Mosswood Makeover: Lessons From a Full Remodel

WatchMosswood Makeover: From Vision to Reality

Every remodel teaches you something. The Mosswood house taught us a whole semester's worth. If you've watched the "Transforming Spaces: The Mosswood Remodel Journey" series, you've seen it go from before to finished. Here's the behind-the-scenes version, and what we'd tell anybody thinking about a full remodel.

What Did the House Look Like Before?

Roll up on the house in the before video and the first thing you'd notice is the brick. It had been painted, with plastic shutters on top, and that paint was trapping moisture. If moisture gets behind there, it can literally turn brick to mud. That became its own short: "How to Destroy Your Brick Exterior With Latex Paint." Read the backwards how-to here.

The rest of the exterior had its own stories. Gutters were dented and hadn't been replaced after the last Texas storm. The sidewalk sat below grade, so every time it rained, water ran mud and dirt right across it. There were water runoff marks, overgrown trees and some tired shrubs.

Inside, it was a lot of early 2000s. A front door straight out of the late '90s. Tile with wood inlay. A great room about the size of a garage, where, I said it in the video, you could probably put a slip and slide. And out in the garage, every single attic access was broken. Every one.

What Did We See That Others Might Have Missed?

Good bones. The house had a great layout to work with and an amazing backyard. As the homeowner said, if we opened up some walls and did a little adjusting, it could be the entertainer's house they'd always wanted. Some things were worth keeping, too. The master had a really nice tray ceiling. We kept the fan and added lights.

Lesson One: Good Work Is in the Details

It's the title of one of our shorts for a reason. Nobody walks into a finished house and says "nice attic hatches." But fixing them is the difference between a house that looks good and a house that works. Same with drainage, gutters and trim lines. The difference is in the details.

Lesson Two: Good Design Should Work as Well as It Looks

That's part two of the Mosswood shorts. A beautiful room that doesn't function gets old fast. On Mosswood, that meant thinking about how people move through the house, how they entertain and where things actually get used, not just how it photographs. The master suite with the redesigned fireplace wall is a good example: it looks great, and it makes the room work better.

Lesson Three: You'll Make a Million Decisions

The homeowner put it perfectly in the video. When you remodel everything top to bottom, it's basically like building a new house. You don't realize how many decisions you have to make, really quickly, because everything has to be ready when the crews are ready. Picking out a million things in the space of a week or two was really stressful.

Our takeaway: make as many selections as you can before demo starts. We'll help you with a list and a schedule.

Lesson Four: Clear Communication Makes Every Renovation Better

Things will go wrong. It's construction. What matters is that everybody knows what's happening. On Mosswood, regular communication between the homeowners, the project managers and the crews is what kept it moving. Read clear communication makes every renovation better.

Lesson Five: Relationships Make the Work Better

You can see it in the finished product: everyone put their heart and soul into this project, like they do on every project. That comes from the relationships built with the clients, the crews and the project managers. It all translates into really good work.

What Were the Fun Parts?

Honestly, a lot of it. The before walkthrough, opening up walls, the first time the great room looked like a room again, and the look on everybody's face at the end. We even had a Matterport scan from before, the 3D pre-image we do, and there's a frame in there with a look of dismay on my face. I knew how much work it was going to take. It was worth it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready for your own makeover? Call (945) 300-9018 or use the button below to start your remodel.

Keep learning: see our Remodeling page, read Patio Covers and Outdoor Living in North Texas, or read what homeowners say in our customer reviews.