WESTEND BATH AND KITCHEN – OUTSTANDING SERVICE ON ALL LEVELS
Client-designer partnership makes for stress-free renovation
What I liked about it is that we were part of the project. It was a collaboration with Rebecca. We never felt pressured. It was us deciding what we would do. MALCOLM VOLMER, Westend Bath and Kitchen client
When Tanya Claus and Malcolm Volmer gave Westend Bath and Kitchen the go-ahead to renovate the main floor powder room and upstairs ensuite of their 16-yearold Barrhaven townhouse, they hardly expected the service to include a complimentary fix to the staircase between the two floors.
The retired couple had been having problems with the toilets in both bathrooms, the flooring in the ensuite was not in great shape, and the shower was starting to leak into the kitchen. They purchased new toilets easily enough, but had no luck sourcing new flooring they liked. And they still had a leaky shower problem to deal with.
All that got resolved with a trip to the Ottawa Home Renovations Show where they met up with Westend Bath and Kitchen design consultant Rebecca Neale. She impressed them so much with her professional knowledge and encouraging, no-pressure manner that they decided to forego the “band-aid approach” and have both bathrooms renovated “the right way.”
“We talked to different people at the show,” Claus said, “but just zeroed in on Westend. We felt very comfortable with Rebecca. She worked us through the process, explaining the differences between one product versus another, and we never felt pressured to go with something that was not affordable to us. We liked that Westend came out and took proper measurements to build their estimate,” she said.
Something that appealed to Volmer was that Westend stood behind their full range of products. “They won’t put anything into your house they feel will not withstand the test of time,” he said.
Throughout the process Claus said she was glad to be able to call Neale anytime to ask whether an accessory item she had her eye on would work with the new bathrooms. “Rebecca knows her stuff,” she said. “She would tell us which colours to look for, and what would work or not.”
“I’m so happy with the results,” Neale said. “Malcolm and Tanya explained that they wanted to update their bathrooms, but wanted to keep the flooring in the powder room and keep the vanity in the ensuite. This renovation is a perfect example of how we can still achieve beautiful results without necessarily replacing all of the fixtures in the rooms. Going with the whites and the greys for the ensuite, it’s like they have their own little retreat to relax in at the end of the day.”
The choice of veteran Westend contractors Mo and Randy Savard to handle the construction work got full endorsement from the clients, and not just because of the Savards’ excellent detail work on the bathrooms.
“They even fixed our creaky step – the first step going upstairs,” Volmer said. “We didn’t even notice it anymore, but it drove Mo crazy every time he went up and down the stairs. On the last day they took the step apart and fixed it. They were amazing.”
“What started out as a couple of fix-ups morphed into a complete transformation of the space,” Claus added. “We ended up with a beautiful bathroom that feels larger than what we had. It’s cleaner looking, it’s functional and easy to clean – it’s a very calming space. We are certainly glad we had the work done.”
“What I liked about it is that we were part of the project,” Volmer said. “It was a collaboration with Rebecca. We never felt pressured. It was us deciding what we would do.”
The Westend Bath & Kitchen Showroom, located at 1660 Woodward Dr., is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also visit www.westendbathandkitchen.com, or call 613-226-7701 to schedule a free estimate.