Re-Creating Your 'Happily Ever After' Home

With growing or shrinking family dynamics and ever changing lifestyles sometimes, we simply outgrow our house…or it stops feeling like home!  For some, the simple answer is to move or build elsewhere…but for others, moving is simply out of the question.  Perhaps it’s about logistics and proximity to work, the babysitter, particular schools, parks, arenas, malls, or the nearest city centre that makes it impossible to consider. Maybe they cannot bear to leave their neighbours, who over time have become great friends, or it is just the general tranquility or maturity of their neighbourhood that is the draw. For whatever the reason for not moving, renovating can be the answer. For some a kitchen, bathroom, basement, or open concept renovation can often resolve an indoor functionality issue and make them love their home once more. However, sometimes the solution for a specific problem involves an addition for much needed space or the need to update or recreate the exterior of the home. 

To some extent, what makes a house a home is the comfort that envelopes us when we are there—it comes from the unspoken trust we place in our home to keep us safe, warm, and dry. However, the home’s exterior shell is often overlooked until it is too late and damage has been done. After the winters we have had, and the temperature extremes that our region has encountered over the years, it is no wonder that homeowners are now seeing that the exterior elements of their homes, much like other products, have a “shelf life”.

Deteriorating facades are not just superficial…breakage, cracks, and rot affect the integrity of the building envelope, the very structure of the home.  Where there are cracks, there can be a pathway for water to leak in and mould to grow-- it is essential to your health and investment to keep your home mould-free.

So just as one makes efforts to rejuvenate oneself, over time it is also necessary to breathe new life into a tired home. So how does one do that? 

• Making sure that your roof is sound and re-shingled when needed (which is before a leak occurs) is imperative to protecting your beloved living space. 
• Renovating the exterior with new energy efficient windows and doors can also be an opportunity to enhance your indoor space by improving your views and allowing you to enjoy more natural light.
• By refreshing or rethinking the exterior façade, you can achieve so much.  Exterior home renovations can simply be an update of similar materials (shingles, siding, doors, windows, soffit, fascia, or trough, etc.) They can include changes to the cladding for ease of maintenance and improved security or to encompass an entirely new look.  Exterior renovations can turn a simple house into a dream retreat.  By changing the façade or adding to the structure, an entirely different style can be achieved—whether it is Cape Cod, English Tudor, French provincial, country, cottage-like, or contemporary, etc.  The ideas can be endless…but your home can become a unique reflection of you.
• Architectural enhancements like decorative details, decks, wrap around porches, gazebos, fences, retaining walls and new walkouts, or outbuildings can help you reclaim your outdoor space and create a harmonious transition to a new or improved outdoor room.  Space is a commodity – recapture yours!
• Making strategic changes for accessibility can be the difference that makes one feel truly at home.

Your home may be the biggest investment you will make—do not forget that it requires maintenance.  “Curb appeal” is essential --not just for your neighbour, a passerby, your investment’s value, or a potential buyer -- for you.  Imagine yourself walking up the sidewalk to that dream home that you always wanted, at the house you have always had. So much is possible – We, at Vanderzalm Construction Inc. can transform your ordinary home into an extraordinary Niagara retreat...the home of your “happily ever after”. Call us today for your custom home renovation.