If a man with a hammer sees the whole world as if it were a nail, you’d expect a remodeler to give you a thousand ways to remodel your house. Instead, Ridley Wills, lead designer at The Wills Company (where I work), asks a thousand questions:

What do you love about your house? What do you not love? How much do you want to invest in your house? What do you want to earn back when you sell? What’s the pain in your current configuration? What problems are you trying to solve with a renovation?

Depending on your answers, Ridley might propose updating kitchens and baths — investments shown most effectively to increase value in a house. Or he might sketch up an open floor plan — a strategy to create more space for gathering with family. Or he might propose screening in a porch and adding a patio kitchen — designs to meet the ever-growing desire for outdoor living.

But after three decades of design/build work, Ridley knows that remodeling a house can’t always deliver what a homeowner wants. No transformation of a suburban ranch can produce a downtown penthouse, for example. So, depending on your answers to the original questions, Ridley might recommend you make a date to go house-hunting.

Meanwhile, nobody knows more about navigating Nashville’s hot-hot-hot real estate market than Jessica Averbuch, CEO and owner of Zeitlin Sotheby’s International Realty.

So, it will be a hoot when Jessica and Ridley go head-to-head at a USN Evening Class on the topic of “Love It or List It,” that is, should you renovate your house or buy a new one?

Here’s the description from the USN Evening Classes course catalog:

If you’re a homeowner wondering whether to update a beloved house or buy a new one, join RIDLEY WILLS, founder of The Wills Company design/build/handyman firm, and USN parent JESSICA AVERBUCH, CEO and owner of Zeitlin Sotheby’s International Realty for a lively he-said-she-said conversation about renovating versus moving. Come prepared with your list of questions, along with photographs of your current residence and/or your dream house, to get the most out of an evening with two professionals who know the most about Nashville architecture and real estate. USN parent CARRINGTON FOX, author of BuildMeUpButtercupBlog.com will moderate.

You can register here for Love It or List It, and you can check out the whole 2019 USN Evening Classes catalog at eveningclasses.org.