Celia Imrey and Julia Gallagher introduce us to their Space Kit product. As an interior designer and an architect, they share an understanding of the importance of defining your project before it even begins. We discuss how their clients are already loving the results of using Space Kit and how versatile it is for every possible project.
Podcast Full Transcript
Grace Mase 00:08
Hello, and welcome to the Revivify Podcast. I'm your host, Grace Mase. We're speaking with Julia Gallagher and Celia Imery of Space Kit today. Welcome, Julia and Celia.
Julia 00:22
Thank you.
Grace Mase 00:23
We're super excited to speak with you, because I've had a chance to review the Space Kit, so I'm dying to hear more about how you guys got started. So if you don't mind, share with us your journey from training architects to starting Space Kit.
Celia Imrey 00:40
So the core of Space Kit is the design process, it's how to help a client to find their priorities that they can then use with an architect or contractor, and it has two prongs. The first are elements that help a client make healthy decisions for an improvement project. So that's healthy decisions for a home improvement project, and the second one is principles on how to personalize their design. My own design practice, Imrey Studio LLC, I've been practicing for over 30 years, and my main focus has been in the past, museum and cultural public work with an emphasis on environmental solutions. Often an owner will ask for their building to be LEED-certified, that's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. So it's a special certification for environmental solutions in the building. And we've always had a lot of residential and commercial clients in the practice, but we've been building methodologies with our museum clients on how to work together. And often a cultural or institutional client will come to the table with a tremendous amount of knowledge and information about the project they're about to embark on. They have their priorities set, they have a budget set, it's been vetted, they've reviewed the legal implications of their project, they know how much they want to spend and what they want to accomplish, and what the value of what they're going to accomplish is going to be. Often they've already figured that out. And we realized that in private clients and owners, often that process has not been done, an owner simply realizes that they just need more space in their house, or they just must renovate their kitchen or bathroom. And there isn't really an overarching idea of how they're going to use those spaces, or what type of priorities they need to set up and what kind of are some of the learning steps that they're going to have to take to do a renovation together with an architect or contractor. Yes, so there just isn't a kind of method in place for architects, contractors, and owners to work together to define the project, the priorities of the project, the budget of the project, what the project is meant to accomplish. Those are the start points of a project, and often the owner does this on their own without much information, and then the architect has to interpret what that is. Space Kit eliminates the problem of interpretation, because it's a common document that is shared between the owner or the contractor, and the architect—to define that owner's goals, and to help the owner control the process and understand what these people they're hiring are actually doing. So to kind of talk about how we got started. So this was started from within my practice. So Space Kit is a separate company. It's not Imrey Studio. It's a separate company focused solely on helping owners make these kinds of decisions, and the first thing we did in terms of the healthy decisions is that we rewrote that Leadership and Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) point system in lay terms, and focused on the intent of the LEED and less on the technical resolutions. An owner should have the power to define their intent, and then give that intent to someone else to execute.
Grace Mase 04:08
I love it. That's one of the things that a lot of homeowners have a hard time with starting in a project, just because they don't know what they don't know. They don't know how to get started. And something like renovating your house, it's a very daunting experience because there are so many moving parts and so many things, decisions to make and it could be overwhelming for many people. And having Space Kit, just the simplicity of breaking things down into much more digestible bites. And having your museum background really tailors how homeowners think about space because a museum is all about creating a space that people enjoy and creating memories or showcasing, celebrating certain things. And so I love this, all your experience and your passion come together as the birth of Space Kit, what inspired you to create Space Kit?
