Home renovation covers everything from a single kitchen to a whole-house transformation, and the right approach depends on the home you own. On the Westside of Los Angeles, where many houses carry an architect's signature, a house renovation is less about replacing what exists and more about honoring the original intent while making the home work for the way you live now. I am Dick Minium, and for more than thirty years my workshop has built, installed, and kept architecturally significant homes for owners, their architects, and their collectors. This guide walks you through how I think about renovation planning, what the work can include, and the quiet maintenance that protects everything afterward. By the end, you should know the right questions to ask before anyone touches your home.

What You'll Find in This Guide

If this is the work you are planning, start with Home Renovation.

Planning a House Renovation Around the Architecture

Every renovation begins with a question: what is this house trying to be? In a tract home, the answer is flexible. In an architect-designed home, the answer already exists in the drawings, the proportions, and the details. Consequently, my first job is to understand the original design before I propose a single change. When the architect is still involved, I build to their drawings. When the architect is not available, I study the house itself and work with your design team to extend its logic rather than fight it.

This matters because a renovation that ignores the architecture shows. Moldings that do not match, sightlines that break, and new materials that argue with old ones all announce themselves. By contrast, a renovation done with respect for the original design reads as though the house always wanted to be this way. You can see this approach in the Steven Ehrlich house remodel in Brentwood, where the interior work focused on light and warmth within Ehrlich's design rather than against it.

Questions to Settle Before Work Begins

Before you commit to any renovation, settle the scope. Decide which rooms the work touches, what stays, and what the drawings must resolve before demolition starts. Additionally, ask your contractor how decisions get made once walls open up, because surprises are part of renovation and the process for handling them matters more than pretending they will not happen. Ask who manages the trades, who talks to the city about permits, and who stands between you and the daily noise of the job.

You should also think about sequence. For example, structural and waterproofing work must come before finishes, and lighting plans must come before drywall. A good contractor sequences the work so you never pay twice for the same wall. In practice, this is where experience with fine homes earns its keep. The materials in these houses, from book-matched stone to custom steel windows, demand planning that starts long before the first trade arrives. With this in mind, treat the planning phase as part of the work itself, not a delay before it.

What a Whole-House Renovation Can Include

A house renovation rarely stays inside one room. Kitchens open to dining rooms, bathrooms share walls with bedrooms, and additions change how the whole floor plan flows. As a result, I think of renovation as three kinds of work that often happen together: the rooms you live in, the structure that holds them, and the grounds that frame them.

Kitchens and baths carry the most daily use, so they deserve the most care. Custom kitchen remodeling means cabinetry built for your cooking, stone selected slab by slab, and lighting planned for both work and gathering. Likewise, custom bathroom remodeling turns the most private room in the house into one of its best. Waterproofing matters as much as tile here, because a beautiful bathroom that leaks is a failure wearing a nice finish.

Additions, Grounds, and the Art Inside

Residential additions raise the stakes. An addition must match the original house in structure, materials, and spirit, or it will always read as an afterthought. Therefore, I treat additions as architecture first and square footage second. Foundations, framing, and rooflines have to meet the existing house cleanly, and the transition should disappear.

Beyond the walls, hardscape and landscape construction extends the renovation outdoors. Pools, terraces, retaining walls, and planting plans deserve the same engineering and craft as the interior. The Brentwood project paired its interior remodel with pool and landscape work for exactly this reason, so the house and its grounds speak the same language.

Finally, there is the art. Many of my clients collect, and their homes must hold the work safely and show it well. My workshop handles large sculpture, suspended pieces, private galleries, art lighting, and the structural engineering all of it requires. To put it simply, a renovation in a collector's home should plan for the art from the first drawing, not bolt it on at the end. Blocking in the walls, dedicated circuits for lighting, and load paths for heavy work all cost far less to build in than to retrofit.

Protecting the Renovation: Leaks, Dry Rot, and Ongoing Care

The least glamorous part of renovation is the part that saves it. Water is the enemy of every fine home, and it works quietly. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ten percent of U.S. homes have leaks severe enough to waste 90 gallons or more of water per day, and the average household's plumbing leaks can waste more than 10,000 gallons every year. That water does not just run up a utility bill. It finds framing, sills, and finishes, and it destroys them from the inside. The EPA's Fix a Leak resources are a useful starting point if you suspect a problem in your own home.

This is why leak detection and elimination sits inside my workshop alongside the building trades. Finding the source of water matters more than patching its symptoms. Similarly, dry rot repair and window restoration address damage at its root. In older architecturally significant homes, original wood windows are often worth restoring rather than replacing, because they carry the character of the house. Electrical, plumbing, and HVAC work round out the systems that keep a renovated home healthy behind its finishes.

Estate Management: The Third Door

After the renovation ends, the relationship does not have to. I call this third door of the workshop Keep: estate management, meaning ongoing upkeep and readiness of the homes we built or renovated, along with scheduling the other trades a fine home needs. In practice, this means someone who already knows your house, its systems, and its quirks watches over it season by season. Small problems get found while they are still small. For a home that represents years of design and craft, that continuity is worth more than any single repair. Ask any contractor you consider whether they stay involved after the work ends, and what that involvement actually looks like.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I know before starting a home renovation project?

Know your scope, your drawings, and your decision-making process before demolition begins. Additionally, confirm who manages permits, who coordinates the trades, and how changes get approved once the walls open up. For an architect-designed home, make sure your contractor understands the original design and intends to honor it.

What is the average timeline for a home renovation project?

There is no useful average, because scope drives everything. A single bathroom, a whole-house interior, and an addition with new foundations are entirely different undertakings. Instead of chasing an average, ask your contractor to walk you through the sequence of your specific project and the decisions that shape it.

How long does a typical home renovation take?

It depends on the scope of work, the permits required, the materials specified, and what the house reveals once work begins. Custom materials and engineered details take the time they take, and rushing them shows in the finished work. A thorough planning phase gives you the clearest picture of your own project's shape.

Should I hire a professional contractor for my home renovation?

For any renovation involving structure, waterproofing, electrical, plumbing, or permits, a licensed professional protects both your safety and your home's value. Ask any contractor you consider for their license number, proof of insurance, and references from projects similar to yours. In an architecturally significant home, also ask about their experience working alongside architects and building to drawings.

Ready to Get Started?

I am Dick Minium, a Westside Los Angeles general contractor for architecturally significant homes and the art inside them, working with owners, their architects, and collectors for more than thirty years. My workshop has three doors: Build for renovations, additions, kitchens, baths, and grounds; Install for sculpture, galleries, and art lighting; and Keep for estate management. If you are considering a renovation, call me at 310.392.6622 and we can talk through your house and what it wants to become.