The Design Department Inc

I cannot say enough about how Pat's positive approach enabled a plan to be formulated according to what I needed to have done to feel comfortable with my home. Her willingness to delve into the city's guidelines for property development assured me that the plans would be in line with what could be done. She is knowledgeable, thorough, and pleasant to work with in moving towards one's goals.

The kitchen was to be an extensive remodel involving the removal of a load-bearing wall, all new custom cabinets and lighting, and moving of the stove to a new location. As for the patio, we wanted to replace our concrete slab with a covered patio that would run the full width of the rear of the house. Our first meeting with Patricia was at our house to discuss our ideas for the kitchen and patio. Patricia arrived on time and we were immediately impressed with her professionalism and friendly and engaging demeanor. Being new to the remodeling world, we had some rough ideas of what we wanted to do, but were less sure how to turn those ideas into reality. Patricia quickly validated our desires and offered suggestions on how to make them happen. We made an appointment for her to come back and take detailed measurements and finished up that first meeting. Patricia emailed me with a detailed scope of work and estimate. As work progressed on the plans, we frequently emailed back and forth as we came up with ideas or changes. Patricia was always willing to entertain changes (we couldn't make up our mind whether we wanted a single level or two-level island) and was always quick to turn around our ideas and provide an updated drawing. Part of the process included Patricia working with an engineer to deal with the removal of the load bearing wall and the patio pillars. Other than sending us an invoice showing the costs for the engineering review, this was completely seamless - Patricia took care of everything. Given the stress that can be part of a major remodel, Patricia of The Design Department did everything possible to make the design process relaxed and fun. We would give her full marks for professionalism and experience (and patience!) and would happily recommend her to anyone in the market for a designer.

She was absolutely wonderful. She was really good.

Pat was great -- she was responsive and incredibly easy to work with. We went through several iterations of the design/layout in the early stages. I really appreciated her ability to listen and incorporate our wishes/requirements but also her forthrightness about things that wouldn't work as well. When we started construction, she worked with our contractor to ensure that things went according to plan and was responsive to his questions as well. When the structure was up and there was a wall that I didn't like the view of from my kitchen, she came back out and helped devise a solution to fix it. I am very happy with the layout of the addition and the space design. It is a testament to the quality of her work that the addition blends incredibly well with the original house. People are incredulous that it is an addition (even some of the neighbors who were admittedly very skeptical about the addition plans have said that she did an amazing job).

She was very timely and professional. It didn't her take long at all to come up with the design. I will certainly use her again.

It went great! Pat suggested an interesting change to the arrangement of cabinets and appliances. We were fortunate to have the original plans for the home which helped to facilitate a few design ideas. The one we chose was unique in that it placed an island in an angular position that provided excellent work space and traffic flow. We are extremely happy with how the design has worked out. We have other rooms to remodel and Pat will certainly be our choice to do more work.

First off, a big apology for not every replying to Pat's email. I very much enjoyed the consultation with her. The only reason we did not hire her was because we realized that the project we had (finishing a small basement) was not at the level of needing a professional architect. We were doing basic finishing and didn't need the higher level of plans that she would be able to provide. She gave us some wonderful advice, and was incredibly helpful in explaining the role of an architect in home construction. She gave us a name of an engineer which was super helpful, and he was able to help us with additional questions. Now that we have met with Pat, we have a much better understanding of the benefit of an Architect in a larger project, and when is the right time to call in an Architect. She was very professional, very friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Even though we did not use her services, we would not hesitate to meet with her in the future and use her services for a project in the future when we move onto the next house to remodel.

They were professional, they had great access in creating the design and had good ideas, and were really good about whenever changes were needed or we had to adapt it. They were good communicators and easy to get a hold of which is important in these kinds of cases.

Pat did extensive plans for both projects, went above and beyond to help us go through county approvals, provided engineers as needed for special issues. She is thorough and professional as well as delightful to work with. Even when we changed our plans, she worked to make sure that the final project was exactly what we wanted. Pat was a real pleasure to work with, incredibly creative, and flexible. We would highly recommend her to anyone needing plans or wanting to get support in developing ideas for a construction project.

