ReNew Kitchen and Bath

Satisfied clients Sky and Scott Wheeler love their beautifully updated Ocala home.

Sky and Scott Wheeler love their quiet home of almost six years. Sky was “born and raised in Ocala” and moved back in 2007 after graduating college. Since they’ve been nesting in her hometown, the young couple has welcomed two adorable little girls, ages two and four.

The Wheelers

Photo courtesy Sky Wheeler

“Marion County as a whole is such an awesome place to build a life and raise a family,” Sky says. “We actually host a lot of parties and gatherings at our house.”

With two young kids, the Wheelers want family to be the center of their life and little kids definitely have a lot of little friends! This goal meant some much-needed upgrades to some of the most important rooms of the house: the kitchen and the bathrooms.

They had wanted to switch to a gas stove for a while and had a smallbut-growing list of other upgrades they really wanted for the kitchen and the bathrooms that seemed to get longer by the month.

By the time they added it all up, they decided the best approach was to do it all at once—and to hire a professional to get exactly what they wanted.

“We were really happy with our home, as far as the neighborhood and the general layout,” Sky explains, “but we just felt like it was lacking in the rooms that people actually see most often and that we weren’t making the most of the available space. We figured if things were going to be chaotic, what better time than all at once?”

Being professionals themselves, the couple started doing the research and reached out “to a lot of companies in this process,” but most of them never followed up or if they did, didn’t show up at the designated time. They kept looking.

“It blew my mind that people would do that, so I really started looking into the online reviews,” says Sky. “Communication was a big thing that we noticed people liked about ReNew and Jim [LaValle] in particular.

“He got back to us immediately to review what we were thinking about and scheduled some time to come out and look at the project,” she continues.“He even came out on New Year’s Eve to do one last walk-through before we signed on for the job.”

Once they did, Jim immediately came out to show them lots of examples of previous work and many physical samples they’d want to consider while remodeling these three key spaces, a daunting task for anyone unfamiliar with the myriad choices for each part of the process.

“With Jim,” Sky says, “we weren’t on our own. He was able to show us cool upgrades that would really elevate the space without blowing our budget.”

Jim immediately gave the couple a schedule of how the multi-faceted project would roll out.

“That was one of the really nice parts,” Sky says. “We’re definitely planners and liked having a schedule that we could expect. It was always fun to come home and see what was done. And Jim was literally available all the time. I can recall a specific time when I was in Lowe’s looking at a faucet and sent him pictures at 7:30 at night to make sure he thought it would work in the master bathroom.”

Recognizing that they were going to have a lot of work done on their house, they let Jim and his crew come and go as needed. In all, the three rooms took about two months, with a solid three weeks going to just the master bathroom. Jim and his crew worked efficiently, doing demolition on the next space while the tile was being laid in the previous one, for example.

“With two small children,” she says, “ that timing was immensely important to us, so it was really nice to see how hard everyone worked to stay on schedule and how good the communication was so we knew who and what to expect each day.”

They really enjoyed Jim’s subcontractors who took pride in their work and tried to ensure that the couple’s usual home life was not disrupted by their tasks. The Wheelers enjoyed their interactions and the care they took in making sure everything was done to their satisfaction.

Master Bath BEFORE

Master Bath AFTER

Now the couple loves the finished product in all of the rooms. The master bath shower was converted to a Roman-style one, with floor-to-ceiling tile that’s easy to dry in case of overspray. ReNew also built a knee wall into the design and relocated the faucet handle for the shower there, which now means they can turn on the shower without having to step into a deluge of cold water. Next up, the guest bathroom received an unexpected upgrade. Utilizing some of the extra designer tile, they finished the linen closet floor as well. Their daughters use this as their main bathroom and love how “fancy” it looks now. And the kitchen, well...

Guest Bath

“If we had to use one word for our favorite part of the kitchen it would be everything,” Sky gushes. “The backsplash, the counters, the sink, the floor, the exposed shelf over the bar area—literally everything. The old kitchen was stuck in the ‘90s and while everything was functional, that’s about all that can be said that was positive. We have so much more space now. It’s brighter and feels like a place our family can gather and spend time together.”

Kitchen BEFORE

Kitchen AFTER

For Jim LaValle, it’s another job well done, something that never gets old for him or his crew. They take pride in every single assignment, and he’s more than happy to guide his clients every step of the way.

“You have to have that vision of what the final product is going to look like,” Jim explains, “and the product knowledge to get the job done.”

The Wheeler family would definitely recommend ReNew for anyone looking to remodel their kitchen or bathrooms. The company’s work was superb and Jim kept everything well within budget.

“Everyone loves it and these upgrades have really made a tremendous impact,” Sky says. “It was hard to realize how needed these upgrades were until they were done. The change is so impactful and ReNew saved us so much stress. A lot of times we just hear, ‘Wow!’

WANT TO KNOW MORE? ReNew Kitchen & Bath (352) 857-9604

www.renewkandb.com