“We are so happy that Dennis was referred to us to design a 500 square foot addition to our home.  We benefitted from the numerous recommendations he made in revising our preliminary ideas.  Although the design changed fairly significantly from our original thoughts, it has all been for the better.

As our addition takes shape, we see how Dennis’ work will make our addition more functional.  Because of his knowledge of the building code as well as materials, the design process and construction have progressed without any big surprises and the various inspections by the building department have been a breeze.  Just as important,  Dennis delivered when he said he would."

We would readily recommend Dennis.
Bill and Kathy Pyle.

In planning for our retirement we opted to build to suit our new lifestyle. Having never built a home before we were concerned about making the wrong choices. From conception to design through to construction.

Dennis provided the patient guidance we needed and worked in consultation with our builder to help us build our dream home. We particularly appreciated his willingness to work with our custom details to create the look we wanted.

Rhonda and Rod (Keene, Ontario)

"Dennis always listened to me, was easily accessible, provided many creative insights and solutions, and worked diligently to draw up a fantastic plan. The “feel” of the original structure (1870 Regency Cottage) was maintained, and a good flow from the old to the new was created. My expectations were not met, they were exceeded! "

We decided to renovate our existing cottage to upgrade it to be our retirement home. Because of its age and small size, this would have involved raising the existing building to pour a new basement, extending the length of the cottage to give us a larger deck area and multiple renovations inside to give us the open concept and larger rooms that we wanted. We consulted with Dennis of Northern Designs and he quickly came up with ideas of how this could be done.

After further discussions, he showed us that instead of upgrading the existing building which would involve gutting it entirely, we would be better off to demolish it and put up a brand new home, and, we could still keep within our budget. He set to work and came up with a design that resolved all of our problems. We would now have a full basement, open concept main floor, vaulted ceiling, larger rooms and a huge sliding glass door that would enable us to fully enjoy our view. The best part was that we would only be minimally increasing the original size without going way over our budget and everything would be new – no more uneven walls and floors! Since we both enjoy renovating and designing, we asked that the inside be left unfinished so that we could finish it off ourselves.

Dennis went ahead and assembled the crew that would work on the project. Within 2½ months the old building was gone and a new one erected. Everything was completed and ready for us to start working on the interior. We spent the next month putting up walls and ceilings, putting together the kitchen and putting in the flooring. We now have a house that is absolutely awesome! People are always commenting on how great it looks and what a great job the workers did. Dennis has a keen eye for design. He is full of ideas and suggestions that helped us immensely with our decisions. He was fully involved with this project from start to finish and was right on top of things if any issues had to be addressed.

The individual trades that worked on the house were second to none. We could completely trust them to do top notch work and they were very accommodating when we made any last minute changes. Northern Designs and the associated trades made our retirement home a reality. And, it was all done with minimal pain – a great collaborative effort!

Mike and Sally Regimbald (Hastings, Ontario)