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Locally owned · Building in West Michigan since 2018 · Fixed-price contracts · Design sketch & budget on your first call · Without the usual chaos
Kitchens, bathrooms, finished basements, home additions, ADUs, accessibility builds, sunrooms, and whole-home renovations — for Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills, Ada, Cascade, Wyoming, Kentwood, and the surrounding West Michigan communities. One contract. One lead. One number that doesn't move.
Book Your Free Discovery Call619 36th St SW, Wyoming, MI 49509 · By appointment only — we come to you for in-home consultations. · Open in Google Maps →
Most remodeling stories start the same way. A homeowner has lived with the cramped kitchen, the dated bath, the wasted basement, the room they don't have, for years. They've watched the videos, saved the boards, maybe even gotten a few quotes. And every time, the same fears stop them cold — the budget that balloons mid-project, the contractor who disappears, the chaos of strangers in the house for months. We exist to take all of that off the table.
An estimate is a guess that can move. A fixed-price contract is a binding number after the design and scope are locked. The number we put in writing is the number you pay — no allowance games, no end-of-project reconciliation, no surprise change orders for things we should have caught up front. The only way the price moves is if you decide to change the scope, and that change is priced and approved before any work happens.
Our first conversation is a working session, not a sales pitch. We talk through your project, build a rough sketch or 3D model, and hand back an honest budget range tied to actual scope choices — cabinetry, tile, fixtures, layout — before you commit to anything. You walk away knowing what's possible in your home and what it would cost.
We're a locally owned, locally operated design-build firm. Our shop and mailing address is 619 36th St SW in Wyoming, our crews live in the same communities you do, and we've been building in West Michigan since 2018. Not a national brand with a franchise. Not a sales floor pushing leads to subs. A real builder, accountable to the neighborhood.
A Thornapple-employed project lead runs your job day to day. Trades coordinated, inspections handled, dust contained, daily photo updates in your project portal. Most contractors expect you to manage them. We expect to manage the project so you don't have to. You're not chasing subs. You're not chasing answers.
A pillar page is only useful if every silo is a real link to a real deep page. Below are the nine remodeling categories we handle — click into any one for full scope, cost ranges, timelines, and project photos. Every category runs the same fixed-price, design-protected process.
The kitchen is the room your family lives in. A Thornapple kitchen remodel handles full layout redesign, custom or semi-custom cabinetry, quartz or stone countertops, premium appliance packages, lighting design, and structural changes like wall removals and load-bearing beams when you want open-concept living. Mid-range kitchen remodels in Grand Rapids typically run $50,000–$90,000. A chef's kitchen with custom millwork, integrated appliances, and meaningful layout work runs $90,000–$150,000+. Every kitchen scope is locked at a fixed price after design.
See kitchen remodel details, cost ranges, and projects →
From a focused powder room refresh to a full primary suite, bathroom remodels are our highest-volume project category. Scope includes curbless walk-in tile showers, freestanding tubs, custom vanities, heated floors, layered lighting, and the kind of waterproofing detail you only notice when it's done wrong. Bathroom remodel cost in Grand Rapids runs $15,000 for a refresh, $30,000–$40,000 for a full mid-range remodel, $40,000–$50,000+ for a luxury primary bath, and $60,000+ for a suite-plus that pulls walls and expands the footprint.
See bathroom remodel details, cost ranges, and projects →
A finished basement is the single highest-leverage square footage in most West Michigan homes — family rooms, home theaters, full bars, guest suites, kids' play space, home offices, and in-law apartments. We handle egress, waterproofing, code-compliant ceiling height, sound isolation, and the below-grade plumbing realities that catch most contractors. Basement finishing cost in Grand Rapids runs $40,000 for a basic finish and climbs past $120,000 for a full lower-level transformation with a bathroom build, wet bar, and finished mechanical room.
See basement finishing details, scope, and projects →
The space your home should have had to begin with. Primary suite additions, second-story builds, bump-outs for kitchens and mudrooms, family room extensions, and full-wing builds. We coordinate foundation work, framing, exterior matching, roof tie-ins, mechanical extensions, and the inspection sequence that addition projects require. Home addition cost in Grand Rapids runs $120,000 for a focused bump-out and scales past $400,000 for a full second-story build. Some additions are paired with a kitchen or whole-home remodel under one contract.
