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Renovate vs. Custom Home Build

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Renovate vs. Custom Home Build -
What’s the Best Choice For You?

The decision to renovate your home or build a new custom home from scratch is exciting. It’s also a choice that requires careful thought because it involves a significant investment of time and resources. Changes in your current lifestyle or future investment plans are often what drive decisions about your present living space. Based on your specific needs, desires and goals, what choice makes the best sense? At Denneen Custom Home Builders, our principals provide over 40 years of experience helping homeowners decide whether to remodel or build a new custom home in Jacksonville, and other areas of Northeast Florida. We understand the pros and cons of a remodel vs custom home build, and the things you need to consider.
When to Renovate
Remodeling is often the best choice when you appreciate your home’s location and many of its features, but wish to make changes due to the evolution of your lifestyle, such as accommodating a growing family or preparing to phase into an “empty nest” stage.

On the other hand, it might be something as simple as a desire to remodel your kitchen to entertain more or converting a spare room into a home office or media room. In any case, if you like the overall footprint of your current home and simply wish to retain or expand upon it, then a remodel makes great sense.

You can also choose to do a whole-house remodel. These are great for historical homes where owners wish to update an entire home while also retaining certain original details like floors, crown molding or antique fixtures to keep the home’s character, intact.

The next step up is a rebuild. In a classic rebuild, your existing home is stripped down to the studs and effectively “rebuilt,” maintaining the frame and structure, while building out or expanding the floor plan. Most people choose to rebuild when they love where they live but have structural integrity issues with their home. Rebuilds, and in many cases, whole-house remodels, can often provide almost the same experience as building a new custom home.
 
The Pros of Remodeling:
The Cons of Remodeling:
  • Upgrade your home without sacrificing a great location
  • Tailor a new space to your specific needs
  • Expand your home’s space
  • Add custom features to your home
  • Add new energy-saving features
  • Spend less than building a custom home from scratch
  • Increase your home’s value
  • If you stay in your home, you may have to deal with construction for a few days or weeks
  • If you leave your home, you’ll need to find other accommodations
  • Unexpected weather events may result in delays
  • Extensive home renovations, such as whole house remodels can approach or even exceed the cost of new custom home construction
  • As your home value increases, your property taxes may increase, as well
 
The Pros of Remodeling:
  • Upgrade your home without sacrificing a great location
  • Tailor a new space to your specific needs
  • Expand your home’s space
  • Add custom features to your home
  • Add new energy-saving features
  • Spend less than building a custom home from scratch
  • Increase your home’s value
The Cons of Remodeling:
  • If you stay in your home, you may have to deal with construction for a few days or weeks
  • If you leave your home, you’ll need to find other accommodations
  • Unexpected weather events may result in delays
  • Extensive home renovations, such as whole house remodels can approach or even exceed the cost of new custom home construction
  • As your home value increases, your property taxes may increase, as well
When to Build a New Custom Home
When your existing home’s structural integrity is such bad shape that it cannot be preserved or your vision of how you want to live is simply no longer in synch with your current living environment, than building a new custom home is probably the right choice, one that comes with an unlimited number of exciting possibilities.

If you love your home’s current location or the property value is such that it doesn’t make financial sense to move (such is the case with many oceanfront, riverfront or large-acreage properties), then a tear-down may be in order. Otherwise, you may simply wish to sell for what you can get and start your custom home build anew on an entirely different piece of property.

Building a new custom home from the ground up provides maximum freedom for you to create the type of environment that you envision and that suits the needs of your current and future planned lifestyle. It allows you take full advantage of a homesite and its views, and to construct a home built to today’s most current construction and energy-codes, which can save you thousands of dollars in future years.
The Pros of a New Custom Home Build:
The Cons of a New Custom Home Build:
  • Maximum freedom to design a home suited to the way you want to live
  • Build your home to perfectly suit your lot
  • Enjoy the peace-of-mind and money savings that comes with building, utilizing the most current construction codes, methods and energy-savings systems and features
  • Create your own unique vision in your own individual style
  • Most individuals will need to work within a budget. This requires careful planning, tracking and discipline.
  • New custom home construction can take six-months-to-a-year, depending upon the size and scope of your project and whether you have a design in-hand or are starting from scratch.
The Pros of a New Custom Home Build:
  • Maximum freedom to design a home suited to the way you want to live
  • Build your home to perfectly suit your lot
  • Enjoy the peace-of-mind and money savings that comes with building, utilizing the most current construction codes, methods and energy-savings systems and features
  • Create your own unique vision in your own individual style
The Cons of a New Custom Home Build:
  • Most individuals will need to work within a budget. This requires careful planning, tracking and discipline.
  • New custom home construction can take six-months-to-a-year, depending upon the size and scope of your project and whether you have a design in-hand or are starting from scratch.

 

Ultimately, deciding on a remodel vs. custom home build requires careful consideration of many variables. Only you can know for sure which choice is right for you. Denneen Custom Home Builders is always available to assist with the evaluation of such scenarios and can help you understand the pros and cons, and possibilities associated with both, as it relates to your individual scenario. For more information, give us a call at (904) 834-3701.