Celia Imrey 05:01
It really was the museum work. When we display an object in a museum, we have to answer two questions. One is, what do we want from that object? What do we want that object to be giving to us? And then the object kind of has to say back to us, what do I want from you? Where am I in this world? What are you seeing when you see me? And every object has to ask, why do I matter? And a homeowner can bring that same level of intent of the way that they want to live, the things they want to see, the way they want to use their spaces can be brought into a home pretty easily if you only have the intent if you only have the thought process of wanting to do that. So Space Kit very specifically is style agnostic. The principles can be applied, whether you're building a Renaissance Chateau, or converting the top of a garage into a dwelling unit. Space Kit is program agnostic, it doesn't matter if you're building a brand new home, office, store, or even just a renovation. So the main idea around Space Kit, and why I was inspired to create it was that I know that with very little effort, an owner can kind of take control and own the design, without pushing the architect or the contractor and forcing them to do something that they may or may not be comfortable with. And the way to do that is to have a consensus and have a design process that is aligned with what architects are going to be building in the first place.
Grace Mase 07:32
Let's get tactical. How does Space Kit work?
Celia Imrey 07:36
Great question. Well, I'll give you an example of one of the processes in Space Kit. So one of the things that Space Kit does is helps owners manage their entrance and exit sequences. When you enter your home. It's like shaking hands with yourself. That's your identity. That's your home and the place you inhabit. When you enter your office. That's the identity and brand and goals of your business. So what you see when you first walk in, what you do when you first walk in, are connected to who you are. So how are you going to do that? There are some simple guidelines, that Space Kit helps an owner figure out what they're going to have in that entrance and exit sequence. Once an owner has defined those things and knows what they want to see when they walk in the door, the architect and the contractor can help them execute that.
Grace Mase 08:33
Love your analogy of shaking hands with yourself and with your family, your home. That's absolutely poetic. But trying to dig a little bit more, as an architect you've probably seen a lot of common challenges that your clients have experienced. And with Space Kit, how do you help them to bring their vision to life and avoid these challenges?
Julia Gallagher 08:57
I'll jump in on this one Grace. I've had my own practice for about four years and kind of juggling my own architecture practice, having a couple of kids, trying to figure out how to run a business. I also teach design at some schools in New York City, and I think through education and through practice, you learn how to design but you don't really learn how to manage the desires of your kind of residential clients. And so I was starting to think of like how to develop processes and working with Space Kit it's been like a really amazing opportunity to like, have a process that I can use to define those goals and those visions and so that we can set up from the beginning the priorities for the project. I think sometimes when you, as an architect, you meet new clients and there's a lot of needs—like I need to do this and do that and do this. You can't really like kind of slow down and understand how they want to experience their home. And I think a lot of the questions and the strategy that's offered within Space Kit helps you like get away from what you think you want, and understand what would really make an impact on the way you live your life in your home.
Grace Mase 10:09
That's wonderful. That framework can help homeowners to put at ease just walking through step by step to build up the requirements or the spec.
Julia Gallagher 10:19
Yeah, and as an architect, it's super helpful to have this, this process that we can sit down together, and agree on what the guidelines are so that we're both on the same page. And we're designing, we're building it out together. There are so many projects that or clients that I walk through their homes, and they're like, this doesn't work, I had this contractor do this, and this architect do this, because there wasn't a brief that was established or scope of work or understanding established before the work was developed. And so I think this is a really great kind of entry point and kind of beginning conversation to have, whether it's with yourself as an owner, or with your architect, and with your contractor, because you get this common page that you can all work from.
Grace Mase 11:03
That's great. If you mind, walking us through how contractors work through Space Kit with their clients?
Julia Gallagher 11:10
There's a lot of possibilities, I think, I've worked with contractors in a lot of different ways. And I think contractors who are builders and kind of create teams, could establish this Space Kit as an entry point, again, with owners. I think, contractors, friends of mine, actually, I went to architecture school that quite a few of them have become contractors. And some contractors like, you don't want to go into the house and start fixing things that you have to unfix or redo, and just go into circles. And I think it's really great to establish a goal of the sustainable, of the experiential goals of the project before they start doing work. And so I think it's gonna be a really great business development tool, where you have someone who's interested, they have a home, you do a walkthrough and you say, you know what, let's sit down and develop the Space Kit, kind of outline for how we want to work. And then we can talk about the actual projects we're going to work on in your home because we know what the overall goal is for your renovation.
