to expand our resources and increase our capabilities to better serve our clients and their needs. We have teamed up with suppliers, subcontractors, and real estate professionals who provide excellent service and value for their products.
We have teamed up with suppliers who are committed to provide the best materials for the best prices on the market. Rocky Mountain Power and Questar Gas are still providing significant rebates for improving your home’s energy efficiency. We have also teamed up with EnviroWise Consulting to provide Energy Star certified projects for our clients.
Add these factors together and this spring is one of the best times to build a new home, add an addition, remodel your kitchen, finish your basement, or restore that old brick bungalow you love.

Mobley's Comments

After setting our blog up a nd letting our clients know about the resources here we had one of our clients ask if they could post some comments about their experience with our company. Naturally, we were pleased to oblige. Here are their comments:

We had an amazing experience with Matt Harper. His very first impression was exactly how we was for a complex 6 month project- clean cut, educated, polite, creative, and always positive and energetic. We dug out our 5 foot deep crawl space and completed it to a nicely finished basement complete with media room, 9 foot ceilings, storage, etc. Matt and his team did a great job on the project. We had a few normal “butting of the heads” along the way and that is to be expected in any sort of large scale home remodel. The reason I share this, is that those moments of (brief) conflict are when Matt’s impressive character really shined through. Matt was always a true professional and each of these (very few) conflicts was resolved to 110% of our satisfaction. Its easy to be nice, professional, etc when everything is humming along. But, when the normal challenges of construction are encountered- that is when you really see how good or not so good your GC is. Matt is the best and we continue to recommend him without any reservation.

Steven & Britta Mobley

Three Bid Myth

I found this article from a Corvallis, OR newspaper. My experience is very similar to the author's and I strongly recommend his advice to all our clients.

The Three Bid Myth

As published in the Corvallis Gazette-Times
By Tom Powell

I was at Safeway the other day and picked up a copy of "Kitchen Remodeling for Dummies." I have to say, I was curious to read the advice the publication was offering. Not surprisingly it advocated getting three bids. "Be sure that all three contractors work from the same materials and labor list. You want to compare apples to apples."

This is a good concept in theory, but there are a few significant problems with it. First, it assumes that you have enough information about the project to be sure that all three contractors are quoting the same thing. Second, it assumes that you have confidence that the contractors will stick to their "estimates". Third, it assumes that price is the most important factor in selecting your contractor.

So here's how the scenario works. You invite three contractors to your home to get estimates on remodeling your kitchen. You have an idea of what you want or even a sketch. Each contractor will have different ideas and bid the project accordingly. Everything from the cabinet layout to the countertop to the brand of faucet may vary, if they are planned for at all. How then do you "compare apples to apples" with any level of confidence?

Three bids only give the illusion of providing a thorough comparison. Without drawings and specifications it is impossible to know what is included in the project. I can't tell you how many times I've heard horror stories of a homeowner finding out that the final project cost did not even remotely reflect the original bid.

I encourage you to interview multiple contractors and call their references. Make your choice based on comfort level, experience, and reputation rather than nebulous bids. Work in partnership with your qualified design/build company to develop a design and project that meets your needs and your budget.

To discuss your upcoming project needs or new home ideas. Give us a call to schedule an appointment (801) 472-1211

Success,

Matthew Harper

Early Spring Promotion

The warmer weather the past few weeks here in Utah has started people thinking about their upcoming home improvement, remodeling, and renovation projects. We have seen an increase in clients wanting to start the budgeting and design process. We appreciate all our clients and their patronage.

In an effort to show our appreciation to our clients we are offering an "early spring" project incentive. Schedule your remodeling or addition project with us before February 25, 2011 and we will provide project design services and plans free of charge. For more information contact us at (801) 472-1211.

Updated Energy Star Program

With new advances in building technology and products the national Energy Star certification program is being updated to provide more energy efficient standards. The new standards if followed properly will increase a home's energy efficiency significantly of standard building methods.

We have been reviewing the updated program and decided to partner with EnviroWise Consulting, an independent certification and consulting firm to bring the added value of a more energy efficient home to our clients without increase building costs. Its an integrated approach to building the entire structure from the ground up maximizing resources and efficiency and minimizing waste.

We will post additional information for you to learn more about the updated program in the coming days.

Success,