Pat drew up designs for our basement to include an entryway, office, bathroom, family room and mechanical closet. She worked with us to design the space, answer our questions, and make revisions, always with our budget in mind. We also had her apply for the building permit, taking one more thing off our plate. We would highly recommend Pat. She was fast to turnaround the plans and came in under budget.

Pat was a lifesaver for us. We had retaining wall work done in the basement in 2007 which, unbeknownst to us, required permits from the county. The original contractors had presented the permit as being "optional" for the work. We were not aware of this problem until we were under contract to sell our house. We needed someone to draft blueprints and find a solution to our problem, fast. Pat responded to my Angie's List inquiry immediately and understood my dilemma right away. She was proactive, prompt and always professional as well as personable. She came up with an ingenious, cost effective solution for bringing our retaining walls up to code. She was even able to find us a reasonable and excellent contractor to do the work. I could not be more happy or satisfied with the service and work provided by Pat. I'd use her help again in a heartbeat. Thank you Pat! You really rock!

Pat was absolutely fantastic to work with. We were referred to her by our general contractor, Smith Hayes, from Hayes Brothers Construction, LLC. At Pat's first visit to our home, she took detailed measurements of all 3 floors of our home. She then asked us for our thoughts on how we felt the attic space could best be developed and within a couple weeks submitted a plan to us. We had a few minor changes to add and then she produced construction drawings for the contractor to work from. Pat also took care of all of our city permitting, which was awesome! Pat was great to work with because she had a really good feel for the tight attic space that we wanted to develop to it's fullest potential. She was very good at planning around fixed impediments such as roof lines and existing HVAC ducts. Pat was the perfect fit for us and she was a great liason between the city and the contractor. Pat remained involved with our project throughout every phase of design and construction, and always made herself available to answer questions or provide valuable insight.

We contacted Pat based on reviews on Angie's List for a basement remodel project. She called quickly and made an appointment to meet with us. She listened to our needs and goals and provided some advice. We then looked at the space together and she made some immediate observations and provided input. She followed up with a very thoughtful bid to complete the design work.

We engaged Pat to help us design a new bathroom that was to be built where a deck now stands. She prepared detailed drawings and we submitted them to three contractors (two of them at her recommendation). The costs came in much higher than we had hoped, and after she did further research it turned out that we would have need to increase the size of our water meter and sewage pipes. This would have been disruptive and expensive so we abandoned the project. Pat did great work and understood what we were looking for, She was responsive and professonal, and we would use her again for another project.

We did not use The Design Department for a project. My wife and I had distinctly different impressions of working with Pat. I felt as though she talked much more easily with my wife than with me. Although I was the one who had made the consultation appointment, I was unable to be there for the first 10 minutes of the appointment time, so Pat started the process without me there. When she spoke, she spoke with my wife, and rarely addressed me. And although she encouraged us to check on whether we had adequate water service from the city to support an addition, I felt as though she was setting roadblocks to the project as much, or perhaps more than, helping us think through what needs to be done. So while I would not choose to work with Pat, if my wife was doing this review, she would probably say just the opposite. Even so, I felt like this was not a good fit for the two of us. And for another couple, she might be the perfect match for design and consulting services.

It all went great. We met 4 times over the process, and Pat stayed in touch in between each meeting via email and phone about our progress on the project. She is friendly, attentive and has great ideas. I would definitely reccomend her.

.There were were no problems with the design stage once we, home owners, were apprised of costs of needed versus desired remodeling.

Pat and I are working on it right now, but it would be about six months. They have quoted us $6000. We are working together as far as the plans of the house are concerned. What is good about them is that they are personable, prompt, have a lot of great ideas, and a lot of useful information about the project. She actually does advocate work as far as getting permits, talking with the contractors and making sure we are getting a good price on the actual work being done. So, there are a lot of positives and the communication is great. I really haven't seen any negatives in them. I will be using them again in the future if I have another architectural project.

