Home renovation in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, done Wright.

Home renovation that starts with the house you already own

A home renovation in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti or anywhere across Southeast Michigan starts with a question most contractors skip: what was this house built to do, and what does it need to do now? Wright’s Renovations is a design-build renovation contractor working out of a shop on Platt Road in Ypsilanti. One team draws the plans, prices the work line by line and builds it, so you aren’t refereeing between an architect, a general contractor and a tile sub who’ve never met.

This page is the front door to everything Wright’s renovates. It covers how renovation differs from a whole-house remodel, which rooms and structures the crews take on, what the work costs here, how a project runs week to week, and which towns across the six counties the trucks reach. If you already know the room, jump to kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, basement finishing or home additions. If you’d rather talk first, call (734) 540-0347, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Renovation or remodel, and why the plan matters more than the word

Homeowners use the two words interchangeably, and that’s fine. In the trade they mean slightly different things. A renovation restores and updates what’s there: new surfaces, new fixtures, new wiring behind the same walls. A remodel changes the form of the space, moving walls, relocating plumbing or adding square footage. Most Southeast Michigan projects land somewhere in the middle, which is why Wright’s prices the scope rather than the label.

What matters is that the plan accounts for the whole house, even when the work touches one room. A kitchen renovation in a 1950s Ann Arbor ranch runs into a 60 amp panel. A bathroom renovation in a Ypsilanti bungalow finds galvanized supply lines behind the plaster. The design-build approach catches those in the drawing phase, where fixing them costs a line on a spreadsheet instead of a change order on a job site.

For a project that touches most of the house at once, the home remodeling page walks through how Wright’s plans a house as one job. For a renovation organized by the room you want to fix, the room by room renovation guide lists every space the crews build, with what each one usually involves. For an older house where the goal is to bring back what’s already there, the home restoration page covers plaster, trim, floors, stairs and porches.

Renovation services for every part of a Southeast Michigan house

Wright’s is a full-house renovation company, with carpentry, drywall, tile and paint carried by its own crews and licensed electrical, plumbing and mechanical trades on every job that needs them. The main service lines each have their own hub page with costs, process and finished examples. Here’s how they fit together.

Kitchen renovation

The kitchen is where most Southeast Michigan renovations begin, because it’s where the house shows its age first. Wright’s rebuilds kitchens from the studs when the layout needs to change and refaces or replaces when it doesn’t. The kitchen island page shows how one piece of casework can reorganize a whole floor plan, and the Ann Arbor kitchen remodel cost calculator puts real Ann Arbor numbers on each decision.

Bathroom renovation

Bathroom work in Michigan is a moisture problem before it’s a design problem. Wright’s builds showers with proper waterproofing membranes, slopes floors so water actually reaches the drain and vents the room so the paint lasts. The primary bathroom remodel page covers the larger projects, and the master bathroom renovation guide explains what changes when a bath moves or grows.

Basement renovation

Basements add a floor to the house without touching the footprint, which is why they’re the most cost-effective square footage in the region. Every Wright’s basement starts with moisture control, egress and ceiling height, then framing, insulation, mechanicals and finish. Run the basement finishing cost calculator for a starting number, and read about egress window installation if a bedroom is part of the plan.

Additions and more square footage

When the house has run out of room, Wright’s builds out or up. That includes second-story additions, bump-outs that add a few feet to a cramped kitchen, in-law suites for multigenerational households and sunrooms that catch the light on a February afternoon. Each one is foundation, framing, roof tie-in and a permit set, and each gets its own line-item budget.

Exterior, decks and outdoor rooms

Freeze and thaw cycles punish anything outside. Wright’s builds composite and wood decks on footings set below the frost line, replaces siding and windows that bleed heat, and handles full exterior renovation when the whole envelope needs attention. The garage renovation page covers conversions, apartments and detached builds.

Mudrooms, offices and the rooms in between

Plenty of renovations never touch a kitchen or a bath. A mudroom off the garage gives a Michigan winter somewhere to land besides the kitchen floor. A spare bedroom becomes a real workspace through the home office renovation program, with wiring, lighting and sound in mind. Wright’s custom carpentry crew builds the built-ins, wainscoting and trim that make an older house read as finished, and the drywall and finishing team handles the walls behind it all.

