Services
Building
Design/Build The Difference
Much of the world’s most enduring and beloved architecture was created by the traditional Master Architect, who was responsible for every facet of home design and home construction.
As labor became more specialized, the comprehensive advantages of the Master Architect were lost. Architectural designers moved more and more towards artistic expression, without the benefit of the practical knowledge of home construction techniques and materials, and often at the expense of the common-sense realities of how people actually live. As a result, much modern architecture seems cold and antiseptic.
At the same time, many home builders have lost touch with essential home design elements that, in concert with high levels of craftsmanship, make homes beautiful, enjoyable, and enduring.
The rift caused by this modern phenomenon of division of labor often results in conflict between home designer and home builder, with the homeowner caught in the middle. Many builders chafe at designers’ demands for design elements that are either unbuildable, unwise, or prohibitively expensive.
There is a new movement to recover the integrity of the Master Architect, typically called home design and home build. When the home designer is the home builder, it makes for an extraordinary synergy. John Dancey’s home design and home build approach follows this simple pattern:
As the home designer and home builder, ultimate responsibility for every aspect of the job falls to us. Starting with a cost/value analysis gives immediate feedback for a realistic scale and scope to your project’s design, and helps avoid significant cost overruns. And we don’t create delays by designing elements that run aground in the permitting process. As the single-source contact for our clients, all design decisions, subsequent revisions, and change orders are handled smoothly; we maintain complete awareness of the consequences to budget, overall design intent, and building performance.
Since we are in control of every aspect of the home design and home building process, we can compress the entire cycle while creating a superior home. Communication is more simple and more clear. The bottom line is that our home design and home build firm-through increased accountability and decreased complexity-maximizes the beauty and utility of your home within the common-sense limits of financial practicality.
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.
- GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Remodeling
Get The House you Want With The House you have...
You’ve worked hard to shape your life. When we work together on your home improvement project, we’ll honor what works, then re-form and re-shape your built spaces with home renovations you’ll love.
As you shape your home, your home in turn shapes you. More than just home improvements, we’ll help you create a legacy. John Dancey home remodeling services include...
Remodeling Q&A
OUR HOME IMPROVEMENTS WORK TODAY. Home remodeling is all about discovering new possibilities, about dressing the “bones” of your house with a new way of living. At the same time, we’re not prima donnas. We listen, and we pay attention to what you want. We’ll work together to preserve and enhance the things you love about your home with home renovations that reflect and support the way you want to live today.
OUR HOME RENOVATIONS ACCOMMODATE THE FUTURE. The best home remodeling projects anticipate life changes. Today’s nursery becomes tomorrow’s home office or studio for changing careers. Today’s guest quarters becomes an additional master suite for aging parents. Today’s kitchen and bathroom renovations can be modified tomorrow to integrate universal design. Our home renovations work well for all the stages of your life.
OUR HOME REMODELING CREATES VALUE. Right from the start, we analyze whether your home improvement project not only fits within your budget, but also makes long-term sense for your neighborhood. As a design/build firm, we only create designs that make good financial sense. By analyzing your house, the home renovations you desire, your neighbors’ houses, and neighborhood trends, we’ll design for the highest value, creating home improvements that fit your budget today while increasing value for tomorrow. The important thing is to understand how you want to live…there are ways to get there at almost any scale.
HOME RENOVATION HAS ITS LIMITS. Yes, sometimes it makes more sense to sell your house and build new. But even if you decide to sell, you might benefit from some light home remodeling, either to help your house sell for more money, or help it to sell at all. At the same time, we can begin designing your brand new home. With new home construction, your land or lot is the canvas, and the sky is the limit…at least in the idea stage. We’ll apply the same calculus to new construction that we do to designing for home renovations, by balancing your budget and market constraints with your desires.
WE RESPECT HISTORY. Our designs for home additions and home improvements respect both the history of your home and the character of your neighborhood. In fact, take a look at this article about a major home remodeling project we designed for a home in a historic Alamo Heights neighborhood. Read More >>>
Even if you’re not in a historic neighborhood, we’ll ensure—where appropriate—that any home additions and home renovations complement both the style of your house and the character of your neighborhood.
We’re open to new directions. Sometimes it’s appropriate to completely change the style of your house. Whether you’re leading the charge or keeping up with a new trend, we can design home renovations that take your home in a completely new direction.
