5 Most Popular Home Additions In Colorado

One of the best ways to increase the functionality and value of your residential property is to get house additions. The best thing about getting these additions is that they significantly increase the value of your property.

If you’ve been living in the same house for very long, your family situation has likely changed, and you may feel the need for more space or some alterations in your home. Sometimes, well-planned home additions can be the best solution to accommodate a growing family’s needs.

Boost Your Home’s Resale Value

Adding on to your existing home is a highly exciting prospect. However, it can also involve a significant investment. While house additions add considerable value to your home, that is only one of the reasons to start on a home improvement project that includes additions. It’s a good idea to add to your house if you are considering staying there for many years. This way, you can get an even better return on investment as you can benefit from what you’ve built as well.

Elegant wine room

Popular Home Addition Options

Some home additions are far more likely to pay off over the long term. While you prioritize your family’s needs, it’s also a good idea to opt for remodels that will give you the best ROI. Here are the five popular home additionsmost likely to pay off.

  • Bathroom Addition– When you look online for “remodel my bathroom,” you will find various design ideas and trends. If you feel that your family home doesn’t have a sufficient number of bathrooms, consider adding a new one or even a half-bathroom to the available space.
  • Kitchen Expansion If your existing kitchen is very compact or cramped, replacing old appliances and refinishing the cabinets just isn’t going to cut it. It might be a better option to add to the existing kitchen space. This addition can improve the movement flow while increasing your property’s value.

Some other house additions you can consider are the addition of a second story, constructing a bedroom over the garage, or installing a new deck.  The house additions you choose would take into account your family’s needs now and in the near future as well.  

Hire the services of a skilled and experienced remodeling contractor who provides custom solutions based on your family’s needs and budget. Focus on aspects such as functionality, practicality, durability, and cost, so you have a house addition that provides excellent value for money.

Cook Delicious Meals On Your New Custom Made Kitchen

Dream Kitchen

Your kitchen is the heart of your home, and this hardworking space sees a significant amount of wear and tear over time.  The features in your kitchen have to endure exposure to water, greasy fumes, moisture, food and liquid spills as well as regular use.

These factors cause different installations to look dull and dated before their time. If you notice that your kitchen isn’t feeling comfortable or looking good any longer, you should consider getting home kitchen remodeling done. 

Kitchen Designs- Popular Styles

The correct materials and colors will boost your custom kitchen’s appearance.

If you are planning to renovate this space, you might have looked online with search words like “remodel my kitchen” etc. And you will find there are lots of design trends and ideas mentioned there. Since every kitchen space is different and every homeowner will have specific requirements, its best to opt for custom designs and plans. Kitchen design trends keep changing with each passing year.

While it is a good idea to be aware of the latest trends, it is also necessary to ensure that the styling you choose complements the aesthetic of your home. For example, if your dining room or living areas have been designed on a modern or contemporary style, a classic or traditional styled kitchen might not fit in well even if it is the latest trend. 

Custom Additions for Your New Kitchen

Creating a kitchen space that is stylistic, functional, comfortable, and long-lasting is a lot about planning it well and installing customized features using suitable quality materials. Some custom additions that you can include in your home kitchen remodeling project include:

  • Creating the right kind of counter layouts to facilitate proper movement flow in your kitchen space.
  • Using resilient and complementing countertop materials that will withstand regular use.
  • Installing the right cabinetry with the necessary configuration and storage space.
  • Including task and ambient lighting.
  • Using high-grade hardware that will be aesthetically appealing and long-lasting.
  • Using materials that will be easy to maintain and keep clean.
  • Ensuring that there is a proper allocation of space for various kitchen appliances in your home.

When you have a customized kitchen space, it allows for proper movement flow and makes it more practical for daily use. It is always a good idea to work with designers that would be able to provide you with customized solutions based on your specific needs. Opt for features and installations that provide you with optimal functionality while adding to the beauty and value of your home.

Imagine Your Perfect Dream Home

Everyone dreams of that perfect home that will give them the space that every family member needs or wants. It is great just to let your imagination run free and plan that perfect dream home. The problem is that many dream projects quickly become nightmares, but following a few tips will help you realize your dreams of a custom home. 

