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Owner's profile Joe Cruz started Crescendo in 1998 after Designing & building his own home single handedly in Divide Co. where he lives with his wife of twenty years and their three daughters. The pentagon, passive solar home caught the attention of many friends and neighbors who solicited his services soon after. His integrity, professionalism and high quality standards soon gained a cult-like following with many of his clients and within a few years he had to hire additional carpenters to fill the growing need. Joe has been involved in different facets of construction for over 25 years. After graduating from a mechanical trade school he spent several years in the construction trades wearing many different hats, he then went back to school to study construction management. He spent twelve years with large scale home builders starting from the service departments and climbing through the various levels of field supervision which took him into estimating, demographics and land development. He no longer wishes to build big but still loves the challenge of construction and the interaction with people. Here's what he has to say about remodeling... "I would much rather see the existing homes better utilized and made more functional, we have to scale back on our mega building practices of scraping the earth and filling the void with some unsightly boxes and a few tree's. A dollar spent on a home improvement is not really spent at all but rather wisely invested, for your home is perhaps your largest investment yet seldom considered such unless itemized on a profit & loss statement. With today's current lending binge equity can be more liquid than a C.D. and if you're creative you may even double the investment value. It's true that such expenditures should not be taken lightly, but if you consider it as part of your investment portfolio (which it is) you would clearly see that it's just transferring assets from one location to another and real estate is a good hedge against inflation. If you turn a 200k home into a 250k home and it appreciates 5% per annum. That's a difference of $2500.00 a year. Not a bad return on your investment. Now If we compared the value of a home improvement with another major purchase we really begin to see the value. Let's compare a 20k home improvement amortized over 30 years at 6% interest, or about $120. a month. If we amortize the same note at a 15 year rate it grows to about $170. per month. Let's compare this with a 20k car purchase. The payment will be double your house payment and yes you'll will pay it off in five years but what's the value of that car now? Probably less than half of what you just finished paying for it and that's with low miles and no dents. The thing that's great about home improvements is that you get to experience that value today in the form of creature comforts and pride of ownership and it's 100% redeemable; when was the last time a stock portfolio gave you comfort and pride?"
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