Host:
This is the Home Remodeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That’s all one word: EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
You can also call 608-636-3343 — that’s 636-EDGE. Be sure to check out the website. We’ll probably touch on some recent projects, and while you’re there, you’ll also find links to Pinterest, Facebook, and Houzz — great resources for ideas when it comes to remodeling.
Talking this week about remodeling trends and taking a look at the big picture when it comes to home remodeling, joining us in studio this morning is Mike of Edge Construction. Mike, how have you been?
Mike:
Great, Sean. It’s good to talk to you.
Host:
This is kind of your break right now, but this is also a big time of year for home remodeling. I think a lot of folks start focusing on spring and summer projects. This is really go-time for that type of work, isn’t it?
Mike:
Yeah, it is. Usually between the holidays, people are just trying to get through all of that, which I completely understand. Then it becomes, “Okay, now what are we working on around the house?” I kind of half-joke about it, but around January 15, that’s when the phones really start ringing. So I encourage people to get started now.
Host:
It’s funny you mention that. I know trying to get people coordinated to do anything between December and New Year’s is tough.
Mike:
I don’t blame them. I always tell our design team to enjoy that little calm, because it never lasts.
Host:
For folks who are saying, “I want to have a project going this summer,” timeline-wise, we’re in that window now, right?
Mike:
We are. I’ll talk about timelines a little bit. About half the projects we’ve looked at in the last year have been additions. You can’t just go around the corner and find your dream house or your next house right now, so people are adding on, growing up, or going out.
Those projects take longer to get moving. Sometimes they spend four, five, six, even seven months in design. We had one last year that spent nine months in design, and then another five to six months to complete. So if you want to do a major addition and start talking about it today, that could mean finished plans by midsummer, then ordering products, signing contracts, and getting things moving.
And I’ll be honest — I don’t really like digging holes and pouring concrete when it’s below zero. So you do have to stay ahead of it a little bit.
Also, the concrete trades have been a limiting factor on larger jobs over the last couple of years. A lot of the mid-sized companies that used to pour foundations either retired or went out of business after 2008, and there’s been a lot of consolidation. We work with a really good local company, but they want as much notice as possible, so we often work backwards from those limiting factors.
Host:
Talking this morning with Mike of Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com. That’s all one word: EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Am I hearing it right — additions have become a bit of a trend?
Mike:
They definitely are a trend. It’s not always just, “We need more space.” A lot of times you’re solving problems created by the original layout of the house, especially in older homes where things were designed very differently.
The big ones are kitchens and primary suites. If you go back to the ’70s, you can find pretty big houses that still don’t have much of a primary suite — maybe a tiny bathroom and not much closet space.
Host:
That’s definitely true in our house. Nothing fancy there.
Mike:
Right, and that’s a sign of the times. Houses were very utilitarian after World War II through maybe the ’80s, and then things started getting a little bigger. Kitchens used to be tucked into the back corner of the house. They were small and weren’t really a common gathering space. So a very common addition for us is fixing up that kitchen.
Host:
I was watching a YouTube video about historical construction, and they were showing houses from the early 1800s. The kitchens weren’t just separate rooms — they were completely detached from the house.
Mike:
Because they used to burn down.
Host:
Exactly. They said if the kitchen caught fire, at least it would only burn down the kitchen building.
Mike:
That actually sounds a little like my cooking.
Host:
That sounds about right. But it really shows how these things change with the times — whether because of necessity or lifestyle.
Kitchens have become a huge focal point in homes. They’re no longer spaces you want tucked away. You want them front and center, and you want to show them off.
Mike:
Exactly. I always say the kitchen should join the rest of the house. In newer homes, everything is open. A lot of times the kitchen and great room are basically one connected common area. Even in smaller houses, if they’re designed well, those spaces can feel just as good as in a bigger house.
Another trend is that those spaces need to feel right-sized. If it means giving up some bedroom space, people seem okay with that. Even in new construction, people are realizing, “I just sleep there. It doesn’t have to be huge.” That extra space might get you a walk-in pantry, a better laundry room, or solve some other problem in the house.
