Renos - Joe Green

Concept self illuminated resin paintings under a custom built outdoor pergola gallery.

Inspired to always “Make it Right.”

Way back in the early days of Social Media, Green set up the first facebook group dedicated to Mike Holmes. Click here to visit the facebook group. Thank you to Ms. Gail Marino for her outstanding work in moderating the group.

Green ran into Mike Holmes on a flight back from Toronto. The experience Green had in Toronto was one of the worst experiences of his life, however when he ran into one of his heroes, he had to say hi. Once they disembarked from the aircraft in Edmonton, Green went up to Mike Holmes and said something to the effect of…”You know, I’ve had arguably one of the worst experiences of my life. Given how you come across so many people who have been ripped off by shady contractors who do so much harm to so many, its so gratifying to meet you because you know, just by seeing you, you have made this horrible trip of mine so much better, because you sir ‘Have made it right!'” and then he proceeded to give the grinning from ear to ear Holmes a big hug as thanks for making his terrible trip “all better”.

Next up: Perhaps an Outdoor Gallery.

Green grew up in Edmonton, spent a lot of his childhood out on the farm where he learned all about tools, fixing and repairing various things, as he grew up, he had a fascination with fences and like most people, really enjoys watching renovation shows, especially shows which feature high-end, quality renovation and contracting. Green sister was defrauded, like so many innocent victims, by a shady contractor who ended up doing immense amount of damage to their house without providing the work for which he was paid. As a good brother, he took it upon himself to flex some of his design and construction skills and began to help his sister’s family by renovating portions of their home, beginning with the main floor powder room and laundry room. As a designer with skills using 3D software, he began to postulate various designs to come up with a design which would look timeless.

With three small and adorable children, the main floor washroom was bad to begin with, but the problem was compounding with little children. One day, after consulting with his sister, Green began to tear apart and demo the washroom and began the process which would eventually provide his sister with her beloved “Pee Pee Palace”. The look he settled on was a contemporary twist on a 1920’s subway inspired washroom with a frozen waterfall highlight wall.

The Beginning of the “Pee Pee Palace”

3D Visualisation

As a 3D designer with skills ranging from Visual Effects and Gaming, 3D Engineering, Green also has skills in the Home Design Software Chief Architect. Green set out to design the laundry room in true, 1:1 scale to show his sister the concept design. “I can not only model her laundry room, I can model up her house, then export it over to another platform and subject it to a torrential flood or conduct wind tunnel simulations. Although I don’t need to do stuff like that in her project, its nice to be able to if I ever needed to conduct a wind tunnel simulation where her home was flying at 600Km/Hr and then slam it into the ocean. Hahaha. In all seriousness, its nice to be able to think up a concept in new home design, pre-visualise it, export out photo-realistic images, then build out the space. Spending the time to learn these platforms has been incredibly time-consuming, but worth it. I can not only design a home, and as a man, I like the fact I can build the whole thing myself. My grandfathers were like that and I feel its important to be able to have those skills myself, but ensure I can deliver top-notch quality craftsmanship which my grandfathers would be proud of.”

Trying to Make Grandpa & Gido Proud

The design of the room was somewhat fluid as it started out with a wall mounted cabinet system, however over time proved something that didn’t function for the family and so, after all that work, the cabinets were removed and the final design of the space ultimately served the family the way they loved and the space turned out much nicer than expected. “What I love about doing work like this is, is by being able to change the appearance of the space, its flow, look and feel, it has a direct impact on the feelings experienced by my sister and her family. I did all the electrical, added additional lights and a switch, added new fittings, installed a new sink, connected in the new machines and hid all the water and electrical feeds. It had to look like this space was designed and built by an artist. My goal with all this work is to ensure that quality of the design is elegant and timeless in nature, will add resale value to the home, but also for the next family and family after that who owns it, will love the space. I didn’t design and build it for her family, I built the space for the spirit of the house itself. The house has its own spirit and deserves lovely rooms that not only look amazing, but is exceptionally well built. I wanted to make my grandfathers proud and often thought about them during this process.”

Gallery of the Build Process

Here are few images of the demo/construction and renovation process.

This Finished Space

800 Square Foot of Creative Flexibility

“Joe, if this was Boeing, they would have charged about 2.5M for your bird model alone.” – Retired Senior Aerospace Engineer from Boeing’s Phantomworks.

This space has been built in order to take advantage of the digital volume required in order to conduct full scale work to take place within an Augmented Reality environment. The studio also serves as an extremely high-output painting studio and secure creative centre for high end digital and high end analogue, complete with a digital CNC milling machine. Brilliant work cannot emerge from a clean and pristine studio & this studio heaves with overwhelming creative energy….and making a mess is highly encourages.

All of this…absolutely all of this, its all about the bird. When the need to paint takes hold, it won’t release me until the final brush stroke is made. This bird is like a painting in that respect: she won’t release her grip from her talons until she takes flight.

High-Performance Output

This studio, thanks to the wonderful support of a buddy who has always supported the work of Green, provided the opportunity to design and build a space to meet the needs of Green and his dream of building Beaverworks. With a “Carte-Blanche” being provided, the space was cluttered and Green smiles when he refers to what this space used to be as the former occupant abused the space and Green’s buddy. “I refer to what this space used to be as ‘Cat Piss McTrucker Stripper’. The last guy who was in here, tried to make a kitty day care and wow…what a disaster. A stripper used to stay here, I found a crack pipe and the doors didn’t even have a lock. Even if there was, the door frame could not even accommodate. I had to lock my door with a box of books propped up against the door. Since I moved Beaverworks in here, with the permission of the owner, I installed a kitchen, built a bathroom, bedroom, installed all the plumbing and did the electrical, designed and built my own bathtub, a media area to throw a 16′ video screen, a glass enclosure for the CNC and coins, I can paint without any concerns for getting paint anywhere, I can build anything I want, blast music at 3AM, I have full rein to do anything I want, whenever I want or need and I have Dave Halmosi to thank. He provided me with a genuine blessing of support to fully utilise my creative expression and build a space I love. I don’t know what I would do if he never provided me this opportunity as creative expression is by far the absolute most important thing in my life. When its time to move into a larger space to continue the work on the bird, I intend on handing back to him a space that is absolutely stunning and to do so as my personal thanks to him.”

Building & Making Stuff

The studio and Green’s bathtub, a custom designed and built to Green’s size is his own expression of high end design and built works. Once the studio is finished, a complete album of his work will be posted.