A Hyde Park whole-home remodel, with an addition

What we did, and why it matters

The house was solid but dated, and the owners wanted to stay in their neighborhood rather than move. So the plan became a full remodel with an addition: add the room they were short on, fix the exterior so it would last, and finish the basement so the square footage they already owned finally got used.

The addition came first. We framed it, tied the roof into the existing structure, dried it in, and finished it inside and out to match the original house, so it reads as if it was always there. That matching is the hard part of an addition, and it is where a lot of them go wrong.

With the new footprint set, the old siding came off the whole house and new siding and trim went on. Every window was replaced and flashed properly while the walls were open, which is the right time to do it and the wrong thing to skip. Downstairs, the basement went from storage to living space with a finished family room and finished rooms off it.

Because our crew did the framing, the exterior, the windows, and the interior trim, the details match from the old house to the new addition to the basement, and the schedule never stalled waiting on someone else. The owners had one phone number for the whole project, and they used it.