VRABEL ARCHITECTS

Steve was efficient and communicated effectively. Steve's insight into the inner workings of the permit process for Seattle were greatly appreciated and we were able to move our initial intake date up significantly as well (our friends during this time did not have this experience as the architect they used was not familiar with Seattle procedures). During the remodel process, our contractor (who was a bit of a perfectionist!) commented that this was the only set of plans he had ever worked with that didn't require him to revise things in the field because the measurements weren't accurate. He was also a fan of Steve's work!

We had a fantastic experience working with Steve on plans for a two story extension of our home. He helped us navigate the permitting process quickly and efficiently. We look forward to working with him again on future projects.

Steve was great! He asked great questions to help us get to the heart of what we needed, he reviewed schematics and drawings of the house, he produced drawings that we detailed yet easy to read and fully functional. It made the process a lot more efficient. I would hire and work with him again.

Steve was amazing to work with. He was very responsive, quick to show up for an initial discussion, and did the work as requested and on time. His help dealing with permitting through the city was wonderful as we sailed through the review process. He was very conscientious of designing something that we would be happy with and that was within our budget. Would definitely work with him again.

Steve was a pleasure to work with - extremely knowledgeable, professional, and communicative. You can tell Steve really wants to provide you the best product he can, while also being very respectful of your budget. We would definitely recommend Steve!

Steve Vrabel did a wonderful job designing and drafting our house remodel plans. We came to him with a vision in mind and problem areas for him to solve. What I especially appreciated was his adaptability on the process and promptness in execution. I wanted to be more involved in the design process and also needed a quick turn around time. Steve was very responsiveness throughout the entire process, we always felt like he valued our time and prioritized our project like he said he would. We absolutely love the end results and Steve was essential to making it happen.

Steve is amazing!! The remodel I was doing was for a couple that wanted to remodel the main floor of their home so they could age in place. Steve was hired to consult with us, provide the drawings and acquire a permit for the work. Everything went very smooth. He listened to the homeowners and recommended a floor plan that really took into consideration how they live now and how they plan to live in the future. He was able to quickly acquire the permit for the work and the homeowners love their "new" home. Steve is incredibly punctual and responsive, I highly recommend him. SSR - General Contractor

Wonderful. Worked with Steve on several concept designs then moved forward with selected option. Steve met all committed to dates and design passed city review on first submittal.

Steve delivered everything on time that he estimated. His prices are reasonable and he understands that we had a certain budget to achieve. We were very happy to work with him.

Steve helped us design an addition to our house. We added a living room, bedroom and turned an office room to a bathroom and small office space. We love Steve’s brilliant idea making every single space useful! Steve is very upfront with the costs and time frame so you don’t have to worry about unpleasant surprises. We have been referred Steve to our friends and family!

We found Steve & loved his work so we hired him to design our house renovation. Steve is great to work with! He's a great listener, very responsive, professional and easy to work with. We love his ideas and designs--the house is going to look wonderful when completed! He has a great grasp of permitting, details & city requirements. His modern yet traditional style is elegant and crisp. I would highly recommend using Steve for your next home or business renovation.

It could not have been easier. Steve is very easy to work with and was creative figuring out a way forward with the one place where we got hung up. He was always readily available and he was completely open to either to us having him submit the permit application or our submitting the permit ourselves. As it is, we submitted ourselves and the City reviewer accepted the plan set so readily you'd they had drawn it up themselves.

Steve was excellent to work with. I had some vague ideas what I wanted, he turned them into reality. He did a lot of research and provided a lot of ideas. He thinks outside the box - I never would have come up with that floor plan myself. He pointed up real problems with some of my ideas, even though he was willing to incorporate them. It's just that those ideas weren't very workable. In other places it was very much a back-and-forth discussion. He'd suggest something, I'd expand on it, and he'd finish it off - or I'd suggest something and he'd expand on it, etc. He was open to changes and worked very hard to craft something that met my wild-eyed expectations. It's easy to draw something, but harder to design something that works in real life. Once it was built, it was easy to see the wisdom of his ideas. It's obvious he brings a lot of real-world experience to the job. The plans he provided were thoroughly detailed, easy to read, and the builders had no problem understanding what was required. I would definitely hire Steve again for my next project.

What a professional. Though he was so busy he said he couldn't work on my project for several months, he offered to spend as much time on the phone with me as I wanted, recommended me to another architect, and said that I could call him any time I had questions. I really appreciate the generous offer. Time is valuable! I hope one day to work with Mr. Vrabel.

He has done a really good job. We haven't started construction yet, so we are mainly working with him on the plans right now and getting the plans approved, but overall, he has been really great in all areas. He has been punctual and very professional. He really listened to what we want and in keeping with what we wanted. He has been really great about doing revisions for anything that we haven’t liked.

We contacted Steve to extend our existing deck. Steve was incredibly responsive and professional. He came to our house, took a look at the deck and explained us the different options we had. Then, he came out again to take measurements. From the measurements, it turned out that we could not get a permit for an extension because of safety regulation. Since we could not go ahead with the project, he gave us a HUGE discount on the work he already preformed. We were extremely impressed. We are new-owners, and this is our first project. He made us really comfortable with the whole process. Definitively, we highly recommend Steve, and we won?t hesitate to hire him again for future projects.