Celia Imrey 12:10
And I want to add to that, which is that one of the key pieces of the Space Kit is these five elements, they're worksheets that an owner fills out for air, water, power, matter, and light. Now, those five elements are all connected to something that's going to physically go in your home. So for air, that's an air conditioning unit or a fan for power, that's your microwave or your TV, for light can go on, right? So what happens is, if an owner fills out those worksheets with the contractor, on their own, with the architect, doesn't matter, if those worksheets are filled out, and the owner’s priorities are set for what they want to accomplish in those things. The contractor can literally price it from that point practically because the owner has said, I want to have two ceiling fans in these rooms. And so it's almost like a spec for a contractor. And the nice thing about Space Kit is because it's divided into the areas of work that are related to healthy uses of a home, which are also connected to a trade. So for example, water is a plumber’s scope. So a contractor can look at what an owner wants to accomplish with water in their home and that's their plumber’s work. They can estimate that and can get an idea of what that's going to be. They can look at the power side and figure out that's what my electrical contractor is going to need to take care of. So the contractors that have used Space Kit are so happy because they already have this breakdown, trade-wise, of how they're going to use their teams.
Grace Mase 13:50
I love that healthy use of trades or engaging with trades with a very clearly defined scope. And also, that framework helps homeowners to understand which element matters to me to create a healthy home for myself and my family. I think that's one of the trends that we're seeing is people are much more conscious about making renovation decisions based on healthy trends that we're seeing.
Celia Imrey 14:12
This isn't just about—and to me, really importantly, philosophically—this is not just about "I want to be environmentally proactive." This is about how can I avoid making a very expensive and uncomfortable mistake? It's not just about like, “Oh, I have to be super green and LEED and plant a green roof.” These guidelines help an owner place the air conditioning unit in the right location so that it actually cools the room, those kinds of things. So it's really more best practices, and helping the owner understand what those best practices are so that they can insist on it with their owner, other contractors, and their architect.
Grace Mase 14:55
That's perfect. That's a very important distinction to understand what things they should consider doing and to avoid these very costly mistakes and doing the right thing for their family, ultimately create a healthy, safe environment for them to enjoy.
Julia Gallagher 15:11
I love how throughout the Space Kit, you kind of learn a little bit about, "Oh, how can I direct the air in a certain way or bringing in the light in a certain way?" And then there's, how do I do that, right? And sometimes you don't have to understand the whole thing. But it's just like, ask your architect, ask your contractor to explain this, or to put this into the scope. And I think a lot of times just you don't have that, that in mind renovation can be really overwhelming, and very stressful. And I think with this kit, you can have the priorities up there. And just remember to put that in because so many times I've worked on a project and then something changes at the end because they're like, "Oh, I forgot that I have my thermostat right next to the heater." And so yeah, it's just a reminder so that the process can be enjoyable.
Grace Mase 15:58
It's flexible, too. And I know you guys have done few projects already share with us an actual experience you've gone through with the homeowner, and for them to go through this Space Kit planning process before they kick off the actual design phase.
