Whole Home Remodeling in Aurora IL - One Plan for the Whole House

Most people don't wake up and decide to redo everything. It builds. You fix a leak and notice the ceiling stain next to it. You replace the carpet and the baseboards suddenly look tired. You paint one room and the next room looks worse by comparison.

Here are a few signs that a bigger plan makes more sense than one more patch job:

Every room is on your list. If you could name a problem in the kitchen, the bath, the hall and the bedrooms, doing them one at a time can mean years of dust and mismatched finishes.

The layout fights you. Walls block light. The kitchen is closed off from where everyone hangs out. The laundry is two floors away from the bedrooms. Small fixes won't solve a floor plan problem.

You just bought the house. It's a lot easier to redo floors, paint and fixtures before the furniture moves in.

The house hasn't been touched in decades. Old wiring, tired plaster, worn floors and dated baths often show up together. One plan lets the trades work in the right order.

Your life changed. A new baby, a parent moving in, or kids moving out can all change how you want the house to work.

If two or three of these sound familiar, it's worth talking to a remodeler about the whole picture before you spend money on pieces.

A whole house renovation doesn't have to mean gutting the place. Most projects are a mix of a few big moves and a lot of finish work.

If your house has floors stacked a half flight apart, Split-Level Home Remodeling is about making those levels work together. That can mean opening up the main level, changing the stairs, or rethinking a lower level that feels like a basement. Layout changes like these often touch walls that hold up the house, and those need structural plans and a permit.

Laundry and Mudroom Remodeling fixes the spaces that take the most daily abuse. Think moving a washer and dryer closer to the bedrooms, adding a sink and cabinets, or building a bench and hooks at the garage door so coats and boots stop landing in the kitchen.

Drywall Installation and Repair shows up in almost every whole home job. New walls need it. Old cracks, water stains and dents need it. Many people also want popcorn ceilings scraped flat while the rest of the house is torn up.

Interior Painting is usually the last big step, and it ties everything together. One color plan across the whole house looks a lot better than rooms painted ten years apart.

Bigger rooms are often part of the plan, too. If your whole home project includes a new kitchen or bath, our kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling pages go into more detail. New floors across the main level are common as well, and our flooring page walks through the choices. Tell the remodeler everything on your list, even the things you might do later, so the work can be done in a sensible order.

Aurora's houses cover a wide range of ages. Census data shows about 1 in 7 homes here were built in 1939 or earlier, while about 4 in 10 date to the 1990s and 2000s. The median home was built in 1987, and about 1 in 6 homes is an attached townhome. A house from 1925 and a house from 2005 need very different plans, even if the wish list looks the same. Older homes may have plaster walls, small rooms and wiring that has been updated in pieces. Newer homes often just need finishes that feel current. Aurora even has Sears catalog homes and Lustron houses, which come with their own quirks.

If your home sits inside one of Aurora's four local historic districts (Near Eastside, Riddle Highlands, Tanner or Palace Street), the city requires a Historic Certificate of Appropriateness for exterior work like windows, siding, porches and doors. Interior remodels don't need one. So a full inside makeover in a historic home can move ahead without that step, but new windows or a porch rebuild can't.

Permits are the other big piece. The city lists interior remodels and structural changes as work that needs a permit. Painting, flooring and carpet count as cosmetic and don't. The city's remodel permit application asks for floor plans of what's there now, what's coming out and what's going in, plus structural plans when walls or beams change. In homes built before 1978, it also asks about paint disturbance, because older paint can contain lead.

Start by telling us about your project on the contact page or by phone. List the rooms, the problems and the rough idea you have in mind. The quote is free. See how it works for more.

A typical whole house renovation goes like this. It usually starts with a walk through the house and a talk about how you live in it. Then you can ask for a written estimate. Drawings and permits come next if the job needs them. Demolition and any structural work come first, then plumbing, wiring and ductwork, then inspections. After that comes drywall, paint, trim, cabinets and floors. The schedule depends on the size of the job and how many trades are involved, so ask for it in writing.

A whole home job is a long relationship, so ask hard questions up front. Aurora says contractors must meet city licensing requirements before a permit is issued, so ask each remodeler whether they meet the City of Aurora's contractor licensing requirements. Ask to see proof of insurance, because Illinois remodeling law doesn't require it. Ask who manages the other trades, and agree in writing on who pulls the permits.

Before any work over $1,000 starts, Illinois requires a written contract that names the business, gives its address and states the total cost. Expect the pamphlet "Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights" from the contractor too. The Illinois Attorney General's advice is to collect more than one written estimate and never hand over cash or the whole price before work begins.