We’re experts in construction project management. Our systems approach to home remodeling minimizes the impact of the construction site, creates built-in cost and time efficiencies, and creates a clean and safe working environment for our workers and your family.
Our approach to home improvements respects our shared environment. Green building really has three focus areas: the performance of the house, the overall environmental impact of construction, and how the house affects the health of its occupants. As a certified green builder, we design energy efficiency, durability, and sustainability into every new home and home renovation project. We also design with materials and integrated systems that make the house more comfortable, and that improves indoor air quality.
The results were amazing…John [created] architectural elements that not only offered tremendous utility, but also cleverly differentiated the spaces while still achieving the open feel we were going for. Jon just made it work, and work well.
- STUART ADAM
Design
Where Vision Meets Know-How
John Dancy Creates Designs for...
... that transform how you live, today and tomorrow.
Design Q&A
At the beginning, with design.
WITH GOOD DESIGN, home improvements can make your house more durable and energy efficient.
WITH GOOD DESIGN, home renovations enhance your lifestyle, today and tomorrow.
WITH GOOD DESIGN, your home improvements are more aesthetically pleasing, creating a timeless style that resonates with the life of its inhabitants.
In fact, dollar for home remodeling dollar, good design versus poor design could easily create a 20% swing in the value of your entire home.
GOOD DESIGN IS HARMONIOUS. We’ll work together to create design elements for your home renovations that uniquely express your home site, your neighborhood, and your life. Your house should reflect your life and your vision for how you’d like to live. We help you capture that vision, confirm your instincts, and possibly help discover new possibilities.
GOOD DESIGN HAS A VOCABULARY ALL ITS OWN. At the end of the day, designs for home improvements must satisfy two requirements: does it work well (function), and is it beautiful (form). We’ve all been in houses that just feel right and look right. The way the house rests in its site, integrating and complementing natural features. The flow between and through its rooms. The way it captures and supplements natural light. The way it balances private and public spaces. The way it integrates movement between indoors and outdoors. Scale and proportion. Shadow and light. Movement and rest. Texture and color and dimension. All work together to breathe life into your new home or home remodeling project.
With design, it all comes down to this:
Design smart. Design beautiful
They did a great job working with the neighbors. The Wilson’s chose an exceptional designer in John Dancey, who really understands the character of the neighborhood.
- JOSH BAUGH, SA EXPRESS-NEWS
Custom Cabinets
The Next Step in Architectural Evolution.
Details Matter
Exterior and interior architectural details and custom cabinetry are the signature elements for your home improvement projects. These details are the elements of the house that we correspond with most intimately, the parts that most easily lodge in our memories of home. A cozy window seat, bathed by soft northern light, with a nook for a favorite book, pillow and reading lamp. A solid, handcrafted front door, with forged iron hinges and hardware, simultaneously secure and inviting. A hand-carved mantle that showcases growing family memories and hosts the trappings of passing holidays and seasons. Special cabinetry that represent the height of utility, yet resemble an inviting grouping of furniture rather than typical monolithic linear boxes.
Adding even a few very special architectural details to your home improvement project elevates the character of your entire home.
We design and supervise the creation of such special architectural detailing. Custom cabinetry is especially important in restoration work, or when building to accommodate elements in historical neighborhoods where we are seeking to preserve an established style.
Our special architectural details and custom cabinetry include:
Custom Cabinets Q&A
OUR CUSTOM CABINETRY THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX.
The basic kitchen cabinet box has not changed in decades. But the way we use our kitchens has changed dramatically. We now have many specialized small appliances that live on our counter tops. To accommodate the way we use our kitchens today, our custom cabinets are typically 3” deeper than standard kitchen cabinets. While this extra depth makes using counter tops nicer, it also adds about 13% greater capacity to the lower cabinets and 25% greater capacity to the upper cabinets. For every lineal foot of cabinetry, you get much more storage capacity. Even slight deviations from standard dimensions can make cabinetry feel much more significant - our custom kitchen cabinets just look and feel special.
QUALITY CABINETRY IS OUR CUSTOM.
Many big box store cabinets are made of particle board, which are loaded with formaldehyde and which lack durability, especially when wet. Our cabinet boxes are made from hardwood plywood, and the faces and trim are solid hardwood. Using classic joinery techniques, our custom cabinetry is completely at home with the finest furniture.
I especially appreciate the way John lavished attention on the details as he designed and built our custom cabinetry…unique styles that just cannot be found in stock offerings.
- DAN M. BAGWELL
Custom Pools
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