Home renovation/remodeling (Houston, Allen, Industry: sale, credit card, home builders)

[Doccouple]

Hi,
We just bought a small bungallow in the loop and have a few ideas on how to update and renovate it. Mainly redo kitchen, open up a few walls for a more open floor plan, redo masterbath and expand the master closet. I know its a lot of work but we want to make it ours and can really see creating something nice for us to live in.
Any advice on home renos? Any recommendations for good licensed contractors and home builders?? We need someone experienced and reliable and who can work fairly quickly. We want something modern and contemporary with clean lines sort of the nothing traditional or old school.
Any help will be appreciated. =)

[DJboutit]

Sign up to Angies List ASAP to find out the companies that do the best work we have used Angies list a few times pleased so far and from time to time the run specials to

[Doccouple]

Ah! Great advice! Neve even thought of that... And people in Houston really use Angie's list?
I also meant to say "sort of like urban living style homes"

[lsdesigns]

i'm a custom furniture designer, and living down the street from me is a great contractor. liscened , great guy, professional and reliable. let me know if you want me to give you his info.. always meet with the contractor and make sure you feel it's a good fit.. i've known brian for abouy 10 yrs.. he was doing some work for a client of mine and when we realized we were neighbors. we've kept in touch over the years,,talking business.. etc..

[TFW46]

Originally Posted by Doccouple

... people in Houston really use Angie's list?

I've used Angie's List a lot. It's very good for finding contractors. Not so much for the subscriber prices (which they wont tell you until after they've charged your credit card) and automatic renewals/upgrades without your permission.

[travelguy_73]

Last year we finished a major remodel of our 1930s house, new powder room, new kitchen, removed load-bearing wall, so what you are looking to do is pretty familiar. I can't recommend our GC (fantastic finished product, but too much drama to get there), but I can recommend an architect who does a lot of this type of work. PM me and I'll give you his info/website.

A couple of additional notes:
(1) add at least 20% to your budget. We did extra work to the infrastructure and upgrades...all worthwhile.
(2) opening up load-bearing walls in a pier-and-beam can be tricky. We had to do extra crawlspace work to make sure that the piers and beams could handle the concentration of weight. It all worked out great, but it wasn't necessarily planned for (probably should have been, though!).

[d2mini]

Residential Design | RD Architecture LLC

[desertsun41]

First..... the most useless places to start is Angies List, then the BBB, and finally the review sites such as Yelp or Yahoo. Finally the very worst place to look for contractors is Craigslist.

You see Angies list, Angie Hicks used to run Angies list just like Craigslist. It was just another giant garage sale where anything and everything can be bought and sold. But Craig Newmark blew her away with his Craigslist site so Angie started yet another contractor referral service........of which there are already 10 too many. The most famous and biggest rip off of them all is Service Magic who have recently changed their name to Home Advisor. Different name, same rip off to the consumer and especially the contractor.

People please don't support these Contractor Referral sites. They sell and resell and resell and resell old stale leads to contractors over and over and over again for $50 each. Consumer Affairs is trying to close them down but being unsuccessful.

The BBB is NOT NOT NOT affiliated with any Government entity. It is a private FOR PROFIT company. Contractors cough up starting at $400 to join. That gets them some BBB stickers for their front door. When a comment has been sent about a company, the company will get notice of it. If it's good they can choose to allow it to post publicly, or if it's a bad review they can make it go away for an extortion fee. Yes lets call it what it is. It's extortion. For lets say $300 the complaint will never see the public eye.

The review sites such as Yelp, Yahoo and Google reviews all work the same way but it's much cheaper for the store or contractor to pay the extortion fees to make the complaint go away.

Craigslist is the dredges of society. You can buy anything from sex to shoes. But the scariest are those clowns who advertise contractor services. Hey lets face it, the construction industry has been devastated and the unemployment rate among construction professionals are over 40%. These days anyone with a tool box and a pick up truck are advertising on Craigslist for contractor services. Few to any are licensed.

You say you want a professional. Do you realize that cost money? The unlicensed guy can do it for $10 grand but the professional has to get $15,000. I see it every day in my store. People want Ethan Allen furniture quality for Walmart prices. Few want quality anymore. This is a throw away society. Want proof? Look at the parking lots of Walmart, then go look at the parking lots of the Mom and Pop stores.

I recommend going to the professional organizations such as NAHB (National Assn of Home Builders), NARI (National Assn of the Remodeling Industry) and NKBA ( National Kitchen and Bath Assn). Their web sites have free referral services and ONLY refer the best. There are no clowns who join for a fee such as Angie or BBB. These are NON PROFIT organizations for the industry. YOU MUST EARN IT. Oh don't I know it.

[cheryjohns]

If a one story - consider doing treyed ceiling where possible. The additional heighth adds to the visual square footage in the older homes.

[AvaWrites]

If you are in Houston, just note that home builders are not licensed, but are required to register with the state. On the other hand, specialty contractors are licensed, including HVAC specialists, those installing fire sprinkler systems, plumbing, electricians and well drilling/pump installation specialists. Once you find contractors you'd like to work with, it's good to check their license or registration with the state.