Experienced Master Craftsmen Know How to Treat Your Older Home
If your Kansas City home was built in the 1940s or earlier, it’s really very special. Not only is your home part of your family’s history, but it has a story all its own. The right home renovation tells your home’s story while its charm and character remain intact.
Your older home deserves the care and expertise that only historic home remodeling contractors can deliver. These five reasons why you need a historic home renovation expert outline why.
We Know What Kinds of Surprises to Expect During Home Remodels
When you’re a home remodeler specializing in older homes, you’re bound to come across unusual surprises. Maybe previous homeowners may have found a unique – and inappropriate – way to make a repair. Or perhaps your home still has some knob-and-tube wiring you didn’t know was there.
Although uncovering the unexpected isn’t an experience unique to historic homes built prior to the 1940s, it happens more often in older homes. Our home renovation team has seen it all and expects the unexpected during every remodel. This way, we’re prepared with a number of solutions in advance, meaning your budget and our timeline won’t be impacted as much.
Our Historic Home Renovation Company Has 20 Years of Experience
How is it that we’ve found so many surprises during renovations that we can predict what might be behind the plaster of your house? It’s our 20 years of experience in historic home remodeling.
It started with remodeling our families’ historic homes, the first of which was a 1910 Baldwin City, Kansas house, while founder Joe Thompson worked to finish his college degree. During this remodel, we realized their passion for maintaining the integrity of older structures.
Since then, we’ve worked on hundreds of homes throughout the Kansas City area, gaining experience in many architectural styles and winning awards for our work along the way.
We Understand Your Historic Home’s Architectural Style
The features of different architectural styles exist for a reason aside from complementing the eras in which they were popular.
For example, the Spanish Colonial was originally designed to have stucco exterior walls, which helped keep the heat out, while the Victorian style home reflected opulence, thanks to its many intricate details in its woodwork and trim – a sign of status during the Industrial Revolution.
And the way wood joinery and construction techniques were employed vary by era, too, based on the available materials and tools at the time.
If you’d never want to erase the history of your home, you need a home remodeling team with master craftsmen who understand its architectural style and the meaning and purpose behind it.
Our Carpentry Team Faithfully Reproduces Historic Trim Work
Historic homes were built using different carpentry processes and skills than modern ones – and that unique woodwork is what sets craftsman-style houses, American foursquares, tudors, and bungalows from mass-produced raised ranches.
Trim and finish work with styling from the wrong era doesn’t complement your home, and most home renovation contractors don’t have an understanding of the architectural characteristics necessary to reproduce it. That’s why you need someone well-versed in remodeling historic homes.
We Maintain the Character of Your Home While Adding Modern Functionality
A historic home renovation should never erase the character of your home, but it should work cohesively with your modern life. Historic home renovation professionals know how to strike the balance between what is period-appropriate and what you need in a home. We keep our remodels true to the soul of your home.
For example, your tudor home in the Roanoke neighborhood of Kansas City should have period-appropriate cabinetry, but inside, you can still have functional inserts like lazy susans, pull-outs, and more, to make it a breeze to organize your kitchen in 2022 and beyond. Similarly, your craftsman-style house in Hyde Park can have quartz countertops, even if that material wasn’t in use in the 1940s when it was built. Why? Because the conveniences that quartz countertops provide, while still looking like natural stone, cannot be denied.
Remodeling a historic home doesn’t mean you can’t have the creature comforts of a modern one. A home renovation team well-versed in historic homes works to preserve important details and elements original to your house, while bringing it into the current times.
Think of Architectural Craftsmen as Preservationists for Historic Home Remodels
Your historic home in Kansas City deserves thoughtful care and respect when it’s time to remodel. Craftsmanship that doesn’t compromise the distinction of your home is our No. 1 goal at Architectural Craftsmen.
For livable style and modern functionality with homage to your Kansas City-area home’s history, contact Architectural Craftsmen for your home remodeling needs. Send us a message online to let us know more about your home, and one of our experts will get back to you quickly.
