Riddle Construction Company, Inc., remodeled our home which was originally built in the late teens or early twenties. We had to remove all prior remodeling but were left with the rock foundations. We added nine-foot ceilings on the main level with two baths and two bedrooms on the second floor. We increased the square footage from about 1900 square feet to approximately 4900.
The old kitchen became the new dining room; we added 12 feet to the former mud room and made a new kitchen; the former living room became a two-story great room and we added eight feet in depth; we added 12 feet to the master bedroom; and built a new master bath and walk-in closet.
All floors are now oak (including all closets and baths) for easier cleaning and allergies; the floor grates are all oak, too. We used the former HVAC system upstairs and installed a new geothermal unit for the main floor. It is expensive up front but has started to pay for itself in heating and cooling bills.
We tried to match all the old doors with five-panel new doors, including pocket doors wherever we could to save wall space. We used crown molding in ALL rooms, wide moldings around all windows and doors like the old house had and wide baseboards in all rooms.
We did go with a metal roof, blown-in foam insulation in attic and walls as well as some regular insulation where needed (around interior baths for privacy). Cabinets were made and installed by a cabinet maker in Mills River and he made to our specifications including surprises of two pull-out spice racks, pull-out pantry shelves, recycling center and two pull-out shelves inside two corner cabinets. All cabinets and drawers but two have soft close features. The two that do not are in a corner.
Sam and Andrew were great to work with on this project. They listened to me in particular as I definitely had ideas as to how the house should look when finished but they were great as guides to get me to the finish. They learned a lot as well as I did. I do not like granite countertops and stainless steel appliances (they show hand prints too much and I have five grandchildren--17, 14, 7, 5 and 19 months). My countertops are made of wood from the old house, our former house in Cary, NC, and wood from projects my husband made while in the Navy. We used appliances from our old house as they were less than five years old--dishwasher, oven, cooktop, microwave, refrigerator, freezer, etc. These are all white to go with the bottom cabinets of dark gray and the top cabinets are white.
We started the project in May, 2014, by adding a two-car garage. We moved into a rental in May, 2014, and moved back into the finished remodel on June 26, 2015. We were in a rental house for a total of 375 days. Would I do it again? IN A HEARTBEAT!!!
The only problems we had were with the roofer and painter. The roofer either did not or could not get the job done as fast as should have. A second roofer was called in and finished within less than two weeks. The first painter had to be replaced with another one who did a great job.
