Westwood homes, mid-century and newer, done right

Westwood's houses in census terms

About 16,100 people live in Westwood, in roughly 5,700 housing units on a little under eleven square miles of land. Census figures put the median year built at 1967. Close to one home in five predates 1940, and about one in six was built after 2000, a high share for a town this size. With that much building from both eras on so little land, a Westwood street can hold a 1950s ranch next to a house barely twenty years old.

Around three quarters of the homes are single-family detached, and close to nine in ten are owner-occupied. In practice most of our conversations in Westwood are with families planning to stay: a kitchen that has to work for the next twenty years, a bath that was last touched decades ago, a lower level that finally gets finished.

The town sits about twenty-two miles northwest of Raynham. That is an easy run for site visits, and it lets Steve meet inspectors and answer questions in person throughout a job. Small questions, like how a cabinet run ends against a window or where a new switch should go, get settled on site rather than guessed at.

Steve walks through with you, and a written scope follows that you can read at your own pace before signing.

Opening up a mid-century plan

Ranches, Capes and split-levels from the 1950s and 1960s were built as separate rooms: a closed kitchen, a formal living room, a narrow hall. The most common request in houses like these is to connect the kitchen to the living space. Sometimes the wall in the way is a simple partition. Often it carries the ceiling or the floor above, and then it needs a properly sized beam with posts carried down to solid bearing.

We find out which it is at the walkthrough, before a plan is drawn, and you hear the answer plainly. A load-bearing wall changes the scope and the inspection steps, and we would rather you know that before you get attached to a layout. Sometimes the honest answer is that a wider opening, rather than removing the whole wall, gets most of what the owner wants with less disruption.

Houses of this age also tend to have insulation that falls short of current requirements. When walls are open anyway, it is the right moment to air seal and insulate to the energy code that applies, and that work is inspected before the drywall goes up. In a ranch, the attic above is usually reachable, which makes improving insulation there one of the more practical upgrades to fold into a remodel.

Newer homes and the work they need

A Westwood house finished in the early 2000s is now past twenty years old. Kitchens and bathrooms from that period were often finished to a builder's standard, and owners who have lived with them for years usually know exactly what they would change. Unfinished basements are common too, and finishing one starts with checking for moisture before any framing goes in. A finished lower level with a bedroom also needs proper egress, and if the house is on septic, an added bedroom brings a Title 5 design-flow review.

The order of work does not change with the age of the house. Steve walks through with you, and a written scope follows that you can read at your own pace before signing. The town building department issues the permit under the state building code, and inspections follow at framing, insulation and final.

When something changes mid-job, it is written down and priced first. The site is cleaned each day and you get regular updates without asking, which is the whole reason Steve started Modern Remodeling after years working for builders who did not keep owners informed.