See home addition details, cost ranges, and projects →
When every room needs attention — or when you've bought a home in a neighborhood you can't replace and you want it to reflect the way your family actually lives — a whole-home remodel coordinates every trade, every timeline, and every finish under one design-protected contract. Scope can include taking the home to the studs, replacing all major systems (HVAC, plumbing, electrical), rebuilding the kitchen and baths, refinishing every room, and bringing a cohesive design language to the entire home. Whole-home remodels start around $150,000 and routinely scale past $750,000 for larger homes with deeper scope.
See whole-home remodel details and projects →
Accessory Dwelling Units, mother-in-law suites, basement apartments, garage conversions, and full detached ADUs — code-compliant, beautifully designed, built to keep family close while preserving privacy and rental optionality. ADU work in Grand Rapids requires careful zoning review by your municipality, separate utility considerations, fire-rated assemblies, and dedicated egress. We handle every piece. ADU and in-law suite builds typically run $100,000 for a basement conversion and scale past $300,000 for a full detached unit. Detail on our ADU builder page and the in-law suite addition page.
For many of our clients in Forest Hills, Ada, East Grand Rapids, and Rockford, this is the home they intend to grow old in. The neighborhood, the light through the windows, the proximity to family — none of that needs to change. The home does. We design curbless zero-threshold showers, comfort-height fixtures, reinforced walls so grab bars install cleanly later, wider doorways, slip-resistant tile that still reads as luxury, and layered lighting that protects against falls without ever feeling clinical. Done right, you won't see the planning — you'll see a home that quietly makes life easier at fifty, at seventy, and at every stage in between.
See accessibility remodeling details →
Three-season rooms, four-season rooms, and conservatory-style sunroom additions built for the Michigan climate — insulated assemblies, real foundation work, conditioned-space mechanical extensions, and matched exterior detailing so the new room reads as part of the original house. A sunroom is one of the highest-ROI additions in West Michigan for the way it expands the livable footprint of the home without the cost of a full primary suite addition. Sunroom additions typically run $60,000 for a three-season build and scale up for fully conditioned four-season rooms.
See sunroom addition details →
Design-build means design, engineering, fixed-price pricing, and construction live under one contract with one accountable team. Most remodelers in Grand Rapids hand you a quote and expect you to hire an architect, a designer, a structural engineer, and any specialty consultants separately — and to manage all of them yourself. A design-build remodeler delivers the entire process as one integrated motion. One point of contact. One contract. One warranty. One number that doesn't move. This is the model that makes the rest of our process work, and it's the single biggest difference between a Thornapple project and the typical Grand Rapids remodel.
Every Thornapple project — from a powder-room refresh to a $750,000 whole-home renovation — runs through the same five phases. It's why our pricing locks, our timelines hold, and our clients sleep through the renovation.
A free, no-commitment phone call followed by an in-home consultation. We listen to how you actually live in the space, measure the room, take photos, talk through scope and finish level, and build a rough sketch or 3D model in real time. You walk away with an honest budget range tied to scope choices — before you commit to anything. Most discovery visits run two to three hours.
Once you decide to move forward, we refine the 3D model, finalize tile, fixtures, cabinetry, layout, and finishes, and pull every sub-trade into the same set of plans. You see everything — cabinetry mock-ups, real tile samples, fixture renderings, photorealistic 3D — before anything is ordered. No "I thought it would look different" moments. No expensive late-stage changes.
Every line item, every material, every trade — itemized in writing. The number you sign is the number you pay. No allowance games. No "we'll figure it out later." No end-of-project reconciliation. This is where most Grand Rapids remodelers and Thornapple part ways — we lock the price before demolition, and the only way it moves is if you decide to change scope.
Permits pulled with your municipality, dust barriers installed, portable restroom for the crew on-site, daily photo updates in your private project portal, and a single Thornapple-employed lead running the schedule. Trades coordinated. Inspections handled. Deliveries staged. You have one phone number to call — not five. We manage the project. You live through it.