Celia Imrey 16:13
Well, I think that's a kind of interesting moment to be having this conversation, Grace, because Space Kit right now is a New York based company that has done kits with owners one-on-one in their homes in the past. And COVID and the requests from owners that are in different geographies caused us to turn inward and look at what our product really is and whether we could convert it into something that's usable anywhere, anytime, and not just in a meeting with the owner and the architect in the daytime on a weekday. So right now, Space Kit is being converted into a platform, we're pivoting to release all this research and information that we've been using from the design side into the public, from our website, via downloadable Do-It-Yourself worksheets. So we have multiple client testimonials, for our Space Kit, because we need to know if the product is working or not. And some of the things that people have come back with are basically saying that before they started working with Space Kit, they really had no clue where to start. They knew they weren't comfortable in their space, in this case, there was a lawyer's office, really uncomfortable space, they didn't even know where to begin. So the plan of action that Space Kit provided for them was their program, it was their plan of action, it wasn't them telling the architect what to do, they didn't even know what they needed to do. So working together with them in Space Kit helped them to find even what they needed to do to transform their office into a healthy and productive space. Contractors are particularly happy with Space Kit because a building process is very demanding, and when owners are understanding and connected a little better to what the building process is about, it makes it a lot easier for the contractor to communicate. The kit is a series of worksheets. So all an owner has to do is basically be in their space and start to fill out the worksheets, walk around their space, observe the space, do I want to have this here? Do I want to do that there, and just kind of create a checklist of what some of the aspects of their space are looking for? And if it's a new space, it's something that they want to have happen in that new space. With those guidelines, they give it to the contractor or the architect. And then from there, the conversation continues. And the architects are going to do their work, a contractor is going to do their work, but they have a common platform that they've started from. And that allows architects to kind of springboard from Space Kit into their own later design process because every architect has their own design process of how they're going to execute a client's program.
Grace Mase 19:14
I absolutely love the concept of owners going through this exercise around the house, answering questions, and going through the checkboxes for them to really owning that space and to transform that space into the next level that they want to achieve. And bring the right crew in the architect, the contractors, engineer, or interior designers into creating that space for them. Ultimately, throughout this process, they own the creativity, they own the vision, and that's a really powerful experience.
Julia Gallagher 19:47
The goal for Space Kit is to empower the owner, the person who's going to live in the house to actually manage and guide the whole project. And I think that's really what it does. It gives them the confidence and the structure to make sure that all the decisions that have been made are made by what they want. I think that's been the most, kind of, revolutionary piece of Space Kit.
Grace Mase 20:14
Now fantastic. Oftentimes, people listen to this, like, oh, questions and worksheets, that may sound like work, but I've seen it, it's not. Actually, it's a lot of fun. So how should homeowners get started with a Space Kit, as they're thinking about kicking off their renovation project?
Celia Imrey 20:31
So this is how Space Kit was created, the first thing to do when you, before you start anything at all, is we recommend that you write down what you love, and don't love about your spaces. Take pictures of what you love, and don't love about your spaces. And if you're deciding together, come to an agreement on what those things are. And as you go forward with your project, make a list of priorities of what you want your project to accomplish, not what it is, in technical terms, but what you hope it to do. So for example, we want to add a bedroom and a bathroom because our family’s expanding. That's one way of defining a project. Another way of defining a project is because our family is expanding, we want to have a greater variety of places for people to spend their time. We want different ways in which people are going to use our home now because we have more people in the home. So that's very different from just saying I need another bedroom. So focusing on the goals and starting clients to understand what they're going to actually achieve and accomplish. And this really could go back to the idea of what is an investment. Because any home or office improvement usually results in increased value. by upgrading your spaces, you use them better, you're hopefully more efficient, you're hopefully happier. So you're embedding value into your design into your project when you do a project. And so not just the monetary value of the resale, but what is the value to you personally? That is a confidence-building step, and it's also a step to defining the program for your architect and contractor. So with those pieces in hand, and understanding what you really want to accomplish with the project, the big picture, what you want to accomplish, how am I going to be happier in my space? Space Kit actually gives you the tools of how you're going to be happier, it really does. So that's kind of why we created this process was that people deserved to be peaceful in their homes, they deserve to be happy in their homes, they deserve to have less stress in their homes, they deserve to be able to make decisions in their homes, without too much in the way of those decisions. And managing that process of how you live in a home is not just about bricks and mortar of one extra bedroom at 150 square feet and one extra bathroom. It's more than that. And that's what Space Kit is bringing into the process.
Grace Mase 23:10
That's beautiful. And you know me, I share the same philosophy, same approach. Because when it comes to home, it's a very personal experience. And it's a very emotional experience. It's not something you can just write down specs of putting comp together, identify the square footage, number of bedrooms, it really comes down to what matters to them personally.
