Planning and Designing Your Dream Home, From Budget to Floor Plans and Beyond
Where do you start when designing your dream home?
There are likely a hundred things running through your head when you start down the path to a custom home. It can seem overwhelming, but taking it step-by-step and building up inspiration can help.
Ultimately, your best bet is going to be getting involved with an architect or designer early on. Here’s what you need to know about the entire process.
The Benefits of a Custom Home
Believe it or not, a custom home can actually be less expensive than purchasing an existing home.
When you purchase an existing home, you often need to renovate it to get it just the way you want it.
Whether you’re putting in floors or just painting each room, that’s both time and money being spent on getting the home “just right.”
When you build a custom home, not only do you get exactly what you want, but you get what you want the first time.
Further, custom homes are also new homes. That means a new HVAC system, a new roof, and new appliances.
You won’t need to worry about anything breaking down, the way you might need to worry about an older home.
Not only does that save you money, but it also saves you frustration.
Of course, it all starts with your vision for your home.
Designing Your Custom Home
Designing your dream home requires a lot of work, but it’s a rewarding process.
You likely already have a general idea of what you want in a property, but to create a custom home, you’ll need to develop a complete home design.
You can begin by collecting inspiration from magazines, the internet, and television shows.
Here are a few things to consider when you start the design process:
Space for Your Family to Live and Grow In
The size of your property and its layout is going to be the first thing you need to decide on. Custom made homes can be built in any layout to match your lifestyle.
Many luxury homes today have an open floor plan, but there are decisions to be made such as whether to place a master bedroom on the first floor or the second floor, how many bedrooms and bathrooms to have, and whether to have multiple living spaces or “bonus rooms.”
Consider what you and your family need now and what you’ll need in the future. How much space will you need to live and grow in?
Unforgettable Kitchens
The kitchen is undoubtedly what makes a dream home a dream home for many people. The heart of the home, the kitchen is usually where people tend to congregate.
Still, everyone has a (strong!) opinion about what they want in their kitchen, from the colour of the granite to the style of the cabinets.
An older kitchen looks extremely dated, while newer kitchens may still not have the layout or amenities that you want.
Adding a Touch of Luxury
Custom home builders give you the opportunity to add a real touch of luxury with unique upgrades.
Maybe you want a specialized loft space, a built-in library, or a complete spa-experience bathroom.
All of these features can be added to your property during the design phase, depending on what’s most important to you.
Building a custom home is often about prioritizing: you get exactly what you want, and can highlight them with amazing materials and craftsmanship.
Should You Work with an Architect and/or Designer?
Let’s cut to the chase here: yes, you should absolutely work with an architect and designer for your custom home.
Your focus needs to be on the vision and feel of your home. When it comes to translating that to actual plans for construction, architects and designers are there to make it happen.
They’ll work with your custom home builders to bring that vision to life.
It’s up to these professionals to handle measurement details, zoning considerations, and the permit process.
Architects can create amazing spaces for you, nestling closets in the perfect spot, or finding great solutions for windows and layouts.
Designers, meanwhile, work to help create each space within your home, making recommendations on materials and styles.
You’ll work closely with them and your contractors to find the best options for your home.
Budgeting Guidelines
Setting a budget from the beginning is important. Start with your total budget, the total amount you’re willing to spend on your home, all-in.
Next, try breaking things down room-by-room.
Once you have a complete budget, you can prioritize how much you want to spend on bathrooms, kitchens, flooring, appliances, and the other critical aspects of the project.
This is another area in which professionals work closely with you because they can tell you how much every upgrade is going to cost.
You might want something fairly minor that’s very expensive, or you might not realize that something that seems like a large and dramatic change actually won’t cost much more at all.
Establishing a Timeline
Once you’ve figured out exactly what you want your property to look like and how much you want to spend, your custom home builder is going to establish a timeline for the build.
From the groundbreaking to the final walkthrough, you’ll know exactly how long it’ll take to create your dream home. If you’re selling a property in order to buy your dream home, you may need to plan accordingly.
By working closely with an architect or designer, you can pull together different aspects of your inspiration and design into a workable budget and timeline. Knowing what you want is one thing, but it’s a professional who will tell you how to achieve it.
To get started on your home design, contact Sunter Homes today.