For current or future homeowners, ready to shake up an existing space, this class is a crash course in a variety of topics that will empower you to tackle your own home renovation project. At the end of this course, you’ll have the basic knowledge and skills needed to transform your home into a space that reflects your individual needs and wants.  Course content is delivered through studio sessions, lectures, slide shows, hands-on projects, house tours, and discussion.

In the studio component, students are taught the design process starting with site analysis, programming, and design sketches, as well as through orthographic drawings and models. We’ll cover all of the essential principles of building science on projects ranging from weatherization to gut rehab to deep energy retrofits. Students will also go over basic historic preservation concepts. 

For the hands-on portion of the 2024 course, we will be undertaking a partial basement renovation on the Yestermorrow Campus. The project will include removing existing walls, replacing a window, drywall repair and replacement and some finish carpentry details such as trim and baseboard. This portion of the course teaches students how to safely deconstruct an existing build with the intention of harvesting building materials for reuse. You’ll also learn safe use of common hand and power tools and carpentry basics.