Commercial renovation and small repairs

The same crews renovate offices, bars and retail spaces across the region; the commercial renovation page explains how those projects are scheduled around a business that has to stay open. At the other end of the scale, Wright’s Repairs handles the smaller jobs, from a sagging door to a drywall patch, so a renovation client has one number to call for years after the big project wraps.

Renovating a house by the decade it was built

Southeast Michigan’s housing stock was built in waves, and each wave hides something different behind the drywall. The home types guide sorts the region’s houses by era and explains what a renovation usually uncovers in each. It’s worth a read before the first consultation, because the age of the house drives the budget more than the finishes do.

A 1920s or 1930s Ann Arbor bungalow has plaster and lath, knob and tube wiring in the attic and a stone or block foundation that has settled into its final position. Wright’s historic home renovation work keeps the trim profiles and the hardwood while bringing the systems to code. The historic home guide for Michigan goes deeper on what preservation actually costs.

Mid-century ranches from the 1950s and 1960s have good bones, low ceilings and kitchens walled off from everything else. The mid-century home renovation page shows how those get opened up. Newer construction from the 1990s onward has drywall, decent HVAC and builder-grade finishes that wear out on schedule, which the modern home renovation page covers for condos, townhouses, duplexes and new builds.

What home renovation costs in Southeast Michigan

Wright’s prices every renovation from a line-item budget, so the number you see before signing is the number the crew builds to. Market ranges for the region give you a place to start. These are Southeast Michigan figures for 2026, not national averages, and the spread in each band comes down to layout changes, material grade and what the house turns out to be hiding.

• Kitchen renovation: about $45,000 to $130,000 in Ann Arbor for a full rebuild, with the state average running lower for a surface-level update.
• Bathroom renovation: $16,000 to $35,000 and up for a full bath; a powder room or guest bath can start under $10,000.
• Basement finishing: $30,000 to $75,000 for a basic finish, or $24 to $61 a square foot, plus $5 to $10 a square foot where waterproofing is needed.
• Additions: $200 to $400 a square foot, with second stories at the top of that range because of the structural work.
• Composite decks: $55 to $120 a square foot installed, driven by railing detail and footing depth.

Those ranges are useful for deciding what to do first. They aren’t a quote. The renovation cost calculator narrows the number by room and scope, and the bathroom cost calculator does the same for baths. For projects that don’t fit a cash budget, the financing page lays out the lending partners Wright’s works with and shows sample monthly payments.

One rule holds across every band: the cheapest renovation is the one that doesn’t get redone. A $35,000 bathroom built on a properly sloped pan and a sealed membrane costs less over ten years than a $20,000 one that leaks into the kitchen ceiling. The luxury renovation guide covers the top of the market, and the green renovation guide covers the upgrades that pay back on the utility bill.

How a Wright’s renovation runs, first call to final walkthrough

Every project follows the same phases, and the design-build process page spells each one out. A consultation at the house comes first. The proposal phase takes two to four weeks and ends in drawings and a fixed price, itemized line by line. Pre-construction takes three to six weeks for permits, selections and ordering, so the crew isn’t waiting on parts. The build runs four to 16 weeks depending on scope, and one project manager stays with the house from contract to the warranty visit. Wright’s has built this way since 2021 under Michigan builder license #262100679.

The first visit is free and takes about an hour. Read what to have ready before the consultation so the time goes to the house instead of paperwork, and skim who Wright’s works best with to decide whether the fit is right before anyone drives out. You can book the consultation online or call the office.

Permits are pulled by Wright’s, not left to the homeowner, and inspections are scheduled around the crew’s calendar so the job doesn’t stall waiting on the township. The renovation permit guide for Southeast Michigan explains which jobs need one and roughly what they cost by municipality. Every evening the foreman posts a daily log in JobTread with photos of the day’s work, and every Friday the project manager sends a weekly update with the schedule chart, the budget position and any decisions that need an answer. Every change order is written and approved before any new work starts.