Julia Gallagher 23:30
I think it's a good opportunity for the owners to step back too, because so many first meetings I've had with owners and clients who come with like a Pinterest list or they're like, I want to look like this and do this and it's almost distracting them from what they really want in the project. And I think when you can back up and understand even just in words, what you're trying to accomplish with the build-out, then you can kind of give a better understanding to your whole team on where you value and all the decision making.
Celia Imrey 24:01
So I just wanted to give an example of a way in which the Space Kit is actually kind of almost changed and transformed a client's program. We had a client who was a lawyer, who had just bought an apartment that was needed for a gut renovation. And in doing the Space Kit, one of the questions that we asked him was what is the level of sound comfort that you're looking for? And that relates to the type of sound that the owner is transmitting out to the world, out to their neighbors, or types of sound mitigation that they may need. If there's sound from outside that comes in, let's say they're living near a fire station. And he stared at that question, looked up he's like, "Well, actually, I have a guitar collection. I love to play the guitar. I haven't played in years, because I don't want to disturb my neighbors." And we said “Well, iif you want to play guitar and you want to make noise, we can design for that without harming your neighbors." And all of a sudden the program kind of developed, it wasn't that expensive, we altered stuff in the budget to make sure that could happen. And here was a man now able to do what he loves, do what he enjoys the most in his own home, and something he hadn't even considered, needed to be part of his program before Space Kit, he was so grateful. Another example, was a woman from California, bought a home and asked us to do Space Kit in the home. And she was basically looking for the Space Kit just to understand like, “what should I be doing to this home, make me live in it better.” It wasn't that the home had anything specifically wrong with it. She just wanted to understand how she was going to live in it. And we wanted to use the Space Kit to assess the home. Were the windows in the right locations? Were different things happening in the right way for the way she wanted to use this home on this particular site? Did she need to change where a window was going to be? And doing the Space Kit to our surprise, one of the questions we ask relates to smell, and odors are produced by pets or other things. And there are also aspects of plants and air quality. So what you breathe in is part of one of our Space Kit questions. And she was like, "Oh, well, I have a cat, and I really like a lot of plants." And we ended up designing a kind of solarium for her, where she could sit outside and be surrounded by plants. She would never have done that part of the project, if she hadn't stopped, made that stop at the Space Kit, through the question around indoor and outdoor air quality and the idea of smell.
Grace Mase 26:45
That's fantastic. And I love how these homeowners not aware of all the things that they could improve, but through Space Kit, provide them the knowledge and confidence to really go through the whole experience and really bring it to a completely different experience that they didn't know they could, or they deserve to experience and now able to create a home that matters to them so much more. Celia please share with me this story with one of your clients who had this wall. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Celia Imrey 27:18
Sure. So we did a Space Kit for an owner in New York City. She was having a baby. And one of the parts she wanted to help define the space for her baby. But Space Kit led her to actually completely define the special wall in her living room. Because one of the things that's basically it does is we help you kind of curate and identify special spaces for yourself. And so for her, as you walked into this apartment, she had this beautiful African art in the kitchen over the refrigerator. And meanwhile, the living room wall was entirely blank, you walk right at it. And I was like, this is a wall that you want to define with your own identity, your own feelings of who you are when you come in the door. What could you put there? And she was like that stuff up in my on top of my refrigerator. So we did that process, we transformed her apartment. Yes, there was space for the baby. But there was also a special wall. She then moved with her family upstate, and I met with her recently. And she was like, “Celia, I can't tell you, I think about you all the time. Because I use Space Kit in my home. When I moved upstate, I created the same beautiful walls when I walk into my home there as I did in my New York apartment. And I just want to thank you, because Space Kit helped me kind of take ownership and spiritual control of my own home. And that's really what I want. I love my home as a result. And I just couldn't thank you more.” And I was just like, I was so touched because she was a client from years ago. She's become a friend but I didn't really think, I didn't realize that Space Kit could actually be continued to apply. It's a methodology. You don't have to have every little piece of every little box of the worksheets to check off. There are some overarching ideas in there that are really very applicable once you learn them, and you can share them and then reapply them.
