Kuhn Construction

meet Jack.

This is Jack. He is our newest employee at Kuhn and MY awesome brother-in-law! He's an incredibly skilled+trained painter on top of being trained currently as an apprentice carpenter.

Now, just for fun and just to confuse you a little... here are how all of us at Kuhn are related!

Joe is Toby's step-son. Jordan's dad worked for Kuhn for over 10 years and we grew up with Jordan (and his family) at our church. Kurt is a good friend of mine from college who started at Kuhn 9 years ago as a summer job! I'm Rick and MJ's daughter and now Jack is my husband's brother. Whew!

What's great about all of these relationships is that it truly makes us like a family here. We care about one another and look out for each other. It makes working together that much better!

Welcome to the group Jack!

The Dorris | St. Louis Loft Remodeling

Right now we are working in a loft down in the Central West End (CWE). You can see some "during" photos HERE! But here's my favorite for your veiwing pleasure!

You've gotta love Joe!

It's hard to see how amazing it is currently as it's all just new drywall and emptiness but soon there will be some great "after" shots I'm sure! Especially after the home owners get it all cozy and decorated!

What I wanted to share about this particular project though is the actual building the lofts are located in because the history is so neat!

The building used to house the Dorris Motor Car factory and showroom that was built in 1911-1912.

Here it is today (wish I had that same lens!)

Isn't it cool to see what's changed and what's stayed the same? The best part is to see a little green in the new photo as opposed to totally urban in the old one! I studied the images for a while to see all the changes!

If you aren't sure what a Dorris Motor Car is...

These images were printed and hung in the lobby by one of their talented tenants!

Out back the history continues! If you peek over the incredible concrete fence in the back courtyard you can see the other Dorris building...

While I think living in a converted car factory sounds awesome (seriously, my dream is to live in a loft with those HUGE killer windows!), my favorite part of the building is the fence!

The story we've heard (haven't exactly checked my facts so don't quote me on this BUT it does come from a very reputible source!) is that the owner of The City Museum created this fence to mimic the hood ornament on the Dorris! How cool is that?

On a side note, aren't you just obsessed with TCM? We're members and my kids LOVE going there! End side note.

Anyway, isn't the fence so neat?

Very cool.

It's always fun to hear the who/what/where/when/how of historic St. Louis buildings! Thanks to our clients for sharing some of these fun facts!

HERE is more info on the Dorris Motor Car building if you're interested! (scroll down a bit and you'll see the image)

Thanks for reading!

 

just another work day | St. Louis Home Remodeler

Two thumbs up! All in a good days work!

Does anyone else have Dolly Parton's "Workin' 9 to 5" running through their head? HA! Good work guys!

On being careful | St. Louis Home Remodeler

Kuhn prides itself on taking every possible precaution to keep your home safe while we're working there, no matter how big or how small the job is. Rick is nothing if he's not detailed and he's taught his employees to be the same.

So when I went over to a recent client's home to capture Joe working on their bathroom it shouldn't have surprised me to see the ENTIRE front of the house leading back to the hallway bathroom blocked with plastic!

You would have assumed, walking in, that we were renovating this entire house! But no, just one bathroom. The floor was covered, all the doorways were taped off with poly, etc.

It was quite the sight! I'm sure our homeowners appreciated that the dust+mess of their renovation was so contained though! As soon as the work was done it was was wrapped up and taken out... no dust left behind!

Being careful+clean is a good thing!

things are looking up.

April was a long time ago. And SO much has happened here since then! In the chaos we had to take a little blog hiatus but we are BACK and have lots of fun posts planned! Stick around... there is more to come!