Private Residence, Indian Wells, Calif.

  That’s certainly the case with Jim and Debbie Dobler. The Indian Wells, Calif., couple purchased a condominium built in the late 1960s, and decided to bring it up to today’s designs.
  Some $70,000 later, including a nice investment in granite and quartzite, the couple has a master bathroom that meets life’s necessities and also serves as a private sanctuary.
  “The bathroom was like a lot of little rooms strung together,” says Debbie Dobler. “It had a long hallway where you went in, and then a lot of little cubicles with swinging doors and cabinets with tiny drawers and lots of wasted space. We wanted a nice bathroom because life’s so hectic that often times that’s the only private place you have to relax and get your thoughts together.”
  Key to the project was a soaking tub that Jim Dobler wanted. And, while the Doblers had a good idea of what they were looking for when they started the project, they turned to Lynn Wallace of Kitchens and Baths by Lynn Inc. in Indian Wells, Calif., to redesign the area and pull textures and materials together.
  Wallace had already worked with the Doblers to remodel the condo’s kitchen and she agrees that the master-bath design left much to be desired.
  “It was a typical older bathroom with all the closed-in areas,” Wallace says. “There was a little hallway and an area for the two vanities, with mirrors on both sides giving it that double-vision. Then, you came to the toilet room and it was another little private room, and then you went to the tub/shower and it was a little private room, and there was another little hallway to the closet.”
  In starting the project, Wallace says she had two advantages. One is that, having already done the Doblers’ kitchen, she was familiar with their style. The other is that the Doblers were pretty clear on the requirements they wanted from their remodel.
  “They did want a deep soaking tub,” says Wallace. “They also wanted a large walk-in shower with no door, a larger closet, a closed toilet room, linen storage and two vanities. Otherwise, the main requirement was that it have the feeling of a Zen sanctuary.”
  The Doblers were also open as to their palette and their budget, giving Wallace more flexibility.
  She says her first move was to come up with a design concept that got rid of all the little rooms (it did require moving one wall in a walk-in closet) and made the bathroom one big space. The total design stage took about six weeks and involved weekly meetings with the clients.
  “I’d work on the plan and get as far as I could without input,” she explains. “Then we’d meet and discuss it. If there were changes, the plan would then be modified and we would meet the next week. With this one, there weren’t a whole lot of options once we removed the walls.”
  For their colors, the Doblers chose to focus on natural materials. Debbie Dobler says that was really her husband’s preference.
  “He just loves the natural materials – the wood and the granite and the quartzite,” she says. “We just utilized them to the max.”
  Wallace says the bathroom’s color palette was really built around the granite chosen for the vanities, a Labrador Antique supplied by Marbolis Inc. of Palm Desert, Calif. The designer says the Doblers chose it because its grayish eggplant color isn’t really cold and also isn’t really purple.
  “It has flecks of pearlescence and pieces that look like opal,” says Wallace. “Once we had that, we were able to choose the maple cabinets and the quartzite, which is a rosy gray rather than the more typical golden brown color.”
  An added attraction to the quartzite, both women agree, is its ease of cleaning.
  “It’s absolutely not hard to clean,” says Debbie Dobler. “I was after that, and it’s pretty, but definitely low maintenance.”
  While Wallace served as the project’s designer, she also oversaw the construction – most of which took place after the Doblers returned to their summer home in Washington state – hired the general contractor and subs and purchased all the specialty products.
  Wallace explains that the overall goal of her business is to take the headache away from the client, come up with the best products for the best price and have the best design and space plan possible.
  “Most of my clients have heard the horror stories of working with contractors they don’t know,” she says. “I’ve been in this industry more than 20 years and I’ve had experience with which ones work and which ones don’t.”
  For this project, Wallace chose Indio, Calif.-based American Builders and owner Don Blakesley to serve as the general contractor.
  “They were available, and they give me the quality I want,” she explains. “They’re very easy to work with. I find it’s better to use someone I know and trust. I’ll give him the drawings, he’ll price it out, and he’s good about bringing the right guys in and making it work.”
  That includes an American Builders crew that installed the quartzite for the floor, the walls for the open shower and the skirt for the soaking tub.
  “We always do a three-part system with lathe and scratch, and then we bounce-coat the walls with mortar and install whatever our material is on top of that,” Blakesley says. “When you float it like that, we can make sure that everything is plumb and square and went together the way Lynn wanted it.”
  The granite vanity tops, with undermount sinks, were fabricated and installed by Allure Marble and Granite of Indio, Calif. Felix Nunez, who owns the business with his father, Jose, says the job is fairly typical of what the company does.
  “Because granite has so many different variations, we suggest the buyer go pick it out, and then we take it from there,” he says. “We measured the job, cut it and installed it.”
  As with American Builders, Wallace says she works almost exclusively with Allure when it comes to fabricating and installing slab stone.
  Although the project ultimately took about three months from start to finish, everyone feels it’s quite a success. Blakesley says that going in he had some concerns about using so much quartzite, but his fears were unfounded.
  “Because we were using the same material on the floor and the walls with a shower that size, I thought it might be overpowering,” he says. “However, I don’t think it is; when we got done I felt pretty pleased about it.”
  Wallace says it’s not the most opulent bathroom she’s ever done (one new project topped out at $150,000), but it is on the high end for a remodel. Nonetheless, she says there are good reasons for the $70,000 price tag.
  “What a lot of people don’t understand is the products can be expensive,” she says. “For instance, by the time you buy the quartzite, gauge it and then float it, it’s almost $15 a square foot. Plus, I do charge for my time.”
  However, she says the Doblers aren’t complaining.
  “It’s an oasis, definitely,” says the designer.
  Debbie Dobler agrees.
  “We started and then we could see we were going to be happy with it, so it was worth going ahead and making it really comfortable,” she concludes. “The stone really enhances a lot of things and gives a really clean look. It’s a great bathroom and I’d definitely do it again.”

Client: Jim and Debbie Dobler, Indian Wells, Calif.
Designer: Kitchens and Baths by Lynn Inc., Indian Wells, Calif.
Contractor/Tile Installer: American Builders, Indio, Calif.
Stone Supplier: Marbolis Inc., Palm Desert, Calif.
Stone Fabricator/Installer: Allure Marble and Granite, Indio, Calif.

This article first appeared in the October 2005 print edition of Stone Business. ©2005 Western Business Media Inc.