General Contractor for Custom Homes, Renovation, Remodels, Chapel Hill | Durham | Chatham, NC » Custom Renovation

Painting a Brick Exterior

Kelly — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:05:59 +0000

The custom renovation of this historic home in Chapel Hill is almost complete. The painters have been hard at work. Looking back to these pictures of the house prior to our renovation you can really see the difference made to the exterior of this brick home.

Before:

After:

To read more about this project click here!

Maintaining a Historic Feel

Kelly — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:22:17 +0000

We have recently completed the whole house renovation project we’ve been working on in the historic university neighborhood in Chapel Hill. This home was just waiting for the right owners, who had the vision – and the patience to bring this majestic home back to life.

By updating the plumbing, electrical, and hvac components, modifying the master bedroom suite, and adding on a new kitchen and screened porch area, this house was turned into a home with the best of both worlds!

One of the challenges to updating a home in the historic district, is bringing it up to current building codes without losing the special feeling and design aspects of the original home. In addition to salvaging much of the interior and exterior trim details, the bathtubs, and the hardwood flooring - one important way we were able to maintain the historic feel of this 1930’s home was to re-use as much as possible of the original stair railings. As is often the case in historic homes, the existing railings were too low for current building codes. The solution was to build ornate extensions to the structural posts, replace the shorter pickets with custom code length replicas. and re-use the decorative top rail.

To read more about this project click here!

Modern Kitchen Appliances in a Restored Home

Kelly — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:23:44 +0000

The new kitchen addition in this 1930’s home in the university area of Chapel Hill was a crucial part of adding modern conveniences that make this beautiful historic home more livable.

The use of wainscoting, around the built-in benches in the eating area, plus plenty of natural light adds to the many special qualities of this custom kitchen.

The energy efficient stainless steel appliances, custom cabinets, and unique counter tops also help to give this kitchen an updated modern feel.

To read more about this project click here!

Duplex Rental to Single Family Historic Renovation

Rick — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:24:30 +0000

We just started an exciting new project in Chapel Hill. Demolition is underway. This is a beautiful historic district home close to UNC, that started out as a single family home in the 1930’s, but was divided into two rental units about 20 years ago. The current owners have decided to completely renovate the structure and bring it back to a single family residence again. That means removing walls, replacing roof, windows, and doors, reconfiguring traffic patterns, removing all the existing hvac ducts and equipment, most of the plumbing and electric, removing two kitchens, adding a screened porch and deck, and renovating all the finishes. The project poses some challenges, but we’re confident that when we’re done, we’ll have an energy efficient home with all the modern conveniences, while saving much of the character and feeling of the original 1930s home.

Here are some pictures of the exterior of the home before the renovation began.

To read more about this project click here!

Recycled Paper Countertops? Really?

Kelly — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:16:51 +0000

Check out the unique PaperStone® Countertops recently installed in the kitchen of this multi-level addition / whole house renovation project Synergy is working on in the historic district of Chapel Hill. PaperStone® Countertops are made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper and a proprietary, petroleum-free resin. We were pleased to be able to work with this product, purchased from local distributor Caragreen. Caragreen is a Carrboro based distributor of sustainable products and a terrific resource for owners and builders looking for ways to integrate sustainable building products in to their next project.

The cabinets for this project were built in a local custom cabinet shop by Mike Dulude. Mike is known for his attention to detail and high quality cabinetry. In addition to the kitchen cabinets, Mike built the bathroom vanities, several built-ins, and even worked on some of the owner’s private furniture pieces.

Here you can see the counter tops being installed.

This image really shows how nicely the PaperStone® Countertops blend with their custom cabinets, manufactured locally by Mike Dulude.

To read more about this project click here.

Historic District Renovation/Addition in Chapel Hill

Kelly — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:49:50 +0000

We are very excited to be starting a new project in the historic district of Chapel Hill near UNC. This project poses a lot of exciting challenges. The project includes the construction of a three story addition, with two car garage below, plus remodeling and renovation work to the existing home. When this renovation is completed it will feature a new high energy efficiency HVAC unit installed by Duggins Mechanical, spray foam insulation by Insulating, Inc and energy efficient windows.

The multi-level addition will include a new kitchen, master bedroom suite and a third floor office/studio space. If this was not a large enough challenge we will be putting the two car garage beneath the present first floor. This will require installation of helical piers to support the existing foundation as we dig down to create space for the garage. We are very pleased to be working in conjunction with Jim Spencer in Carrboro on this project. Here is a picture of the garage / addition area prior to construction.

Here you can see the installation of the helical piers.

The existing foundation can be seen here, above the new footings.

To read more about this project click here!

Whole House Renovation Complete!

Kelly — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:37:17 +0000

This whole house custom renovation has been such a wonderful project. The owner’s are happy with the results and so are we. It took tremendous vision and patience to see this house …

transform into this one!

In addition to staying on schedule and within the budget, using the right subcontractors is a substantial challenge on any project. Oscar Benavides and his crew were particularly key partners in this project. After the master suite addition was framed, and the home was demo’d down to the studs, Oscar and his crew installed and finished the drywall, painted, installed the ceramic tile, and installed and finished the hardwood flooring. Having a conscientious subcontractor that can handle several aspects of a complex project like this one can be an enormous advantage.