Host:
That’s interesting. We’ve got basic ranch-style bedrooms, and I’ve always wondered what people even do with giant bedrooms. For us, it’s a bed, dressers, and that’s about it.
Mike:
That’s part of it. If you reduce the bedroom a little but gain a better closet or a nicer bathroom, that’s often a really good trade. People need storage, and a really nice primary bath matters. We have that now for the first time at our house, and it’s amazing how much time people actually spend in there.
Common additions for us now include primary suite expansions, sunrooms, and enlarging or improving the kitchen.
Host:
I wanted to ask about bathrooms too. Kitchens get a lot of attention, but bathrooms have really evolved as well. I wrote down the phrase “spa-like,” and while that gets overused, it really does feel like bathrooms have been elevated a lot.
When I was younger, bathrooms all looked pretty similar — shallow white tubs, white plastic surrounds, very basic cabinets. Now when I look at the bathrooms on EdgeConstructionCompany.com, they look super functional, well-designed, and visually appealing. That clearly wasn’t always the priority.
Mike:
It really wasn’t. My wife and I were just talking about this because our parents are getting older, and in those houses, bathrooms are still more like what you described.
We talked about how much longer they might be able to stay in their homes if they solved the bathroom problem — fewer steps, no stepping into a tub, a nice walk-in shower. A lot of good bathroom design now overlaps with universal design. It works for people getting older or dealing with health issues, but it’s also just nicer for everybody right now.
We have that kind of bathroom in our house, and we’re not old yet, but I can’t tell you how nice it is. It’s just a very well-designed bath that works for everyone.
Host:
And nobody complains about a well-designed space like that. It works today, it works in the future, and in the meantime it’s beautiful.
Mike:
Exactly. We sometimes subtly pick on builders because they don’t always do enough real design. The system is often geared toward getting people into action quickly, and homeowners are guilty of that too — they want to get moving, and I understand that.
But sometimes trends are bad ideas. We’re remodeling a lot of ’90s houses now, and those kitchens all kind of look the same. There’s no counter space around the stove, the fridge is in the wrong spot, and the dining room table blocks the path to the patio door. If more time had been spent designing those spaces, they wouldn’t all have turned out that way.
I’d rather see real design happening. We’ve built houses that were too big too — common spaces that were just cavernous. Unless you’re entertaining 50 people all the time, that doesn’t always feel right. I like it when homeowners go on that journey with us and are willing to right-size the space.
Host:
That phrase — “real design” — really stands out. Some older solutions probably looked good on paper, like kitchen peninsulas, but didn’t end up being the most functional in real life.
Mike:
Exactly. And we have a lot of help in our back pocket now. We’ve got great CAD systems that give us fantastic renderings. Design is all about trying to figure out how a space is going to feel when it’s actually built, and that’s hard to do.
We don’t expect homeowners to nail that on their own. Sometimes we have to steer them and say, “I know this looks good on paper, but it might not work that well.” We’ve torn out countless peninsulas and heard homeowners complain about corner cabinets, dead counter space, and wanting an island where family and friends can gather.
A lot of what we know comes from hearing homeowners every day — what they like, what they don’t like, what works, what doesn’t, and what they’d change if they could.
Host:
If you haven’t been to EdgeConstructionCompany.com, check it out now. Look through the portfolio and recent work, and definitely click through to Pinterest, Facebook, and especially Houzz. There are some really cool projects there.
We’re going to continue our conversation about remodeling trends and talk more about things like sunrooms and other additions next.
Host:
This is the Home Remodeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Talking this week with Mike about home remodeling trends, and one of the big ones has been additions. Mike, we touched a little bit on additions for kitchens, but you also mentioned sunrooms and those types of spaces.
In Wisconsin, there are a few months of the year where it’s not exactly pleasant to be outside, but you still want light and you still want that feeling of being connected to the outdoors. What qualifies as a sunroom now, and is that trend mostly driven by people wanting to enjoy the outdoors more comfortably?
