Home renovations in Willis
Willis sits in Augusta Township, where lots are measured in acres and the water comes out of a well in the side yard. That single fact changes what a bathroom addition costs and what has to be approved before anyone frames a wall. The Platt Road shop is twelve minutes north.
What Augusta Township houses are actually made of
The stock out here runs to ranches, split-levels and older farmhouses on parcels wide enough that the closest neighbor is across a field. Eight completed jobs in Willis so far, and the same shape keeps showing up: a house added onto once already in the 1980s, a pole barn that has quietly become the real workshop, and a kitchen laid out for a household that moved on two decades ago.
Rural work also means no sidewalk to stage from and no hydrant on the corner. Material gets dropped in the driveway and stays there, so we plan the sequence around weather and around the gravel. Renovation work across Washtenaw County covers a lot of ground, and the townships south of Willow Road are their own category. Our design-build approach keeps drawings, permits and framing under one roof, which matters more when the site is thirty minutes from a supply house.
Kitchens
Farmhouse kitchens here were built around a back door, a chest freezer and a mudroom that never got finished. Opening the wall to the dining room is the usual first move, and a walk-in pantry built into the old back hall gives back the storage the wall cabinets never had. Full kitchen remodeling runs from layout through cabinet installation.
Bathrooms
Well water high in iron will stain a new white vanity top inside a year, so fixture and finish selection here starts with a water test, not a showroom. We size supply lines for a pump rather than a municipal main. Bathroom renovation in an older ranch usually means rebuilding the subfloor under a tub that has been leaking slowly for years.
Basements
Split-level lower levels out here were roughed in as storage and never went further. Finishing the lower level gives you the family room the main floor does not have. If the plan includes a sleeping room, cutting an egress window into a foundation wall is code, not an upgrade, and the window well needs drainage that ties into daylight or a sump.
Additions
Lots this size mean you almost never have to build up. Adding a room onto a ranch keeps the roofline low and the budget lower, and it avoids reworking a stair. Common asks are a first-floor primary suite, a mudroom off the drive side, and a family room that finally fits everyone at Thanksgiving. See home additions for scope and sequencing.
Outdoor and outbuildings
Pole barns get asked about on nearly every walkthrough. A detached garage built to match the house reads differently than a metal building, and it can carry a heated shop bay. On the house side, outdoor living space here means a deck or covered porch facing whatever open ground you have.
Septic capacity decides the floor plan before you do
Every project that adds a bedroom or a fixture runs into the septic system first. A field sized for three bedrooms does not automatically carry a fourth, and the county wants to see the record drawing, the tank size and often a fresh evaluation before it signs a permit. Finding that out in week one is cheap. Finding it out after the foundation is poured is not.
County health review runs on a calendar of its own, and it does not speed up because a kitchen is already torn out. So we pull the septic record early, walk the field with you, and if a soil evaluation is needed we get it scheduled while the drawings are still moving. The way a project runs from first visit to punch list is built around that order of operations: paperwork first, demolition when the permit is in hand.
- Bedroom count, not square footage, drives septic sizing. A finished lower-level bedroom counts the same as one on the main floor.
- Adding a second full bath raises fixture loading, and on an older field that can force a repair or a replacement field before the bath is approved.
- Well chemistry drives fixture choice. Iron and hardness levels tell you whether a softener and filtration belong in the scope.
- Water heater sizing follows the pump and pressure tank, so a soaking tub is a mechanical decision as much as a design one.
- Power and heat to an outbuilding need a trench, a subpanel and an inspection, all of which are easier while other trades are already on site.
Close enough that the truck is there before the coffee is cold
Willis is nearer to Platt Road than most of Ann Arbor, which shows up as earlier start times and shorter waits when something has to be replaced mid-job. Crews work the same territory in Milan, a few minutes west, and up toward Belleville and the lake. Before you set a budget, it is worth reading what a Michigan addition permit involves so the approval calendar is not a surprise.
Short hauls also keep waste down. A crew ten minutes out can bring the right trim stock the same morning instead of making do with what fits in the van, and a small change order does not cost a half day of windshield time. If you are still sizing up scope against budget, what an addition runs in Michigan gives you real ranges rather than a guess, and we will price the Willis specifics on top of that.
Tell us what the house needs and we will walk it with you.
