Preparing for Phase 2 of Reopening: New projects

May 22

Phase 2 of the “Safe Start” plan is looming ahead of us, with many counting the days a hopeful reopening. I am not counting at this point, because I realize that it will likely be extended again. Extended or not, that phase will come soon enough.

When it does come, Waldron Designs has a plan and will be ready.

The Feasibility Meeting

We will continue to offer feasibility meetings virtually. These meetings can be a phone call or a Zoom call. We are not looking at your space during this meeting, but discussing the budget, timeline, project goals, and availability. These meetings previously happened in our office space, and while we can continue work, we are choosing to limit contact as much as possible.

The In-Home Consultation

Our in-home consultations will also be held virtually. We have discovered that virtual in-home consultations are a bit shorter than they would be in person but that we can get everything we need from this visit in a digital format. We find we spend more time on the back end, watching the recording of our visit and properly documenting. Therefore, our rates will remain the same for the time being.

The exception to this is the color consultation, which requires us to be on-site to see the existing finishes that we are working with. Color consultations will be held in your home and will follow our protocol for site intake meetings, described below.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels — Photo by **cottonbro** from **Pexels**

The Site Intake

We have also referred to this meeting as the “measure meeting”. It is, of course, much more than measuring, however. During this meeting, we document the space in full. We photograph measure, make note of existing finishes, and occasionally match existing colors using our paint deck/samples.

This can be done virtually with us putting quite a bit of the work on our clients, and the rub is that it does not really lighten the load for us because we spend extra time clarifying and creating documents to use for measuring.

Our safety process for entering your home:

We will start with a questionnaire in which we promise to you and require an equal promise that we have not displayed symptoms, will alert one another if we do begin to exhibit symptoms, and will take precautions before and after entry to your home.
We wash our hands before leaving our home/office to enter your space. Upon arrival, we open our vehicle door, apply hand-sanitizer, and don a mask for your protection.
We ask that you choose a location outside of the documentation area (a minimum of ten feet from our work area) for the duration of our visit. COVID-19 has been recorded to linger in the air for 8-14 minutes. Please vacate the area that we will be measuring 15 minutes prior to our arrival, and do not re-enter until 15 minutes after our departure. A mask alone is not sufficient protection against airborne disease.

We will not visit more than one home on a given day. This allows us to wash our clothes and our cloth masks between each visit.

If we get a report from any of our in-home visits that someone has developed symptoms, Waldron Designs will put a hold on all in-home consultations for a minimum of two weeks before resuming in-home visits.

The Design Presentations

All design presentations will take place virtually in the form of Zoom calls and/or recorded videos. We have done this for a few years now with our busy clients and are comfortable walking our clients through the process and sharing videos for you to watch in your home on your schedule.

Samples will either be delivered in a bag to your doorstep or sent directly to you from our manufacturer for review during our meetings. We prefer to hand-deliver these samples because until we see it in person, we are not comfortable recommending products.

We will follow each presentation with a design feedback form. Our form has a lot of room for free-response feedback, and even areas to upload any scanned notes you may have made on our drawings!

Construction Site Visits

We are currently making site visits for our projects that began before the closures and were permitted to resume. We have thoroughly read and understand the requirements for projects to continue (and begin in phase 2) during this order, and will be doing our part to follow these requirements.

Read here to learn more about Safe Start construction.

Rachel Waldron

Waldron Designs was founded by Rachel Waldron (that’s me!). in 2013.

I am so happy designing that it is not unusual to catch me in a giggle as I rev up to do my work. I think of my designs the way that I think of my children- each is unique and has their own personality. It is my job to nurture them and help them grow, not define them.

I got my bachelor's degree in interior design from Washington State University - a CIDA-accredited school - in 2005, immediately moved into a leadership position and have continued designing with passion.

I received my MBA in Marketing in 2012 and launched Waldron Designs in 2013. When I am not designing, you will find me enjoying my precious time with my husband and two spectacular children.