Mike:
If you had asked me that 20 years ago, I would have said a sunroom was kind of a lesser space — like a screened porch with windows that maybe had a little space heater in it.
That’s not really what they are anymore. The ones we see and do are more like true additions. They’re conditioned spaces with heat, air conditioning, and often fireplaces. They do have a lot of windows, so yes, you get all that natural light, but you also get another space you can use pretty much year-round.
Now, those rooms do present some design challenges. All those windows can create a lot of heat gain. If you’ve got a south-facing wall full of windows, that’s great this time of year, but in the middle of July it can be a lot. So you have to think through how to shade those rooms in summer unless you want to spend a lot on air conditioning.
There are also smart ways to use that sunlight. It was popular in places like Colorado years ago to orient houses so a south-facing wall could bring in sun and heat materials like a concrete floor or wall that would absorb heat during the day and slowly release it at night. If done right, it can actually make a real difference. I think that’s smart building, honestly.
Host:
Could windows count as a trend too? Because it feels like in a lot of remodeling projects, if there’s a way to go bigger or add more windows, that’s what people want.
Mike:
I think so. I’ve never met anybody who wanted less natural light. In kitchens especially, if there’s one small window over the sink, expanding it is usually worth it. If pennies fell from heaven, I think people would trade out every small window for a bigger one.
Adding windows is fairly common in our remodels. But in Wisconsin, we also talk a lot about lighting inside the house because there are several months where you leave in the dark and come home in the dark. So our thinking is: daylight the inside of the house as much as possible, but make it very controllable.
We want lighting that can be dimmed, zoned, and layered so you can brighten things up when you need to and tone it down when you want the house to feel more comfortable.
Host:
Lighting itself feels like a trend too — adjustable, customizable, intentionally designed lighting.
Mike:
It definitely is. LED lighting and the fixtures we have available now let you get the lighting exactly right for a room. They’re incredibly efficient, they last a long time, and the quality of the light is much better than it used to be.
When I walk into a house that’s 10 years old or older, a lot of times the kitchen lighting has this kind of dull, earthy tone to it. It doesn’t feel like clean daylight. It took a while to get LED color right, but I think we’re finally there.
Host:
Talking this morning with Mike of Edge Construction. The website is EdgeConstructionCompany.com. Great day to give them a call if you’re thinking about summer remodeling: 608-636-3343. That’s 636-EDGE.
Where’s the laundry room these days? We’ll find out next.
Host:
This is the Home Remodeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction, online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Talking this week with Mike about some of the big remodeling trends. It used to be that the laundry room was always in the basement. Then for a long time the trend was to move it to the main floor. Now it seems like maybe it’s a little of both. What are you seeing?
Mike:
I’d say it’s still about 90 percent main level.
That said, in the last five years we have moved some back to the basement. If you’ve got a family, you’ve got a lot of laundry. In a lot of newer homes, the trend was to put the washer and dryer right off the garage entry, kind of as part of that landing zone. But people complain about walking through it all the time.
So we’ve taken some of those and moved them to the basement, where we can create a much bigger walk-in laundry room — almost like the size of a bedroom. You can wash, dry, fold, hang clothes, and actually have room to function in there.
I also recently saw something interesting: a second-floor closet with an all-in-one washer/dryer unit. I always thought of those as more of a European-style setup, but this homeowner had one upstairs just for towels. They had five kids in sports, and that thing ran almost constantly. I thought that was kind of brilliant.
Host:
Laundry is one of those things that’s never really done. Even when you’re getting ready to go on vacation and trying to get everything caught up, the morning you leave you create more laundry.
When you mentioned those garage-entry spaces, are we still seeing lockers, benches, and built-in storage in those back hallways?
Mike:
Absolutely. That back hallway is a great place for that, and it’s been popular for at least 10 years. If you’re a parent and that space isn’t organized, kids will just make a pile. So anything you can do to get it under control helps.
Also, if your house is like ours, the door from the garage gets used way more than the front door. So people are often walking through that hot mess every day, and I don’t like that either.
Host:
That’s true — sometimes the front door practically sticks because it never gets opened.
