Creations West

From a group of highly creative professional design firms, Creations West was chosen by Artists International Media as the design firm for season five of the award-winning television program, The Parade of Homes Show. My name is Lance Williams and as the producer of the show, I can tell you that we go through an extensive and rigorous vetting process before we feature any individual or company on the show. Creations West was a standout in aspects of the process. As a visionary, Jalin Anderson understands the needs, desires and even the dreams of those looking to build their dream home. His son, Caden, who works closely with his father, is shall we say, “a chip off the old block” and together, with their highly creative team, serve the building design needs of those who need design services from the professional builder right down to the first-time homeowner. Their reputation precedes them. They are well respected in the industry, with local and regional municipalities and with the building public in general. Artists International Media trusts Creations West with the “foundation” (pun intended) of season five of the Parade of Homes Show. Their organized, thorough and efficient approach to design and layout is not only making the building process possible, it also ensures that the show segments of the build can be accomplished the same way. Our slogan is, “The Parade of Homes Show features the best-of-the-best in design, products and construction.” Creations West’s slogan is “Even the best dreams need a plan.” Both are true and applicable to Jalin and his talented crew at Creations West. We highly recommend them and I think you will agree that in using their services, you can’t go wrong.

Building a home for the first time can be exciting and daunting all at the same time. Our builder sent us to Creations West to look at their plans and find one that would work for us. I'd actually already designed my own set of plans, which I brought with me at our first meeting. When we came in, Caden met us and brought us into their conference room and offered us some water. We showed him the plans we'd drawn up, which he actually was impressed with. He then explained that they would be happy to use my plans, however, to help us save money, we could take a similar plan that they'd already created and modify it accordingly. He then brought us 4 or 5 different plans that he felt would be easily modified to fit our design needs. Sure enough we found a plan and with Caden's help was able to tweak it to fit our layout. He took our plan and reworked their existing plan and quickly had a working draft of our new home. Then our builder went on vacation and we had to wait to sell our existing home to put the money down to really start the ball rolling. During that time, my wife and I would re-examine the plans and think of something to change or modify. Each time, Caden was more than willing to make those changes for us and did so in a very timely manner. He often offered some suggestions that we hadn't thought of like adding a door at the end of the basement hallway before the stairs, to help keep noise and heat in the basement. Caden even took the time to go through different online images of vaulted ceilings and fireplace settings to see what we thought would look best. He was very patient and we felt he genuinely cared that we were happy with our plans and totally understood our need to "get it right" instead of living with regrets after the fact. Creations West has hundreds of plans to choose from and as I've stated, are more than willing to help their customers design the type of house they'll be happy living in for a long time!

Very impressed with Jalin's professionalism, knowledge and expertise. He was very accommodating with our schedule and diligent in getting our home addition design done in a timely manner. Creations West has been wonderful to work with as a whole and I would highly recommend them to all my friends and family.

We have really enjoyed working with Creations West on our house addition plans. My husband and I have been working on our own plans for the project for a few years and as such we knew exactly what we wanted. We just needed to find a company to draw our design. Creations West was very responsive when we contacted them and came out to our home to meet with us and better understand the project. Fast forward a few months and our city planner informed us that we had to make a very major change to our design. We weren't sure what to do and Creations West again came to our home to meet and discuss options going forward. This time we needed major advice/help/ideas beyond just drawing our idea. Honestly at this point we were pretty discouraged about the changes that our city wanted made and as such the wind was out of our sails. After working our problem for a few weeks Creations West came back with new designs. They had not only solved our problem with the city, and kept the integrity of our original design but they had somehow managed to make our plans much better in the end. We find ourselves so much more excited about this new design than we were about the design we had spent years creating. They managed to do this within our strict historic city parameters. We got the plans from them and figured that was that. However when our city came back with additional items we needed to address, Creations West once again came out to our home to meet. Jalin sat with us for well over an hour going over each line item and explaining what the city was needing from us. In the end there were no changes to the plans but he still took the time to talk through everything that was needed for us to get our designs approved. We just received our building permit which we would not have been able to do without the help of Creations West. They were great to work with. We would recommend them and absolutely work with them again.

