Start Looking For Your Contractor Now For Spring And Summer Renovations

Renovations going strong in a light winter season.

The skiing and snowmobiling might not be as good as you want it to be this winter with the lack of snow and the warmer overall temperatures but it has been good for construction.

With the lighter winter many people are not waiting for the spring to start their renovations, in fact it has been surprisingly busy this winter compared to other winters that were colder and with a significant amount more snow.

With the early interest and demand for renovations this winter seems to show that there will be a very busy year. Talking to other contractors in the area they seem to be experiencing the same thing. A busy winter makes for a busy spring which makes for an overly good year in construction.

If you are thinking about renovating this spring or summer then you should start looking for your contractor now as a lot of contractors are already booked through the spring into the summer with work.

Not only are the contractors starting to book up but the sub-trades are booking up as fast as well, this makes it even more imperative that you find your contractor as a good contractor will have a loyal number of sub-trades that will make room for them in their schedule no matter how far in advance they have been booked.

If you are serious about renovating this spring or summer then send me an email at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca or call our office at 7054663202 and lets setup an appointment to start the process before its to late.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders

Start Planning Your Spring Renovations Now

Even though winter has just started, if you are thinking about renovating this spring then now is the time to start looking around for a contractor to do the actual renovation.

When it comes to renovations your contractor will help you design and plan the renovations that you want to complete. With the design, planning and then the budgeting this can take up a month or more before you come to an agreement. Usually renovations have to go through 3 or 4 budgets with changes to materials and work to be completed until a deal can be reached between client and contractor.

Once you have designed, planned, budgeted and signed the contract with your contractor then you and your contractor are going to want to start ordering things for it. Certain things like specialty plumbing fixtures can take a month or more to receive, or a specialty wood flooring can take months to have made and shipped. It's best to have to find a spot to store the materials needed for the renovation then having to leave the renovation unfinished for that length of time that you are waiting on materials to be manufactured and delivered.

The more decisions that you get out of the way before the renovations start the less stress you will have to deal with when the renovations actually start. There will be plenty of decisions that you as the homeowner will have to make once the renovation starts. Changes and upgrades are always part of a renovation once it starts as walls are opened up and workers find things that require fixing or replacing. With everything planned and ordered in advance you can focus on the decisions that arise as the renovation proceeds.

With the 2017 residential construction season looking like its going to be extremely busy for all contractors in the area you should start to talk to them now before you end up at the end of a long list of people looking for renovations. If you wait to long your spring renovation might end up being a fall renovation because every contractor is to busy already in the spring working on people that called them in the winter.

Make that call or send that email to the contractor that you are interested in now, delaying till closer to the spring might find you at the end of that line that outs you into the fall renovation schedule.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.

Spring warms up the residential construction industry

With the warm weather comes the work.

Being a general contractor and being in business for over 30 years you see a lot of trends come and go. One trend that has been consistent over all those years is when winter starts to whine down and the weather starts to get nicer the phone will start ringing more with potential jobs. It’s like clockwork, it doesn’t matter how long or short of a winter we have, when March rolls around and the sunny warm days start to outnumber the cold snowy day’s people start calling wanting work done.

It starts on the first week that we have some nice weather with people calling for information and quotes, then when the March weather turns snowy and blowy again the phones go quiet. I have actually seen my boss start to wonder if the phones are even working because things got so quiet.

When we start getting toward the March break and there are more sunny warm days then cold the phones actually will ring steady all day and into the evenings. You would think that the people calling are people who need repairs from the long winter, or they want outside work done like decks and fences and where waiting for the snow to disappear. That’s not the case at all; it’s everybody that starts calling.

People that want small renovations all the way to people looking to build multi-million dollar custom homes.
It has always surprised me on how people are able to put off something as expensive or intrusive as a major renovation or the building of a custom home until the weather warms up.

There are a couple of things that people should realize about the spring time for builders;

• This is the busiest time of the year for meeting clients and quoting potential work.
• It will take longer for you to get a quote out of a builder in the spring because they are quoting multiple projects; their sub-trades that have to also quote on jobs are quoting on multiple things.
• In rural counties there is what is called “half loads”. This means that you cannot start building a house on a rural road until they are lifted. This is for the safety of the road as the frost will buckle them and a heavy truck will damage the road. This will delay any house building until late April into early may.
• Builders work on a first come first serve mentality. If they have picked up jobs in the winter and you want a job to start right away in the spring, you might have to wait a month or two until they can free up labour and sub-trades.
• With March break, a lot of sub-trades take time off, which will delay any quote or work that you potentially want done.
• If you are getting drawings done by a professional, spring is the busiest time for them as well and you could end up in a situation where you have a builder but have no drawings to start the project.
• Township building departments get overloaded in the spring with all manner of building permits requests. If your building permit is a little complicated and needs special attention then you could be waiting a lot longer than normal just for the permit.
• If you have to deal with a commission like an environmental protection commission you could be waiting a long time for approval. Commissions have no mandate like building departments do; they do not have a timeline to give you permission in a timely manner. In the spring which is their busy time you could easily wait months for your permit.