Grace Mase 29:21
And I love that just you are able to bring what's inside of her out to this home. And home is the identity of that's who we are. That's a very powerful experience. It's like the handshake with yourself. That wall is what she gets to do every single day.
Celia Imrey 29:39
That's right. And the other thing Grace is that the key piece is that Space Kit is the trigger to allow the owner to become aware of their own priorities and needs. That solarium is her program, her design, her idea. It was just the process that triggered her to understand her needs better.
Grace Mase 30:01
And empowers her to be creative. And just like what Julia mentioned earlier, oftentimes homeowners come with Pinterest, although they're wonderful eye candies. But what does it mean for them personally? And is it meaningful enough for them to copy what's already there, when everyone has different lifestyles, and a different mix of household. It matters to what the end result can be. And for them to be empowered with all that fantastic experience with a Space Kit, expand their creativity, expand their imagination, to something bigger than what they originally thought, that is just a definition of empowerment.
Julia Gallagher 30:40
We talk about Pinterest, we talk about visual examples you can find on the internet of like, what you want your house to look like, and all the different styles, right? I think one of my favorite parts about Space Kit is really has the owner understand the intangible, the experiential qualities of a home? because that's really what lands and that's really how it stays with you. And so the principles worksheets, there are three worksheets that have you go through what you see like what you view, like what where you look in your home, or where you look outside your home. How you experience where you walk, like where the circulation is carved out for your space, how quickly you go through your space, or you sit at your desk for a long time, but you go through quickly through other spaces, and how you actually locate that circulation to create a sequence throughout the day that fits your lifestyle. And then how you experience yourself inside outside the house and how you create those transitions. So these like three simple principles, we have all these exercises that you go through, and you actually design what you want your lifestyle to look like. And so once you have that, you can guide the process to construct the space around it. But I have never met a residential client who has gone through those thought processes and said, I really want my circulation to be around here. And I want to sit here and just look here. But with this exercise, you can actually have this really sophisticated understanding of how you experience your space. And then you can guide your team to create that type of space.
Grace Mase 32:13
That's pretty remarkable. So I know there's another unique feature with a Space Kit is guiding homeowners to go through the legal implications because oftentimes homeowners don't know what they don't know. And they're now aware of all the legal matters that will come with any kind of renovation of existing projects or building a new home. With a Space Kit how it educates homeowners about the key legal implications?
Celia Imrey 32:38
The more like kind of bullet-point information bites than they are like the more intensive design worksheets. But we basically have some guidelines for owners, because the main legal implications of architectural projects mostly have to do with zoning and building code compliance. So these are fire code, life safety code, the Disabilities Act, which allows the handicapped or strollers to enter and exit into spaces, things like that. Zoning will control how many bedrooms you have. So what we've done is we've developed some useful worksheets and guides to help owners understand some of the larger legal and safety implications of their projects. And keeping in mind and helping them understand that this is for the greater good of their built environment and their society to abide by these codes and laws that have been put in place to ensure healthy living. That's the goal, actually. So have homeowners buy into that process and have them understand what are the overarching issues that they need to understand. It really helps them both be aware of what the project is, but also helps them integrate into their society with what their project is doing.
Grace Mase 33:54
That's awesome, because arming homeowners with some legal educations, will prepare them for the long run to understand what they're responsible for. And what are some of the zoning codes a need to be mindful about before they embark on such a large efforts. Now, one quick lightning round, what's one piece of advice that you would offer for homeowners who are planning to start the process, what would you tell them?