Before final payment, we walk every detail of the project with you. Punch-list anything that isn't right. Fix it before the project closes — not after. Then the workmanship carries a 2-year warranty on top of every manufacturer warranty on materials and fixtures. Something not right months later? We come back. That's the protection part of "protected design-build."
Beyond the manufacturer warranties on materials, our own crews stand behind their work for two full years. A drip you didn't notice at walkthrough. A grout line that needs touch-up. A door that settled. We fix it. The warranty is in writing in the contract — not buried in a 25-year product disclaimer with carve-outs.
Honest 2026 ranges for typical West Michigan projects. Final price is locked into a fixed-price contract after the design phase — these ranges are for planning conversations. For deeper detail, read the 2026 Grand Rapids Remodeling Cost Report or run a quick scope estimate in the cost estimator.
Guest-bath refresh to luxury primary suite. See bathroom remodel details →
Basic finish to full lower-level transformation. See basement details →
Cohesive renovation across the entire home. See whole-home details →
Pre-1970 homes in Heritage Hill, Eastown, Creston, Ottawa Hills, and Garfield Park sometimes carry a meaningful adder once we open walls — galvanized supply lines worth replacing, cast-iron drains, plaster lath behind tile, framing that needs reinforcement for modern assemblies. We plan for those realities in the discovery phase and price them into the fixed contract so they don't become surprise change orders mid-project. Want a tighter estimate? Try the cost estimator or call (616) 404-3400.
Most remodeling work in Grand Rapids requires a permit. Any project that relocates plumbing, adds or moves electrical circuits, touches structural framing, or adds square footage triggers a building permit and inspection sequence. Which department reviews it depends on your address. The City of Grand Rapids handles work inside the city limits. Wyoming, Kentwood, East Grand Rapids, Grandville, Walker, and Caledonia each issue their own permits. Grand Rapids Township, Cascade Township, Ada Township, and Plainfield Township have their own building departments and inspection schedules. Forest Hills, depending on the sub-neighborhood, falls inside either Grand Rapids Township or Cascade Township jurisdiction.
Thornapple pulls every permit, coordinates every inspection, and handles every interaction with the building department as part of the fixed-price contract. You never have to chase a sign-off, call a sub-trade, or learn the difference between rough-in and final inspection. The detailed breakdown lives on our Grand Rapids remodeling permits page — useful reading if you want to understand what's happening behind the scenes during a remodel.
Pre-1970 homes in Grand Rapids carry their own permit realities — older electrical service, mixed plumbing materials, lath-and-plaster wall assemblies, knob-and-tube remnants in some attics. We plan for those during discovery so they don't become surprise inspection failures mid-project.
From our Wyoming shop at 619 36th St SW we cover Grand Rapids and the surrounding West Michigan communities. Same fixed-price contract, same protected design-build process, no matter the neighborhood.
Real Thornapple projects, real West Michigan homes. Descriptive names only — no client names, no street addresses.
A kitchen rebuilt in navy shaker cabinetry with brushed-gold hardware, white quartz counters, and a marble-look tile backsplash, opened to the next room through a cased, beamed opening. Fixed-price contract.
A primary bath rebuilt with a frameless glass walk-in shower, freestanding soaking tub, double vanity with marble-look quartz, and sconce lighting. Fixed-price contract.
A screened porch, four-season sunroom, and home office added to a brick colonial, with brick, trim, and roofline matched so the addition reads as original to the house. Fixed-price design-build, full permit path.
“Nate and Austin are great to work with, can pivot throughout the project and address obstacles that sometimes arise. Communication was constant and the result was exactly what we asked for.”
“More than accommodating, professional, personable, and kept me updated every step of the way. Communication and work completed was high quality.”
“Incredible! Reliable, friendly, hardworking, passionate about their work. Highly recommended.”
The real questions Grand Rapids homeowners ask before booking a remodeling discovery call.
