About Me

Education

My name is Raylan. I'm a San Francisco State University graduate with a B.A. in Industrial Design. My coursework focused on how stuff worked, quality control and how to manufacture products. I gained a lot of knowledge about to how to problem solve when designing something from the ground up. More recently, I've honed my skills buying and fixing up houses and also as a I hobby enjoy buying and fixing up cars.

San Francisco

We're back in SF after 3.5 years in buffalo

Buffalo

My wife 2 dogs and I had moved to Buffalo in January 2016. We made the trek to Buffalo from SF for my wife's job as an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo (New York States equivalent to UC Berkley). She taught in the Environmental Engineering department as we as ran her our micro biology lab. We bought a beautiful old craftsman in north Buffalo near UB's south campus. The people in Buffalo made the transition easy to move there. We're happy to had found Buffalo as it's truly a hidden gem!

Family & Interests

My wife (Lou, pictured above), dog (Maddox) and I grew up in San Francisco and have recently moved back to SF from Buffalo NY (2019). I'm an avid outdoorsy person and have enjoyed working with youth in San Francisco showing them the beauty of our city through outdoor experiences. When I'm not outdoors I'm continuing to rebuild our house here in the outer Richmond and managing our rental propertied in Buffalo NY. In our outer Richmond home I've replaced all the mechanicals including copper pipes, drain pipes (some pipes go to our grey water tank in the garage for irrigation use), all new wiring, zoned heating and cooling by replacing the old gas furnace with 5 mini splits (we're planning for those warmish smokey days this fall and over all converting the house to go all electric to reduce our dependence on PG&E i.e. solar + battery storage) opening up the kitchen/dining room area, new windows, curbless shower and the list goes on...

Attention to Detail

I'm passionate about doing things right the first time. While working with contractors over the years, I've realized the old saying "If you want something done right you have to do it yourself" holds very true. Its frustrating to try to get contractors to come back to finish that last 5-10 percent of their job, whether its cleaning up after themselves or touching up a little paint. I believe those details count.

I enjoy repairing and replacing anything that will bring new life to it. It's rewarding to fix something little that'll bring a smile and a sigh of relief to someone. I continue to learn something new everyday, and with that approach to life, I've gained a lot of useful knowledge.

Past Projects

Another SF apartment in the family. I did most of the work on this one on my own. From flooring to cabinet installation, dishwasher install, toilets, and paint.

My most recent project was the renovation of a SF apartment. We were on a tight budget to get this old Victorian back to its old glory. I designed and sourced all the materials and oversaw the entire project from demo to rental. Check out the photos below.

headed up Mt Whitney