Chilmark homes, kept up while you are away

More houses than residents

Chilmark has about 1,560 residents and about 1,610 homes in the census figures. In most Massachusetts towns those numbers are nowhere near each other. Here they are almost equal, which tells us a good share of houses are seasonal or second homes. Of the homes that are occupied year-round, close to 90 percent are owner-occupied, and about 97 percent of all homes are single-family detached.

For a remodel, that changes how a job has to be managed. Plenty of owners will be off the island, sometimes far off it, when the walls are open. So the questions that matter are practical ones. Who sends the photos. Who calls when the inspector has been through. Who decides what happens when the subfloor under the old tub turns out to be soft. Steve built this company on communication after years of working for builders who did not do it, and a Chilmark job is where that standard gets tested.

Seasonal houses also have their own wear patterns. A house closed for the winter can hide a slow plumbing leak, a failed sump or a roof leak for months before anyone walks in. When we start a job in a house like that, the first walkthrough looks for those quiet problems before the scope is written, because there is no point finishing a bath over a floor that has been getting wet since February.

If something we find changes the plan, you hear about it that day, not at the walkthrough.

Houses from the late 1970s and early 1980s building wave

The median house in town was built around 1982. Roughly 14 percent predate 1940 and about 17 percent are from 2000 or later. That puts most of the housing in the period when a lot of island houses went up with tall ceilings, big glass, skylights and decks facing the view. Those choices age in predictable ways: skylight curbs leak, large old windows lose their seals, cathedral ceilings were rarely insulated to anything close to current standards.

When we open one of these up, the energy side often becomes part of the conversation. Many Massachusetts towns have adopted the stretch energy code, and insulation and air sealing in a remodel follow whatever applies. We explain what the code asks for in your situation before the scope is final, so it is a decision rather than a surprise at the insulation inspection.

The older houses in town bring their own list: plaster, old wiring found during demolition, and, in anything built before 1978, the possibility of lead paint, which means lead-safe work practices under the EPA rule.

How an absentee job runs

The written scope comes first and says what is included, what is not, and what has to be ordered early. Changes are written down and priced before the work moves. You get regular updates with photos, and the job is closed up properly at the end of each day, which matters when no one is living in the house to notice a problem.

Permits are pulled through the town building department and the inspections happen in order: framing, the licensed electrical and plumbing roughs, insulation, final. If something we find changes the plan, you hear about it that day, not at the walkthrough.

Timing matters as well. Owners often want the house ready for the summer, and island lead times for windows, cabinets and tile can be longer than on the mainland. We say plainly what can and cannot be done before a given date, and we would rather tell you in the fall that a full kitchen will not be finished by June than promise it and miss.