Living in the house while the renovation moves through it

Most clients stay home during a renovation, and the schedule is built around that. Zip-wall dust barriers go up and ram board goes down before demolition starts, and the site gets cleaned at the end of every day. The loudest, dustiest work gets scheduled with some thought for who’s home. Some families plan a short stay elsewhere for the heaviest weeks of a kitchen or a full-floor rework, and the project manager will say up front which weeks those are.

Season matters in Michigan. Interior renovations run year-round, and winter is the easiest time to get on the calendar for a home office, laundry room or living room renovation. Decks, additions and exterior work need frost-free ground for footings and dry days for roofing, which puts them between April and October. The renovation timing tool shows when to start planning so the build lands in the right window.

Older households and growing ones have their own needs. Wright’s builds accessibility modifications such as curbless showers and first-floor baths, and multigenerational retrofits that give a parent or an adult child a private space with its own door. Both start with the same consultation as any other renovation, and both are easier to plan into a kitchen or basement project than to add afterward.

Renovation work across six Southeast Michigan counties

Wright’s serves Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Livingston, Monroe and Macomb counties from Ypsilanti. Keeping the work close to the shop keeps the crew on site instead of on the freeway, and it means the office has already dealt with most of the building departments in the area. The Michigan service area hub lists every town with its own page.

In Washtenaw County that means Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Saline, Dexter and Chelsea. West into Wayne County the trucks reach Plymouth, Canton and Livonia. Oakland County work clusters around Novi, Northville and Birmingham, and Livingston County around Brighton and Howell. Monroe and Macomb counties round out the service area to the south and northeast.

Each town page covers the housing stock there, what renovations usually run into in that town and the projects Wright’s has finished nearby. County pages for Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Livingston, Monroe and Macomb fill in the smaller townships, with the same service lines available in each one. If your town isn’t listed yet, call the office; the trucks reach plenty of places that don’t have a page.

Renovations Wright’s has finished nearby

Finished work says more than a service list. The project portfolio holds every featured renovation with photos, the scope of work and the problems each house presented along the way. The projects below show the range of what a Wright’s renovation can mean, from one room to a whole house:

• A whole home remodel in Plymouth Township across three floors, finished in 2025 on a 12 to 16 week build.
• A whole home renovation in Ann Arbor with a kitchen addition, a remodeled kitchen and a garage turned into a bedroom.
• A bathroom renovation in Howell built around stone and glass.
• A commercial office renovation in Troy for a title company.
• A living room renovation in Ypsilanti a few miles from the shop.

Questions homeowners ask before a home renovation

How long does a home renovation take?

On most Wright’s projects the proposal takes two to four weeks, pre-construction takes three to six and the build runs four to 16 weeks, so a bathroom can be done inside a season while a whole-house renovation across three floors runs closer to four months of construction. Because the design and permit stages come before the build, the consultation should happen a season before you want crews in the house.

Does Wright’s handle the design, or do I need an architect?

Wright’s handles design in house for most renovations. Structural changes get stamped drawings from a licensed engineer, which Wright’s coordinates and includes in the budget. The design-build page explains what that saves compared with hiring a designer and a builder separately.

Can I renovate one room now and the rest later?

Yes, and that’s how many Southeast Michigan houses get done. The trick is to plan the whole sequence up front so the kitchen renovation doesn’t block a future addition and the bathroom plumbing is sized for the primary suite you’ll build in three years. The first consultation covers the long-term plan even if the first contract covers one room.

What does Wright’s not do?

Roofing, HVAC, insulation-only jobs, fencing and gutters are outside the scope of a Wright’s renovation. Those trades are better served by companies that do nothing else, and saying so up front saves everyone a wasted site visit. The list of work Wright’s Repairs doesn’t take covers the small-job side.

How do I know the price won’t change?

The signed proposal is a fixed price, itemized line by line, so a change is a written change order you approve before any new work starts, not a surprise on the final invoice. The Friday update shows the budget position every week, so you always know where the number stands against the contract.

Start your home renovation with a conversation

The fastest way to find out what your renovation will cost and when it can start is a visit to the house. Contact us today for a free quote, or check out our portfolio to see what finished work looks like across Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and the rest of Southeast Michigan. Wright’s Renovations, 7101 Platt Rd, Ypsilanti, MI 48197, (734) 540-0347.