Tips for Building Your Dream Home

  1. Use recommended professionals for your build. We all have that relative that knows a guy or has a friend who can help save some money. Make sure you do your research on whoever you are hiring to help build your home. It starts with hiring a good architect and then hiring the best general contractor you can trust and work alongside. Many people try and save money by doing everything themselves, but a good general contractor will save you time, money, and countless headaches.
  2. Know what you want and what the non-negotiables are. You have dreamt about this home for a while and have now hired the best contractor you can find, and you trust them. Know what you want for your house and what you don’t have to have. How many bedrooms do you want? What about outdoor space? Are these dreams realistic in your budget? If not, what are the must-haves that you want to make this home your dream home?
  3. Build for your future. If this is your dream home, is it also your forever home. If so, make sure you plan for your future and not just for the immediate needs of the present. Your children will not be little forever, and you should plan at least ten years down the line. What about the age and needs of your parents or yourselves? Does a downstairs master bedroom make sense?
  4. Avoid trends. If this is your forever home, make sure you are careful building towards short-lasting design trends. We have all seen those dome-style homes that looked great and were all the hype for a few years. Now they are not so easy to sell. While some trends like an open concept kitchen are here to stay, don’t go wild, spending too much money on trending fixtures and features that might make your home seem dated in five years.
  5. Don’t overbuild. Be careful when designing those large single-purpose rooms. Sure, that large playroom or workout space sounds great, but will you use it for years to come? Before you finalize your plans and start building, take a look at your neighborhood. Will your house be the most expensive one on the block? If so, consider the fact that you might be in trouble if you ever decide to sell.
custom home

New Kitchen Cabinet Ideas

Your kitchen cabinets are the foundation of a modern home and your lifestyle. You can easily make this foundation a lot more practical by upgrading the look and the functionality of your kitchen cabinets. A few of the ways to add spice is with decorative colors, new finishes, and hardware. No matter the style you want or like, the best kitchen designs will inspire you to upgrade, and the space-saving tips will make those new designs in your kitchen functional. 

Top Style Trends of 2020

  • Use Metal. You can use metal in a couple of different ways. You can use it to create the whole cabinet, which gives you a stylish and durable alternative to wooden cabinets. Or if you have always liked the look of glass fronts on your cabinets but are a little nervous about people seeing straight into your cabinets, a current trend is to use metal grates for the fronts of your cabinets. That will give you a modern look, while only allowing a small peek inside of those cabinets.
Dream Kitchen
  • Whitewashed cabinets are a great way to bridge the gap in a multi-colored kitchen and yet still keep a low profile. A gray whitewash can help soften the contrast between black and white cabinets. This effect is achievable by opting for an ash wood or whitewashing your existing brown cabinets.
  • Paint the interior of the cabinets to add a fun surprise using a bright accent color found in the room. That is a great way to experiment whether or not you can live with bright colors in your space.
  • Glossy fronts will help warm up your kitchen by reflecting natural light. You can do this by either painting those fronts using a lacquer finish. Either of these designs can be done in different colors if you are ready to go bold in your design.
  • A rustic approach to your kitchen is achievable in a few ways. You can wire brush to distress the cabinet fronts before staining to add an aged look to your cabinets. You can also achieve this look by using mixed materials like conventional bottom cabinets and then rustic beams for the uppers to add shelving to hold your dishes.

Top Space-Saving Tips

  • Corner cabinets: Long gone are the days of the lazy susan corner cabinet. We would recommend customizing your cabinets to fit into the corners. They will add plenty of space to store those large counter appliances. If that doesn’t suit you, you can opt for two small cabinets that would be a great place to store cutting boards, trays or baking sheets.
  • Try pullout storage. Great space-saving designs might include a pullout cabinet for spices or other dry goods. That helps keep your cabinets organized but also keeps everything within easy reach.
  • Add storage above or around a window. In your kitchen, every extra storage space will go used. If you add a shelf above your window, it will give you a little extra space to display art or your fancy dinnerware.
  • Hang items on the wall. Most have seen the trend of hanging pots and pans, there are also plenty of ways to hang serving and cooking utensils, but you could also create ways to hang things like cutting boards. All of the space in your cabinets while give you a little extra functionality by keeping them close at hand.
  • Add storage to your new kitchen island. Some ways to do this is do add shelving, doors, or drawers to both sides of your island.

