Tag Archives: dream home

Choosing the Right Plan for Your Dream Home

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Whether you are shopping for “The One,” you are building a new home from the ground up, or you are remodeling the home you already cherish, the decisions you make along the way can both be intimidating and highly rewarding. It is natural to feel overwhelmed when you wonder about how to logistically turn your dreams into reality, whether that reality will be as good as it was in theory, your budget, your timeline, or anything else. To help start you off right, here are a few key thoughts to help guide your next steps.

1.  Practical Considerations

Before you design your live-in masterpiece, make sure it is compatible with your lifestyle. The absolute last thing you want is to build your dream home only to find out it doesn’t suit your needs. 

The Ins and Outs of the Home

Ultimately, your home needs to be livable. For example, if you are looking to expand your house for more rooms for a growing family or for more overnight hosting for guests, do your goals to add rooms accommodate adding extra people, with comfortable space, adequate privacy, and enough bathrooms? If you’re planning for a multigenerational home, are you considering safety, accessibility, and versatility with your family’s changing needs?

Similarly, when you consider your house’s exterior, consider the type of materials used, including choices in facades that are suitable to the climate you live in. After all, if you live in an area that is prone to hurricanes, it would be best to factor in durability for extreme storms into your choice of materials such as paneling and tiles before you get blown away by an idea that will, too.

Design Code and Permitting

Before you pull out the blue tape, make sure that you’ve gone through the red tape. While working with licensed and bonded teams will help with quality control and legality, it is helpful to first make sure that what you are considering is feasible. For example, many municipalities require additional permits for Accessory Dwelling Units; additionally, understanding that expanding your home will require changes to your electrical wiring and installing extra pipes, which could lead to additional inspections and fees for hook-ups to water and sewage. On the other hand, your plans may qualify for tax breaks and other federal or local incentives! Planning for these contingencies can help spare financial and legal heartache, and help you anticipate delays in the timeline.

2.  External Influence: Upping your Curbside Appeal

There are many great reasons to invest in exterior architecture and home exterior makeovers. Not only is your home’s outside the first impression you make to yourself and others, but putting the extra effort into the outside of your house can definitely boost your home’s value! Alongside practicalities like maintenance and, if you are or will be in a planned community, HOA restrictions, consider your personal aesthetic: do you want quirky and playful? Timeless and elegant? Hoping to accentuate a cultural tradition, such as a classic Southwestern abode or a Scandinavian seaside town? Designing with the front end in mind can help you also consider which parts of your design matter most. From there, you can make more empowered decisions on who to contact in terms of contractors, specialists, and/or agents.

3.  Insider Information: Your Interior Design Mind

While curb appeal is important, your living room’s spaciousness, kitchen surfaces, and staircases matter as well! Consider, for example, that you already have an idea for your ideal amount of natural light, both for your own personal tastes as well as ways to add eco-consciousness into your enhancements. Even more, for kitchens, laundry rooms, hobby rooms, and bathrooms alike, consider which practical elements you want to make the focal point, such as a countertop that is a conversation starter, or a porcelain sink that sets the tone for the room.

Whether you are designing the whole house, or looking to modernize one room, once again, start with a theme or favorite piece of furniture you want to design around. 

Start Building Your Team!

Once you are ready to hammer away, make sure that when you are collecting your bids, you are also looking for compatibility with the folks who will help you achieve your housing dream. After all, whether you are working with a real estate agent, or you are working with an architect, making sure that your people are also ready to execute your vision is at the front and center of everything you do. While budget and reading quality reviews will always matter, make sure that you also feel comfortable with the people you are working with. So, here’s to happy dreaming and even happier doings!

6 Important Things To Consider When Building Your Dream Home

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Building your dream home is one of the most important moments in your life. Besides being a significant moment, it is also one of the biggest investments in your life, and you want everything to be perfect. Building a dream home takes a lot of planning and smart decisions, and it is important to get on the right track early on. That’s why we made a list of 6 important things to consider when building your dream home. Read on to find what they are.

Future Plans

Many factors go into consideration when building your dream home. The most important factor is you of course, and your lifestyle. Do you have any plans for the future? Where will you be in five years? Are you planning any significant changes in your family life? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself before deciding what kind of house you want to build. It may not be a good time to build a house if your career is subject to change – like relocation. If you are planning a family, you have to take into consideration that you will need more rooms for a family home. This means building a larger house or building with plans to make additions easily to it. Future plans are a big part of house building, so take them into consideration.

Financial Situation

Finances are often dictating our lives and decisions, including building your future home. There are several routes you can take. You can make your home from your savings; get a loan from a bank or a mortgage. Remember that many banks give out loans easier if you are married, as they see a safer situation with two incomes and two credit scores. Calculate all possibilities and see what you can afford. If possible, try not to come to close to your budget, as it often happens that building a home can create unexpected costs. For unplanned expenses, make sure you set aside money to act as insurance.

Hiring the Right People

Building a home is a long process, sometimes even a year or more long. To make sure everything is going as smoothly as possible, pay attention to who you are hiring. Architects, builders, designer – everyone is an important piece of the puzzle, and they have to click perfectly for everything to work. Interview as many of them as you need until you find the perfect fit. You will be working closely every single day for the foreseeable future, and you need to be on the same page and communicate easily. Ask for referrals and to see their previous work – even try to get in contact with their previous clients to get their opinion. Take your time with this decision.

Plan Before You Start

Every decision in the building process should be planned before the start. Plan out as much as you can and decide on as many parts as you can before all the work starts. Once the foundation and frame of your house are in place, it all goes faster from that point. If you are prepared and already made the necessary decisions in advance, you won’t have any problems. Some things to consider before starting the build are deciding on the colour/pattern of all the tiles, the colour of walls, moulding, floors, colour schemes, decorating theme etc.

Land and House Type

There are many options to choose from when deciding to build your home, from where you would like to build to how it’s going to be built. Some options include building on an empty plot, tearing down and rebuilding a new home, etc. House can range from custom homes to prefabricated homes and semi-designed homes. Do your research to find the best fit for you. If you need any help, professionals like new home builders or building company can help you in making the right decision.

Furniture Placement

Before the building process starts, you will make a plan of your house with the architect. Even at this stage, you should do a consultation with a designer to choose the most important furniture and elements. Furniture layout is important if you are building from scratch. Can the furniture you want to fit in the living room? Do you have enough space for all the cabinets? Maybe you can change the plan of your house to fit everything, but there is a bigger possibility that you will need to pick out new furniture. If you plan everything simultaneously, you won’t encounter big hiccups.

Conclusion

When building a home from scratch, something unexpected always can happen. Plan as much as possible before you start, and make sure you have a good team on your side. The right architect and builder will make everything work as smoothly and professionally as possible. Listen to your gut, and make the decisions that are right for you.