You have a vision of your ideal space – your dream forever home – but you’re unsure how to get there. Faced with two options, do you renovate or buy new?

If you’re on the search for your forever home, you have perhaps asked yourself this question: “Should I work with a contractor to complete an extensive home renovation or work with a home builder on a new home?”

When considering renovating your forever home, it’s essential to weigh the benefits of a new build versus a renovation. Renovating your forever home can offer unique advantages that a new build may not provide.

To answer that, let’s quickly classify what this article will be comparing:

What is considered an extensive home renovation?

An extensive home renovation is any project that involves altering the fundamental structure of the space, such as removing walls and remodelling multiple spaces, like your entire main floor, which may consist of your kitchen, bathroom, and adjacent living areas.

Many homeowners find that renovating your forever home allows for greater flexibility in design.

What is a new build home?

Creating an entirely new home on a plot of land that either hasn’t had a home before or the house that was previously on the lot was torn down, to make way for an infill home. This option can be appealing if you’re not focused on renovating your forever home.

How is your forever home different from where you live now?

Not everyone is ready for their forever home at the same point in life, but when you are, you know. It’s a mindset shift where:

  • You hope to stay in your home for as long as possible.
  • Your home offers a level of comfort that you cannot find anywhere else.
  • You think of your home as your sanctuary.
  • Your goals for your home are different, and you want it to help you build equity. 
  • You demand a superior level of craftsmanship and attention to detail. 
  • You want to make memories in your home that you’ll cherish forever.

So, returning to the initial question: “Should I work with a contractor to complete an extensive home renovation or work with a home builder on a new home?” let’s dive in!

Materials used during a home renovation versus a new build

When comparing materials, we recommend considering three key categories: durability, maintainability, and aesthetic appeal.

Renovating your forever home: A sleek, modern kitchen renovation featuring flat-panel, light brown cabinetry, a large white island, stainless steel appliances, and a textured tile backsplash.

Durability

When considering personalization, renovating your forever home provides countless opportunities to express your individuality.

For the most part, new builds often offer basic material selection that can compromise durability. While the products used can last for five or even ten years, the materials selected tend to wear out fast. Compare that to how we help you choose materials for renovations – with a strong focus on durability. If we won’t put it in our homes, we won’t put it in yours.

Maintainability

If both options use similar materials, the factor of maintenance is a moot point – i.e., using quartz for countertops. However, we exercise special caution when helping homeowners select renovation materials, ensuring we steer clear of products that require excessive effort to maintain.

New builds often lack the personal touch that comes with renovating your forever home.

By choosing to focus on renovating your forever home, you can select materials that reflect your style and preferences.

Aesthetic appeal

The look of your forever home can be as important as its functionality, making aesthetics an essential part of the equation. We design interiors based on timeless styles and often layer in multiple design styles to create a custom look. 

When building a new home, builders tend to focus on trends. This can lead to some dissatisfaction when trends change. Often, we can determine the year a new home was built simply by the trends it incorporates.

The aesthetics of renovating your forever home can create a unique environment tailored to your lifestyle.

Personalization of your home renovation versus a new build

Even though a new home is built from scratch, most builders will still work from a template, a layout plan, and give you access to a limited selection of materials and finishes. If you wish to deviate from these options, it will result in custom work that requires a significantly larger budget.

Renovating your forever home: A renovated living room with white vertical shiplap paneling, a dark marble-look fireplace surround, a brown leather sofa, and two gray accent chairs.

Ultimately, renovating your forever home can enhance your quality of life by creating spaces that cater to your needs.

In contrast, the possibilities for personalization and customization in your renovation are endless. As we renovate your home, we work closely with you to ensure you receive precisely what you want. Of course, we still need to ensure your project doesn’t exceed your budget, but we are here for you each step of the way. 

