In the past year or so, we’ve seen remodeling rise up to take a greater prominence in the building world. With the economic challenges and the building industry reeling, more and more homeowners are remodeling. Why? A combination of factors: With houses not selling, people are staying put and upgrading what they have. But this could point to a new philosophy of the American consumer. People are embracing a new frugality and choosing for fiscal and environmental reasons not to buy something new.

The Wall Street Journal recently covered this phenomenon. The recession has moved homeowners from seeing their homes as a bank account and towards seeing them as homes, places to build lives in.

How will you plan on coping with this change of thoughts? Are you expanding the remodeling portions of your business? Learning new skills? Or aggressively marketing your previously un-promoted remodeling business? Are customers interested in hearing about a cost value analysis of major remodeling projects vs. moving? Or are you seeing more small projects?

Check out the Wall Street Journal article for some differences between remodeling jobs in the “old” and “new” economies, and leave your thoughts in the comments!