Month: October 2015
satintouch Helps Make a Wish
Life is always busy for working couples. It gets even more hectic with children, let alone a child with a cognitive and physical disability.
Paul and Perla are working professionals with a child, Caleb,who has Patau Syndrome.
Patau Syndrome describes a person who has an extra chromosome in their genes. This effects physical and cognitive development, and is similar to both Downs Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy.
From birth, his parents knew that Caleb would have cognitive and physical delays, and didn’t know how long they would have their beloved son. Most children with his condition don’t make it past their first year.
However, Caleb, now 5-years-old, is still smiling and living with his parents.
Paul and Perla with the help of friends, family and a nanny take care of him on a day-to-day basis. This syndrome renders him unable to move much beyond rolling and lifting his head, and is unable to speak. He spends most of his time in a wheelchair.
“He is a happy boy throughout the day” Perla said. “But, we notice one activity when he’s more relaxed and smiling: bath time.”
Caleb loves water. And bath time is the time of day when his parents seem him visibly relax and a huge smile crosses his face.
But bath time for his parents was stressful.
“Our house was built in the 1940s and the bathroom was small with a bad DIY job.” Paul said. “It has such a narrow door that we had to walk in sideways, and we had a continual fear of dropping him.”
They approached Make a Wish, who granted Caleb a wish to make his
bath time safer.
Through this wish, satintouch was contacted to help create the foundation of the bathroom , which would feature a rolling shower and a standard sized door.
While drywall, mudding, and taping aren’t visible in the final product — they are vitally important to the foundation upon which the bathroom would be constructed.
“When the drywall came up, it was turning point for us in the construction. “Perla recalls. “Wow this going to be awesome!”
Their work helped widen the door and make the bathroom much bigger.
“It was very important to get it right,” Paul said. “And they did a wonderful job. Good skills and great attitude. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.”
Today, Caleb and family can enjoy a safe and stress free bath time whenever they like.
“I’m surprised how big the impact is. I’m grateful for it every single day.” Paul said. “ We’d like to thank satintouch and every single person who came and helped.”
New! Training Sessions with satintouch
Your staff can learn professional maintenance skills with our experts.
We know that repairs can be costly to a property owner. Often there isn’t enough money in the budget, and the highly detailed job falls upon a staff person without proper training.
Coming this new year, satintouch is proud to offer training sessions to improve maintenance skills for
apartment staff.
Our first-ever course, will put your staff in the same room with seasoned and trained professionals to learn the art of picture-perfect cover ups for walls and ceilings.
From water damage to bent and cracking walls, our experts have seen it all, and probably a situation worse than you can imagine.
And through the years of experience and training, our detailers have mastered making a disaster into diamond.
Now they are willing to share their secrets to train your staff, saving you time and money on repairs – especially in the critical end-of-month scenarios.
Stay tuned for more information in the satintouch quarterly, our website, or Facebook regarding registration for our first-ever training sessions.
Winter is coming!
Stay warm by keeping apartment units filled.
“Winter is coming.”
It’s not just a catch phrase from Game of Thrones, it’s reality in Minnesota.
For property managers in Minnesota, that saying feels like it refers to the apartment industry, not just the state we call home.
Once we enter Fall, the clock starts ticking not only towards Winter, but a window to fill empty units.
Winter is the most difficult season to fill vacant units in an apartment complex. Simply because it’s far too cold out for renters to move in and out! Nobody likes wearing layers and carrying a couch!
Empty units are costly – in any season. A vacant unit could cost an owner anywhere from $1,500 to over $5,000 per month when you factor in make-ready costs, advertising, and incentives to get the unit leased.
And turnover rates hover around the 50 percent mark nationwide.
But there are a few things you can do to help fill vacant units before the temperature drops.
First, having control over move-out dates can be a crucial factor in cutting maintenance costs during the time between tenants.
The best way to cut costs, while maximizing efficiency is to bring in satintouch to handle all of the stress and the details of turnovers.
After signing a contract, our experienced professionals will be onsite taking care of painting, cleaning, carpet cleaning, and maintenance so you can focus on getting a new tenant in before the first frost flies.
Tips on Fall Budgeting
Stretch your dollars and accomplish more this budget season.
It’s that time of year when you start looking at every aspect of the budget, line by line, and start making plans to replace or reinvent aging items in your apartment complex.
We all want to make our apartment complex and community the best in town, and when faced with potential budget restraints, budget season can be
stressful.
Really stressful.
Sometime you feel like if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. And for some, that is true.
But don’t worry, even if you’re running out of budget dollars, you can stretch your budget to by reinventing your big budget items instead of replacing them with satintouch.
You can reinvent ovens, refrigerators, cabinets, and a host of appliances instead of replacing them.
And, you won’t believe how far gone some appliances appear at first glance that satintouch can reinvent with a touch from our onsite Detailers.
From disgusting to disrepair, our Detailers have seen it all and brought a host of appliances back from the dead, saving apartment managers budget dollars.
Refinish cabinets, cleaning or replacing renewal carpets – it’s always the little things that really make a difference to potential renters, and your budget.
