Building a new home is an excellent opportunity to customize your space to your own requirements and desires — but it can also be extremely intimidating. Many new houses built from the ground up will require the new owner to make over a thousand decisions regarding everything from paint color to kitchen and bathroom fittings.
Don’t give up if you’ve always wanted complete control over what enters into your home. There are other methods to help your new-construction experience go more smoothly, including deferring some decisions until after you’ve lived in the house for a few months. Make sure you have these fundamental suggestions in mind before you delve into a new construction transaction, and your experience with the builder will be both enjoyable and profitable.
Set a budget
Unless you are independently wealthy or have recently won the lottery, you will be working within the confines of a budget. This must include both the structure and all fittings and features that can be added. If you haven’t already, chat to a financial expert about what you can afford on your present household income.
Once you’ve established a budget range, consider how much you’re truly comfortable spending. It’s tempting to stretch your possible budget to its utmost, but consider the monthly payments (don’t forget taxes and homeowners’ insurance!) before you commit.
When you’ve determined your budget, make sure you stick to it. A little wiggle space is good, but if you find yourself consistently going over your budget, you may come to regret it.
Create a vision board
Your home, like your dress or car, displays your individuality. It’s a location where people are vulnerable and spend their most intimate moments of the day, so taking the time to consider what feels appropriate can help you make difficult decisions and remove options as the project progresses.
Know why you want what you want
This should come as no surprise, but different people require various things from their living environments. A homeowner with arthritis or another ailment that inhibits fine motor skills, for example, may prefer a faucet that is easy to turn on and off over a low-flow type that promises to be the most environmentally friendly. If you don’t have any problems with fine motor skills, a low-flow faucet might be the best option.
Before you get into fixtures and make decisions about them that may be difficult to change, sit down with the other people in your household (if there are any) and talk about what they enjoy and don’t like about how your present home is set up.
Tour homes to collect examples
Builders will typically have at least one model home available for viewing, if not several. Spend some time looking at the many homes available to you, even if you’re not interested in working with the builder or moving into the development you’re seeing. You’ll get a better idea of what different fixtures and finishes look like in a finished house, so these visits will help you make your own decisions.
Bring your family on these tours, and make notes on what you like and dislike about various homes and their characteristics, from look to functionality.
Coordinate finishes
You don’t have to use the same faucet in every bathroom or even the same finishes across the house. However, considering how your finishes will work together within each room helps stop you from making mistakes like ordering a towel rack that is an entirely different colour than your faucet.
Keep finishes uniform throughout each room as a general rule. Then evaluate how each room-wide finish complements the others. It’s not always a good idea to match everything, but a modern brushed-chrome kitchen can feel out of place in a home with antique-style bathroom fixtures.
Another Blog to Read: Questions to Ask When Buying a Home
Match the look and feel of your house
A Victorian-style bathroom will most likely look out of place in a mid-century modern home. Of course, not everyone wants a perfectly coordinated house — and most builders don’t provide a wide range of home types; many individuals who buy new-construction homes like them because, well, they’re new. Modern!
So this isn’t so much a rule as it is a recommendation, but it’s still worth remembering: Try to match the style and feel of each area in your home with the general look and feel of your home. This is how professional stagers make houses appealing to buyers.
Remember the floors and walls
When all is said and done, the floors and walls of your home will have a significant impact on how space feels. Your builder should have various possibilities for you, and you should ask a lot of questions about each of them.
Consider your personal lifestyle choices as well. If you have a young cat who likes to claw up the carpet, it’s definitely a good idea to switch to a different type of flooring (or ban the cat from your beautifully carpeted bedroom). If you have a large number of small children, the carpet may be a bad idea for another reason. However, if you live in a chilly region and take your shoes off at the door, the carpet may be precisely what you need to make your home feel softer. Revisit your reasons for wanting what you desire and use them to answer questions concerning the walls and flooring as they arise throughout construction.
Know what to skip now and tackle later
Although it may seem more efficient to buy everything upfront while your house is being built, there are a few upgrades you may want to postpone until after you’ve moved in. In some cases, it may make sense to choose a lower-quality option to pass the inspection, then upgrade at your leisure later.
Try not to fall in love
New construction can be as thrilling as it is heartbreaking, especially when you find the perfect fixture or addition, only to learn it’s completely out of your price range. When you notice yourself developing feelings for something specific, take a step back, take a big breath, and tell yourself that you’ll be living in this home for (most likely) a long time, and you’ll have more chances to make it perfect.
If you add structure and plan to your new-construction project, it will feel more like an opportunity rather than a disorganized mess. If you plan ahead of time and control your own expectations, you’ll find that moving into a new-construction home that you helped design offers you a thrilling sense that nothing else can compare.
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