The Wilder Outdoor Spaces blog is a place to be inspired. We share the places we go, things that inspire us, designs we love, tricks of the trade and of course the construction projects we design and build in Tacoma, WA.
Despite the craziness from Covid, 2020 has been our busiest year to date. Our phone rings off the hook and our email inbox is full of requests to build cheap budget fences all around Tacoma, but that’s just not what we do. Sure, we could probably make a lot more money if we used the cheaper crappy materials, and took every job that came our way like other companies, but that’s not our style.
Read MoreAs soon as the new DADU / ADU rules were implemented in 2019 we began searching for a new property with a decent sized garage that we could design and convert into a DADU. In the summer of 2019 we found the perfect property in Tacoma’s Proctor district, and after a long and tedious sale our offer was eventually accepted. Our first step in the process was remodeling the main house, which you can see you here. Once we finished that up, we began planning, designing and permitting for the garage conversion.
Read MoreThe Neal’s custom deck project was completed in the summer of 2020 and is located right here in North Tacoma. The best part of the build is that the job was located only 10 blocks away from our shop, so the commute was pretty great! The deck itself is built with a beautiful South American hardwood called Ipe, that we treated with aptly named Ipe Oil. The decks overall footprint is 16’ x 18’, including the wrap around step. The step has 9 bronze dimmable LED step lights to help illuminate the space in the evenings and make the steps easy to see in the dark.
Read MoreWe first met Erin + Tyler a few years ago when they called us out to give them a bid on a fence project for their new home in North Tacoma. Our estimate consultation was awesome! We really connected on our love for modern design and quality materials. After the meeting we sent over our bid and Erin and Tyler decided they wanted to go ahead with the fence project. We put it on the schedule and knocked it out a couple months later.
Read MoreAs many of you know, the City of Tacoma adopted a new set of simplified regulations in 2019 allowing just about anyone to build a mother-in-law apartment, tiny house or ADU / DADU (detached accessory dwelling unit) right in their backyard. With the new regulations, Tacoma also made it much easier to convert an existing structure (think: garages, basements, etc) on their property without needing a zoning change, variance or any special permitting to make them legal DADU or ADU buildings. You can read more about Tacoma tiny home, ADU, DADU pricing and regulation changes in this post here.
Read MoreTowards the end of the 2019 we took on this little 770 SQ FT mid century home remodel in Tacoma’s Proctor district and gave it much needed facelift. We started out by completely gutting the kitchen and widening the entry into the living room. Then we fully redesigned the kitchen by creating a more functional layout with an updated modern look. For the living area, we wanted to make the fireplace a focal point so we started by removing the ugly fireplace insert, painted wood above the mantle and dark tile in the front. Then we installed a new horizontal modern wood built-in above the fireplace with new white tile down below. The final touches involved sanding and refinishing the original oak floors and installing updated modern trim throughout the house.
Read MoreAs a general contractor in Tacoma, we’re always looking for great companies to work with for various types of construction projects here in Tacoma, and to be honest it’s not always easy to find honest and reliable companies to work with. So when we do find an awesome local company that we enjoy working with we believe it’s super important to support and share them with our friends and family that we work with here in Tacoma. That brings us to the local Tacoma company that we’re highlighting today, The Tacoma Electrician.
Read MoreAt the end of the day we decided we weren’t going to play the cheap fence game. It’s more important for us to be able to stand by everything we build and know it’s constructed with some best available materials, then to chase more money building things we can’t stand behind.
Read MoreIn May of 2019 the city of Tacoma officially adopted an awesome new set of simplified regulations allowing just about anyone to build a mother-in-law apartment, tiny house or a DADU (detached accessory dwelling unit) right in their backyard.
Read MoreWe first met the Dunn’s in the summer of 2018 when we built them a new modern cedar fence to enclose their property and give some privacy to the wide open back yard. The horizontal fence project turned out great and they said they would be calling us again in the future.
Read MoreThe Jansen’s from Gig Harbor reached out in the fall of 2018 with a long list of projects they wanted Wilder to handle. The first project they decided to tackle getting rid of the old gazebo that was rotting away in their back yard, and replacing it with something a little more useful. Here’s a shot of what it looked like before we got started.
Read MoreOverall, this was a very fun and affordable project for Wilder. What started out as a dark, dingy old rental was transformed into a bright beautiful unit, and we were able to create that updated modern feel without breaking the bank on high end finishes.
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