I'm the President of a mid to high end custom home building company named Vuu Homes In Bluffdale. I've been building for over 20 years and have built over 1200 custom homes. During those years when we ran well over 100 high end homes at a time, I've worked with numerous companies to draft my client plans. I've enjoyed working with Jalin Anderson and my numerous clients, many of which have built million dollar up homes with Jalin drawing them, have had very good things to say about his service and his attention to their needs. He makes my clients a priority and bends over backwards to show them great quality and a very good price. I've read the previous review and I have had a very different experience with high net worth clients building extremely complicated plans from straight traditional to over the top modern / contemporary with Creations West. Sometimes some of our plans have minor flaws but quite frankly even the most expensive architects I've worked with have had the same type of issues and in many occasions quite extensive fixes on numerous plans we've built. Drawing a plan is a complicated process and it's very difficult to catch all items when your building complex plans. I feel the previous review was uncalled for and extremely one sided and unforgiving though I fully respect his circumstance and his view. I just believe that there is a better way to fix the problems and know jalin well enough to know he will back up his work if given the opportunity. Some of my clients are very well known and could pay to have anyone else draw their plans but choose Jalin because he rolls out the red carpet for them in each meeting looking for ways to be creative but also keep cost to build in mind. I've trusted Jalin with millions of dollars in build jobs and will continue to support him and really enjoy seeing his company grow and prosper. The prior review doesn't reflect the capabilities of this firm. I'd recommend before taking a negative review to heart that you give Jalin an opportunity to sit down and help you create a vision. I don't think you will be disappointed. A great indicator of good vs bad draftsman is to contact your lumber company and ask them to speak with the guys in the back room doing the lumber estimates from the plans. They will give you an honest assessment of whether the plans jalin draws are quality and well thought out or not. They will highly likely know creations west plans considering they have drawn over 5000 of them. They have an impressive resume and folks, they know how to draw a nice plan. Items to ask yourself! Is he cognoscente of lumber waste and positioning walls where we minimize lumber cuts that aren't needed to eliminate lumber waste while lumber costs have risen 30% year to date? Does he think through window designs knowing a client budget and put the windows in that they can afford? Does he look for every conceivable way to avoid expensive GLB products and steel fabrication if possible? The answer to those questions is YES! Where others just draw it in and don't care about the final cost, that ends up putting clients over budget and upset at the end. Catching those items up front helps control costs on the entire job saving sometimes upwards of $50k in steel fabrication that I've personally seen on my own jobs. My lumber guys all feel his plans are at the top of their list for being great plans that are well put together with very clear and thorough details and schedules. It's unfortunate the prior gentleman had a bad experience but to tell everyone to stay away from creations west is a true shame and a disservice to someone looking to be treated fair with someone as honest and humble as anyone I know. Give Jalin and his team the opportunity to prove this prior review, though may very well be his experience, is not the standard experience that others are having. I've got 15 clients this year that would all be happy to express positive reviews stating that he draws a beautiful plan and saved them thousands of dollars from other companies and got them in a day after I called and set the appointment. In this industry most draftsman are telling clients they are out 2 and 3 months just for the initial meet and greet. I can assure you that when I call Jalin that he moves heaven and earth to meet my clients the next day. On many occasions has stayed up through the night to hit deadline on a redline which is being waited on. Folks my business is all 5 star reviews and I use Jalin almost entirely when a customer comes to build without a plan drawn. I would not risk my company reputation on someone not capable of pulling off mid to very high end homes and do it well and above reproach. Give jalin a chance to earn your trust and your business as he has mine and my clients and I think you will find that you will enjoy the process and you will create a friendship as well. I certainly am very happy to provide further reference if anyone feels they wish to get further proof that these guys are amazing and will take care of you. I consider Jalin a wonderful friend and a person I trust. I would encourage you to as well. Sincerely, Aaron Hymas, President of Vuu Homes LLC

STAY AWAY FROM CREATIONS WEST AT ALL COSTS I have been in the building industry for many years in Utah. I have had many dealings with Creations West in the past. This is not the Creations West from years ago. Jason Litchfield (who was great) has sold this once good company to a "business man" Jalin Anderson. Jalin knows nothing about design and engineering of any type of structure. His son Caden is unprofessional and again, unaware of how a home should be designed to functional and economical. I went to Creations West because they had designed custom homes for me in the past, before the new ownership. I had know idea what a huge mistake that would end up being. First off they delayed my project by months. I was told that they they couldn't get my plan finished because their drafters kept quiting. This was after I was already invested into my plan over $1000. Since Jalin and Caden don't know what they are doing, they had to wait until they could hire a drafter to come in and finish drawing my plan. Seems like a bad business plan, again...wish I would have known this prior to hiring Creations West. Unfortunately that was just the beginning of the nightmare. They would send over "revisions" that had nothing we had discussed updated. After weeks and weeks of delay passed, they finally found someone who would work for them that tried to finish my home plan. I finally had to proceed knowing that the plan still needed work but I would just have to do some revisions on site because they just were not getting it done correctly. To top it off, they sent the on older version of my plan to the county for my permits. This resulted in some major problems with my foundation size and layout. I really don't understand what they were thinking and doing during this process. I dislike giving bad reviews, but dealing with Creations West has been horrible and has cost me time and money. Hopefully, I can keep others from going through this. Go somewhere else, no matter what the cost...you will thank me.