Imagine Having the Custom Home of Your Dreams

custom home

It does not matter if this is the first custom home you are building, or you have experience in seeing a custom homemade before. If not done correctly, building a custom home can become a major frustration. It is a time-consuming process with constant decisions needing making. While some may say it is one of the most stressful things you can do in your marriage, we believe that it doesn’t have to be. With the proper forethought and a little work ahead of time, you can avoid a lot of that stress. Following these tips can help you not be so frustrated while building a successful home. 

Building Your Dream Home

Find the Right Custom Home Builder

Having the right home builder is the most critical decision you will need for the process. There are a lot of tips on the web on choosing the right contractor, but for your custom home, find one who has experience with design. That will allow you and your contractor to make the needed adjustments as you work your way towards completion. Otherwise, you will continuously have to go back to the architect, costing you both time and money. A custom home builder also needs to have experience in the area of your interest. That means that he knows the process for pulling permits, as well as what is required to ensure your home can handle the surrounding environment. 

Keep the Function of Your Custom Home as Most Important

Most people dream about what their custom home will look like and as important as that might be, it is even more critical to make sure it meets your functional needs. The look and feel of the home can be adjusted to fit your desires, but how the home functions for you and your family is harder to change. What type of storage do you need, room layouts, traffic flow, and workspaces are all essential factors needed to design and build your home. 

blue siding house

Plan For the Future

As you build your custom home, it is easy to think about what you want and the needs you have now or even in the next two years, but will that dream home you are building still be your dream in 10-15 years? Think about the hear and now but also think of what you will want later. How many children do you want? What size yard do you want? Is a ground floor master bedroom important for your future? The goal is to make sure as your family changes; this dream home will stay a dream.

Find the Right Land

As you are planning your dream home and the cost it will take to build, typically, the plot of land is not in the price that your home builder quotes. Once you find that perfect lot to build on, discuss what you want with your custom home builder to make sure the land and the home designs are compatible. 

In planning your dream home, it is essential to find a compatible piece of property to build on. While it is rare to find the perfect piece of land for your custom home, do not jump on the first plot that you see. Discuss your ideas with your custom home builder and get their input on whether or not the land and the home designs are compatible.

Trust Your Custom Home Builder

If you did your homework in step one and found a trustworthy custom home builder that you can work with, it is time for you to trust who you have chosen. They have the knowledge and expertise to make sure your custom home dreams will be fulfilled in the most efficient ways, trying their best to come in on budget and on time. 

What Goes Into Creating That Dream Kitchen?

Dream Kitchen

Updating that drab and dirty kitchen is one of the most common remodels that people want to do when they first purchase a home or are ready to update the house they have lived in for years. The foundation for any kitchen remodel is the kitchen cabinets. Though renovating your cabinets is one of the most expensive parts of a kitchen, remodel is also where you see the most improvement for your effort and expenses. 

Top Design Trends of Kitchen Remodels

While many trends seem fleeting when it comes to kitchen cabinets and a kitchen remodel, these trends seem to stay around and remain popular for years to come.

  • Open shelving though the trend of having open cabinets in the kitchen has been around for a while. This trend is useful to show off antique cookware or bespoke kitchenware. We do not see it ending anytime soon.
  • A pop of color is another top kitchen remodel trend in the current market. If you love color, it is easy to add a little extra pop of color in some updated appliances or with a new hood as you are upgrading those kitchen cabinets.
  • Sleek new kitchen cabinets is another trend. In the past, kitchen cabinets had a crown molding on the top and milled doors with designs. The top trend now has a cleaner look by removing the modeling and extra design elements. The practical side of this trend is that it gives you a little extra space for storage.
  • One last trend we are seeing is matching the countertop with the backsplash. This trend helps limit the number of materials in your kitchen, giving you a cleaner look to your remodel.

