Blog

This kichen in NE PDX came out beautifully. The subway tiles to the ceiling and the splash of blue with the cabinets feels fresh and inviting! Just in time for the holidays.   read more

Doors! We love the "barn door" style door for inside the home or outside on sheds and garages. It is fluid and space saving, as well as rustic and practical.  There are many great hardware options depending on the size and weight of the door. If there is ample room for the door to slide back to open, it is a beautiful way to have an easy opening door and maximize the width of the door frame.
Doors can be salvaged ...   read more

It seems early, but what do you need to get done around your house for the holiday season and winter in general? A new or updated bathroom? paint or re-do the floors or windows in the guest room? Make a guest room?!
 
Fall and winter are good times to hire us after the busy summer season to repair and renovate areas of your home that will be getting more use during the inside months. We tent off interior areas we ...   read more

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Summer is a crazy time for the constrction industry. Trying to manage projects and not over schedule can be more challenging then the projects themselves. We often see work being done to a home and wonder if the people doing the work are a licensed  company, or just someone who does work on people's homes "on the side."
This came in the recent CCB newsletter:
 
"CCB investigators turned up more than 70 potential ...   read more

WE NOW OFFER DRAFTING SERVICES! Tricks of the Trades has teamed up with a local Portland drafter to start offering plan design services. We have drawn plans and gotten them approved for clients in the past, but this relationship is going to make that process much more efficient. We are very excited about being able to offer this service to our new and existing clients. Now when a set of approved plans is needed on a ...   read more

We are currently on a remodel of a recently purchaced older home in NE Portland. The homeowners were excited to get going on upgrading the home and moving in. They had many great ideas, a good budget, and a willingness to do some of the legwork themselves. As our crew removed the dropped ceiling in the dinning room we were all suprised and excited to find wooden box beams, original to the home. They were in great shape ...   read more

For most people summer is a busy season. There is lots of fun to be had in the sun and also lots of work to do before the weather turns again. We have noticed in the past 10 years that many people like to have projects done on their home in the summer. This can make it difficult to find professionals that are not booked for the season. Often small projects can be hard to get taken care of because companies are busy with ...   read more

Portland Business Journal Reports:
 
"The Portland area did its part to drive the gains.
Local home prices were up nearly 12 percent in March compared to a year ago and are closing in on their pre-recession peak. As of March, local home prices are about 13 percent lower than they were in July 2007, a far smaller gap than the gap of more than 30 percent recorded in March 2012."
 
"Las Vegas and San Francisco ...   read more

 
Mitchell Parker from the Houzz editorial staff writes:
Why Remodel?
"Skyrocketing home prices are likely causing already cautious homeowners to hold off on selling and moving, because while they can get a good price for their home, what they can buy isn’t necessarily bigger or better. So they’re deciding to plunk extra savings into their homes to make them more functional."
“Most people ...   read more

Spring through fall are typically the busy season for most contractors. Nobody wants their kitchen or bathroom torn apart during the holidays and painting exteriors of homes in the freezing rain is not a good idea either. Many interior projects are great to do in the winter and might even be less expensive. Materials are often more expensive in the summer time when building is going crazy and many contractors may make ...   read more

Now is such a great time of year to be cleaning, re-organizing, and re-evaluating the spaces in your home and their functions. We have been working on a deck and a bathroom (photos to follow!) and are excited about the sunny weather and all the different kinds of projects that are coming are way. In the past few months we have done wood restoration on dining room wainscotting and several bathroom remodels. Some people ...   read more

There are huge contractors who only want to take on full home remodels or complete kitchen make overs. Then there are the handy man operations who may be qualified to do everything, but they are just one person and prefer smaller jobs. Tricks of the Trades is somewhere in the middle. We can do additions, space conversions and whole home remodels, but we are also happy with smaller projects, rooms that just need surface ...   read more

Your charming older Portland home has the attic, garage, or basement space you want to access. Now what!? How are you going to access the space and what are you going to do with it? Is it nice storage? Or livable space? Are the stairs legal? Is there proper egress for the space? Do you want to add a bathroom? How is the ventilation, natural light, and insulation? Can your foundation take the extra load of converting ...   read more

If you love your neighborhood, or are looking to buy and fall in love with a home that just needs a little more space we often start looking in to garage, attic, and basements conversions to make it work. There are many factors to consider when creating more space. The best way to get an accurate estimate is to have plans of the proposed new space. With some graph paper and a measuring tape you can create plans yourself. ...   read more