5 Steps for Keeping Your Renovation on Time and on Budget

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Request a Written Proposal

Once you have decided on which remodeling company to use, request a written proposal that includes all the key details of your discussions. This establishes your need for accountability, since often, two people remember conversations differently.

Get a Fully-Detailed Contract

Successful projects begin with a good contract, but many contracts leave out important details. Make sure yours covers the scope of work, project timetable, payment schedule, project closure procedures (including how to address warrantable items), and detailed specifications for all products and materials. Be sure it includes insurance and permit information, procedures for handling change orders, lien releases, and details on home access and cleanup.

Have a Kick-Off Meeting

Without an upfront kick-off meeting at your home, with your salesperson, the Project Manager, and the construction team, conflict will be inevitable. This is the time to talk about your big picture ideas, your needs, and expectations. Get a firm agreement on the schedule of your project and the key milestones involved. Learn what times of day crews will be working, when you and your family can and cannot be present, and how access, cleanup and protection of your property will be handled.

4)

Request the Schedule in Writing

Ask for the schedule and milestone details you discussed at the kick-off in writing. This will hold both you and your remodeler mutually accountable to the project’s completion date.

5)

Be Flexible

You deserve to have your project completed on time and on budget. These suggestions should ensure a smooth process and a finished result you’ll love when you hire a qualified remodeling company like BellaVista: 1) 2) 3)

There is no way around this fact: remodeling will cause an interruption of your normal life. Remember to be flexible and attentive in discussions with your Project Manager. Your timely cooperation and decision-making will help to expedite the building process.

No matter which remodeler you choose, we at BellaVista wish you all the satisfaction you deserve during the process, and with the final result. As always, please feel free to call and consider us for your dream project.

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Sprouts at the LH Town Center?

9.12.11 Jean Smith of United Commercial Realty has worked with Sprouts Farmers Market to open 11 stores in DFW in a little more than five years. Smith is now working with Prescott Realty to make Lake Highlands Town Center the 12th Sprouts site.

“Sprouts is fully focused and wants to get this deal finished up,” Smith says. “[Prescott] also is working with a known pet supply company, and those two would co-anchor the first phase of a retail portion of the development.”

9.20.11 Prescott released this official statement [in response]: “Sprouts has remained interested in Lake Highlands Town Center, but we are considering all alternatives to ensure the highest potential for a financeable project.”

A Prescott official notes that the company is trying to finalize its negotiations with the grocer anchor, without specifying which grocery store (or stores), and that construction on the first block of 200 apartments could begin as early as November.

Read Keri Mitchell’s blog posts in full. Search: Sprouts correspondences among members of the first and second graduating classes.

Lake Highlands High School celebrates 50 years of football this year. “The Lake Highlands Wildcats opened their football career Friday night with a 1612 victory over Anna,” read a blurb in sports section of the Sept. 2, 1961 Dallas Morning News “Kenny Woods scored both Wildcat touchdowns Roy Evans tossed to Tommy Webb for a conversion with five minutes remaining in the game It was Lake Highlands’ first football game in history.” Chuck Carona, who today is the dean of the college of education at Dallas Baptist University, was number 87 that season. He played defensive back and remembers — perhaps more clearly than he remembers that first night — the first practice season. “We started twoa-days in August. Our helmets were very different than what they have today. We practiced in these hot long-sleeved cotton jerseys. No mesh or cooler

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 materials like you have today,” he says. “But we didn’t care. We were just excited.” Lake Highlands High had been around just a couple years, so in ’61 the sophomores were the upperclassmen. That meant Carona and his teammates during the 1961 season were 14 and 15 years old, but they played against mostly juniors and seniors. “We did pretty well, considering. That first year the Wildcats won seven, lost two and tied one.” A few years ago, Carona says, he received a tour of the impressive Wildcat-Ram stadium from friend Bob Iden, retired LHHS principal. Carona says he still follows LHHS football and plans to catch a game or two this fall. He recalls that his Wildcats team played and practiced at a stadium on Greenville

Avenue. While much has changed over the years, he says, the spirit that surrounds the high school and athletics program has not. “That’s what makes Lake Highlands so special. There is this tight-knit small town feel — a community spirit around the school and the teams that never seems to change.” —CHRISTINA

HUGHES

Extra Safe

Cops can’t handle all the crime in the neighborhood. The smart ones will be the first to acknowledge it. Former Northeast Subdivision Deputy Chief Tom Lawrence, who was promoted last year to assistant chief, has said that no matter how concentrated the law enforcement effort, it will take more to turn the tide of crime in the Lake Highlands area, which includes some of the city’s most troubled spots. “Our area’s army of volunteers is one of the most vital combatants we have when it comes to crime reduction,” Lawrence recently told us. He was referring to neighborhood crime watch groups and volunteer patrols. To further assist those volunteers, many groups raise funds to hire off-duty officers to help patrol the streets. Crime watch association participation can be hit or miss, and sometimes groups just don’t have the funds for off-duty officers. Rather than being left vulnerable, one neighborhood has implemented a plan to seek funding from local businesses to hire extra help patrolling its streets. Forest Meadow resident Cinco Calfee thought of the idea, and she had the perfect company in mind for the first crime watch sponsor — Lake Highlands-based Probity Advisors. After all, her husband, Chris, owns the place, and she works there. Calfee worked out the details with crime watch chair Alex Wells, and in return for an initial $3,000 donation in August, Probity received a full-page ad in both the Forest Meadow Flier and the Town Creek Crier newsletters. In return for its contribution, Calfee says, the company receives not only direct and valuable advertisement, but also increased safety in the neighborhoods where they operate. The program just launched in August, but Calfee says thinks this is a good way to ensure the safety and desirability of her neighborhood, and she hopes that other companies and neighborhoods will get on board. “Strong neighborhood crime watch keeps the neighborhood safe and also helps our police,” she says. “Hopefully, this will get more people to think creatively about crime watch efforts.” —CHRISTINA

HUGHES BABB

PERFECT

A Second Shot

“I didn’t know what to expect, and I went crazy when I saw the beautiful photos I was getting.” That’s how photographer Kathleen Wilke describes her first underwater photo shoot. The mother of four and former children’s portraiture photographer is now fully immersed (pardon the pun) in underwater fine art photography, a genre that produces stunning, surreal images. Wilke, who studied photography and illustration at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Art Institute of Boston, made the transition to fine art photography after suffering a stroke. “With the children’s photography, I was constantly busy and always moving, but after I got sick, I couldn’t work and was on the computer all the time,” says Wilke. During this time she explored industry-networking sites such as Flickr, where she met other photographers and discovered fine art photography. She learned about composition and editing, and soon gained the knowledge and confidence to start entering contests. In 2008 Wilke’s Lady of the Lake images won top spot at the W Hotel’s “UnSeen” photography contest for emerging artists. ”We did the shoot in my swimming pool using nothing but the pool light,” she says. Several underwater shoots later, Wilke is still searching for other creative avenues to explore. “I believe underwater fashion work would be perfect for me. I really want to get designers under water.” And she’s doing just that. She just photographed the fall collection from jewelry designer Stephanie Anne for Neiman Marcus. Next up, Wilke is shooting the Lo ve is a Bungalow dress line from designer Nadja Bern. She would like to explore underwater children’s portraiture too. “I am always looking for other ways to make a living from photography, which is a job that makes me happy.” —MEGHAN RINEY

SEE MORE:

Wilke’s images appear in the article on page 30. Visit her website, photographystudiok.com.

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