Home offices are another big one. They’ve gone from being “the place where I throw my stuff and charge my phone” to real, legitimate offices.
Mike:
They are, although it doesn’t seem like as many people are working 100 percent from home now. It’s more often some kind of hybrid arrangement.
Because of that, we’re designing a lot of flexible spaces. Maybe it’s technically a bedroom, but it can also be an office, a den, or a hangout space. People like having that option, especially because an extra bedroom still adds value if they ever sell the house.
Host:
And basements are such a great place to create that kind of livable space.
Mike:
They really are. If you’re on a budget — and everybody is — the cheapest place to add space is in the basement. It already has a roof, it already has a foundation, and all the mechanical systems are right there. It’s set up to be finished.
The challenge is coming up with a good design that feels comfortable. About half the basement projects we do now include a separate zone for heating and cooling. It’s not cheap, but I think it can be some of the best money you spend.
For example, during the week it might just be my wife and me, but on weekends the grandkids show up and suddenly the basement gets used. I can turn the heat on down there and warm it up, but when it’s not being used much, I can set it at 60 and leave it alone. It’s a very efficient space to heat and cool.
It’s also about a quarter of the cost of doing an addition, so you can save a lot of money by finishing the basement.
Host:
I do have a finished basement, and one thing that stands out now compared to older basements is how much more comfortable they can feel — both because of better finishes and better lighting.
Mike:
Exactly. The goal is to make it feel less like a basement and more like finished space upstairs. Good lighting helps. Sometimes adding a window helps too — there’s just something about having glass and natural light that changes the feeling of a space.
The other thing we like to do is match the finishes to the upstairs. A lot of times the basement ends up nicer than the main floor. But matching those finishes helps it feel like part of the house instead of an afterthought.
Host:
And that’s a complete reversal from what used to be acceptable for basements. What counted as a really nice basement in the ’70s, ’80s, or even ’90s definitely wouldn’t cut it now.
If you haven’t remodeled your basement yet, it’s absolutely something worth looking at. If you’re thinking about doing that, Edge Construction would love to talk with you. Just pick up the phone and call 608-636-3343 — that’s 636-EDGE — or visit EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
Host:
As we wrap up the show this week, we were talking a little earlier about basement remodeling and quality. You know, as much as we talk about being green and energy-efficient, one of the greenest things you can do is build or remodel with quality so it lasts and doesn’t end up in a landfill. Let’s talk about that trend toward quality.
Mike:
That does seem to be more important to homeowners now — putting in better-quality products that last a long time. And like you said, that’s probably the greenest thing you can do: buy something that doesn’t have to be remade, shipped, and installed again.
That’s why wood floors, stone, and other durable materials are so popular. I talk a lot about our cabinets because that’s one area where I see a lot of builders cut corners.
The thing is, almost all cabinets look great when they’re brand new. But what do they look like 10, 20, or 30 years later? We use a company called Great Northern up in northern Wisconsin, and it was one of the best decisions we ever made. Yes, they cost a little more, but they check every box in terms of quality.
A lot of times the finish is what fails first on cabinets. Homeowners aren’t usually thinking about that when they’re buying new cabinets, but it matters — especially around sinks and other high-traffic areas where water wears things down. We pay attention to that stuff so homeowners don’t have to.
When you buy those cabinets, they’re going to last.
Host:
And once you need to repair something like that, it’s never really the same. Getting it right the first time is always the best approach.
Mike:
Exactly. We see that a lot, especially with flips, where a lot of effort goes into squeezing another three, four, or five years out of an old kitchen. I’m not going to say that’s always wrong, but personally I’d rather put those resources into a product that’s truly going to last and serve you well for a long time.
Host:
Talking this morning with Mike of Edge Construction. If you’d like to talk with the team at Edge Construction, just pick up the phone and give them a call at 608-636-3343 — that’s 636-EDGE. You can also find them online at EdgeConstructionCompany.com.
And of course, Edge Construction brings you the Home Remodeling Show right here on 1310 WIBA.