Renovate, add, or move: an honest framework

We are asked to build things, so it is worth saying plainly: a meaningful share of the owners who call us should not renovate. Working out which group you are in takes about an hour, and it turns on four variables.

The first is the land. A property with mature canopy, a good orientation, a workable elevation, or a view is not reproducible at any price. If the site is right, the building almost always deserves the investment, however unpromising it currently looks.

The second is the structure. A sound frame with a workable floor-to-floor height gives you enormous freedom. A structure fighting you at every opening — undersized joists, a slab at the wrong elevation, a roof with no attic space — will absorb budget invisibly, in work you will never see or enjoy.

The third is plan geometry. Some plans want to be reorganised. A deep, dark core over thirty feet from daylight either needs a courtyard cut through it or needs a different house. We would rather tell you that at week two than at month nine.

The fourth is your timeline, and it is the one people underweight. A whole-home renovation is fourteen to twenty-two months from first meeting to handover. If you need to be settled in eight months, no design decision will fix that, and we will say so.

When three of the four point the same way, the answer is usually obvious within one site visit. When they split, that is precisely what the planning engagement is for.