It’s been a few weeks since our selections appointments where we had the pleasure of meeting James Treble and benefitted from his advice. Because we are building the Waldorf, which is from Eden Brae’s Prestige series, James’ consultation at our selection appointments are complimentary (or rather, his fee is included in the overall price).
The day started at Di Lorenzo tile, which is where we first met James. He introduced himself to us and compared his role to that of Switzerland. I.e. he is a neutral in our relationship with Eden Brae and won’t encourage us to spend money unless it represents good value from a design perspective. Eden Brae on the other hand, would encourage us to upgrade everything as their builder’s margin is a whopping 20%!
As we were taken around the Di Lorenzo showroom, with the sales consultant pointing out the standard range of tiles, mid-range tiles and other more extravagant options, I quipped that the mid-range were a “cost-effective” option. I was joking but James interjected saying that that is a fantastic way of putting it. Choosing something that is good value isn’t cheap but cost-effective, he said. After all, he continued, you can spend a lot of money on materials but because of the way it’s put together, it can still look cheap.
I’d never felt good about my “cost-effective” budgeting before…
What impressed us about James was his seemingly unlimited energy for our project. At one point just after lunch, Annie mentioned to him how he had more enthusiasm for our home than we did! He took our observation with good humour, and simply responded that this is his passion. He loves making homes beautiful.
Over the course of two days, his enthusiasm and attention never waned, nor his jovial nature, sense of humour and genuinely warm treatment towards Annie and me and all the sales people we dealt with along the way.
Another thing to note about James: the man has taste. Really, really good taste.
James would often suggest something after asking us a few questions about what style we were targeting. We would try to choose something ourselves, mull on it for a bit, compare it to his original selection and then ended up choosing what he liked after admitting his looked better. And that happened over and over again over the two days. Was he just really good at thought inception? Was it some sort of Jedi mind trick? No, he’s just better than me at this stuff.
If you too are building an Eden Brae Waldorf, then you too will get the benefit of James’ help. If not, then it’s worth checking out his videos on the Eden Brae website for hints. Either that, or engage him personally for his services – he’s worth it!
Eden Brae Waldorf 50 