TESSERA BUILD CO. / WHAT WE BUILD / 02 — WHOLE-HOME RENOVATIONS

The house you have. The home you want.

Down-to-the-studs transformations that bring an older home up to how you actually live today — without losing what made it worth keeping.

02Whole-Home Renovations

Old houses do not scare us. We have opened enough walls to know what is waiting in there — and what to do about it.

A whole-home renovation is equal parts surgery and construction. Done right, it starts with knowing what is behind the plaster: the framing habits of the decade it was built, the wiring that has been “upgraded” three times, the sills that have been wet since the Reagan administration. We price what we find honestly and fix it once.

We reorganize floor plans, open up kitchens, add bathrooms where the house never thought it needed them, and bring the systems — electrical, plumbing, HVAC, insulation — up to today. The goal is a house that works like new and still feels like itself.

What’s included

Every job, every time.

No à la carte corner-cutting. These are part of the work, not upsells.

i

Honest Assessment

A real look at the structure, systems, and what your budget should brace for — before you commit.

ii

Structural Work

Sills, framing corrections, beams, and load paths — the bones fixed right, not boxed over.

iii

Systems Upgrade

Electrical, plumbing, heating, and insulation brought up to code and up to the way you live.

iv

Floor Plan Redesign

Walls moved, kitchens opened, baths added — layouts that match this decade, not 1962.

v

Finish Carpentry

Trim, built-ins, and detail work that respects the character of the original house.

vi

Weekly Updates

A standing report on schedule, budget, and discoveries — because old houses always have a few.

How it works

Three steps. No runaround.

01

Walk the house

We go through it together — attic to basement — and talk honestly about what the house needs versus what it wants.

02

Scope & budget

A fixed scope with line-item pricing, allowances stated plainly, and contingency for what walls hide.

03

Renovate & hand over

A clean, phased job site, weekly updates, and a final walkthrough with every punch item closed.

Good questions

Asked and answered.

Can we live in the house during the renovation?
Often, yes — it depends on scope. For full gut renovations we usually recommend moving out for the heavy phases; for staged renovations we build a phasing plan that keeps a working kitchen and bath available. We will tell you honestly which situation you are in before you sign.
What about surprises behind the walls?
There are always some — the difference is how they are handled. We scope a stated contingency up front, photograph and price anything we find before touching it, and never bury a discovery in a change order you do not understand.
Renovate or tear down and rebuild?
Sometimes the honest answer is that the house is not worth saving — and we will tell you that, because we build new homes too. The math usually turns on foundation condition, framing quality, and how far the layout is from what you want. We walk you through that math, not around it.
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Let’s walk the project together.

Book a consultation. We’ll look at the site or the house, talk budget and timeline honestly, and tell you whether we’re the right builder for it.

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