Home Remodeling in Hockessin, DE
Remodeling for the large colonials and older village houses of Hockessin, Delaware.
Hockessin was farmland until the 1970s. After the Financial Center Development Act of 1981 turned Delaware into a banking center, the Pike Creek and Hockessin parts of Mill Creek Hundred lost 10,600 acres of open space to subdivisions between 1982 and 1987, and Hockessin became what residents call a patchwork of communities. Mendenhall Village, with 609 single-family homes, is the largest planned unit development in the state. Sanford Ridge sits beside it, Stonewold was built from 2000 on, and Hockessin Greene and Hockessin Hunt are the larger-lot communities that give the area its reputation. The older core around Lantana Square and Old Lancaster Pike has mixed eras, including a few stone-foundation houses from before all of that.
The typical Hockessin house is a two-story colonial from 1985 to 2000 with a two-car garage, a formal living room nobody uses, a kitchen that was good for its year and an unfinished basement. Dawson's serves the whole area, and most projects here are the ones that bring that house up to how people live now.
Kitchens and primary baths in a 1990 colonial
These kitchens have oak cabinets, laminate counters and a peninsula facing a family room through a pass-through. The plan that works is to remove the peninsula and the half wall, run an island, and bring real lighting in. The primary bath is the other standard project: a garden tub in a platform, a shower stall too small to use and a double vanity with cultured marble. Taking the tub out and building a tiled walk-in shower where the two fixtures were is the bathroom project these houses call for most.
Basements under these houses are poured concrete with eight-foot ceilings and, in the hillier communities, walk-out doors. They finish well into family rooms, home offices and guest suites with a bath.
County permits and association rules
Hockessin is unincorporated, so permits are issued by the Licensing Division of New Castle County's Department of Land Use. The other approval that matters here is the homeowners association. Mendenhall Village is deed restricted, and most of the communities built since the 1980s have covenants and an architectural committee that reviews additions, sunrooms, siding colors and sometimes windows before the county permit is filed. Interior work such as a kitchen, a bath or a basement usually needs only the permit, but Dawson's checks the covenants on every Hockessin estimate so the schedule does not stall at the association.
Additions and the larger lots
Hockessin has room to build. Lots in Hockessin Greene, Hockessin Hunt and the estate-scale communities toward Yorklyn run to an acre or more, and rear additions, sunrooms and first-floor primary suites are common because the setback allows them. The county reviews additions for zoning and the association for appearance, and the design usually matches the brick or siding of the original so the addition reads as part of the house.
Dawson's serves Hockessin for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Yorklyn, Landenberg, Pike Creek and Kennett Square.
Hockessin is part of the New Castle County, DE service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Hockessin?
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.