Featured Home #23 -
With an expanding family, this 1930’s colonial home in Southwest Minneapolis needed some updating. The family needed more room for an informal eating area and a more spacious back entry area with storage options. Because they love to entertain, they also wanted an overall space that was more open. This was accomplished by adding a doorway in the living room that opens into the back of the kitchen and removing a closet in the dining room to open up into the front kitchen area. The remodel played off of the wonderful homes original character. The space was furnished with cherry wood cabinets, Silestone countertops, porcelain tile floor, and a fantastic backsplash. This kitchen is far more functional with more storage, a thought out place for everything, and every usable inch is maximized.
Year Built – 1930 Center Stair Colonial
Kenny Neighborhood, Minneapolis, MN 55419
Dates: Saturday, April 28, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, April 29, 1-5 p.m.
Join us at Castle Building & Remodeling for a presentation by Larry Millet from his newest book Once There Were Castles. Larry will show photos and talk about the history of local lost mansions.
Event Details:
Minneapolis – Tuesday May 22nd 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
St. Paul – Wednesday May 23rd 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Past Castle clients will get a free signed copy of the book at the event.
Take a tour of the lost mansions of the Twin Cities!
The first in-depth look at the history of Twin Cities’ mansions, Once There Were Castles presents ninety lost mansions and estates, organized by neighborhood and illustrated with photographs and drawings. An absorbing read for Twin Cities residents and a crucial addition to the body of work on the region’s history, Once There Were Castles brings these “ghost mansions” back to life.
Delicious pizza and appetizers are provided by Pizza Luce. Space is limited. If you would like to attend please email lisa@castlebri.com before May 11th with your name and how many will be attending, or call 612-789-8509×0 in Minneapolis and 651-699-4164×0 in St. Paul. One copy per household. Space is limited to the first 15 who RSVP for each location.
In the spirit of St Patrick’s Day and looking forward to Spring, Castle will hold our very first Limerick Contest! The winning limerick writer will receive a $250 Gift Certificate for Handyman Services. One definition of “limerick” we found is: “a kind of humorous verse of five lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form a rhymed couplet”.
With that in mind, put your thinking caps on, get your creativity flowing and get your limericks submitted for Castle’s 1st Annual Limerick Contest! Our very own Troy Sinykin took inspiration for his limerick below, from our St Paul Showroom’s mascot, whose seasonal festive apparel is always the talk of the town.
“There was a fine company in
the City who thought their showroom was pretty.
To be the best of them all,
they hung a deer on the wall and
on St Patty’s Day they were all witty.”
* Limericks submitted must contain five lines and will be judged by Castle staff on creativity and rhyme. Only one submission per person, and we thank all for keeping your limericks “clean” and refraining from offensive content.
* Limericks must be submitted via email to Loren@Castlebri.com by 5:00pm on March 17th, 2012 in order to be judged. Judging will follow and the winner and their limerick will be announced in the next Castle News.
* The 2012 Limerick winner will receive a Castle Gift Certificate for $250 in Handyman Services.
We look forward to all your entries!
2/18 – Roseville Living Smarter Fair 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. http://www.livingsmarter.org/fair.html.
2/26 – West Metro Home Remodeling Fair 10:30 – 3:30 http://goldenvalleymn.gov/events/remodelingfair/index.php.
3/10 – Mac-Groveland Home Improvement Fair 10:00 – 3:00 http://www.macgrove.org/node/15.
3/10/12 – South Minneapolis Housing Fair 10:00 – 3:00 http://www.housingfair.org/.
3/17 - NE Journal Homeshow 10:00 – 2:00 http://www.downtownjournal.com/index.php?publication=downtown§ion=58&page=310.
3/24 – SW Journal Homeshow 10:00 – 3:00 http://www.swjournal.com/index.php?publication=southwest§ion=90&page=292.
3/30 – 4/1 – Parade of Homes Remodelers Showcase (sm) http://www.paradeofhomes.org/index.aspx.
4/28-29 – The Minneapolis & Saint Paul Home Tour. http://www.msphometour.com/.
Minneapolis, Minnesota – January 10th, 2012 -Castle Building & Remodeling is proud to announce that it is celebrating its 35th anniversary in the business of residential remodeling. Owner, Mr. Loren Schirber says “As the second generation of my family to own and manage Castle, I am extremely proud to see the company reach its 35th birthday. The residential remodeling business is a tough industry that faces lots of competition and low barriers to entry. With failure rates for small businesses at about 50% in the first five years, I am extremely proud of our team and that we have continued to persevere and grow profitably over the five years that I have owned Castle”.