After our initial meeting to discuss what I wanted from the remodel, and brainstorm a bit, we met twice more and fine tuned the plan. There were a few tricky issues and she came up with good solutions. She was quick to return my calls and I am very happy with the design.

My wife and I are doing our first significant house renovation, remodeling our upstairs bath. After talking to a number of contractors, it became apparent they we hadn't yet thought through enough of the design details to get good quotes. We ended up using Pat at the Design Department on the recommendation of one of the contractors, and were very happy with our choice. Pat did a walkthrough of the space, took a set of measurements, and sent us a sample set of plans and a quote for doing the analagous work for us. She got us focused on the right issues that needed decisions so the contractor could get hard numbers, like, will the vanity have a kickplate or legs (which determines how much of the floor needs to be tiled), whether the shower would use a mudset or prefab pan, whether we could get away with a stock vanity in our space or not. After bouncing some ideas around she drew up a rough set of plans and sent us to the tile store to see what, generally, we liked for tile and countertops. After my wife and I settled on a few things we liked, Pat met us at the store to help us narrow it down and make a final decision. She was very helpful in getting us to understand the level of effort involved in different tile patterns and sizes, aesthetic issues, resale issues, etc. After meeting with her and finalizing the drawings, it was trivial to get the contractor the last few details (type of wood for the cabinetry, etc.) to wrap up the planning. Pat was always knowledgable, professional and fun to work with through the whole process. She was quick to reply to comments and questions, and creative in working within our requirements. We will be using her again as we start to tackle future projects.

As I said above, the entire experience with Pat was extremely positive. She is a very warm and caring person and she obviously loves what she does. I'm so happy that she was recommended to me.

We had decided to downsize in November 2009. At that point we started to look for property to build a smaller, energy efficient, "never to move again" home. After several months, we realized building a new home would not really work for us--we couldn't find the right piece of property and the building costs seemed to be beyond our budget. We then started looking at an existing home but couldn't find the right combination of setting and house. Then we found a house in a neighborhood we loved but the house would require extensive remodeling. We set about looking for a contractor who could help us make it happen and after getting bids from five different contractors, we settled on a choice that came from Angie's list and was within our budget. Our contractor recommended Pat Sauer with whom he had worked before. We were very pleased with Pat's work style, professionalism, and creativeness. She was able to complete her work without any undue delay and had a working relationship established with the structural engineer. The plans were submitted for the city approval and there were no hitches with their approval. As said above, she also had an established relationship with our contractor and once the plans were approved, work began immediately. We are thoroughly pleased with all of the work Pat did in helping us realize a dream home for us.

They were excellent. I was very happy with the work. I was interested in having somebody that could put my ideas on paper and find an engineer to do the job. She was able to find me an excellent engineer. I was very happy with them. I found them to be less expensive than a full-blown architect. They were very reasonable.

Pat Sauer is the owner of the company. She was very good and thorough. There was nothing negative about her.

We met with Pat after having a horrible experience with an architect where we were told we could not have the open floor plan we wanted, etc. Pat assured us immediately that she would design the house exactly how we wanted it and we would be happy with the results. Pat was extremely knowledgeable about the entire permit process as well as design and structural engineering process and coordinated everything beautifully. You could tell a lot of thought went into our plans to make the house exactly how we wanted it. Her suggestions were always useful in getting a better design. We had some major issues come up with the foundation that were not known originally and Pat helped us fix the plans with the engineer and city and most importantly, was very reassuring. Her confidence and experience helped us get through a very stressful time when we thought we may not be able to finish the project due to budget constraints. Pat worked with the engineer and contractor to keep costs lower for us and even did some extra work for us for free when these changes put us over her estimate. Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better designer. Pat has showed us that we don't have to use an architect to get plans, and we never will again! She is so easy to work with that our general contractor has already recommended her to several new clients.