DESIGN & REMODEL INSIGHTSWHAT ARE YOU
WAITING FOR?
Costs Don’t Wait for Anyone.
You may know a house like our first one in Texas. If you bought your first home in the last ten years, the to-do list started the week you moved in. Then over time the family changed, but the house stayed the same size: A baby. A parent moving in. A job that now lives at the kitchen table. The typical owner-occupied home in America is 42 years old. An old house is not a problem. It is a starting point.
I have stood where you are. J and I bought our first house 34 years ago when we were in our late twenties. We owned it for a few years and then moved on. A dozen or more homes later, I can tell you the question never changes. Only the numbers do.
Our current house is nearly eighty years old. Someone remodeled it before my husband and me, and someone will remodel it after us. Every owner has faced the question you may be facing right now. Start, or wait.
"Thirty years of buying and remodeling homes have taught me one thing about that question. Waiting has a price too. It just never sends an invoice."
Curb Appeal: The Front Exterior
The Before: Scalloped white trim. Shrubs that looked like Edward Scissorhands rejects. Fluted trim that only added to the confusion about the intended style of the house. Under all of that sat a spacious 1940s daylight ranch on a slope with a walkout lower level.
The After: Same front footprint with some updated contemporary touches, new windows, new paint scheme, and a stress-free landscape that correlates to the hidden basalt retaining walls that were covered by plants and smothered with moss.
The Gathering Space: Capturing More Space on the Rear Exterior
The Before: Green siding. A white pergola that had done its job. Very little entertaining space.. Dated & boring!
The After: Contemporary design. Addition of a new deck with a patio cover cantilevered over the existing roof. Complex & functional!
Every year you wait is a year without nights like these.
So let me show you what waiting costs
What the Numbers Say
Building materials are up 86% since 2010. Construction pay is up 66%.
Index, January 2010 = 100. Latest: materials Aug 2026, pay Sep 2026.
January 2010
The same starting line.
Two numbers, both set to 100: what residential building materials cost, and what an hour of construction work pays. Studio Garrison opened a few months earlier, in fall 2009.
2010 to 2021
Twelve years in step.
Materials wobbled and pay climbed slowly. By January 2021 they had landed in almost exactly the same place, about 28% above where they started.
2021 to 2022
One year breaks the pattern.
Between January 2021 and January 2022, building materials jumped 23%. Construction pay rose 5%.
2022 to 2026
No step back.
Materials never returned to their old line, and they climbed again this year. Construction pay has gone up every single year since 2010.
Today
Waiting has a price.
Materials that cost $10,000 in January 2010 cost about $18,600 today. An hour of construction work that paid $25.12 now pays $41.69.
National figures, not the price of any one project. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. PPI Net Inputs to Residential Construction, Goods (WPUIP2311001) and Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Construction (CES2000000003). January of each year, plus latest month.
Show the data
| Date | Materials (PPI) | Index | Pay ($/hr) | Index |
|---|
I opened Studio Garrison in the fall of 2009. This chart starts the winter after, in a soft market, so it is a low starting line. Start it at any January since, and it still ends higher.
Both lines climb. Material costs increased in 2022 and have not stepped back. Construction worker pay has risen every year since 2010. These are national figures, not the price of your project, and I cannot promise what next year’s numbers will be.
Numbers tell you the direction. Crews tell you the pace. The scarce part is the people who build, and anyone who has tried to book a good crew knows it. Good crews book out. Waiting does not make them easier to find.
INDUSTRY INSIGHT: Matt Ralston of Burns & McDonnell calls skilled craft labor "the largest constraint on progress in our industry."
Standing at the Kitchen Island
Most people who ask me about timing are standing at one of two doors. The house they own, or the house they have not built yet.
Option 1: Remodel What You Own
If you love your street and the house has good bones, remodel. You already own the land and the location. A thoughtful remodel adds to both. It is the quieter way to a better house.
Option 2: Build New
If you have outgrown the house, or you found THE lot, build. Just know what time does to a long project. A new home is a longer road, and a longer road has more places for prices to move. A custom home has one of the longest schedules there is. Industry forecasts put the beginning of a labor squeeze at its peak in 2027. Break ground then, and you are hiring into it.
That is why I tell people to start with design. Ready projects move. Ready starts with design. The architecture, the consultants, and the construction documents come first, and they carry the most weight.
What’s Your Next Move?
This part is mine, not from another source. Building and remodeling costs have trended up for years and I do not expect them to come down. So the day you start is the least expensive day you will get. That does not mean rush. It means begin.
I know how it feels. I have felt it too. What I have found is that waiting is a decision that comes with a price.
If you are ready, start here. Identify what the house needs now. Begin with design, not demolition. Line up your team early. If the number comes back larger than you hoped, then let Studio Garrison phase the work or trim scope.
Old houses wait patiently. The people living in them don’t have to.