Things went really great with Steve. He was very flexible in terms of his schedule and very punctual and responsive via email and in person. Professionalism aside, he is also just a really great guy. We enjoyed a couple nice chats as well. Our home currently has 3 bedrooms upstairs and 3 bedrooms downstairs. Steve was able to design the upstairs remodel to a 2 bedroom area with a very large master suite, with a huge walk-in closet, and a very large master bathroom as we requested. He included a lighting and electrical plan as well. Steve took into consideration our current and future desires in his plans, including designing in a way to simplify adding French doors to the future patio. He walked us through the existing space to help us understand where things would be placed and how things with flow. He was also able to talk to us about why/how to place furniture to accommodate the design. We were very comfortable with Steve and able to allow him access to our home when we weren't hometo take the measurements. He was kind enough to ask how many pets we had so he could do a head count before leaving. He was extremely fast in getting plans, details and updated plans to us. His plans were presented in PDF and hard copy in our meeting with him. The PDF's are a great lifesaver in sharing with other contactors. Thank you Steve! We will see you as soon as we are ready to tackle the downstairs!

We have been planning on an addition to our house for awhile now and when it came time to plan it out we immediately thought of Steve whom we had met doing a job for him. He was awesome! He came to our home, took a look at the house, took measurements and was very clear about his process. He came to our house a second time to take additional measurements and to discuss our ideas. When he came back the third time, with the drawings, we were super impressed! We love what he came up with for us! We will definitely be continuing to work with him, he is outstanding!

I am very pleased with the work Steve did for us. First, the design is visually beautiful and better than we hoped for when we started. We have had several neighbors comment that it is clear we hired a professional architect to handle the design. Second, we wanted the porch rebuilt EXACTLY as it was when originally built 85 years ago. To the inch is it a perfect replica. This is particularly important on some of the wonder historic homes in the Seattle area. Third, the permitting process in Seattle can be challenging, particularly in Environmentally Critical Areas. While I spent a great deal of time on this myself Steve produced an excellent plan set that required very few revisions. Further, the plan set required contributions from an Engineer, Geotechnical Engineer, Surveyor and a Landscape Architect. Steve combined all of this work into a comprehensive document that the city could approve and the builder could use. Finally, professionally Steve and was easy to work with, detailed oriented, prompt and knowledgable. I would not hesitate to recommend Steve or hire him again.

I am interviewing architects for a possible addition/remodel of my home - which can be an intimidating process for someone who owns a home far from the completed works of art that one sees on most architect's websites. Steve was great from the moment I spoke with him on the phone. He came out and treated me with the utmost of courtesy and respect. Steve was very attentive to my thoughts and desires and came up with some excellent, creative ideas that had never even occurred to me. He was also very understanding and candid in helping me to weigh the emotional vs. market value of what I wanted to do, ways to cut costs, and whether or not it would be a good decision for me. He was very personable, and most generous with his time. I couldn't have asked for more. I have not completed the process of interviewing candidates and want to be thorough in my search as well as give courtesy to all who I have contacted. When it comes down to making my final selection, though, I know that Steve Vrabel will be high on my list.

In 2006, Steve did such a great job on the remodel of my own home that we decided to have him help out on our new rental property. Steve was both timely and cost-efficient. We had no trouble permitting the project, and it went smoothly through construction to inspection. The project came out great - tremendously bright and spacious.

Original Review: Called up Steve and asked him if he'd take a look at my ADU in progress work - we haven't put the walls on it yet and wanted to get perspective. He said, "No, going to pass on this one." and then pretty much hung up on me. Rude as h***, which was a surprise since he was really nice the last time I spoke with him on the phone. Updated Review: I logged on to update my review from an F because Steve Vrable sent me a nice letter letting me know my feedback has been heard and apologizing for being rude. Here's a quote from this letter; "I generally do not take on projects that are already under construction, especially those without the proper permits. If this was not the case, then it was my misunderstanding of what you described." Well, once I logged on, I saw his response, which reads; "This member had a project that was already under construction without the required building permits." That is _not_ the case. I *do* have the permits in place and you'd have known that if you'd taken the time to talk with me on the phone. Because the online response to my review is presenting inaccurate information regarding the permitting of the work on my house as fact, I'm leaving this review as an F. To be clear; this wasn't a "misunderstanding" - Steve didn't talk with me, so I wasn't even able to communicate any details regarding the work being done. I called, asked if I could hire him, he told me "No, going to pass on this one." and hung up. If that's a misunderstanding, then I'm big bird.

He gives the same full professional attention to a relatively small job as he would a large one. We came to him with an unusual idea for a bathroom floor plan. Rather than dismissing it, he embraced it and added design features that really made the remodel look custom. He is very responsive to our requests. For our LR/DR/Kitchen remodel, he took design cues from the exterior of the house and brought them inside to tie it all together. He was adept and amenable to working with us on our small projects and small budgets. We would not hesitate to recommend Steve.

We have a tri-level ranch style home that was built in the 1960's. We added an addition for a new kitchen and dining room about 10 years ago to the back of the house but the front was so outdated and frankly not very inviting. I wanted to add a more formal entrance and also a front porch so I could enjoy coffee there on a warm summer morning. Because of the angle of the roof line adding a covered porch was going to be extremely difficult because we did not want it to look like an "addition". When Steve came to our home he gave us several options. But because of the roof it looked like I would not be able to have a covered porch. While doing his measurements of the house he noticed the roof line from the 10 year old addition. He came up with the idea of extending the addition roof through the house and continuing it to create my much wanted covered front porch. Brilliant!! He said he let the house tell him what it wanted him to do. This is the sign of a true artist. He let the house take the credit but it was he who had the vision. The designs are wonderful and so clear that even my husband understood them. We will be starting this project in the spring when the rains stop and I am sure that I will be adding additional raving reviews when I actually have the finished product and am enjoying that cup of coffee of my new front porch.

He is really easy to work with. We have kind of a puzzling house, and he was able to come up with a creative, yet practical solution that was still within our price range. He has a very broad knowledge base so he can provide you with several options regarding what the final outcome may look like.