Celia Imrey 34:22
We would like people to basically make a list of their priorities of what they want to accomplish in the project. Not really what it is in technical terms, but what you hope it to do. I think Julie articulated that really well. Like you look at a picture of a kitchen and Pinterest you say I want that. But that actually doesn't show the person how you're going to be cooking in that kitchen and what you look at when you're standing at the sink looking forward. So Space Kit is a process that helps an owner define their priorities and their designs. And so before you even start the Space Kit, you probably want to understand what you love and don't love about your spaces, just get an overall agreement, if you're deciding together of what some of those big picture issues are, the Space Kit will help you uncover the things you may not have known that you needed to know. But you should at least write down what you do think you know, that's a good starting point. Take pictures of it, as well, as an area that you really love. As a view you really love that something that you really love about your space, you want to preserve it. But something that's not working, take a picture of it because sharing that with your architect can help them understand why it's not working for you.
Julia Gallagher 35:34
To add to that, along with kind of understanding the experience in the space, I think even stepping back, I have a couple of friends who've taken on their second or their third renovation, right as owners, and they're not architects, they're not designers, but as kind of taking on your own project, I'd have you like, take Space Kit on as an opportunity to design the process. So you know, you have to use an architect, you know, you have to use a contractor, I would set it up that you want to be the leader and empowered in this process, right? And you want to be able to make informed decisions on the site, be on budget and on schedule, and make those goals and then using Space Kit as your tool. So I think beyond even designing the space, and the first thing you can do is say, “I want to be a powerful decision-maker in this renovation. I'm going to take that on and start a project that way.”
Celia Imrey 36:33
I want to add into a few more items that Space Kit provides, which is that like, for example, one of the things we have is an existing conditions worksheet, which helps an owner understand so they can avoid really costly stuff down the line of things that got uncovered and problems that have come down the line, because that's a common problem is a change order where the design has to change because of unforeseen conditions. So we help an owner understand what that is, what are unforeseen conditions. What is the change order? What are the existing conditions, what are my expectations? And does the contractor and architect all know, the same set of existing conditions? This is the checklist we all have looked at. That's really critical. Another worksheet we have is for demolition. What happens in demolition is also a component of waste management where that waste goes. What do you need to remove, what happens to what you remove? Working together with the contractor and the architect having agreements around this, most homeowners have no idea. It just goes to the dumpster and drives away and some next thing you know, something you wanted to keep is gone forever. And then another worksheet we have or another set of documents we have is a document called General Conditions for Contractors and these are things that an owner is going to want to see in their contract with their contractor. These are standard of care, things that the contractors should be saying they're going to do. A lot of homeowners don't know that a contractor should promise to protect your site and clean it up at the end of each day and not leave it so that there are things dangling and dangerous wires, and other things like that happening. And you'd be surprised how many contractors don't manage their site, they don't clean it up and accidents and dangerous things can happen as a result of some simple oversight of not having a contract clause that asks the contractor to keep their site clean and managed.
Grace Mase 38:34
That's extremely valuable. Many homeowners don't realize they need that information.
Julia Gallagher 38:39
The general conditions checklist is priceless. When you're taking on a lot of liability, on yourself doing a DIY or kind of managing some of the professionals having those different items, those different notes on your contracts. You can control those change orders because the agreement is established within the drawing. So that checklist is huge.
Grace Mase 39:04
You're right, having that piece really sets everything down the positive course of project development, or managing the project more effectively. I'm sure by listening to all this great advice people are probably motivated to check out Space Kit. What's the best way to find Space Kit?
39:21
You just go to myspacekit.com we have the forms downloadable. There are a couple of free worksheets you can take right off the website and just engage with us. Share it with your contractor share the site with your architect.
Grace Mase 39:38
I love it. Thank you so much for your time and this is an extremely valuable discussion. I learned a lot from both of you. Thank you for listening to this episode Revivify Podcast we're speaking with Celia Imrey and Julia Gallagher of Space Kit. I hope you enjoy learning from them as much as I did about Space Kit. Thanks again. You're listening, and we'll see you next time.