Renovation Review: Harkraft & Pulte in Plymouth

Next up for the family is a tile backsplash in the bathroom as a finishing touch to tie everything together. After that–well, a homeowner’s work is never done.
Two years ago, Muhammad Khan, his wife Shazia Aslam and their three daughters found a Pulte spec home in Plymouth that they fell in love with—it was almost perfect. Mostly finished, the house still needed master bedroom closet shelving, and a master bathroom shower and flooring. Khan inquired about the standard offerings for those rooms and said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Problem: Walk-in Ambiguity
Solution: Creative Closet
For the walk-in, L-shaped closet, “the contractors wanted us to put in the metal wire [shelving] when we bought it, but we didn’t like it,” Khan says. Aside from the less-appealing industrial look, if Khan ever wanted to move the shelves around, it would require a huge project as the builder-installed shelves might leave holes in walls. “So I said, ‘You can leave the shelving in it, but don’t install it,’” says Khan. Deciding to call one of Pulte’s product suppliers, Harkraft, Khan contacted office manager Erika Larson, who helped him find an alternative solution. Larson said his situation was a little different, as most clients call wanting to remodel a room or give their existing home a few upgrades, but Khan came directly from the builder. So when it came to what he wanted, “We based it off of what the builder offers, then made changes,” Larson says, like going from wire shelving to melamine and adding a full-length closet mirror. “She was so great,” Kahn says of Larson. “She even matched the color with my trim,” so the shelves are an ivory off-white, rather than the standard white. She then helped him figure out what to do with some of this new storage space, suggesting a unique basket hamper that slides into the shelf. “I haven’t really seen those in other houses,” Khan says.

Then there was the problem of the smaller wall at an odd angle. Larson showed Khan a new mirror, another upgrade from the standard Pulte closet. Now, he says, there’s room for everything from folded clothes to hanging long dresses, and hooks for hats and belts.

Problem: Boring Master Bath
Solution: Illusion Doors
The shower upgrade was a similar, yet slightly pricier, endeavor. The shower door offered by the builder was roughly 6 feet tall, and “it was nice, but it was all framed,” Khan says. Aslam’s hopes were higher for one of the most-used spaces in the home, but the builder informed Khan that it was the only door offered. So after closing on the house, Kahn went back to the subcontractor to work something out.

After browsing Harkraft’s showroom, he and his wife found frameless shower doors and loved the look, but the cost was around $4,000, “which we couldn’t do,” he says. Then, they found the Illusion frameless door by Coastal Industries. “It looked frameless, and we couldn’t find anything we didn’t like about it,” Khan says. (The doors run at a much more manageable $1,000.)
Larson says that the key to this door is the final strip at the bottom that prevents leakage, allowing it to appear like the “less industrial” frameless option. “There are some really, really fancy shower doors,” Larson says, but for $1,000, this one gives the feel of luxury.

The new look of the closet and bathroom were just the touches Khan and his wife wanted, he says. “Everything just looks special and luxurious.” 

Harkraft
13310 Industrial Park Blvd. Ste. 164
763.746.0000
harkraft.com

Pulte Homes
pultehomes.com