“
"Charlene K. Smith designed and drew complete plans for us to add 350 sq. feet to our house, enlarging our Kitchen, and adding a 2nd Bathroom. She consulted with a structural engineer to confirm load placements, trudged through all the King County rules to make sure we were in compliance in all areas, and went with me to get our building permit. We got our permit 2 days early, with no issues!
Charlene met with me and helped us pick a builder, and attended weekly meetings through out the building process."
— King County Home Owners
“
"I think Char is fabulous. I really like her ability to listen and accommodate our ideas. She is punctual, professional, and keeps you informed throughout the project. Compared to what I have seen from other architects, she has very reasonable rates."
— Renton Home Owner
“
" I have a small 1950's 2BR/1B house and want to add another bedroom and bath, upgrade existing systems (electric, plumbing, HVAC), move the kitchen and laundry room, and add a front porch while maintaining the overall look of the home so it's not obvious there's been an addition. I'm also not made of $, so I'm trying to get as much bang for my buck as I can.
Char at DesignWorks NW has been fantastic to work with! She gave me several options in her proposal; including breaking the project into manageable chunks so I could choose the options that fit my budget and allowing me to do some of the design work. Her guidance, insights, experience and professionalism have kept me calm and well-informed throughout the process. I've turned to her again & again for advice and plan on continuing to work with her as I submit my plans for bids and then work with contractors/subs during construction.
She made this process FUN. Char gets an A+ from me. I can't say enough good things about her! "
— Seattle Home Owner
“
“ This review is long overdue. We can’t really express how happy we are with our new house that Char designed. We hired Char to design our remodel and when I say remodel that is a bit of an understatement as we took a 700 square foot house to approximately 1,900 square feet, which included adding a Basement. It is essentially a new home, and we couldn’t be more happy with it. We did the majority of the (construction) work ourselves, which is one reason it’s taken us this long to sit down and write a review. Although having a baby 1 month before the excavators came added a bit to the complexity of things. The project pushed us to our limits, and a little beyond at times, but it has all been worth it. Our 2 year old son absolutely loves to run around and scoot across our big long hardwood floors on his little scooter. There is quite a runway now, and he definitely takes advantage of it. But back to the review. We knew the basic idea of what we wanted, but we needed an architect to draw up the plans. We wanted to hire someone local, and Char was great. Char really knows the code requirements which helped a lot getting the plans through the permitting process. We drafted up a general floor plan before hiring Char, and she provided a lot of good ideas and helped us refine the design to work more efficiently in the given space. This turned out to be a lot more important than I thought because it’s hard to visualize how a space will flow and function from a simple floor plan. Char also knows a lot of professionals in the industry, which is great when it comes to engineering calculations, truss design, etc. We really like the neighborhood we’re in, and it was important for us that our new space match the character of the original house. You see a lot of remodeled houses that are cute in front, with a big ugly 2-story box sticking up in the back. We wanted to avoid this and worked hard to make the addition look like it was always a part of the house. We also wanted the house to retain its small appearance from the front, and we didn’t want to use up all of our backyard either. We ended up with a perfect house. Our neighbor across the street who was born there in the late 1940’s told us he can’t even remember what the house used to look like - he said it really just looks like it’s always been there (and it’s only been 2 years). I would definitely recommend hiring Char if you need an architect or design help. Beyond her architectural skills, she is very personable and easy to work with. She came out to our house many times to review drawings with us, go over edits, and discuss various ideas. She was very accommodating, and even helped us get the plans through the permitting process. Thank you so much Char, we really love our new house, and couldn’t have done it without your help. “
— West Seattle Home Owners
“
"We started in January with an idea. Charlene helped us understand what we could do, and what was not possible. She met with me regularly through the design process to get my input. Charlene developed a design that works very well for our family. The permit process was so smooth, because Charlene did ALL her homework. She researched the specs for all the parts to the project, including all the existing appliances we kept. The City said we would hear back from them in 14 business days, we got our building permit in 12 days! Once we had our permit, Charlene attended the meetings to interview all the builders. She was a big help, because she was able to answer all the technical questions from the builders. After a builder was selected, Charlene attended weekly meetings with the builder, where questions were answered, updates given, and schedules discussed. I believe these weekly meetings helped the Contractor to stay on schedule. At the end of the remodel, Charlene went through the whole house with her check list to make sure everything was done per the plans. We passed every inspection! Her designs and work was superb. I will hire her again if I do any other remodeling."
— Sonn Family
DesignWorks NW
Residential Architecture and Design Services