David R. Smith Design Inc.

David helped me completely redesign my new house including an extension, basement lowering, and completely new layout.

I am very pleased with my whole experience with David: because the changes were so huge, this redesign was by nature a very evolutionary process: I needed to explore various approaches in order to fully understand my needs and wishes and balance them with reality. David supported this process extremely well and very patiently, producing alternate creative designs (including even a few 3D models!) at key points in the development so that I could fully explore different approaches. It was also a very interactive process which I liked very much: I wanted to be involved in the design and David did integrate some of my better ideas into the plans and very respectfully eliminated the less promising ones. I am very satisfied with what we produced - I say "we" because it felt like teamwork even though David did 95% of the work; as a result I have quite a sense of ownership in this design.

In addition to this redesign, David worked extremely well to get the engineering, HVAC plans and city permits in a timely way and keeping me posted on their progress. This was actually also a lot of work, as it involved interacting with the city, engineers, etc. but I it all got done without me worrying about it. That was also great.

I worked with David to design a third floor master suite in an existing space. With only one revision, David captured everything I wanted in the space and I'm thrilled . David also handled all permits and navigating the project through the endless bureaucracy of the City of Toronto Building Dept. processes including Committee of Adjustment and the OMB. His calm demeanour was a valuable asset in a complex project. I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again and recommend him without reservation.

David was recommended to us to design and help us through the permit process with our third floor master suite (attic) renovation. Although there were not many alterations that needed to be made to David's original design as we loved his first attempt, he was willing to make any changes necessary. David was always reachable by phone or email and very quick to respond to any questions or concerns that we had about the design or permit process. Having David take care of the permit process was an enormous weight of our shoulders as we would not have known where to start. He was able to come up with solutions to any of the minor snags we encountered. We would definitely use David again with future projects and highly recommend his services.

Before we hired David we received quotes from 6 architects. The service provided by David was comparable to, if not superior to the quotes we received--and at 1/3 of the cost. After we retained David for our project, he exceeded our expectations by encouraging us to ask questions, change design details we were not sure about and constantly making helpful suggestions. The finished designs were meticulous in detail and entirely captured our vision for the project. We highly recommend David for home renovation design projects of any size and taste.

It's been said that patience is a virtue, and David has it in spades. As new home owners and renovators, it's easy to think that your questions are foolish or naive, but David's prompt professional approach always helped put us at ease. He was flexible with our timeline from first consultation to adjustments during demolition.

After interviewing an architect and a reno coach, David's background as a designer made the most sense for our project. He captured our vision of returning our 1950's 1.5 storey bungalow into the quaint arts and crafts style home that we desired. While it was unfortunate that we couldn't fulfill some of the design suggestions due to our budgetary constraints, David was sensitive to the fact that we had to make certain concessions and was helpful with the adjustments. One piece of advice for fellow new renovators is to engage a contractor early in the process to ensure your drawings match your budget. Keep in mind that some contractors might prefer to begin the process once the drawings are complete.

With that said, we can't say enough about David's ability to be ever present. By email, phone or dropping things in the mail, he exceeded expectations. While we recognize that he is an extremely busy professional, it was not uncommon to feel as though our little project was always top of mind.

Finally we would be remiss, if we didn't mention David's persistence with the permitting process. He regularly followed up with the city, and helped to keep the lines moving.

Thank you David for enduring our project with a cool and calm demeanour. It was very much appreciated!

I am not quite sure where to start, because there are so many fantastic things to say about David. Many of those things have been said. Repeatedly. And I will say them all over again.......David is an amazing resource, sounding board, draftsperson, and designer. And, he is actually a really great guy to boot!

In the late summer of 2014 we purchased a new home and knew that we would be doing an extensive renovation. We met with 2 other designer/drafting companies prior to meeting with David, both recommended by our contractor. One was very technical and seemed primarily focused upon doing the basics - getting our project drafted out - but did not seem very interested or capable in providing design advice. The other was very design oriented, but without much substance and very expensive! Because we were not happy with the people we had met, we took to our own research and in that process, we came across the many amazing reviews of David and his work. Given the reviews, I called him out of the blue and we never looked back. In the first conversation, his passion for and knowledge of home renovations came across loud and clear.....for instance, he raised a number of practical issues that he wanted us to be aware of with a project of our size (a 3000sq foot total gut job) - and he had no obligation to do so. This was a cold call, where I simply asked a number of questions - some pedestrian, some detailed, and he took the time to answer those questions without reservation. I knew right then and there, we would have a great working relationship.

