Jeremy Walter worked for a couple of home design firms after graduating from NAIT more than a decade ago, but he couldn’t see himself spending a career drafting plans for cookie-cutter houses.
Beginning in his parents’ basement, he launched Boss Design, which now employs 12 people in the Campbell Business Park, and offers custom designs to clients determined to build their dream home their way.
Walter says Boss never designs the same house twice, but there are some typical St. Albert clients.
“The typical St. Albert client is one of two people, someone who’s looking for a house in the new communities, and also we do a lot of redevelopment in the City of St. Albert.
“Infill is really starting to happen in St. Albert, in the Braeside area and Grandin. Woodlands is an area where there’s a lot of redevelopment happening.”
The cost of servicing new developments has stimulated the infill market, he says, and designing new houses in older neighbourhoods offers more room for the imagination.
“Infill is a little more fun because sometimes in the outskirts of the city you’re very much controlled by what you can actually do. In the redevelopment areas, there’s obviously a set of guidelines to adhere to, but the options for design are pretty much unlimited.”
The range of requests he’s had for unique features is immense, and sometimes pretty quirky. The 33-year-old, lifelong St. Albert resident has designed homes with a stripper pole, a full-length bowling alley, and in one case, a house made from a collection of shipping containers. One customer wanted a fire pole to get from his man cave down to his garage. Another asked for a full-size racquetball court, and Boss recently included an indoor soccer pitch in a design.
His wife Amanda believes one of the company’s most impressive accomplishments is that 90 per cent of the business comes from referrals. Satisfied customers tell their friends about their experience with Boss, and more business comes through the door. And despite the grim Alberta economy, Boss hasn’t seen a slowdown, Amanda says.
Customers have the option of starting from scratch with a custom design, or they can pick one of the many plans Boss has on file, tweaking aspects to satisfy particular needs. An off-the-shelf plan might cost a couple of grand, and the firm has sold those beyond Alberta. A plan from the ground up, the usual case, typically costs around $5,000. The price is based on the square footage involved.
Besides the growth in the infill market, Amanda says there has been demand for large estate homes. One recent client wanted plans for a 22,000-square-foot home, including a pool house.
“Something like that is a complete customization,” Amanda says.
“That’s the stuff we love. They walk in the door with very unique ideas.”
Boss will take on any project, but the biggest challenge isn’t accommodating odd tastes, but getting to an affordable plan.
“We can design anything you want, the challenging part is trying to keep it within budget.”
Initial conversations usually include paring back the wish list.
“We’re honest with the clients. You have all these amazing plans, but they’re not feasible.”
It can take six weeks, including 30 hours of design time and preliminary face-to-face discussions, to complete a plan.
Jeremy says part of the job can involve resolving a couple’s differences.
“It’s a very emotional process,” Amanda says.
“To be honest, we’re therapists,” Jeremy says. “We learn a lot about them.”
The Walters moved into their own custom-designed home in Northridge last January, and Jeremy says taking on that project, which took about a year to plan, made him appreciate what his clients go through.
“It was fun to put myself in my clients’ shoes. You don’t realize how hard it is until you’re sitting on the other side of the table.”
