Are you looking to update your living environment but not sure if you want to renovate or build a brand-new home? As a long time Chapel Hill designer-builder, I can help you figure that out. Let’s take a look at the options.
If you live in Chapel Hill and have one of those nice 3% mortgages, love your neighbors and your location… your best bet may be to explore a renovation and/or addition.
Remodels
For a renovation/addition, we’ll first need to determine:
- Is your property suitable for this type of investment? Does the value of nearby homes justify your added financial investment? Does your site have additional space and proper zoning for the proposed addition? We’ll walk you through these early questions and provide rapid information and guidance, leading to thoughtful and sound decisions.
- How will a remodel and/or addition satisfy your needs? We will visit with you at your home and help you visualize and outline the possibilities and determine if concepts are practical and cost-effective or not.
New Builds
When new build is the right option for you.
Perhaps you live in Chapel Hill and are not the beneficiary of a low 3% mortgage. Or maybe you have recently moved to Chapel Hill and are renting, ready to move into the space of your dreams, but haven’t quite decided if your path includes a new custom home or a remodel/addition to an existing Chapel Hill property. We can help with this, too.
Our design-build custom home and remodel process includes a careful examination of properties that interest you – before you make the offer. We’ll visit the site (whether it is land ready for a build or a dated home needing a big lift) and highlight for you what are the pitfalls, the positives, the unknown extra cost factors. With our many years of experience, our comments are grounded in reality. We are not invested in securing a contract to design-build with you. We are invested in being the best advisors and partners we can be for you.
What are the Time Considerations?
Timing is a consideration, and you might wonder how long does each option take from start to finish.
The DESIGN process for a remodel or a new build takes about the same amount of time, usually 6-8 weeks of Carol Ann ‘s design expertise before the plan goes to the structural engineer and then to the surveyor (required with a changed footprint). Design and related services may require 4-5 months total.
PERMITTING is often a 3-month process, depending on the municipality.
CONSTRUCTION TIME, however, can differ quite a bit, depending on your path. To build a new home, relative to site conditions and time of year, we would expect to require ten to eleven months. A substantial remodel/addition may need a few months less time. Smaller remodels can reduce the time even more.
What about Contracts?
A big plus for working with Zinn Design Build is that our construction contracts are fixed price. This means that we have created highly detailed documents with all decisions made up front. We use these documents to price and to build your project, and when you sign a contract to build, there is no mystery about what your final cost number will be.
