Building your home is the most exciting project to undertake. A luxury custom home is a dream come true for many people; everything about your home can be designed with you and your family in mind, down to every last detail. It’s also a huge financial commitment, however, and a responsibility you need to take seriously if it is to be worth every penny.
Here are 10 things you absolutely must consider:
1. How You’ll Make a Practical Space for Living
At the top of your considerations needs to be how you use the space available.
Firstly, consider the possibilities of the space. Make sure you plan adequate space for utilities and storage, and everyday life. It’s easy to get carried away with the aesthetics of the project, like your beautiful staircase or fireplace, for instance, and then to give inadequate consideration to practical spaces like laundry areas.
It’s important to be generous with this kind of space as you do not want these areas to overspill and impinge on focal areas.
Consider storage for toys, coats and shoes, bookcases, walk-in closets and pantries. Areas for pets to sleep and play in should also be of equal importance to any other feature of your home.
2. How You’ll Maximize the Feeling of Space
Equally important is how you will make your home feel spacious. This will make your home feel more luxurious and allow you to enjoy spending time there. The feeling of space is not all about having a large square footage.
Tricks of the trade to create illusions of space are to plan large, well-positioned windows, higher ceilings, wide hallways and open plan areas for cooking, dining and general living.
3. How to Avoid Under-Utilized Space
Creating spaces that will only be used occasionally are a drain on your budget and the space available for living. Guest bedrooms are a typical example of an underused space that often becomes a dumping ground when out of use.
Consider combining your guest space with a home office, or a reading, hobbies or music room.
4. The Style of Your House
How you decide your home will look is a hugely personal decision, but one that needs to be informed by other factors, such as the styles of neighboring homes and the neighborhood in general. Color schemes, landscaping, the build material, the types of windows and doors — all these are vital considerations for luxury custom built homes.
Remember, that people living across from you are going to have to look at your house more often than you are.
5. How Future-proof Your Home Is
Try to envisage how circumstances might change in the years to come and how your home will be able to respond. Will the amount of occupants’ likely change? How will their needs change?
For example, if you’re planning to extend your family at some point, you’ll not only need bedroom space, but also storage for equipment like strollers and kids bikes, and an area that can become a play space. It’s easy to make the mistake of creating the most incredible home for life as it is now, but try not to forget that life can also change quickly.
6. Resale Potential
Yes, you might not be planning to sell on at any point, but we have to be practical here. Life sometimes takes unexpected turns and while the number one person to please when building your own home is yourself, you need to be sure that it will appeal enough to others too should you ever need to resell.
7. How Certain You Are of Your Numbers
This is common sense, but it cannot be understated how easy it is for budgets to fall by the wayside and for the cost of the build to spiral out of control. Being organized and in control is the key, so maintain regular checks to monitor the budget and readjust as necessary along the way.
8. The Environmental Credentials of Your Home
Not only will ensuring your home is friendly to the planet ensure you are guilt-free, but it can also save you money. Depending on where you live, you may be able to apply for grants available for environmentally friendly projects.
You can save money over the long term by making some clever choices about where your energy comes from, too.
9. Plentiful Power Supplies
This may seem like a minor detail, but where you have access to power can make a substantial difference to how you can place your furniture and how usable the finished space is. Give lots of consideration to where you may want to access power in each room, and allow for spare sockets, too.
A wise consideration these days is also a central charging station for phones, tablets, laptops and other devices. This means you can avoid unsightly wires throughout the home, which reduces the chances of you losing track of where your devices are.
10. Lighting Choices
Lastly, if you’ve planned your windows carefully, you’ll have no issues with lighting during the day, since natural light will be adequate even on duller days. To compensate for darker hours of the day, sources of artificial light should be abundant.
Consider how you would like to light up each room according to the variety of activities that may take place there.
AUTHOR BIO
Robert Allam has had an understanding of Trendsetter Homes inside and out since he started with the business as a client over 10 years ago. Eventually becoming part of the company as a Sales Consultant, then Office Manager, and now as Finance and Sales Manager, Robert has seen the company grow from a small team of 4 to a professional team of 16 and has guided many clients through the process of developing their dream of a unique, luxury home.
