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Throughout the years as prominent design and remodeling experts in Tampa Bay, Florida, the Strobel Design Build team has received numerous contractor awards at both the national and local level—from a Chrysalis Whole House Remodel award to St. Petersburg Preservation, Inc. awards. Most recently, Strobel Design Build recently attended the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) Tampa Bay Chapter’s Evening of Excellence where we received four Contractor of the Year awards. NARI’s core purpose is to advance and promote the remodeling industry’s professionalism, product, and vital public purpose and aims to do so through ethical conduct, educational programs, and improving the building inventory of communities. Below you will find a synopsis of our first of four 2016 NARI Contractor of the Year awards that we are incredibly honored to have received awards for!

Residential Addition over $250,000 – First Place

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This home was built in 1940 and was once a rectory, housing priests once doing mission work in the area. As are many of the rooms in historic homes located in the Coffee Pot neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida, the original master bedroom and bathroom were relatively small. The homeowner wanted a master bedroom and bathroom “universal design” suite to be added on the first floor of the home, and wanted the transitional design of the home to remain intact. Additionally, the homeowner wanted a private entrance from the new addition.

The home originally has several porches. For the separate entrance along the addition, the homeowners wished to continue the motif of the original porches with the rosette-adorned columns and cypress ceiling. The homeowners loved the charm of the original home, remembering it from when they lived in the area as children, and didn’t want the addition to appear as an after-thought on the home.

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For the universal design of the bathroom, the homeowner wanted to ensure that everyone could continue to use it throughout the years to come. The curb-less designed shower with 32” wide shower door allows incredible ease of entry and also features a Cambria bench seat. The Cambria quartz bench seat features a “waterfall” precision cut, mitered on three sides to create a monolithic appearance of the shower. The bathroom also has a wide traffic area—there’s a 5-foot turning radius in the bathroom, ensuring there are absolutely no barriers for wheelchairs.

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The design-winning bathroom also features an over-sized tub with a radius tub deck and skirt using inset panels to match the bathroom vanity.

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The expert stonework is evident in the intricate basket weave tile of the bathroom flooring—The stone setter had to ensure his substrate was perfect to allow a curb-less transition for the shower. HydrobanTM liquid membrane was used to completely waterproof the shower.

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Another client need was a substantially sized master closet suitable to store both of the couple’s belongings. They also requested built-in storage elements with custom moldings to match the rest of the home. This is evident in how the original triple-bead trim was used on all the new millwork and built-ins of the addition. T-miters and custom fabrication of moldings were utilized in order to make the rooms appear as if they were built during the same time as the original home.

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We used a vaulted tray ceiling in the new master bedroom to create volume and expand the elegance of this historic Florida home.

In order to overcome the potential fogging and increased humidity in the bathroom, we installed two Panasonic WhisperCeiling exhaust fans controlled by a WhisperControl three-function switch. This innovative mechanism can detect relative humidity and temperature, and the exhaust fans will turn off automatically once the environment is at its desired temperature. An obstacle we had had to overcome on this project was the lack of a crawlspace or attic of the addition. This mean that hot water supply from the existing water tanks in the garage was neither practical nor possible. To overcome this issue, we installed a tank-less hot water heater that’s fueled by natural gas to ensure that it can power the high output shower and over-sized tub in the master bathroom.

This entire award-winning space resulted in a 1,050 sq. ft. addition to a historic home. During historic home projects, you can sometimes find unexpected obstacles. However, we love the charm and challenges that historic homes can bring and appreciate their unique characteristics! We were beyond thrilled with this addition and were so pleased to be recognized by NARI for our entire team’s efforts. Most importantly, the homeowners were thrilled – they loved that the façade of the new addition was balanced with the original home, and looked as it always existed. We can’t wait to share our remaining NARI Contractor of the Year winning projects with you!