We just finished a beautiful three season room in Lansing! Just in time for the homeowner to enjoy it this weekend.
Three season rooms are great places to hang out and read a book while the kids play out back, share a drink, or just to take a nap in peace.
Do you have a three season room? How do you use yours?
We are so close to wrapping up another finished basement and it’s looking great so far. Finished basements have become a real specialty for our team over the years. I’ll be posting more of this basement as it wraps up soon, but in the meantime, check out the photo or even our new Finished Basement section in our website.
We had the opportunity to replace an upstairs deck just in time for Summer and you couldn’t have asked for better weather as we finished. Seeing this deck with its commanding view of their lovely yard has me dreaming about barbecues and family time!
There’s still tons of warm weather ahead of us, so if you’re on the fence about a deck, it’s time to make the call and get living!
If you think you’re being smart hiring cheap roofers, think again! Look at the photo of the shingles. Take a close look. Somebody was paid to lay that patch of shingles on the roof and whatever money might have been saved, ended up costing these homeowners their whole roof!
When we came in to tarp the area off, we first thought it would be a quick matter to find the leak. The homeowner showed us room-by-room, each room had water leaking through the roof. That one patch had allowed so much water in that the entire roof and the ceilings have been compromised. I truly feel for them because I’ve seen this too many times.
This is why I recommend people always hire licensed professionals with a history of quality work you can look up and see. It’ll take longer and it will cost more than the “handyman,” but it will be built to last and you’ll have the piece of mind that the work will last.
Hire smart. Hire professionals.
We remodeled and updated a bathroom recently. So many homes in the area were built between the 60s and the 90s and many of them have the original bathroom design. Those designs were great then, but if you’re looking at that style every day, imagine what a remodel could do to update your bathroom and help you start again with a clean, neat space that feels brand new!
The team responded to tarp off a home that had suffered serious fire damage earlier this week. A “tarp off” is what we call it when we cover up damage to a home to protect it from further damage. I’m this case, the team worked until just after midnight. They were tired by the time it was over, but it’s worth it to provide a service to our community and to help homeowners get on the path to return their home to normal after a disaster.
We are finishing a basement in Okemos and just completed the bathroom. The clean lines and bold colors make this bathroom look clean and modern. GT is doing a great job working with the homeowners as the basement wraps up and we are all excited to see the end result!
We just helped a homeowner rescue a DIY crown installation job after they ran into some trouble. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking on your own projects, but sometimes things are more complicated than they seem.
In this case, the ceiling is not straight and that makes trim installation impossible - unless you are a specialist with the right tools. This is where we came in. We were able to hold the trim in place, use a compass to scribe the shape of the ceiling and then cut each piece precisely to fit in that location.
Even if you have an older home and your ceilings aren’t perfect, you can still have the great finish crown gives a room, but please, check it out before you get started and don’t be afraid to call in an expert finish carpenter.
We finished a nice, little half bath in Haslett recently. This job included a new vanity, sink, faucet, tile and paint. Half baths like this are very popular right now, with all of the people preparing to sell homes or who just moved into a new home.
We have a lot to be thankful for at Zischke Builders in this last year. It’s been almost a year since we were able to return to work and we want to thank all of the homeowners who have trusted us to come into their homes and allowed us to work.
We need to thank our team and the subcontractors we partner with for all the great and oftentimes difficult work - while dealing with all the issues Covid has brought.
Thank you to our suppliers and everyone else who helps keep things moving.
You can’t thrive in a small business without a community made up of people who care - thank you for showing up!
Finishing basements is something we love to do. Turning something cold and dark into something bright and useful - it sounds cool when you say it like that!
We have gotten the walls up and things are taking shape in this basement. Soon the floors will be in and it will start feeling close to complete!
We finished a deck in Haslett, MI this week. This was a remodel of the existing deck. We replaced the original surface with Trex, a composite material that doesn’t rot, fade or need to be repainted. We also completely changed and remodeled the stairs and added all the railings you see in the photos.
The only thing left is to paint the cedar trim, which the homeowner plans to do now that the job is over.
I think they are going to love the Trex because it requires zero maintenance. How’s your deck look? Are you ready for the Summer?
This custom, built-in bookshelf was once a nook for a wood stove, but the homeowner wanted something else. Let’s face it, woodstoves are great if you use them, but if you don’t, then they take up a lot of space. Take a look at the spaces that you don’t use - is there something better you could do with that space? Maybe a built-in feature is right for you. It can be hard to imagine the possibilities, which is why we are happy to come out and help you find a solution that fits your tastes.
We have been doing more commercial work recently, including putting curved drywall up inside a historic building in Lansing. The new owners want their business environment to reflect the old-school charm of this beautiful property. Curving drywall is difficult and tedious, but it’s well within the skillset of our drywall expert.
While we are a residential contractor first, commercial business has been a cornerstone of what we do for the Lansing community. This project is going to look incredible when it is complete and will be worth a trip just to take a look!
Another satisfied homeowner! We love hearing from our customers!
This cozy kitchen remodel includes new, custom cabinets, brand new counters, a new sink and faucet - not to mention we matched a window sill trim for a beautiful garden window. The white and grey really pops with the rich reds and browns from the floor and overall, this is a kitchen that will put a smile on your face as you walk into it. Very proud of the work here!
It’s our personal movie theatre, bringing us closer together as we binge a Netflix series or watch our favorite movies. It’s a place to lay down challenges to our friends and family in our favorite games. It’s a place to hang out, to snuggle or to just relax. It’s your entertainment center and it should suit your needs.
This built-in is a custom design for a client who wanted an entertainment center installed that could neatly house gaming consoles, movies, board games and a large, 65” flat screen! Now that it’s installed, their finished basement is complete and ready to be moved into. I know it’s going to be a cherished part of their home.
If you didn’t know a contractor could offer custom, built-in shelving like this entertainment center, take a look through our posts and you will see that we can offer entryway benches, built in book shelves and basically any other feature you can imagine. The best part is that during these times, we make it simple. We come by and measure the area, then we don’t have to come back to your home until we are ready to install. We do all the work at our facility so your home isn’t a construction zone. It’s an easy way to get something added to your home.
Painting a cabinet in place or a built in feature requires painting one object and not the entire room. While it’s less expensive to have the job done with a brush or rollers, they tend to leave brush strokes, marks from the rollers that are visible in the light or uneven spots caused by paint coagulation in the can.
The best way is to have the work done by a professional painter who will zone off the feature and any other surface you need painted. This protects the rest of the room and allows for the best result. A great looking, smooth finish can be applied with a professional sprayer by a professional painter.
This may be more expensive in the short term, but it leaves a finish that will last for years that will clean easy and look great.
We remodeled this home by knocking down some walls and building some new ones to rearrange the layout of the downstairs - this is really common as most homes are a little older and have small rooms. We actually opened up a lot of space. A few walls make a huge difference and so do floors - we replaced the floors throughout the house and up the stairs. Vinyl planks are durable, resistant to the sun and impacts and are very affordable. I really loved the way this home turned out!
This home went from having the old concrete basement our kids are scared to venture into to being a bright and vibrant area for one of their children to live in, complete with a bathroom, living room and bedroom. We decided to go with an open ceiling to maximize the overhead space and sprayed the joists black to make the flooring and walls really pop!
Finishing your basement is one of the best moves most homeowners can make. If this is your “forever home,” then you create living space, room for fun, work, a gym - whatever brings more joy to your life. It could also be an investment - adding living space to your home could mean income property in the form of an apartment downstairs or just more value when you go to sell the home. A combination of those approaches could also mean providing a secure space for an older child while they attend a local college!