What Materials are Best for Your New Cabinets?

Creating That Dream Kitchen

When planning a kitchen remodel, one of the most important things to consider is the construction of your new kitchen cabinets. Though most people aim for solid wood, it has its drawbacks, so here are some of your options for materials and why they might work for your remodel. 

  • Medium Density Fiberboard- MDF is a composite material made from recycled wood fibers and resin. You find this dense and cumbersome product in a lot of the mass-produced cabinets in big box stores. Ikea uses this material in much of their kitchen cabinetry. The benefits of MDF is it is resistant to cracking and peeling and is easy to paint. It is also a smoother option than plywood.
  • Plywood – This is material is not only cost-effective but also more stable and water-resistant than MDF. It will have an exposed plastic laminate or wood veneer to finish off the cabinet.
  • Particle Board – This type of material is possibly the least used material for quality kitchen cabinet remodels because it is the least firm of all the elements. It is made by grinding up wood chips and gluing them together.
  • Metal – Typically made of stainless steel, which gives a kitchen that contemporary feel, generally found used in commercial kitchens. It is harder to keep clean from fingerprints and scratches, but because moisture doesn’t affect it like it does wood, it is an excellent option for moisture-rich places.

As important as the cabinet box material is, most clients and designers think of the doors when they think of a cabinet remodel since this is what you see. If you are wanting to add that pop of color through painting your cabinet doors, then MDF doors are the way to go, though you will not be able to stain these because there is no grain. If you want that classic wood look in your kitchen, plan on using solid wood fronts to paint or stain. Just be prepared to filter through a range of materials and stain options to get the look you want.

There is a lot of knowledge that is needed to design and craft the right custom kitchen for your remodel, and the kitchen cabinet is the foundation because it is what makes up the majority of the kitchen. The style and design of them will play a big part in your kitchen remodel becoming your dream kitchen. 

Tips for Hiring a General Contractor

blue siding house

Often time the hardest part of home renovations is finding someone you can trust to give a fair bid and do excellent work. You are letting a perfect stranger into your home and need to trust them.

It is a shame that horror stories are so rampant in the construction industry. Stories of contractors that do not communicate, run up costs, do not arrive on time if they complete the job at all, even though they took the money. That is a stigma we at Stone Draft Houses are fighting to prove wrong. 

A general contractor helps oversee all your construction needs.

