Home Remodeling in Centreville, DE
Kitchen, bath and exterior work for the village houses of Centreville, planned around two layers of design review.
Centreville took its name from its place on the Kennett Pike, which the legislature chartered in 1811: the village sat midway between Wilmington and Kennett Square. It had 110 people in 1890 and 210 by 1925, and it is still one street of houses and shops with a few lanes off it, close to the Pennsylvania line. The Centreville Civic Association worked with county historic planners to protect it, and fifteen village buildings are on the National Register as the Centreville Historic District, with three more listed on their own. Many of the same properties are zoned into a county historic district whose list runs from 5714 to 5810 Kennett Pike, including the Chandler-Dixon House, the James Delaplaine House, the Odd Fellows Hall, Connor's Store and several stone houses.
In 2004 the county amended its development code to allow Hometown Overlay districts for older places whose pattern does not fit suburban zoning, and Centreville was the third community designated. The result is a village where almost anything visible from the pike is reviewed before it is built. Dawson's serves Centreville and plans each project around that from the first visit.
Two reviews for exterior work
Building permits come from New Castle County's Department of Land Use, since Centreville is unincorporated. Inside the overlay, any exterior improvement also goes to the Centreville Design Review Advisory Committee, a panel of residents and business owners whose recommendation the county weighs before it decides. A house in the historic zone, or within 500 feet of one, goes to the county's Historic Review Board as well. That board hears cases once a month, needs the application by the first of the month before the hearing, and gives its approval two to four weeks after, so exterior work here needs roughly two months of lead time. Neither body reviews interior work.
What the village guidelines ask of windows, dormers and additions
Centreville's design guidelines favor repair over replacement. Original doors and windows are kept and weather-stripped where possible, and new ones, as a last resort, have to duplicate the originals in look, material and configuration, with high-quality composites allowed only with the committee's approval. Skylights stay off the front of the house. A new dormer joins the main roof below the ridge, with horizontal wood siding on its sides. No building in the village, additions included, may have a footprint over 2,000 square feet, not counting open porches, so an addition is sized against that ceiling from the start. New garages go to the side or rear, and vinyl or chain link fencing is not allowed where the street can see it.
Inside the old houses
None of that reaches the interior. The 19th-century houses along the pike have kitchens in rear wings, small bathrooms fitted in long after they were built, and walls that are rarely square, and those rooms can be rebuilt completely under the county permit alone. Splitting a project so the interior starts while the exterior waits on review keeps a new kitchen from sitting idle behind a window decision.
Dawson's serves Centreville for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Rockland, Greenville, Chadds Ford and Yorklyn.
Centreville is part of the New Castle County, DE service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Centreville?
Call Dom with the address and the project, or send the details through the form. The walkthrough is free and the estimate comes in writing.