Last year Castle completed 39 design projects and completed 179 remodeling projects including: Kitchen Makeover: 4, Kitchen Remodel: 18, Baths: 32, Basement: 7, Cabinets: 3, Attics: 7, Exterior Renovations: 21, Addition Shell: 2, Shed Dormer Addition: 2, Handyman Carpentry Projects: 28, Misc. Handyman: 32, Ice Dams: 5, Flooring: 11, Porch / Deck: 4, and Landscaping/Fence: 3.
Castle Building & Remodeling has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Angie’s List Super Service Award, an honor bestowed annually on approximately 5 percent of all the businesses rated on the nation’s leading provider of consumer reviews on local service and health providers. Castle was honored in two categories including: Interior Design & Decorating, Remodeling – Kitchen & Bathroom.
Noah Martin Castle Building & Remodeling’s Production Manager says “We are extremely proud to accept this award. At Castle we take pride in being the best value in professional remodeling. We work hard to deliver top design artistry and craftsmanship and take care to plan projects in advance so we can guarantee a better experience than our competitors. Receiving this recognition reinforces that Castle’s processes and procedures are working and do set us apart from the competition”.
“Only a fraction of the businesses rated on Angie’s List can claim the sterling service record of being a Super Service Award winner because we set a high bar,” said Angie’s List Founder Angie Hicks.
“The fact that Castle Building & Remodeling can claim Super Service Award status speaks volumes about its dedication to consumers.”
Angie’s List Super Service Award winners have met strict eligibility requirements including earning a minimum number of reports, an exemplary rating from their clients and abiding by Angie’s List
operational guidelines. Ratings are updated daily on Angie’s List, but members can find the 2011 Super Service Award logo next to business names in search results on AngiesList.com.
At Castle we know the kids really run most households. We are no strangers to working with growing families and seem to be consistently working with two or three couples who are expecting, just had a child, or are adopting and could get the call any day. Exciting times and expanding households lead to remodeling and that is why Castle created “Ruler of the Castle!” onsies in 0-3 month and 6-12 month sizes.
We also know that many young families own homes with little equity, yet still need to add space and remodel and that is why Castle offers many financing partnerships. Many growing families have utilized a FHA backed 203k loan that looks at the future value of a home after proposed improvements and lets you borrow against that value.
As your family grows and you get a new ruler of the castle and need more space give us a call.
All right all you jive turkeys we have a contest for you to put a caption with photo below. The winner will be featured in our Thanksgiving E-Newsletter and will win a Thanksigiving turkey (actually a $50 gift card to Cub Foods). The entry deadline is November 11th. All submissions should be emailed to info@castlebri.com along with a name and phone number.
Maximum of two entries per contestant. Once you submit your entry, it is considered final, and in most cases will be posted as is. We will not edit for typos, grammar or spelling mistakes. We will not save you and we are not your 5th grade teacher. We encourage poking fun in good taste, or at least in decent taste, but captions that are racist, vulgar, extremely crude, or otherwise offensive will not be tolerated. Please refrain from making fun of someone’s ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Have fun!
Mayor Coleman & Ward Council Members,
I am a business owner in St. Paul and we are being forced to lay off our workers and leave our clients without working bathrooms while we wait for electrical inspections. We are running into major delays with scheduling electrical inspections in St. Paul and this is causing our projects to screech to a stop while we wait two plus weeks for electric inspections. Last Wednesday after several days of calling, our electrician finally reached some one and was able to schedule several inspections for September 9th. Electrical inspections are booked out about 2.5-3 weeks and building inspections are booked out over a week currently and this time frame is very difficult to work with especially on small projects like bathroom remodeling projects. On small projects we only have one work of week before needing our first building and electrical inspections. Every other municipality can normally schedule inspections with 24-48 hours advanced notice.
As one the largest design/build remodelers in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and currently are in the process of remodeling approximately 10 homes in St. Paul and have quite a few more in the design process that are scheduled to start building soon. Because of these delays on several projects we are going to be forced to lay off our workers and send them home until the 9th and will miss our guaranteed completion dates which will cost Castle $40 per day per project. Some of our clients only have one bathroom and depend on Castle to quickly remodel their bathrooms so their life can get back to normal.
Please help. I would strongly encourage hiring more electrical inspectors, authorizing overtime, reallocating inspectors, or hiring outside support from the state temporarily to help alleviate the backlog of inspections scheduled. Alternatively in the past we have been allowed to take photographs of our work and email it to inspectors for approval. Minneapolis charges twice as much for permits and I would gladly pay more for a permit if we could get better quicker service. The remodeling market is regaining strength and we need your support to help us continue to perform efficiently and gain momentum.
PS – I would like to do what I can to help and would consider joining the Business Advisory Committee if I am eligible.
Loren Schirber
Owner/Business Manager
362 Snelling Ave. S
St. Paul, MN 55105