So as the weather turns warmer so will the construction industry. The number of quotes will start to fly out the door; the work will start to trickle in and buildings will start to rise out of the ground.

The one piece of advice that I will give you if you have waited to start this process until the sunny days of the spring; have patience. It might take a little longer for you to get your quotes, to get your approvals and to get your project started but everyone starting in the spring is in the same boat.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

10 Tips to give your home a fresh look this spring

10 Tips to give your home a fresh look this spring.

 Take a look around your house, pick a room that hasn’t been touched in a while and give it a painting face lift. It isn’t a hard thing to do. But if you are having a difficult time deciding what to do about the paint or after you’ve painted, then you should think about hiring an interior designer. They are not that expensive and they will work on an hourly rate. This will allow you to redesign one room or the whole house if you so choose.

If you are going to re-design a room start by picking a theme for the room. You can do a lot by doing some of these simple things;

1. Paint. You can make a room look completely different just by adding a coat of paint. Change the colour of the walls and if your feeling daring change the colour of the baseboards and trim around the windows and the doors.

2. Change the floor coverings. If you have older carpets you can have new carpet installed or have them removed and have hardwood flooring installed. If you already have hardwood floors you can have the floors refinished, this will help give the space a completely different look.

3. Change the furniture. This doesn’t mean that you have to go out and buy all new furniture, moving furniture from one room in a new one can give a room and the furniture a new look. Adding a new coffee table can help draw the eye to the middle of the room away from older furniture.

4. Try an area rug or change the existing one that you have. This will give the room a different feel.

5. Add moulding’s to the ceiling. Crown moulding can add a lot of character to a room and can be done relatively quickly.

6. Change your pictures. You probably have pictures in rooms that you do not view frequently; if they are moved out into a different room they might become more appreciated.

7. Buy new throw pillows and throw blankets to help freshen the room up and to make older furniture look more appealing.

8. Change the lighting. This can be as simple as changing the light fixture in the ceiling or more complicated like installing pot lights to add more light to the room. Even changing light bulbs from halogen to LED will change the feel of the room because different light bulbs give off different light.

9. Change the window treatments. The tired old blinds and curtains on the windows are easy enough to change and will not cost you a fortune.

10. If you want to “green” the room up for spring then try adding plants to the room or changing plants from one room to another.

Try these 10 tips and I’m sure that you will be able to get a lot of use out of your new space without spending a lot of money. Remember it always helps to hire a professional like an interior designer.


Robert Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

7 tips to revitalize your home this spring

We get asked a lot about things that you can do to ‘freshen-up’ your home in the spring.  

There are lots of sources out there but here are some things that you can do that will give you a lift right now:

1.      Create an accent wall.  Choose one wall and paint in a deep saturated colour.  Russets, pumpkin and nut shades are all excellent.

2.      Warm up furnishings.  ‘Cozy up’ your couch with a plush throw and some plush pillows.

3.      Swap area rugs.  Replace a warm-weather rug with a softer thicker one.  Bold geometric and over sized patterns add drama and warmth.

4.      Envelop the space.  Dress windows in light drapery panels.  Hang them floor to ceiling recasting windows as walls.  Choose jewel tones to add punch.

5.      Dim the lights.  Invest in dimmers if you haven’t already to add drama to rooms to counter the pale winter light.

6.      Bring style with still life’s.  Choose memorable displays for tabletops, bookshelves or sills.  Think in multiples:  logs stacked by a fireplace, oranges amassed in a bowl, an occasional table loaded full of crystal.

7.      Make over your photos.  Re-framing your photos and family artwork gives them a whole new lease on life.  Gold achieves a luxurious and warming feeling.

                                      

These are just some of the ideas you can use to spice up you home this spring.  If you find yourself challenged for more ideas give us a call. 

Rob Abbott  877-866-3202  robabbott@villagebuilders.ca