Remodeling cost in Grand Rapids depends on scope. A bathroom refresh starts around $15,000 and a luxury primary bath runs $40,000–$60,000+. A mid-range kitchen remodel is typically $50,000–$90,000, while a chef's kitchen runs $90,000–$150,000+. Basement finishing runs $40,000–$120,000+. Home additions start around $120,000 and climb past $400,000 for second-story builds. Whole-home renovations start around $150,000 and scale based on square footage and finish level. Every Thornapple project is locked at a fixed-price contract after the design phase — the price we quote is the price you pay. Full breakdown in the 2026 Grand Rapids Remodeling Cost Report.
Bathroom remodels typically run 4–8 weeks. Kitchen remodels are 8–14 weeks depending on cabinet lead times. Finished basements take 8–16 weeks. Home additions run 4–8 months. Whole-home remodels can be 6–12 months. We map every milestone in your contract before demolition starts, so you always know what's happening and when. The full schedule lives in your project portal with daily photo updates.
Most projects need a permit. Any work that relocates plumbing, modifies electrical, touches structural framing, or adds square footage requires a building permit. Which department issues it depends on your address — the City of Grand Rapids handles work inside the city limits; Wyoming, Kentwood, East Grand Rapids, Grandville, Walker, and Caledonia each issue their own permits; Grand Rapids Township, Cascade Township, Ada Township, and Plainfield Township have their own building departments. Thornapple pulls every permit and coordinates every inspection as part of the fixed-price contract. Detail on the Grand Rapids remodeling permits page.
Renovation usually means updating finishes inside the existing layout — new tile, paint, fixtures, cabinetry. Remodeling typically means changing the layout, the function, or the structure — moving walls, relocating plumbing, expanding the footprint. In practice the words are used interchangeably by homeowners, and Thornapple handles both under the same fixed-price design-build process.
Design-build means design and construction happen under one contract with one accountable team. Most contractors hand you a quote, then expect you to hire an architect, designer, and engineer separately — and to manage all of them yourself. A design-build remodeler like Thornapple delivers design, engineering, fixed-price pricing, and construction as one integrated process. One point of contact. One warranty. One number that doesn't move. It's the single biggest reason our projects finish on time and on budget. Full detail on the design-build remodeling page.
For most projects, yes. Bathroom, kitchen, basement, and addition remodels are usually done while the family stays in the home — we install dust barriers around the work zone, bring our own portable restroom for the crew, and protect adjacent rooms. For whole-home remodels and large additions that pull walls and shut down core systems, many clients choose to live elsewhere during the heaviest weeks. We discuss the disruption profile honestly during discovery so you can plan.
Three things. First, fixed-price contracts — not estimates, not "allowances" that balloon. The price we quote is the price you pay. Second, a design sketch and budget range delivered on your first call — you don't have to commit to anything to see what's possible. Third, we're a locally owned design-build firm, building in West Michigan since 2018, with a Thornapple-employed lead managing every trade, every decision, every inspection on every job. You're not chasing subs.
We serve Grand Rapids and the surrounding West Michigan communities including East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills, Ada, Cascade, Kentwood, Wyoming, Grandville, Caledonia, Byron Center, Rockford, Lowell, Walker, Comstock Park, Hudsonville, Georgetown Township, and Gaines Township. Our shop and mailing address is 619 36th St SW in Wyoming — by appointment only — and consultations happen at your home. See the full service-area list for neighborhood pages.
Yes — Michigan Residential Builder license #262300501, fully insured with general liability and workers' comp, and every project carries a 2-year workmanship warranty on top of all manufacturer warranties.
Real Grand Rapids remodeling cost ranges by service, scope, and finish level — pulled from our 2026 project data.
Run a quick estimate for your specific project scope before booking the discovery call.
What permits you need, who pulls them, and how the City of Grand Rapids and surrounding townships handle inspections.
A deeper look at the five-phase design-build process every Thornapple project runs through.
Real Thornapple remodels — kitchens, baths, basements, additions — from Grand Rapids and West Michigan.
The questions to ask a Grand Rapids remodeling contractor before you sign anything.
It starts with a free discovery call — a quick phone conversation to talk through your project, get honest answers, and see if we're the right fit. You'll leave with a design sketch and budget range. No commitment. No pressure. Just clarity.
Book Your Free Discovery CallOr call us at (616) 404-3400
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