Eastview Homes, Builder Blog in Oakville

Oakville area construction company Eastview Homes contractor blog is a builder’s journal that communicates Keith Traver’s own recollections on home renovations and flipping houses.  Keith is the boss at Eastview Homes, and on top of his years of experience as a general contractor, he also has lots of insights and ideas on his industry.  His portal showcases the fine work the company does, but also opines on the permits obtained, the materials used, and the economic advantages or disadvantages of buying or renovating properties in certain neighbourhoods.

Hello World from Keith Travers at Eastview Homes

Keith used his first ‘Hello World’ post to introduce himself and his company to the internet in the spring of 2016.  He wrote an opening letter to readers, some of which we shall replicate here,

Message from Keith Travers, Construction Manager:

Welcome to the new Eastview Homes blog. We’re hoping this place will grow to offer an authentic inside-look into our operation and show our best people at work in the great places we’re building and maybe even detail some of the more interesting projects on each site.  Every house we build could be imagined in terms of being a collection of little projects – put a couple hundred building projects together and you have a house. This blog won’t be nearly diligent enough to chronicle an entire residential construction from the ground up, but I believe we can show the world some of the more interesting construction projects we tackle and accomplish each day, and also how we approach home additions and home renovations.

From that point forward Keith confidently detailed important data and also interesting drama from Oakville Burlington area construction sites.  Most of these blog posts glimpse one or more of the team members; below are the Core Four Contractors at Eastview Homes.

Many of the adventures and anecdotes related in the blog showcase one or more these characters who don’t seem to mind having their actions dissected on the web. A favourite subject is Matt, the youngest of the four and ‘the wheels’ of the operation.  Readers know Matt is a demon with a sledge during renovation, but we also know that he ‘s very safety conscious and thinks ahead; he gets work in the doorways of the house done early before other trades appear to share the site.
We know that none of the carpenters take home any left-over lumber.  A recent post discusses how they attempted to donate wood scraps to Trash Nothing dot com, a ‘free-cycling’ charity in Burlington and Oakville, and how their good deed went awry when neighbours nicked the wood.

Natural storytellers, the bloggers at Eastview Homes (which includes Keith, but there are others) penned a really insightful piece entitled How Project Managers Eliminate Contractor Conflicts on Construction Sites which captures a heated moment between a pool installer and a flooring delivery man on the Friday before a long weekend.  The delivery man you see below had jumped the cue to capture the driveway ahead of a sand and gravel truck. The pool man is paying the gravel hauler by the hour. The tile driver doesn’t want to have to walk over the gravel pile to put his goods in the garage. And so they argued and cursed each other because, in the blog’s opinion, there was no Site Manager on the job to straighten them out.

One of the reasons property owners hire competent Project Managers is to reduce and hopefully eliminate altogether any conflicts that occur on busy construction sites.  The blog detail other protocols and misconceptions including the difference between renovation and remodeling. These two construction terms are often used interchangeably, but there is a big difference between renovating and remodeling.  Simply put, renovation is done to freshen up something old and make it new again, while remodeling is to change the design altogether. What’s great about this post is that the bloggers disagree with the dictionary definition and the author goes on the redefine the term in actuality.

 In 2018 there have been a rash of posts which explore remodeling 1960s era houses, and to readers’ delight the blog shows the blueprints and sometimes even the trade brochures for the local property developments.

One of the most popular home designs in the 1960s was a ‘side split’ home where the bedrooms are on one side of the house and the living room, dining room and kitchen are on the other side.  Typically, the garage is under the bedrooms and remember this was a big evolution in home design as here-to-fore the garage was built separately at the side of the house.

In the brochure on the left you can see the blueprint of the home is symmetrical with four rooms on each side opposite a central staircase. The challenge for a property developer is make this space bigger and more interesting, but also more comfortable for a modern family. The blog discusses the motivations of the stakeholders in relation to timelines and costs. It explores new materials and innovative new construction processes and profiles exceptional personnel that need to be hired for bigger projects.

Remodeling a Side Split House with a Home Addition

Burlington, Ontario is a sweet spot for real estate speculators in 2018 and the Eastview Homes blog explores all the reasons why in a details-filled post about ripping the roof of a suburban house and remodeling the interior under 16′ foot arched ceilings.

The piece is full of original pictures, including before and after shots of the exterior, and great information about all the work done; it begins by relating the fact that the population across the entire Halton Region has grown by 188,000 people, or approx 60% since 1998, and the City of Burlington cannot physically get any larger.  According to Keith, this is why there are property developments on just about every side-street in Burlington this summer, as one by one the older style houses are being upgraded to meet or exceed market values.

A very Canadian perspective on home renovations and general contracting, keep your eye on Keith Travers and Eastview Homes blog.