Services offered span from residential remodels, including kitchen and bathroom remodels, new additions, and new construction. Based on his experience remodeling, Tighe shared the latest trends in home remodeling seen in Cypress. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are some of the most popular remodeling trends you’re seeing right now in Cypress?
The majority of our work is kitchen and bathroom remodels. Lately, we've been doing a lot of removing bathtubs in the master bathroom and putting in the larger walk-in showers. A lot of older homes have these smaller, stand-up showers that are like [3-foot by 3-foot], and these large Jacuzzi tubs that nobody really uses that often anymore.
In the kitchen, we have been adding more space where people can sit and just kind of hang out. We've been getting a lot of requests for that.
How has the remodeling market changed in the past five years, especially post-COVID-19 or with recent housing market shifts?
During COVID[-19], everyone was doing some kind of remodeling. A lot of it was because the kids were just staying at home, and people were working from home. So people were spending a lot of money during the COVID years. Once that kind of went away, it slowed down just a little bit. But then, when the market shifted in 2022, people stopped buying houses because of the [interest] rates and decided to keep their households and renovate them.
Now we're getting to the point where people are buying houses again. But the reasons people are renovating now are more either because they just bought a house and they are renovating it because it's outdated, or they're getting their house ready to list for sale.
What should homeowners know before starting a remodeling project?
I would say before they start a project, they need to make sure that they feel comfortable with their contractor. When they get that estimate from the contractor, make sure that it's a line item estimate and to make sure that it's broken up per line item, like framing, bathrooms, toilets, plumbing, electronics, all these different things.
And then, before you do any remodel, make sure you do have a contract in place, and make sure that contract states what scope of work is, how much it's going to cost, and then what the payment schedule looks like. So, for example, how much is the deposit? When do you pay your progress payments, and what does it look like when you make a product payment? You should have all those in place just really to protect yourself.
How do you recommend clients budget for a remodeling project?
I would have them budget how much they want to spend and add 10% to that budget to go toward any kind of contingencies, just in case something were to pop up.
What kinds of projects typically add the most value to a home in this region?
Number one, the kitchen, master bathroom and landscaping. Those are the three areas where you are going to get your highest return on investment in case you ever want to sell your home.
