Renovation with Green, Efficiency and budget in mind

OK, so I recently bought this house. It’s a small 1955 rambler on the border of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in Desnoyer Park (a very unknown gem in the Twin Cities.) I purchased it with some significant renovation work in mind. I have a limited budget and I would like to go “Green” as well. Through this renovation blog you can learn the process I went through, learn from my mistakes and successes (mistakes can be successes too!) and hopefully have a good time doing it. Wish me luck.

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Jason Stinson has the most amazing sub’s (subcontractors.) They just do great work and are great people, across the board. My most recent experience with this is Stafford Home Services. They are a one-stop-shop for Electrical, HVAC, Low voltage and all the services in-between. Low voltage being media rooms, recessed speakers, sound systems, security systems and the like. [Read more →]

When I began the process of finding a new home I was fortunate enough to start on the right track by using Charlie Neimeyer as my Realtor. “Start things on the right foot” they say, and I certainly did. Charlie not only helped me find a great house but also a great contractor. Jason Stinson, of Minneapolis-based Stinson Builders Inc., built Charlie’s house from the ground up, so he was certainly familiar with Jason’s formidable talents. [Read more →]

You can’t start a good renovation project without a good architect. A good architect knows not only the form and function of a home but incredibly important details like how a person lives in a space and maddeningly complex things like codes, appliances, materials, good contractors, certifications, rebates, etc… Now that is a tall order. Fortunately I found all of that, and more, with Phillip Broussard from the St. Paul-based Architron. [Read more →]