We were not disappointed. David was charged with drafting plans for our existing house structure and for forecasting our renovation plans - it is a 3 floor house plus a basement - this was not a small project. At all times David encouraged a very open relationship where he invited us to provide him with as many pictures, ideas, and comments about our wish list as possible so that he could understand our design aesthetic in order to create a house that reflected our needs and wants. While he was very positive and encouraging in that way, he was also never shy to politely advise us when something in our wish list was impractical in terms of space or expense.

I could honestly go on and on. Bottom line, the reviews are true. If I could highlight anything, I would say that he really is as good as everyone says he is. But even more, his attitude, his initiative (especially in dealing with the City and the permit process), his openness to questions, to making revisions, and to be involved even after his formal role is complete, are attributes that made all the difference for us. In this day and age, where everyone is renovating everything - be it big or small, there are people out there who are happy to cash in on the movement - some of them may know what they are doing and some of them may not. For us, we were so happy to have found someone with David's expertise, creativity and down to earth personality. Full Stop. But there was a bonus......his fees were more than reasonable and were less than the other quotes we received. In fact, given his attention to detail and level of service and response, I really feel as though we lucked out. He did not try to take advantage of us by including any surprise costs - at the end of the project we paid for what he quoted at the start of the project. Refreshing!

We would highly recommend David for any renovation project. He is the real deal and we will certainly be recommending him to our friends and family.

A heartfelt thank you David. Not only did you make this project easier to navigate and understand, you helped us achieve a really great lay-out that we are sure will work with our growing family for many years to come!!!

Cheers!

We were in need of doing some major renovations and found David from HomeStars. We had 3 quotes and David stood out from the rest in several areas.

Responsiveness - We realize that David is very busy. But he somehow seems to be able to pick up our phone calls almost every time when we call him with questions. And even when he is tied up, he would still pick up his phone and advise us that he would call us back. Even now when his services are completed, I feel like when I have questions, I can still call David and David would still try to help out. Knowledge - David knew the answers to all my questions. And in many cases, his answers where above and beyond what I expected the answer to be. David also has a wealth of construction knowledge which makes him more effective in planning out a design. Cost - David's services were the most cost effective when compared to 2 other companies. His quotes were accurate with no additional surprises and "gotchas". David was willing to do multiple revisions on our design plans with no additional cost while other competitors were not willing to do the same. David was also attentive to our needs. He simply did not create something that he himself personally liked. Instead, he created a design that he felt would meet our requirements after understanding what was important to us. I certainly recommend his services to others without hesitation.

We first contacted David almost a year ago to help us better understand our options with regard to better using our existing space. It has been an excellent experience. We reached out to him in need of a quick roof repair permit, and were thrilled to discover through our work with him that his advice and expertise are so much broader than expected. He led us through a process of articulating our needs and exploring options, and repeatedly surprised us by presenting ideas we would never have identified or considered without his coaching. When we encountered snags - the kind that are inevitable when dealing with a 100 year-old home - during the transition from the drawing/permit stage to actual construction, David did not abandon us! Throughout, he encouraged us to ask the silly questions, and has been more than willing to make modifications as needed. We would not hesitate to recommend David Smith to our family and friends.

We met David socially at a time when we were investigating having the basement of our century old east york home lowered. We found him to be knowledgeable, competent, and efficient throughout the process. He was patient with our questions and attentive to our concerns and we are very satisfied with our dealings with him.

We hired David to develop architectural drawings for our new back deck and help us steer our way through the City of Toronto's Building Permit and Committee of Adjustment process. Throughout the entire process, David was proactive, creative, thorough and always there to answer our myriad of questions. He really knows what he's doing, and helps take the stress out of the process.