50 East Remodeling Brings New Life To Old Spaces

With low inventory and high interest rates, the current housing market may not be appealing to some people looking for upgrades. But homeowners are finding other ways to improve their living space: through renovations.

Statewide, active inventory fell 13.2% year over year and new listings dropped by 23.5% according to a January 2026 report by Maryland REALTORS, a nonprofit real estate association. With that shift, 50 East Remodeling is as busy as ever with renovations in Anne Arundel County, in addition to roofing and siding projects.

“There are great neighborhoods here and great schools,” said Steve Wheatley, owner of 50 East Remodeling. “If you move, you have to deal with the high interest rates, so people can take out equity and do remodels instead, and we see most of that equity going toward bedrooms and bathrooms.”

Renovations can enhance a home’s charm, or they can add comfort during a time of need.

“No one wants to buy a roof. It fixes a problem,” said Daniel Stefany, operations manager for 50 East Remodeling. “Giving someone one more room allows them to do their laundry on the first floor and now they’re living more comfortably. Or it might be, ‘My mom is moving in; fix my bathrooms.’ So, it’s not only aging-in-your-home additions.”

For residential jobs, the process starts by determining a budget and the customer’s wants or needs.

“We still don’t have a sales department,” Wheatley said. “We’re going over it from planning and estimates to construction. The information is not getting passed around from one person to the next person. It’s not a crapshoot where you are getting a random crew that day.”

Once the 50 East Remodeling team is working on the house, they try to keep messes contained and they accommodate the needs of homeowners whether they are offsite or living in the house during construction.

“A project is the alphabet, A through Z, if the customer is onsite,” Stefany said. “But to help a customer flush their toilet for three days, we have to go A to G and then back to B. We can do that.”

However big or small the project is, 50 East Remodeling has an experienced network of professionals to get the job done.

“We have to make sure we have the right tradesmen and detailed craftsmen,” Wheatley said. “We want to have the drywall guy do drywall and the electrician do the electrical systems.”

One of their goals is not just to do the job well but also to be diligent in educating homeowners. For example, with Anne Arundel County having so much shoreline, contractors must be knowledgeable about “critical area” regulations. A critical area is all land and water within 1,000 feet beyond the landward boundaries of tidal wetlands and Chesapeake Bay tributaries.

“If you build a detached garage in your backyard for your Cadillac, your runoff area is going to change,” Wheatley said.

The team is skilled at navigating challenges, from environmental ones to surprises in the home. During a recent job, Wheatley and Stefany had to call the Maryland Department of the Environment because they found diesel fuel in the basement, posing a serious health risk. The 50 East workers had to break up the concrete, dig 3 feet to get below the footings of the house, and use a non-toxic emergency spill formula called Micro-Blaze on the dirt.

“We will let you know if something is dangerous or not done to code, or it can be, ‘No, we don’t want you to stub your toe on that.’ Or we don’t want fire hazards,” Stefany said.

That education extends to using good materials without price-gouging.

“We’re not here to sell any products,” Wheatley said. “We let the homeowner control their budget. If we can get a contractor discount, we will.

“We want them to pick,” he added, noting that philosophy goes beyond materials. “If they say, ‘Well, I like blue,’ we’re not going to say, ‘Let me give you purple because it is better than blue.’”

The 50 East team has seen a lot of trends, but they also like encouraging homeowners who have their own ideas.

“We have seen a lot of exterior renovating, and homeowners in this area seem to have a similar approach: paint the brick, do some kind of lap siding and shakes in the gable, which is the triangle part of the wall that supports the roof … There are trends,” Wheatley said. “We enjoy helping when someone lives in their home and wants to make it theirs. We enjoy being a crew that can do specialty parts.”

That might mean staying away from “agreeable gray” or “boring beige” colors, but ultimately, those decisions are left to the homeowners. Whatever they decide, it should be a decision that makes them happy instead of worrying about what the next owner might want.

“Most people model their house with the next owner in mind,” Stefany said. “They paint the walls blue, but they want green.”

There are no walls between the contractors and the customers. Wheatley said he likes being accessible, he likes living and working in the same community, and he wants people to feel at ease when a crew is working in their living space.

“On a small scale, we are fixing some problem or making your pride and joy a little bigger, a little fresher,” Wheatley said.

To learn more about 50 East Remodeling, call 410-500-2266 or visit www.50eastremodeling.com. The company has a 5.0 rating on Google.