Building your new home can be one of the most exciting yet daunting tasks that you will ever complete. Avoiding the common mistakes made by home builders is the best way to ensure that this process is an enjoyable and productive one while making your home a reality!
When you embark on the journey to build a home on your land, it’s essential to avoid these common mistakes.
Choose The Right Home builder
Perhaps the most important decision you will need to make is which builders and contractors you trust with ensuring that the building of your new home goes according to plan. You can’t do too much research here – whether that be getting a lot of quotes, reading through online reviews or searching for recommendations. Above all you want someone that you get along with and can easily communicate your plans to throughout the entire project.
Plan For Delays
A common cause of stress for home builders is delays to the building schedule and planned move in date. This can cause a lot of tension between you and your contractor. However, quite often these delays are caused by natural causes and are out of you and your contractor’s hands. A common cause of these delays is disruptions caused by erratic weather patterns during the winter months. Other reasons can include the building materials that don’t arrive in time or delays in securing the correct building permits. All you can do here, as a responsible home builder, is to plan for the unexpected from the beginning and hope that you are pleasantly surprised.
Consider Your Home’s Lighting
A commonly overlooked feature of a new house is lighting. This includes both ensuring that there are enough light fixtures as well as making sure there is enough window space allowing natural light to enter the house. Even if the rest of your home is designed to perfection, a poorly lit home can create a dark and unhomely feel. Rewiring for further light fixtures or building in additional windows is an extremely expensive task after construction is complete.
Tailor Your Home To Your Lifestyle
Before you begin such a life-changing project you are going to want to consider your lifestyle and how that will affect your home designs. This can often mean adding extra rooms to your home, but it also means recognising that perhaps other additions to the house won’t be regularly utilised enough to justify their inclusion, so you’re better off spending your money on features that you know you’ll get the most use out of.
Plan The Location Of Your Rooms
The location of each of your new homes primary rooms is vital to a happy and healthy lifestyle. This can in line with your preferences, but there are usually some fairly common non-negotiable such as ensuring that your bedroom is in a quiet part of the house. Locating the kitchen where it is most convenient – whether that be close to the garage, front entrance or to the main living room – is also an important consideration.
Manage Your Budget
A poorly planned budget can lead to multiple issues down the line. You’re going to need to be realistic when planning your budget, which includes factoring in funds for unforseen costs. Keep in mind that if you have an unrealistically low budget this will likely be evident in the quality of the home you end up with. The is another reason you want a builder that you can trust as you are going to want to ensure that the budget is being adhered to.
Have Signed Contracts
We have really only touched the surface of the many considerations you must make when building your own home. For this reason it is vital that you have a signed legal agreement with your builder. A written agreement is going to save you a ton of stress down the line if there are any disagreements between the two of you that need to be resolved. You are going to want to have costs and dates clearly outlined and to have a lawyer look over the contract before you proceed.
Making The Right Choice
There’s a lot to consider when building your new home, and there is a thin line between an exciting adventure and a drawn-out nightmare. If you don’t rush your decisions and take the necessary precautions there is no reason why building your own home can’t be an immensely rewarding experience.
