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How can you be sure you’re choosing the right home to suit your lifestyle when you’ve never lived in it?
If you find yourself sacrificing your dreams to meet a predetermined house plan, the chances are, your new home won’t meet your expectations. As a result, you will find yourself regretting the design you choose for your home, as it won’t allow you to experience the life you dreamt you’d be living.
Instead, design a home that’s purpose-designed to suit your lifestyle, so you can enjoy and share it in the way you’ve always imagined. Through avoiding trying to fit your dreams into a predetermined plan and instead focusing on the lifestyle you actually lead, or want to lead; your home will be perfectly tailored to suit you and your needs.
With a home designed specifically to you and your lifestyle, you can be sure that your home will be something you want to share with friends and family. Bypassing the frustration and disappointment you will undoubtedly feel when trying to make a cookie-cutter solution fit your dream.
According to HSBC, 27% of homeowners are not proud of their home and feel it reflects badly on them.
Some builders will present you with a library of plans that are not exactly well suited to your plot or your lifestyle. And whilst it is possible to make some minor changes, the lack of flexibility in design means the home will never be ideally suited to the way you want to live.
A professional builder will start with a blank piece of paper and design a home around your block of land and your lifestyle.
Don’t Fall In Love With A Display Home
Often people waste time going through endless display homes that are often over and above the standard plans, trying to find the perfect fit. This then leads to buyers making sacrifices to try to get a standard plan to work for their land and lifestyle. The downside here is that unfortunately, they never really find the perfect home, so they end up disappointed by having to make compromises that they aren’t really happy with.
It may be that they believe a custom-designed home will cost them more, so they avoid looking at that alternative option. However, this is simply untrue, as all homes are made of the same materials and labour, a custom home is just as cost-effective as a standard plan.
In fact, some volume builders will charge you more for adapting a library plan, because they will have to make structural changes. A custom builder, on the other hand, will be well versed in all aspects of designing and building a home that meets your requirements.
To prevent you from choosing the wrong house design, we’ve put together some tips for you to follow.
Don’t Amend A Pre-Determined Plan
The first important tip for you is to avoid amending an existing plan in the hope you can make it fit your needs. Not only will this increase the costs of building your new home, but you will likely end up settling for something that will leave you disappointed.
The issue with library plans is that they are not designed specifically for your block and the aspect of the property. This means you could potentially miss out on some stunning views or fail to capture the sunlight you need to keep your home bright and airy.
Don’t fall in love with the display home as they are always built to the highest specification. In order to achieve that same experience, you will end up building a home that will never increase in value when you come to sell it.
Decide On The Key Characteristics Your Home Needs
The next thing to do is to think about the way you live and make notes about the key characteristics your home needs.
For example, if you enjoy a lot of alfresco entertaining, then having an open plan kitchen that has clear access to the outside decking area, may be practical. If you have boats or campervans, you will need to plan where these will go so they don’t just get left on the front yard.
By helping your builder learn more about the type of life you lead and the different roles your home has to play, they can design a home that flows with your lifestyle.
Be Careful Of Copyright Infringement
Finally, be careful of copyright infringement.
When you discuss your ideas with a builder who offers sketches free of charge, you may accidentally be infringing on copyright if you then share the drawing with another builder. Whilst they may be your ideas, the fact that a builder has already sketched them out for you, essentially means they have turned them into a design that they could claim copyright for.
To ensure you are well informed when you get started on the design process we’ve put together a quick guide for you to download. It’s completely free, and it will help you to keep your design on budget and avoid any nasty surprises that can sneak up on you when building a custom home.
