Our Story

We’re Ben and Stephanie Trannel, owners of Red House Remodeling in West Des Moines, Iowa. We met at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake and have been married for 26 years. We live in the Westridge neighborhood in West Des Moines with our three children Luke, Ella and Noah, who all attend Valley High School. We also share our home with dogs Ivy and Luci (Brittanys) and cats Lulu and Daisy (pixie bobs). We’re members of Faith Lutheran Church in Clive.

Everyone always asks us, “Why did you start a home remodeling company?”

Ben: “We wanted to have some remodeling work done when we bought our West Des Moines home, more than 15 years ago. Our first challenge was finding a local home remodeling company that did the kind of work we needed to have done. After many unreturned and misdirected phone calls, we found a local home remodeling contractor in Des Moines to complete the work for us.”
Steph: “Fortunately for us, we found hometown remodelers who did great work. But, we also came across some people who didn’t do great work. A customer focus was often lacking in these remodeling companies. We didn’t have the benefit of a designer and we didn’t always know what was going on with our home remodeling project. What was the status of our project? Who was going to be coming into our home to do work? Why didn’t anyone show up today?”
Ben: “We started throwing around ideas for how we would approach customers if we had a local home remodeling company. That’s when it hit us! We could do a great job serving home remodeling customers in the Des Moines area. Having been remodeling customes, we knew how we wanted to be treated, and how we wanted our home to be treated. We keep that in mind every step of the way. People don’t only trust us with their projects; they trust us with their homes. Most of the time when you hire a remodeler to do a home improvement project—whether it be remodeling a kitchen or bath, finishing a basement, or larger projects like an addition—you haven’t had experience with them before. You just have to trust that your remodeler knows what they are doing and that they’ll do what they say.”
Steph: “Trust is huge, especially when you consider people will be coming into your home. I stayed at home with my kids for six years and know firsthand that having a stranger doing work in your home is a big deal. That’s why we’ve taken, and will continue to take, great care in hiring experienced local remodeling experts, who we will feel comfortable sending into our customers’ homes. We feel like our people, along with our service, really set us apart.”
Ben: “Every employee we hire has had a background check, passed a drug and alcohol screening (and will be periodically and randomly rechecked), and is a nonsmoker. Our staff is made up of experienced local remodeling experts, each having more than 15 years of experience in remodeling. They’re well-versed in many trades, not just one. They’re uniformed and professional, and they will treat your family and home with respect. We want you to consider Red House Remodeling the remodeler you can trust in the Des Moines area. You can’t go wrong if you do things right and communicate with people!”
Steph: “At Red House Remodeling, we do what’s right for our customers. Our experienced designers and remodeling specialists will be able to focus 100% on doing your project. It’s a very customer-focused way of doing business.”
Ben: “We’re committed to being in contact daily throughout a project, if it’s ok with the customer, to ensure that things are proceeding smoothly. That accomplishes two things: we can resolve problems when they’re small, and the homeowner will, as they should, feel like an integral part of the project. They’ll know what’s happening each day before it happens, and they’ll be updated at the end of the day with information on what happened and what’s going to take place next. There shouldn’t be any unpleasant surprises.”
Steph: “Only pleasant surprises!”

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