Old and new Shirley houses, each remodeled for its age

Reading the age of a Shirley house

Shirley's roughly 2,600 homes have a census median year built of 1977, for a town of about 7,100 people. That middle number is misleading on its own. The town holds a sizable prewar stock alongside a newer layer that went up after 2000, with the 1960s through the 1980s in between. At about 450 people per square mile, the town is spread out enough that many lots have room for a deck, a mudroom or a modest addition, each of which starts with footings poured below the frost line and checked before framing goes on.

A house from before 1940 usually means plaster on lath, balloon framing open from basement to attic, fieldstone or brick foundations and wiring that may still include knob-and-tube in places nobody has looked. Lead paint is expected on the original trim. A house from after 2000 has standard framing, drywall and modern wiring, and its remodel is about finishing space and replacing builder-grade surfaces that have worn out.

The build year also tells you what the paint is likely to hold. Anything finished before 1978 may carry lead, which in Shirley covers the prewar stock and much of the middle generation too. Those surfaces are handled under lead-safe rules before anyone disturbs them: containment, no dry sanding and a careful cleanup at the end of each stage.

The answer will not always be the one you hoped for, but it will be straight.

The work each era asks for

In the older houses, the honest answer is that the scope is not fully known until walls open. We price the work we can see in a written proposal, list the things we expect to check, and agree with you in advance how a surprise is handled. Balloon-framed walls get fire blocking where we open them, and a failing fieldstone wall gets looked at before anything heavier is set on it.

In the newer houses, the usual projects are finishing a basement left as concrete and studs, turning a bonus room over the garage into real living space, and pulling out the first round of kitchen and bath finishes. These are cleaner jobs structurally, but the energy code sets insulation and air-sealing requirements a finished basement has to meet. A walkout basement, where the house has one, usually makes the best finished space of all, with real windows and its own door.

About one Shirley home in five is rented rather than owner-occupied. For owners of two-family houses and rentals, we handle unit turnovers, kitchen and bath replacements between tenants, and repairs that need to pass inspection. Rental work runs on its own clock, since every week a unit sits empty costs the owner, so we plan the order of trades before the old tenant moves out.

Distance, schedule and updates

At roughly 54 miles northwest of our shop in Raynham, Shirley jobs are scheduled in solid stretches, with materials ordered and on site before demolition, so the drive does not turn into lost days. Inspections are lined up ahead as well, so each stage can close without waiting.

Every job starts with a walkthrough and ends with a final inspection. Between the two you deal with Steve directly, you get updates when something changes, and you find the house swept and secured when the crew leaves each afternoon.

Steve started Modern Remodeling after years working for contractors who lacked communication, and his standard is better communication and making sure the job is done right. In practice that means you know what day the inspector is coming, what was found when a wall opened and what it changes, before you have to ask. The answer will not always be the one you hoped for, but it will be straight.