Blog
Notes from the job site
What things cost, how the work actually runs, and what to ask before you sign anything. No filler, no stock advice that falls apart the moment a permit office gets involved.
Showing 31 articles
Winter-proofing your basement: what to fix before the finishes go in
A basement that is cold in January was usually built wrong in July. Here is the order the work has to happen in, and what each step …
Read it
Why a custom home makes sense in Barrington Hills
Five-acre minimums, mature trees and a village that intends to stay rural. Those three facts shape every build out here, and they ar…
Read it
How to find a construction company in Barrington worth hiring
Everyone has a website and a gallery. Here is what separates the companies that finish well from the ones that finish eventually.
Read it
Kitchen trends in Barrington that are worth the money
Some trends are a finish choice you can change later. Some are structural, and those are the ones worth thinking hard about.
Read it
Seven things to do with a Naperville basement
Most Naperville basements have the height and the footprint to be the best room in the house. What they usually lack is a decision a…
Read it
How to plan a basement remodel in Hinsdale
A finished basement is one of the few projects where careful planning saves real money rather than just time. This is the order we w…
Read it
Hiring a custom home builder in Barrington
By the time you are choosing a builder, the decision that matters most has already narrowed to one thing: how this company behaves w…
Read it
What a home addition costs in Elmhurst
Additions are priced by the complexity of the connection, not by the square footage. Two rooms the same size can be twice apart on price.
Read it
What it costs to build a custom home in South Barrington
If this is your second or third build, you already know the headline number is the easy part. The useful question is what sits insid…
Read it
Why finishing the basement usually beats adding on
It is the only part of the house where you already own the foundation, the walls and the roof. Everything else you build has to pay …
Read it
How much a home addition costs in the Chicago area
Between roughly $150 and $305 a square foot, which is a wide enough range to be useless on its own. Here is what decides where in it you land.
Read it
Seven kitchen ideas that work in a Hinsdale house
Hinsdale has a lot of beautiful houses built when kitchens were meant to be hidden. These seven changes are the ones that most often fix that.
Read it
Planning a bathroom remodel in Hinsdale
Bathrooms are the most-requested interior remodel in the country, and the one where a small change in scope makes the largest change in price.
Read it
New home construction around Chicago
A large share of the housing stock in this region predates 1940. That single fact explains most of what is happening in new construction here.
Read it
Are custom home builders more expensive?
Usually, yes. The more useful question is what the difference buys you, and whether the gap is as wide as the first set of numbers makes it look.
Read it
Choosing a renovation contractor in Chicago
The architecture here is varied enough that experience with your kind of house matters more than experience in general.
Read it
What actually happens during a home addition
Eight stages, roughly nine to fourteen months end to end, and most of the delay sits in two of them. Knowing which two changes how you plan.
Read it
Seven things to do before the renovation starts
Most of what goes wrong on a renovation was decided, or not decided, before anyone picked up a tool.
Read it
Choosing a basement contractor in Chicago
Basements fail in ways kitchens do not. The questions worth asking a basement contractor are specific, and most of them are about water.
Read it
How to plan a kitchen remodel
A kitchen remodel is mostly decisions. Make them in the right order and the build is straightforward. Make them out of order and the…
Read it
Five steps from unfinished basement to living space
The difference between a finished basement and a basement with drywall on it comes down to light, air and heat. Here is how to get all three.
Read it
What good remodeling contractors do differently
Most contractors can build the thing. Fewer can run six trades, a permit schedule and your household at the same time. That is the d…
Read it
What luxury actually means in a custom home
Expensive finishes are available to anyone with a budget. A house that fits one family precisely is not, and that is the thing worth paying for.
Read it
What a bathroom remodel buys at three different budgets
Most people arrive with a number in their head and no sense of what it reaches. Here is what each tier genuinely covers, and where s…
Read it
Which kind of contractor your project actually needs
Most bad hires in Hinsdale are not bad people. They are the wrong category of contractor for the job, hired because nobody mentioned…
Read it
The first thing to do, and it is not picking finishes
Almost everyone starts with images of rooms they like. The people whose projects go well start by writing down what is actually wron…
Read it
Sunroom or enclosed deck, and which one survives February
The two look similar in photographs and are built almost nothing alike. The difference shows up in January, and in what the village asks you for.
Read it
The decision calendar, and how to live without a kitchen
A kitchen remodel fails on timing more often than on taste. Here is when each decision is genuinely due, and what to do about eating…
Read it
What a kitchen remodel really costs here
National averages are close to useless in Barrington or Hinsdale. These are the ranges we actually quote, and what sits inside them.
Read it
Six things to settle before anyone draws a plan
Custom homes go wrong early, not late. Almost every problem that shows up in month fourteen was a decision made badly in month one.
Read it
What a bathroom remodel costs, and why quotes differ so much
Bathrooms are the most common interior remodel in the country and the hardest to price from a photograph. These are the ranges, and …
Read it
Still have a question nothing here answers
Call and ask it. If the answer is that your project is not a good fit for us, we will say that too.