6 Tips to Help Choose a Contractor That You Can Trust

  1. Know what you want. Start with more than an idea or dream but start with a plan and know what you want. This way, you will get a more accurate estimate from the contractors.
  2. Ask for references. When researching who you want to bid on your project, make sure you look for recommendations and feedback from others who have used the contractors. One way to start is by asking friends, family, co-workers, or neighbors about who they have used and what issues they had or didn’t have. Another place to look is online sights as Houzz, Facebook, and Google reviews. All of these will help you get a better feel for a contractor. When you are ready to move to the next step of interviewing multiple contractors, ask for references, call these references, and, if possible, see the quality of the finished projects.
  3. Interview multiple contractors. Ask a lot of questions during this process. Does the contractor have experience doing what you want? Is he licensed and insured? How often will the general contractor visit your project during the remodel or build? If the contractor is not going to visit often, who will be running the project, and how often will they visit the project? How does the contractor control the quality of the work performed? How long will the project take? Will there be a calendar established before the project begins, showing start date, dates showing the various phases, and finish time? Will the project be clean during the remodel or build? Will floor, cabinet, and countertop protection be provided during the remodeling or build? What dust confinements will be in place during the remodel? Who will be doing the work you are having done? Will it be employees or sub-contractors? If employees, does the contractor have a liability certificate and workman’s comp certificate? If sub-contractors are licensed and insured? What type of permits will be needed, and is the contractor going to pull a permit? These are fundamental questions to ask. Be sure to generate your list of items that include these and others you come up with to ask during your interview. Ask for written bids that you can adequately compare to see which contractor will be the best fit for you and your home.
  4. Compare estimates. If you are going to get multiple bids from various contractors, make sure that each contractor is looking at the same plan, scope, and if possible materials, so that you can adequately compare the bids. If one contractor brings up items that you were not aware of and is going to include those in his estimate, make sure to contact the other contractors to add or adjust their assessments with those changes. Don’t merely compare the bottom line of the projected cost. Does each contractor include the materials, appliances, fixtures, and established budgets (allowances)? If any of the contractors are not covering such materials, this estimate will be deceivingly lower than a contractor’s estimate that does include everything. Make sure all contractors are bidding everything the same so that you can adequately compare, evaluate the full potential cost of the project, and determine which contractor will be the best fit for you and your home.
  5. Check for licenses. General Contractors and most subcontractors should be licensed, and though this varies by state, here in Colorado, we need to obtain licensing at the municipal level. In contrast, subcontractors, like electricians and plumbers, are required to have state-level licenses. Stone Draft Homes holds a nationwide ICC tested Class B General Contractor’s license. We also have several municipal permits for Denver and the surrounding municipalities. Make sure your contractor is using licensed sub-contractors for these work items. Stone Draft Homes only uses licensed sub-contractors that perform the highest level of quality to the Stone Draft Homes standard!
  6. Check for Insurances. Know what is covered by your homeowner’s insurance and what is covered by the contractor’s business insurance. Ask for and make sure you get a copy of the company’s insurance policy as proof. Have the contractor’s insurance company send you a copy of their insurance certificates DIRECTLY to you and listing you as an Additional Insured. Do not accept a copy of a license from the contractor, as these sometimes are fabricated, but request one directly from the contractor’s insurance company.

US News wrote an article that covers 18 tips for hiring a contractor. You can sum up all of these suggestions with ‘do your homework before you hire a contractor.’ It is work that will pay off in the end, and you will not regret it. If we can help answer any of these questions or bid on some work, please contact us. 

Understanding Contractor Bids

cozy office

You have a vision for your project, researched what materials you want for the job, researched the contractors you want to bid on your job, and have met with them. You are now at one of the most important parts of the process of hiring a contractor and having them begin the work. Reading and understanding the bids you have received.

It is tempting to take the bids and immediately go to the bottom line and look for the lowest bid. We at Stone Draft Homes have lost bids because of this multiple times, and to be honest, that is a tough part of the job. What makes it frustrating and disappointing is bids not being compared properly.

Why Compare Bids

Unless every contractor gives the same specifications for your job, things like drawings, material lists, and product names put together by an architect or designer, the bids presented to you are just best guesses for what you want.

Exterior entrance door
What type of tile is being used in the bid?

If this does not happen, the contractor is guessing as to what you want as the project unfolds. This guess is dependent on the vision you gave him and the discussions you had. Things like the type of tiles for the floor or the finishing of the walls. Each assumption could be the difference of hundreds of dollars that in the end equals thousands of dollars.

As you read the bid, the first key is to look at how the bid is put together. The character of the contractor is seen in this step. If organized well, it will include all the details of what you asked for and delivered when you agreed. Then it is safe to assume the job will be the same way. If written on a cocktail napkin with just a total price of the job, then I would question the professionalism of the contractor.

Does the bid contain every aspect of the job? Things like porta-potty for the crew, dumpster to haul away the trash and debris, costs for pulling the permits with the city, and the contract price for each item. These all need to be included in the bid because each of these costs will be passed on to you. 

Another thing to look for is listing the exact amount of each item needed. How many boxes of tiles is the contractor saying they will need? There is a difference in a bid that says tiles for floor amount $1,000 and one that says 14 boxes of 12 x 12 ceramic tiles amount $1,385. It is not just in the amount either. Make sure the contractor gives a detailed list of every supply he will need to do the job. 

Though the look and feel of the submitted bid do not guarantee a professional job will be done with excellence, it does give a sign that one will be done. Here at Stone Draft Homes, we want to have the opportunity to bid on your next job by giving you a detailed bid that will complete the vision you have for your project. Contact us today.