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Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Custom Home

Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Custom Home

If you’ve chosen a well seasoned homebuilder, have checked their references and seen their work you’ll probably be able to avoid most of these problems. Still, there are plenty of mistakes to avoid when building a home and having them in mind can make for a much more pleasant experience while building and a home you love when finished.

Top Mistakes to Avoid when Building a Custom Home

Poor Planning – When building a custom home your builder should ask you how you live your life and how you need and want your home to help you live your life to the fullest. Important things to consider are the size of your family – will it grow in the future? Do you like to spend your time at home or are you out most nights? Will you have pets in the new home? Do you plan on aging in place? How long until retirement? These are just some of the important questions to ask yourself when planning your home. A seasoned builder should ask most of these questions to they can plan the best home for your lifestyle.

Master Bedroom Location – Choosing where to place the master bedroom is important if you’re planning on aging in place – you may want it on the main level to reduce stair climbing in later years. If you’re younger, you may want the bedroom as far away from the noise of the house – noise generated by teenagers. Depending on the style of floor plan you choose, the location of the bedroom is extremely important.

Open or Closed Floor Plan – The trend has been to design homes with open main floors. What used to be a labyrinth of living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry and mud room has morphed into a main level that is easy to navigate, offers more space, and is better designed. Still, many people prefer to have rooms that can be shut off from the rest of the house like an office or craft room. The choice is yours.

Laundry – Where you place your laundry room can have a big impact on how you manage your home. If you put it in the basement, you’ll be walking up and down stairs a lot. On the first floor you’re going to hear the machines while eating a meal or watching TV. The trend has been to put the laundry room on the same level as the bedrooms. This placement reduces the need to climb up and down the stair with baskets of laundry. Put the laundry room in a location that is convenient yet away from the main entertaining areas.

Unused Rooms – Who doesn’t want a fitness room or a craft room? No one, but if those rooms never get used you’ve wasted space and money. Additionally, unused rooms end up collecting all the stuff you don’t know what to do with but don’t want to throw away or donate. Don’t build a specialized room unless you know you’re going to utilize it.

Electrical and Low Voltage – You can never have too many outlets so make sure you have enough in your home so you never need to use another extension cord. The same goes for in home wifi, and cable outlets. Install a system that can grow with you as tech evolves.
Lighting – Like outlets, you can’t have enough light in your home. Whether from natural light sources like windows and skylights or man made sources like lamps and fixtures. Have plenty of light to brighten your home.

These are just some mistakes to avoid when building your home, to learn more about building a home schedule a call with The Royal Home Team to learn more.