By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

During the first quarter of 2005, the nation’s home remodeling industry sawed and hammered its way to nearly $130 billion, a 5.2% increase over first quarter 2004 figures, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Joint Center director Nicholas P. Retsinas says “modest economic growth and slowly increasing short-term rates have enabled homeowners to continue a steady pace of home improvements.”

That is not surprising to David Crawford, manager of Mount Pleasant-based Seaside Construction, which remodels, designs and builds homes throughout the Charleston area. Seaside’s first five contracts for 2005 were remodeling jobs, Crawford says, and since 2003 his company’s gross revenues have increased 75% each year. Seaside’s most lucrative remodeling contract netted more than $300,000, a project that updated a 3,800-square-foot Mount Pleasant home.

Crawford and other Lowcountry home improvement contractors have plenty of work to keep them busy. The region’s thriving housing market, with houses costing an average of about $268,000, selling in an average of about two months and appreciating more than 12% a year, has Lowcountry homeowners joining the national remodeling craze.

One key to the Charleston area’s robust home remodeling industry is that more homeowners are upgrading their “entry-level” homes rather than graduating to bigger and better abodes, Crawford observes. With housing prices rising, homeowners are finding it more affordable to remodel a first home into more of a dream house than to buy a new one.

“Low interest rates, real property appreciation and the lackluster stock market continue to drive our market,” says Rob Melton, co-owner of Blue Construction on Johns Island. Because of the disappointing stock market, people are investing more in real estate, which includes home remodeling, Melton says.

“The remodeling business was steady in 2004 and remains the same in 2005,” Melton says. “Most of the remodeling we see continues to be entire home makeovers or kitchen, bath or exterior updates.”

Kevin Whalley, president of Johns Island-based Dolphin Architects & Builders, whose remodeling business has doubled its revenues each year during the past four years, agrees that kitchens and bathrooms are “huge” remodeling preferences.

“People spend a lot more time in the kitchen,” Whalley says, adding that a popular trend is to make kitchens larger and interiors more open by removing walls and having one area of the house open onto another.

Replacing windows and doors are also popular, Whalley notes. So is changing the exterior and interior of a house so dramatically that the entire home has a completely different look to meet contemporary tastes.

Dolphin Architects & Builders recently undertook a home makeover of a white stucco, 4,000-square-foot, Art Deco-style house on Kiawah Island. The million- dollar house had a look similar to those in Miami’s South Beach. That architectural look, which Whalley calls “Miami Vice” in reference to the 1980s television show, had become dated.

Dolphin resurfaced the exterior, replaced the stucco with shingles, built a 1,000-square-foot addition, replaced the doors, windows and flooring, remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms, and painted the house. Nine months and about $750,000 later, the house transformed into a warmer, more Lowcountry-like home.

Today’s homeowner seeking to remodel is a more sophisticated customer, Whalley says.

“Because of the Internet, people are well-versed in remodeling designs and know what they want,” Whalley observes. “Their expectations are high.”

Many remodeling homeowners are turning toward nostalgic touches, Crawford says. Long, farm-style kitchen sinks, footed bathtubs, plus nickel and pewter finishes are popular. Crawford also agrees with Whalley that interiors are being opened up to cater more toward entertaining.

“It’s about lifestyle,” Crawford says.

Whatever the taste in home improvement, Crawford does not foresee the region’s brisk remodeling industry slowing anytime soon.

“There’s lots of demand for it,” he says. “People are always upgrading and maintaining homes.”

Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@crbj.com.

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