  • To help you maximize your budget, we provide recommendations on where you can splurge or save, depending on your needs and goals. Want that fancy hood range, deep soaker tub, or chandelier to tie your space together? We help you accommodate your budget to fit it in.
  • We can design and build enhancements of any kind that leave a lasting impact on your overall satisfaction and usability of your home. Small touches, like creating a cabinet to hold your pet’s food dish, to larger projects, like installing an infrared sauna in your basement for ultimate relaxation – we have you covered.

Costs of your home renovation versus a new build

When planning your project, consider how renovating your forever home could fit your long-term goals.

The costs involved in renovating your forever home may vary, but the value is often higher than anticipated.

Have you ever heard of the term “builder-grade” before? If you’re thinking about working with a home builder, ensure you know what you’re getting. A builder-grade home will consist of cost-effective finishes and materials, which meet basic standards, but are used to maximize profits. These homes typically have a limited set of options to choose from, which helps the builder further reduce the costs associated with building.

Renovating your forever home: A bright kitchen renovation with white upper cabinets, gray lower cabinets, a white subway tile backsplash, and an island with bar seating.

Some home builders can offer packages that extend beyond builder-grade, moving toward a custom home build; however, customization tends to significantly tip the pricing scale. Let’s jump into some ballpark costs for each option.

  • Often, a new home’s price doesn’t include the lot price. For a lot in one of the many emerging new subdivisions in Winnipeg, the cost ranges from $120,000 to $325,000, depending on the style of lot, location, and size.
  • A builder-grade home typically ranges in price from $450,000 to $600,000. The actual cost involves several factors like size, materials, builder, and location. It also often doesn’t include additional costs, such as landscaping, appliances, window coverings, the lot, or GST.
  • A custom-built home typically starts from $750,000 and can soar up to $1,250,000 or more. The final cost is mainly dependent on factors such as size, materials, builder, location, and the extent of customization. And like the builder-grade, it doesn’t include additional costs for landscaping, appliances, window coverings, the lot, or GST.
  • When it comes to your forever home renovation, costs can also vary significantly, with several factors in play. However, a ballpark figure to complete a renovation to your home’s entire interior is typically in $175,000 to $400,000 range – approximately the price of a new lot.

While these price ranges are large numbers, if you decide a home renovation is the right option for your forever home, you can break the work up into smaller projects and complete them over a 5- or 10-year period.

I will also acknowledge that there is a third option to renovating or building new, which is moving. In fact, we’ve had many clients move into a “builder-grade” home that is a few years old. Then, they have us renovate the space to meet their unique needs, personality, lifestyle, and tastes. Because the home is newer, they often have the luxury of completing renovations one room at a time, typically starting with the kitchen or ensuite.

Renovating your forever home: A custom-built basement bar renovation with a curved white countertop, blue velvet bar stools, a white brick backsplash, and dark wood trim.

Many clients find that renovating your forever home provides the ideal blend of cost-effectiveness and personal satisfaction.

To wrap up, if you’re thinking about building a new custom home, consider an extensive renovation to your existing home to transform it into your forever home instead. It could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, can take much less time to complete, and comes with many advantages.

Additional perks of a forever home renovation

While the costs involved in building new can be a factor for many to decide to renovate their existing home instead, there are also other “perks” to staying put and completing a forever home renovation on your existing home, including:

  • You can stay in the neighbourhood you’ve grown to love
  • You don’t need to move away from friends and neighbours
  • All the amenities you’re accustomed to, don’t change
  • Your lot is likely mature with grown trees, landscaping, and fencing
  • If you have children, you don’t need to transfer them to a new school
  • While renovating your home, you can ensure it will meet your needs for aging in place

Ready to start your forever home renovation?

If you’ve made a decision on whether to renovate or build new, and you’re leaning toward renovating your home, we’d love to hear from you.

We can show you why you will want to work with a specialist for your forever home renovation and help you plan your forever home renovation project, so that your journey is stress-free and enjoyable.

When it comes to chatting about home renovations, it’s never too early to have an initial discussion. Contact us today!

If you decide to move forward with renovating your forever home, we are here to help.