Building a home can be a very demanding exercise; not least because you don’t want to forget anything that you will later regret, and you don’t want to burden yourself with an excessively high mortgage you can’t afford. Unfortunately, many home owners who design their new home or select a house and land package from a builder, wish that they had spent much more time researching home designs, appliances and floor plans before signing on the dotted line.
This is because changes during construction can become very expensive, often forcing you to choose between having the home you want, at a higher cost, or putting up with a home that isn’t your ideal, just to stay within budget.
We can all agree that the best way to build your dream home and have no regrets is to plan ahead early and stay within your budget. To help you build your perfect family home, here are five areas that you need to consider seriously, before construction starts.
Research
The biggest regret of most home owners is that they didn’t spend enough time researching what they wanted vs. what they could afford. Building a home on a tight budget is achievable, but you need to focus on key areas, so that you can fit everything comfortably within your budget.
For example, would you be happy with a smaller home that has top of the line fittings or a larger home that has more moderate fittings? These are the things you need to think about, before settling on a builder and committing yourself to building a new home.
Remember, if you suddenly change your mind during the construction process, you will lengthen the completion process and need to find more money from your lender to cover these design changes.
Floor Plans
Another major regret of home owners is that they didn’t spend enough time thinking about the floor plan and how they would actually live in the house. Many home owners thought that they had considered their future circumstances and needs well enough, but in hindsight they realized that they hadn’t spent enough time in this area.
For people with a growing family, it can be hard to decide on a floor plan; often settling for a large open floor plan. You might think that this is the best design for your home, but when you have three or four children in your family, having separate spaces and living areas can make a huge difference to everyone’s home comfort.
Don’t forget that the homes we build today are much bigger than in our parent’s time, when the open plan concept gained ground. This means that you should have enough floor space to consider an open plan kitchen and dining area for example, with separate living spaces as well.
Storage Space
Yet another element often overlooked by many home owners is a lack of storage. This can be a difficult feature to anticipate, but a good rule of thumb is to think about storage in every room of your home, including the garage.
New Appliances
If you want top of the line appliances and fittings, you might have to either increase your budget or make allowances somewhere else in your home’s design. For example, some home owners prefer a smaller home and/or block of land, because they can then afford a home that is built to their specifications and filled with the best appliances and fittings. Others prefer to exchange the top of the line appliances and fittings for a bigger home and land parcel (they may even decide to include a pool).
Electrical Outlets
Wiring your home for every eventuality might seem a bit over the top, but the best time to do this is when you don’t have any walls. Adding extra power outlets in rooms always comes in handy, particularly in hallways and bedrooms.
So, think about your multi-media needs of the future, as well as in-wall speakers, computer stations, wall lamps, and lots more. Forgetting to locate an outlet in the hallway, so that you have to keep unplugging the vacuum cleaner because the cord isn’t long enough, might become very irritating in a year or so.
