Buying a house with unfinished or outdated rooms can be a real pleasure for some. I am one of those people. My husband… Not so much. We spent a couple years viewing houses in Norfolk County before we finally found an amazing house. Or so we thought…
We wanted to be able to make an open concept main floor with a huge kitchen island for the kids to sit at while I cooked hearing about their days. I just love the idea of a family kitchen.
If you were to go looking at real estate these days you’ll see all the new builds have open concept but with smaller kitchen/living room floor plans. We almost settled for one of them. Until we stumbled over a 15 year old split level in a newer subdivision. Under priced due to a rough current family damaging plenty of interior things.
My husband loved the idea of hiring a local custom home builder to do the handy work. He couldn’t measure and cut for the life of him. With the price of the house being so low he was all on board with the custom home builder and demolishing the kitchen to make our dream home.
Choosing A Custom Local Home Builder in Norfolk County
During our last home inspection we had our custom home builder walk through the house with us to start our dream home process. He found a few “red flags” in our basement that even our home inspector had missed.
The laundry room in the basement was unfinished at the time and he noticed that behind the washing machine the insulation was removed and mold was festering behind it. He then continued his inspection finding that our entire basement wasn’t insulated properly or framed in properly. This news was heart breaking for us as we thought the basement would just be cosmetic fixes.
We were SO thankful we had hired such an amazing custom home builder to do our renovations. Without his expertise we would all be suffering from mold poisoning. When I had done some research on local custom home builders it was a no brainer choosing this company. The reputation and reviews are through the roof with greatness. We knew we could trust their craftsmanship and their character.
Starting Our Custom Renovation
Now that we were digging into a basement renovation instead of our kitchen, we had a slew of furniture crammed upstairs in our house. I was feeling the OCD of everything needing a space pretty badly. I was really hoping this gutting of our basement and rebuilding won’t take months to do.
We started by having a mold removal company come in and access the depth of our issue. They worked quickly to remove all the drywall and rotted wood. Treated and removed all mold with air scrubbers and had barriers blocking off air flow to the furnace and rest of the house.
Once they were done the custom home builder came in to start drawing up a plan for our renovation. He went over a large list of things we needed to consider
Rebuild Plans
With our basement being completely bare bones, we had the free run with whatever we were envisioning. Plus some mandatory work including
- All new electrical
- Type of insulation
- Fireplace placement
- Bathroom configuration
- Laundry room frame in
- Added bedroom/closet
- Potlights
After those things were figured out we had all the fun renovation decisions to choose.
- Flooring
- Bathroom tile finishes
- Shower style
- Bathroom finishes
- Vanity
- Style of doors/knobs/lighting
- Paint/style of ceiling
- Fireplace finishes
I am sure I’m forgetting a few other little details. My husband definitely enjoyed leaving everyday for work. Out of sight out of mind. The custom home builder sent him photos and asked questions throughout the day by text making the procedure even more pleasurable.
Custom Quality Renovation
From the start of our post mold renovation we couldn’t believe how quickly the home builder worked. His team of contractors are top notch at their trades. When we had our bathroom and laundry piping all upgraded and moved around it was speedy and done so well. We weren’t without water for more than a few hours. Our laundry room was able to be reconfigured with this too. Making an easy enclosure around the eye sore furnace, water softener and heater.
Our kids were loving the drilling into the concrete to move the shower drain pipe over. Things we didn’t even think of, but would be an eye sore if they weren’t in the middle when they finished tiling. I did mention my OCD…
Electrical
The electrical was all ripped out and rewired across the whole basement. The previous home owners had wires all over and left open behind the drywall… UGH. Again, so thankful we had our custom home builder walk through the house with us and spot things when he did.
A massive bonus to the new electrical is that we were able to add more lights in the basement. Pot lights and ceiling fan in the bedroom. Outlets all over for all of our possible future ideas, perfection.
The fireplace was built in and masonry done in one weekend. Then the insulation was sprayed. We went to a hotel for 2 nights while the house aired out and then the drywall was installed. The drywall contractor was so amazing, he even repaired a good amount of the damage going upstairs too!
Before we knew it it was time for flooring and bathroom tiling. I was really nervous about how they would line everything up and how it would look. I was silly to think anything less than perfect. They asked me how I would like everything laid out and went at it! We chose custom trim and baseboards to go along with our doors and finishes.
The Final Touches
In the endgame of paint we were able to choose everything. The lines and seams all done exquisitely. I would recommend this custom home builder to everyone! We had so much say in all the details and decisions. The whole custom home renovation has made our basement more homey and us.
Contact Details
- Herrewynen Homes Inc.
- Norfolk County, Ontario
- 519-426-7996
- https://herrewynenhomes.ca/
